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Cards that skip a turn and how it affects Commander Brackets

Some of the strongest, cheapest cards ask you to skip your next turn. Here's what that really costs you at a four-player table.

By Pyrias Published September 11, 2026 Updated October 23, 2026

What "skip your next turn" means

Some cards end with the words "You skip your next turn." It means exactly what it says. When your next turn would start, it just doesn't happen, and play moves straight on to the next player.

You miss everything your turn normally gives you. You don't your cards, you don't draw, and you can't play a land. Anything you tapped stays tapped until the turn after that.

You're still in the game, though. On everyone else's turns you can still block, cast spells at and use abilities that don't need your own turn.

Why would anyone play these?

Because the payoff is huge for how little you pay. The skipped turn is the real price:

  • Meditate costs three mana and draws you four cards.
  • Chronatog can get +3/+3 for no mana at all. That's 3 more and 3 more until the end of the turn, and you can only do it once each turn.
  • Eater of Days costs four mana for a huge creature: 9 , 8 , flying and . The catch is that you skip your next two turns.

What it costs at a four-player table

In a two-player game, skipping a turn hands your opponent two turns in a row. At a four-player Commander table it's a lot worse. The other three players each take two turns before you get your next one. That's six turns where your cards stay tapped and you can't draw or play a land.

That's what makes these cards incredibly risky. Your blockers have to survive two full trips around the table, and any lands you tapped for mana that turn stay tapped the whole time. Someone can also hit the card you paid for with before you ever get to use it. If you can, leave a few lands untapped so you have mana to protect it.

Getting the turn back

A few cards pay you back:

  • Wormfang Manta makes you skip your next turn when it enters. When it leaves the battlefield, you take an extra turn.
  • Magosi, the Waterveil lets you skip a turn now to put an eon on it, which saves that turn for later. When you want it back, you remove the marker and return Magosi to your hand to take an extra turn.

come with their own table etiquette. Wizards' rules say that in Brackets 2 and 3, extra-turn cards "should only appear in low quantities and are not intended to be chained in succession or looped." Chaining means taking them one after another. Our bracket check goes a step further and counts any extra turn card as a sign the deck is Bracket 2 or higher.

Stopping someone else's extra turn

Some cards turn somebody else's extra turn into a skipped one. Ugin's Nexus and Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant say that if a player would begin an extra turn, "that player skips that turn instead." Stranglehold does the same thing, but only to your opponents. They're a direct answer to decks built around cards like Time Warp.

Find more

We tag every card that skips part of a turn or a whole turn, so you can find them all in one place: Turn Skipping. Most of them skip your draw step, the part of your turn where you draw a card, not the whole turn. Always be sure to read the card before you add it. Cards that give you a whole extra turn are under Extra Turns.

UntapTurning a tapped card upright so it can be used again. Cards normally untap once per turn during your untap step, so an effect that untaps something early gives you a second use of it.Open the full glossaryInstant SpeedAble to be used at any time, including during an opponent's turn or in the middle of combat, as opposed to sorcery speed, which is only on your own turn before you attack.Open the full glossaryPowerThe first of the two numbers in a creature's bottom-right corner. It is how much damage that creature deals when it fights or attacks.Open the full glossaryToughnessThe second of the two numbers in a creature's bottom-right corner. It is how much damage the creature can take in a turn before it dies. A creature whose toughness reaches zero dies immediately.Open the full glossaryTrampleIf a creature with trample is blocked, damage beyond what is needed to destroy its blockers spills over to the defending player.Open the full glossarySpot RemovalSpells or abilities that destroy, exile, or bounce a single one of your opponents' cards.Open the full glossaryCounterTwo different things share this word. A counter is a small marker placed on a card, such as a +1/+1 counter. To counter a spell is to stop it resolving while it is still on the stack.Open the full glossaryExtra TurnsSpells that grant you an additional turn. CHAINING means casting them repeatedly so opponents never get a turn back.Open the full glossaryBracketA number from 1 to 5 describing how strong a Commander deck is meant to be, so everyone at the table can agree on a fair game before it starts. Bracket 1 is a deck built purely for fun and Bracket 5 is as competitive as it gets. It is Wizards of the Coast's own system, not ours.Open the full glossary

Every Card in This Article

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printingThe same card can be printed in many sets. Each one is a printing, with its own art and price.CombosTwo or more cards that, put together, do something far bigger than either of them does alone, often ending the game on the spot. Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood are a well-known pair: together they drain every opponent to zero.Open the full glossaryDrawDraws you extra cards. More cards means more choices every turn, and in a 100-card deck it is the main way to find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, SkullclampOpen the Draw pageCombat TrickAn instant you cast during a fight to change how it ends: making a creature bigger or smaller, or keeping your creatures from dying. Boros Charm, Flawless ManeuverOpen the Combat Trick pageMana SinkGives you somewhere useful to spend spare mana, usually through an ability you can activate again and again. Rogue's Passage, Mind StoneOpen the Mana Sink pageETB ValueDoes something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One RingOpen the ETB Value pageEvasionAn ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds.Open the Evasion pageExtra TurnsTakes an additional turn once this one ends. Time Warp, Final Fortune. