Praetor’s Grasp is one of a few niche rares from the powerful New Phyrexia set that have found some permanent homes in Commander decks. During its Standard days, the Grasp was pretty much a sideboard card in mono-Black decks. For 3 mana (1BB), it allows you to steal one of your opponent’s cards right out of their deck. Not only do you exile it and keep them from playing it, but if you have the right mana, you can even play it yourself. Also, no one but you can even look at it or even know what that card is until it’s played.


With this sorcery, you also get a ton of information about that player’s deck, too. With that level of sneakiness available, Praetor’s Grasp even for a time was tried out by Legacy and Vintage players. It never stuck around in those formats, though. After it rotated from Standard, Commander players became the card’s only audience.


Praetor’s Grasp offers a great deal of utility in Commander, especially in stealing someone’s key combo card from their deck. The best part about this effect is that it can be any card: artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, sorcery, or even land. If played correctly, this effect can both hurt your opponent and help you simultaneously.


The typical card you would target in Commander with Praetor's Grasp would be an artifact, since the vast majority of artifacts are colorless. You don’t even have to know what you’re looking for when you target an opponent; you just choose based on who you think the biggest threat at the table might be.


Commanders that have made a regular home for this spell include Gonti, Lord of Luxury, Mishra, Articifer Prodigy, Sen Triplets, and many others. You don’t even have to be a mono-Black deck to take full advantage of this card’s effect. Still, mono-Black tends to be happiest when it’s stealing key cards from opponents. Praetor’s Grasp is one of those rares you can find for $1 or less and it’s a great tool to have for any Commander player dabbling in Black Magic.

Back on June 16, 2011, I reviewed Chancellor of the Forge, a rare Red Giant from New Phyrexia. It was one of my first ever card reviews. This is what I had to say about him at the time.

I must say that the Forge Chancellor’s artwork is pretty superb. He’s a cool card… until you realize he’s just a 5/5 for 7 mana. His effect sounds fun. If you have him in your opening hand, you get a free 1/1 red Goblin creature with haste, which is good for you if you’re on the play, and just sort of nifty if you’re on the draw. When you actually do get around to play him, you get as many 1/1 red Goblin tokens with haste as you have creatures on the board at that point. Problem is, many mono-red decks don’t keep a lot of creatures on the field, so you may only get 2 or 3 tokens out of his ability. Enough said, he’s not worth the 7 mana, and certainly not worth the triple red in any competitive red deck.


Let’s keep in mind that back in 2011 I knew nothing about EDH or casual formats. I really only knew what was good in Standard and Extended at that point. This card wasn’t even particularly good in draft or sealed deck from what I recall, either. At the time, of the five Chancellors from that set, it makes sense that I’d be unimpressed with this one.

However, now, Chancellor of the Forge is actually extremely good in Commander, especially in “go-wide” strategies. Recall that Krenko, Mob Boss and many other popular Goblin commanders didn’t exist yet. The commander that utilizes the Chancellor the most, Purphoros, God of the Forge, definitely didn’t exist yet. Also, the three Red mana symbols are extremely important for Devotion purposes, for cards like Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. The fact that this doubles the amount of creatures you have on board is especially important to Purphoros (who deals 2 damage to each opponent for each creature that enters), Krenko (who doubles your Goblins), and Impact Tremors (an Enchantment that is essentially half of Purphoros).

While this Chancellor is still a bulk rare, it’s a heck of a lot better now and actually fits into some powerful strategies in Commander. It’s not really good anywhere else, but if you play Mono-Red or some other deck that wants to make a lot of Goblin tokens, this guy is definitely worth a look.


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