Jodah, the Unifier: Mana Efficiency Meets Impact Ratio

Jodah, the Unifier: Mana Efficiency Meets Impact Ratio

In TCG ·

Jodah, the Unifier card art from Dominaria United

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Mana efficiency meets impact ratio

Whenever a five-color legend enters the arena, you can feel the itch to optimize your turns and maximize every resource. Jodah, the Unifier sits at the crossroads of mana efficiency and raw board impact, a legendary beacon in Dominaria United’s multi-colored landscape 🧙‍♂️🔥. At first glance, his mana cost of {W}{U}{B}{R}{G} screams “five colors, five-alarm wake-up call,” but the payoff is not just a big number on the battlefield. It’s a calculated equation: the more legendary creatures you command, the bigger the buff to your team, and the more dramatic your legendary-spell sequences can become through his second ability. That combination—global buff plus a spell-cascade-like twist—creates an impact ratio that rewards planning, not just raw power ⚔️🎲.

Let’s unpack what makes Jodah tick. He is a Legendary Creature — Human Wizard with a base stat line of 5/5, a rarity that signals his big, game-altering ambitions, and a multiverse of color identities all by design. The flavor here isn’t just “five colors, five vibes” — it’s a deliberate design choice: a commander that thrives in legendary-dense metas and in decks that lean into the “legendary matters” archetype. The first clause, “Legendary creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is the number of legendary creatures you control,” scales elegantly with every new avatar you bring down the board. The more legendaries you assemble, the more your army grows, and the more oppressive your board presence becomes 🧙‍♂️💎.

Card text (condensed): Legendary creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is the number of legendary creatures you control. Whenever you cast a legendary spell from your hand, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a legendary nonland card with lesser mana value. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

That second ability is the real game-alchemist’s trick. You don’t need to “pay” five colors of mana for every legendary spell you cast if you’re willing to explore the top of your library for a cheaper, legendary nonland to flash into play for free. It’s not a free-for-all; there’s a careful dance to ensure you’re triggering the ability with legitimate legendary spells from your hand and leveraging the lesser mana value constraint to chain value. In practice, a well-built Jodah deck becomes a machine: you play a legendary creature or planeswalker, the board swells, and then you cascade into a discounted or free legendary spell that keeps the momentum rolling. The result is a tempo explosion that blends mana efficiency with a high impact-per-card ratio 🧙‍♂️⚡.

From a tactical standpoint, Jodah rewards players who embrace a multi-color mana base and a robust suite of legendary cards. In Commander, where legendary creatures anchor many archetypes, Jodah’s Anthem-like boost compounds with other buffs and provides a window to deploy some of the most memorable big-ticket spells in the format. He’s also a planner’s dream: you can tailor your curve to hit a critical mass of legends by late game, unlocking a board state that outclasses traditional, color-restricted strategies. The flavor here isn’t just “mana good, big dudes.” It’s a precise orchestration of presence, tempo, and a timely, cyclical draw that rewards foresight and deck design 🧭🎨.

Five-color synergy in a single frame

Jodah’s mana cost is a bold flagship for five-color synergies. With a color identity that spans White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green, he invites you to embrace a truly diverse suite of Legendary options. This isn’t a card that punishes you for playing “unbalanced” mana — it actively encourages it, because the payoff is tied to the number of legendaries you control, not to a fixed color identity. In practical terms, you’ll want acceleration that supports a stable multicolor mana base: fetches, duals, tri-lands, and mana rocks that unlock your five colors reliably. The payoff is a board that can pivot between aggressive pressure and late-game resilience, with Jodah standing as the bulwark of your “legendary army” ethos 🧙‍♂️🔥.

  • Board presence scales with legend count: more legends = bigger buffs for your entire team.
  • Free legendary spells from hand can unleash surprise threats or game-ending plays.
  • Iconic flavor—a commander that truly embodies the “legendary matters” theme across all colors.
  • Commander-friendly design, with accessible power curves and clear paths to explosive turns.
  • Collector appeal, given his mythic rarity and the dream of legendary tribal decks that sing in all five colors.

For players who crave the drama of “one more big play,” Jodah delivers. And yes, the design feels confident in its own identity: a five-color, legendary-centric engine that rewards both thoughtful deckbuilding and bold play. The art by Ryan Pancoast anchors the card in Dominaria United’s classic vibe, a reminder that this is a world where legends walk beside you in the heat of battle 🧩🎨.

Practical takeaways for your table

  • Prioritize a solid mana base that can reliably produce all five colors, especially in creature-heavy, legendary-rich lineups.
  • Balance your curve so you can cast Jodah at a moment that unlocks the late-game payoff, not just as a stand-alone threat.
  • Leverage legendary nonland spells with lower mana values to maximize the “free cast” payoff when triggering the ability.
  • In EDH, think about your command zone synergy: multiple legends can quickly snowball into a domineering advantage that outclasses traditional ramp-heavy builds.
  • Keep an eye on the shelf-value of the card for collectors; mythic status and foil variants celebrate the legend in a way that’s appreciated beyond playability 🧙‍♂️💎.

Whether you’re chasing nostalgia for legendary supremacy or exploring fresh, color-spanning strategies, Jodah, the Unifier invites you to measure mana efficiency against impact in a meaningful, color-splashed way. It’s a reminder that in Magic, the most elegant solutions often come from a well-timed, well-supported card that reminds you why you fell in love with legendary creatures in the first place 🧙‍♂️🎲.

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Jodah, the Unifier

Jodah, the Unifier

{W}{U}{B}{R}{G}
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard

Legendary creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is the number of legendary creatures you control.

Whenever you cast a legendary spell from your hand, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a legendary nonland card with lesser mana value. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

ID: e4b1aa1e-b4e3-4346-8937-76b312501c70

Oracle ID: 490a8045-e160-4ccf-a05e-658ad2b7ac2d

Multiverse IDs: 574683

TCGPlayer ID: 283614

Cardmarket ID: 672696

Colors: B, G, R, U, W

Color Identity: B, G, R, U, W

Keywords:

Rarity: Mythic

Released: 2022-09-09

Artist: Ryan Pancoast

Frame: 2015

Border: black

EDHRec Rank: 2676

Penny Rank: 6397

Set: Dominaria United (dmu)

Collector #: 203

Legalities

  • Standard — not_legal
  • Future — not_legal
  • Historic — legal
  • Timeless — legal
  • Gladiator — legal
  • Pioneer — legal
  • Modern — legal
  • Legacy — legal
  • Pauper — not_legal
  • Vintage — legal
  • Penny — legal
  • Commander — legal
  • Oathbreaker — legal
  • Standardbrawl — not_legal
  • Brawl — legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — not_legal
  • Duel — legal
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

  • USD: 2.59
  • USD_FOIL: 2.64
  • EUR: 1.86
  • EUR_FOIL: 2.96
  • TIX: 0.02
Last updated: 2025-11-15