ReveillarkReveillark | Art by Jim Murray

Today we'll be going over the best evoke cards in Commander. In fact, as our return to Lorwyn gets closer and closer, this is the perfect time to revise one of the mechanics that made the plane famous.

But, just as a reminder, what does evoke actually do?

What Is Evoke?

As you can see, we can cast Inner-Flame AcolyteInner-Flame Acolyte in two different ways. On one hand we can simply pay its mana cost as normal. Or we can pay its evoke cost. If we do, we'll have to sacrifice it when it enters the battlefield.

What's cool about this mechanic is how well it synergizes with blink effects. In particular, evoke puts a trigger on the stack to sacrifice the evoked creature to which the player can respond by casting something like an EphemerateEphemerate. In this way, not only will the creature remain on the battlefield (as the new game object is not subject to the evoke trigger), but the player will also benefit twice from the enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effects and once from leave-the-battlefield effects.

Now that we've got the basics out of the way, let's see which evoke creatures are the best in Commander.

The "Pitch" Evoke Elementals

Some years ago, Modern Horizons 2 gave us a bunch of extremely powerful Modern-legal "pitch" spells. This term refers to spells that can be played by simply exiling one card from your hand rather than paying their mana cost. In this case, it was a cycle of five Elemental creatures, one per color, which can be evoked by exiling one card of their color from your hand.

While all of them took Modern by storm and revolutionized the meta, their impact on Commander was very different.

A clear example of said difference comes from GriefGrief and SubtletySubtlety. In Modern, the first one is on the banlist for its sins when paired with Not Dead After AllNot Dead After All and the latter is a staple interaction of the format.

On the other hand, in Commander, neither of them seems exceptional. GriefGrief simply doesn't do enough (or anything) in a multiplayer environment, while SubtletySubtlety is hardly worth running over the plethora of interactive spells available in the format.

These three (FuryFury, EnduranceEndurance, and SolitudeSolitude) are the ones that can truly impact a Commander game.

Starting from the weakest of the three, FuryFury is another card that's way better in a 1v1 format like Modern (where this card is banned). Still, it can be very good against go-wide strategies like Token decks or Elves. Casting it for free and perhaps using an EphemerateEphemerate on it can wipe certain boards clear.

Moving on to EnduranceEndurance, this is by far the least flashy of these cards. But when it works, boy does it do work.

Are you trying to ReanimateReanimate something? I've got a free interaction for you. Are you coming my way with some flyers? I've got a blocker for you. Are you attacking me and there's a graveyard player at the table? Those are two birds with one stone, my friend.

It's a jack-of-all-trades that flies under the radar until it blows someone out of the water.

And last, but definitely not least, SolitudeSolitude. So, you've probably heard about a certain card named Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares. Well, how about a free, repeatable one? Just picture this: If you pitch cast Solitude and then EphemerateEphemerate it, you'll have used three cards and payed only to exile three creatures. This seems an absurd rate to me.

The Combo Potential

The cards discussed so far shine for their impact on the game as soon as they hit the battlefield. Now let's focus on two creatures that seem innocuous but are deadly under the right circumstances.

VesperlarkVesperlark and ReveillarkReveillark are pretty simple cards based on the same concept. When they leave the battlefield, you get a small creature back. Easy, clean, straightforward. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, a lot apparently.

In fact, it's extremely easy to establish an infinite loop with the help of just a few additional pieces.

Starting with VesperlarkVesperlark, its best friend is Activated SleeperActivated Sleeper, which is a self-recursive version of our Elemental. Thus, aided by your favorite sacrifice outlet, it'll endlessly come back. This means that, depending on the effect we use to sacrifice the cloneclone, we'll get an unlimited amount of various game actions.

But it's with ReveillarkReveillark that things truly get out of hand.

We retain all the VesperlarkVesperlark combos with cards like Activated SleeperActivated Sleeper, and we can also add more to it. In particular, we get to play with Saffi EriksdotterSaffi Eriksdotter and Karmic GuideKarmic Guide, two additional pieces that make the same combos run even smoother. Once we've added our preferred sacrifice outlet, we should have the game in the bag.

All things considered, neither of these cards truly makes use of its evoke ability. Sure, they can benefit from it in certain scenarios. For example, we'll gladly evoke a VesperlarkVesperlark to get back Activated SleeperActivated Sleeper from the graveyard and start the loop. Or we could evoke ReveillarkReveillark to reanimate Karmic GuideKarmic Guide and Viscera SeerViscera Seer and combo off.

But both of these situations are kind of niche, although having the option to get out of them is nice for sure.

