Grandeur. The word practically drips with promise, doesn't it? Just the sheer mention of it must make you think, "Ah, yes, the best of the best. The cream of the crop. This certainly must be some top-tier mechanic that has shaped the course of formats across decades." Then you actually look the mechanic up and realize: oh, it was on just five cards, all printed in Future Sight (2007), and then promptly tucked away, never to be seen again.

That's right! Even for a mechanic given the privilege of being named something as grand as Grandeur, it's surprisingly... well, modest. But don't click away just yet! In today's Mechanics Overview Segment, we're going to be looking at how Grandeur works, where it came from, and whether it deserves another chance to shine, or at the very least, a chance to be something more than an MTG forgotten mechanics trivia answer.

What Is Grandeur?

Grandeur - Discard another card named CARDNAME: [Effect]

Grandeur is an activated ability that was designed to only be found on legendary creatures. To activate Grandeur, all you have to do is discard another card with the exact same name as the Grandeur creature on the battlefield. And in exchange, you get an arbitrarily powerful effect.

Now, what's so interesting about this mechanic? Well, if nothing else, this mechanic directly interacts with one of the most fundamental deck-building quirks in MTG: the Legend Rule.

Normally, drawing extra copies of your legendary creature feels bad. After all, as I'm sure many of you are aware, you typically can't ever have multiple copies of a legendary creature with the same name on the field, and unless the card has an absurd ETB effect, the second or third copy just rots in your hand. Grandeur essentially bypasses the Legend Rule by allowing your additional copies of said legendary creature to still be somewhat relevant at all stages of the game.

And, yes, yes, I didn't forget about cards like Sakashima of a Thousand Faces that bypasses the Legend Rule, but let's give Grandeur a break here; it was from a different time.

The History of Grandeur

Initially, there were only five Grandeur cards, one for each color, all legendary, all rare, and all printed in Future Sight:

• Baru, Fist of Krosa (Green): Discard another card named Baru, Fist of Krosa: Create an X/X Green Wurm creature token, where X is the number of lands you control.
• Korlash, Heir to Blackblade (Black): Discard another card named Korlash, Heir to Blackblade: Search your library for up to two Swamp cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
• Linessa, Zephyr Mage (Blue): Discard another card named Linessa, Zephyr Mage: Target player returns a creature they control to its owner's hand, then repeats this process for an artifact, an enchantment, and a land.
• Oriss, Samite Guardian (White): Discard another card named Oriss, Samite Guardian: Target player can't cast spells this turn, and creatures that player controls can't attack this turn.
• Tarox Bladewing (Red): Discard another card named Tarox Bladewing: Tarox Bladewing gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is its power.

After this initial cycle, it wasn't until Modern Horizons 3 (2024) that we saw the return of Grandeur in the aforementioned Skoa, Embermage, a common legendary creature that made the mechanic at least somewhat relevant in its Limited environment. (I've actually had the pleasure of drafting 6 Skoas before, and let me tell ya, Wizards might be onto something with these common Grandeur legends.)

Not Enough Grandeur

Let's get it out in the open now: Grandeur is clearly not one of Magic's greatest hits. It never became a staple, was barely played, and for over a decade, it has lived in the "huh, I guess that was kinda neat" corner of MTG design history. But that doesn't automatically mean it's doomed to stay there forever.

Now, should the mechanic ever come back? Well, that really depends on how you, as a player, plan to play with it:

• Commander Players: Grandeur will never really matter unless Wizards radically rethinks the mechanic. Singleton formats simply blank it, and no amount of nostalgia is going to make "discard a copy of this" relevant when you're only ever allowed one copy.
• Constructed Players: Grandeur would, at the very least, either need effects strong enough to justify running four-of legendary creatures or new Grandeur support cards that make those extra copies more accessible.
• Limited Players: Grandeur is a potential goldmine. Modern Horizons 3 already proved that the mechanic actually works beautifully at the common rarity. It gives drafters a reason to double up on legends and flips what is usually a drawback (drawing too many of the same legend) into a fairly proactive strategy.

In short, if Wizards is willing to experiment just a bit more, Grandeur might still have a future. Commander probably isn't a good home for it unless they do something along the lines of Commander Ninjitsu. (Commander Grandeur? I don't even know how that would look if I'm being completely honest.) Constructed could also flirt with the mechanic a bit if properly supported, but Limited? I feel Limited is likely where Grandeur has the best potential to finally live up to its name.

With all that said, though, I've probably already spent more time on Grandeur than most tables will ever spend digging through their decks to activate it, so let's not get overzealous and call it here. As always, happy brewing, and may your legends never truly feel dead in hand, your draft pods continue to feed you just one more Skoa, and your opponents never see it coming when you win in the most grandiose manner. Until next time, stay legendary, friends.