Cyclonic Rift – Double Masters MTG Review

As close to “blue staple” as they come, Cyclonic Rift has the distinction of being the most sought-after (and valuable) card in Return to Ravnica. Seven mana for a one-sided board wipe is very efficient, particularly since it leaves your board untouched, and many turns have started by trying to alpha strike with an overloaded Cyclonic Rift. It’s even usable as Disperse earlier in the game, and the “you don’t control” provision protects it somewhat from being redirected. (It doesn’t stop it from being hit by Commandeer, which is always a fun way to turn things on their head.) It’s a bit too inefficient and overpriced to make a splash in Constructed (good luck getting to seven mana, even with a solid payoff), but it’s an auto-include in every blue Commander deck.

Constructed: 2.25 (theoretically useful, and I think it has seen sparing amounts of Modern play, but Disperse has not been a good Modern card for a while, and this is generally Disperse outside of, say, Tron)
Casual: 5
Limited: 4.25
Multiplayer: 5
Commander: 5

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Cyclonic Rift is one of the most infamous and most feared cards in Commander, for good reason. In that format, it’s common to save it until you have enough mana to reset the entire table, presumably at instant speed so you can mess someone up in the middle of a play, or untap and make some major play of your own. The ability to use it on just one target feels like the bonus in those settings; anywhere else, it’s probably not the most efficient option, unless you have a deck with enough ramp to occasionally use both modes.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 5/5 (I’m not sure this even covers it – the overload effect scales insanely well to situations with more opponents)
Commander: 5/5