There’s a scene near the end of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children in which Cloud uses his ultimate attack. He charges up his gigantic multi-part sword with golden energy, then swings it forward, and the weapon disassembles into an array of floating, glowing blades. That’s what I’ve always imagined using a Sunforger looks like.

Sunforger hits the Commander sweet spot of being an interesting build-around effect without being too degenerate or powerful. It is the Isperia to Survival of the Fittest’s Zur. It doesn’t break the game in half, but when used properly, it can be incredibly powerful.

According to Aaron Forsythe, Sunforger was designed by Devin Low as a top-down Hammer of Thor. It certainly fits the bill, as a powerful tool with many varied uses. Before I dive into specific card choices, I’m going to run down my list of things to keep in mind while using Mjolnir in Commander.

1. Don’t cast it until you can use it. This isn’t a card to run out on turn three—it’s one you save until resources are low and you’re at 8 to 10 mana . . . then start using to generate immediate advantage.
2. Whenever possible, leave it equipped with mana up when you pass turn. You’ll get more value by using it as a rattlesnake than trying to kill the scariest creature on your turn.
3. Don’t forget about the power bonus. +4/+0 is substantial enough to make any creature a threat, and it can make most Commanders lethal very quickly indeed.
4. Mistveil Plains is Sunforger’s best friend. This innocuous little land lets you recycle your best spells at very little cost. For maximum reliability, use Sunforger, then tuck the needed instant in response with Mistveil Plains.

Of course, a big part of using Sunforger effectively is putting the appropriate instants in your deck. I’m going to cover a wide variety of available options, starting with the cards available in straight R/W, and then covering the options available to three- and five-colored decks.

Creature Removal

If you’re playing white, you’re probably running several of these cards anyway. Removal spells are a key component of a strong Sunforger package. You don’t want to overload on spot removal, but it’s fine to run a bit more than you would normally. The more expensive removal spells can be better Sunforger targets, but they can be clunky to draw normally.

I think Condemn is somewhat overrated. Yes, it can tuck attacking Commanders. But the scariest Commanders don’t always attack, and I’d rather spend my limited spot removal slots on cards that can kill a Primeval Titan or Consecrated Sphinx before it’s too late. That said, Condemn is the sort of conditional card I’m much happier running in a deck with Sunforger. Wing Shards is similarly narrow, but it’s a pet card of mine for its ability to dodge countermagic while taking out multiple attackers.

Chaos Warp and Oblation are versatile answers with dangerous downsides. While powerful in their own right, I don’t particularly like them as Sunforger targets since you can already search for whatever removal you need without major drawbacks. Sulfurous Blast and Volcanic Fallout are a bit weak in Commander but are viable options if you want a sunforgable sweeper to take out hordes of tokens or elves. Fight to the Death is not a great card, but is cool enough that I can’t fault anyone for running it.

Other Removal

There are a ton of good options for artifact and enchantment destruction. Disenchant is a cheap, no-frills option, Divine Offering and Serene Offering give some bonus life at the cost of flexibility, and Ray of Distortion is pricy but offers an even pricier flashback later on. Allay and Shattering Spree can be very useful, but I rarely find myself wanting to leave up buyback mana while sunforging.

Return to Dust is my favorite since it can exile any two targets, but there are plenty of multi-target options. Orim's Thunder is notable for being able to take out an artifact or enchantment and a creature under the right circumstances.

Reactive Spells

It’s important to have at least one Fog effect available. Dawn Charm is my favorite—I’ve used all of its modes to great effect—but Angelsong and Pollen Lullaby are both valid choices.

There are a variety of protection-granting effects that can be used to protect your permanents. I like that they can also be used to evade blockers, but for the most part, I prefer to use Flicker and redirection effects to get extra value while defending my board.

Ghostway is an absolute all-star. It protects your board from spot removal, theft, and Wrath effects. It re-triggers your ETB effects. It untaps your creatures so they’re ready to block next turn. It often does more than one of these at once.

There are a number of red copy and redirect effects, from Shunt to Fork. Wild Ricochet is the most powerful of them, copying passive spells while regularly gaining you double the effect of an opponent’s targeted spell. I’ve seen many games won by Ricocheting a Violent Ultimatum or Time Stretch. I’ve heard many people swear by Reiterate, but as with Allay and Shattering Spree, I find that it is rarely worthwhile to leave buyback mana up while sunforging.

Mirror Strike, Harsh Justice, Retaliate, and Hold the Line are all unusual defensive spells that can absolutely destroy an attacking player.

Direct Damage

Throwing damage at the face isn’t usually great in Commander, but these are the cards I would consider. All of them can knock 20 points off someone’s life total under the right circumstances. Also, I’m pretty sure Sheldon Menery would hunt me down if I didn’t mention Grab the Reins.

Color Hosers

Color hosers can be potentially powerful, but I have a pathological aversion to running potentially dead cards. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are both very powerful options against an often-hated color, and I could definitely see running them in a blue-heavy metagame. Celestial Purge is slightly weaker, but it affects multiple colors and is less likely to be dead. Boil is an absolute beating that can completely lock people out of the game . . . if you’re into that sort of thing.

Miscellaneous

Enlightened Tutor is a card you should already be running, and Tithe is criminally underplayed. A lot of the options here are more like interesting Ideas than tested suggestions, though. Would you ever sunforge for Final Fortune? Is Debt of Loyalty any good? I have no idea. Master Warcraft makes me sad every time I have to explain that it just lets you decide which creatures attack—not whom they attack.

Blue

Am I good to declare attackers?

Blue is almost unquestionably the most powerful color to add to the mix because of the access to the counterspells it provides. Absorb and Double Negative are the two best because of their lack of restrictions, but the others are certainly not unreasonable choices.

Blue also gives access to a number of wackier effects, though. Mirrorweave is ridiculous, and Aethermage's Touch provides and interesting twist of Flicker effects.

Black

Black’s main contribution is more spot removal, but Wrecking Ball is one of the few instants that can take out problem lands, and I’ve gotten good value out of both sides of Hide // Seek. Beckon Apparition is a little weak, but it’s among the few graveyard-hate options available.

Green

Green offers two Saproling-making half-Disenchants, a powerful creature tutor, and two charms. Naya Charm’s modes can all be exceptionally useful, but Rith's Charm is notable primarily for its ability to destroy nonbasic lands.

Five-Color

I’ve never seen a five-colored deck with Sunforger, but there are some pretty sweet options available. Bant Charm is easily the most powerful, but the others are mostly solid Counterspells or removal. Jund Charm gets the nod solely for its ability to exile graveyards at instant speed.

Putting it all Together

I’ve seen Sunforger used as a deck’s centerpiece, with much of the deck focused specifically on abusing it. I run it as a late-game strategy for my Equipment deck, so my various Equipment tutors can search out Swords in the early game and Sunforger in the late game. I’ve seen it tossed into otherwise unrelated decks as a useful value engine for late-game card advantage. All of these are valid strategies.

You need a minimum of eight to ten valid targets to make Sunforger a worthwhile inclusion, and fifteen or more seems excessive for anything other than a deck completely built around it. Removal is key, followed by useful reactive cards, and then preferably a few useful things to do if no one is currently attacking or threatening you.

Sunforger is one of my favorite cards, and it’s a card I would highly recommend trying out if you haven’t already. To those who have their own experiences with the card, do you disagree with any of my evaluations? Did I miss one of your favorite targets? Let me know in the comments!