
The Ankh doesn’t see much competitive play any more, but years ago, it was a very strong card in decks that didn’t need to play a lot of land to get the work done. As a 2 mana artifact, it could fit into a wide variety of strategies. Another popular deck that it found a home in was land destruction decks that utilized Stone Rain, the classic 2R land destruction spell, and Dingus Egg, to further punish players when their lands were destroyed. It would then use cheap burn spells such as Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning to finish opponents off.
Nowadays, Ankh of Mishra just doesn’t find a home in general Constructed formats. But in Commander, the Ankh still finds a home in the unpopular Zo-Zu the Punisher deck, as well as in Heartless Hidetsugu and Purphoros, God of the Forge lists.



Ankh of Mishra is an interesting card that can definitely aid in some really mean burn strategies. It’s definitely not a fun card to play against, and it’s tricky even to play with as it punishes you for playing land, as well, so the timing of playing it is crucial. In a format like Commander, where every land drop is even more crucial than in other Constructed formats, the Ankh becomes quite a powerful card. As other formats have increased the power level on the lower end of the curve, the Ankh simply is too slow a card to be effective anymore. But in the much more drawn-out Commander format, it’s still a valuable weapon for the red Commander’s arsenal – as long as you don't mind people hating you.