The Interaction Package

The combination of evoke and an interactive effect is clearly good, as demonstrated before by cards like SolitudeSolitude and EnduranceEndurance. And while those creatures are part of a whole different category due to them being free to play, there are still other spells that deal with our opponents' boards while making use of evoke.

Ingot ChewerIngot Chewer can destroy artifacts at an extremely cheap rate, while Foundation BreakerFoundation Breaker needs one more mana to be evoked but also targets pesky enchantments on the board. With the same mana investment, we can cast the evergreen ShriekmawShriekmaw to destroy a creature on the battlefield.

What's neat about these cards is how convenient they are to play. The fact that their evoke cost is basically as low as it gets leads to two intertwined consequences.

On one hand, they're simply easy to cast as a removal spell, meaning that they get the job done just like NaturalizeNaturalize, SmeltSmelt and TerrorTerror. On the other hand, given that there's a strictly better version of each of the cards just mentioned, these evoke creatures get over the hump precisely thanks to their interaction with EphemerateEphemerate and such.

In other words, I'm okay with playing SmeltSmelt in my deck if, for just one additional mana, I get to destroy two more artifacts.

The Draw Power

MulldrifterMulldrifter and NulldrifterNulldrifter are two clearly connected cards, with the latter being a revamped, Eldrazi version of the former. Additionally, NulldrifterNulldrifter seems to be an upgrade over the olderthe older. In fact, drawing the cards on cast rather than upon entering the battlefield makes sure you'll get them even through most counterspells. Moreover, they both have the same evoke cost, which means NulldrifterNulldrifter will get you two cards almost no matter what.

To balance this out, its true casting cost is higher, but it also gains a better stat line and the addition of annihilator 1. I guess that's the difference between a 2024 and a 2007 card design.

But not all that glitters is gold. In fact, an implicit cost of this slight change of words is the loss of the positive interaction with EphemerateEphemerate.

If you've ever played a game of Pauper in your life (something I highly suggest you do), you know the dopamine rush that comes from casting EphemerateEphemerate on an evoked MulldrifterMulldrifter. You know that, if everything goes according to plan, you'll draw four cards and two more on your next turn. Four mana spent, six cards drawn. Trust me, it's addictive.

On the other hand, NulldrifterNulldrifter totally misses out on this interaction, as blinking it won't trigger its first ability. So, while the two cards are clearly the result of an intentionally similar thought process, it's interesting to see how they belong to two different strategies.

The Lorwyn Eclipsed Newcomers

To conclude this article, I want to talk about the cards that inspired it in the first place: the newer evoke Elementals from Lorwyn Eclipsed.

A bit of deceit is precisely what I felt when I first saw the cards present in this cycle.

Before delving into the details of each individual one, I was somewhat disappointed to see that the template for these new creatures completely strays away from the blinking synergies. In fact, as we can see form DeceitDeceit, each of these evoke Elementals is dual colored and can be evoked for two hybrid mana of its colors.

While this is nice, tying their ETB effects to the colors of mana used to cast them is not, for there is no way to repeat these triggered abilities if not replaying the cards over and over.

With this little rant out of the way, let's see what these new cards have in store for us.

DeceitDeceit suffers from the same problems as GriefGrief, as discarding one card from one opponent's hand is simply not good enough in Commander. This directly invalidates half of its text box. The other half isn't all that bad, but it's for sure ruined by the casting colors requirement. If only it was possible to ReanimateReanimate or EphemerateEphemerate...

EmptinessEmptiness also has a textbox with one half clearly better than the other. While the mode can be relevant under specific circumstances, I foresee the half to be a pretty good Sun TitanSun Titan-like effect.

VibranceVibrance is really a tough sell, as I don't see it being any good. Three damage are hardly relevant in Commander, even less so if you have to pay for it. The half is almost something, if only the land entered the battlefield instead...

WistfulnessWistfulnessis the only one I can honestly imagine casting for its full price to activate both modes. A five mana 6/5 that exiles a permanent and draws a bunch of cards is a good rate, at the very least for the sheer number of game actions it allows you to take.

Last but not least, the red-white Elemental CatharsisCatharsis also combines two decent effects. What truly helps this card's case is how well the two abilities synergize with each other and with the strategy of the decks that want to play it.

Overall, it seems to me that these cards were tuned down quite a lot, compared to the designs we've become familiar with. While their effects aren't all that bad (especially if we consider they're Standard-legal cards and not Commander-focused designs), the fact that they can't be effectively recurred from the graveyard or blinked holds them down a lot.

What do you think? Is there any evoke creature I didn't mention that was worth including? Let me know in the comments below!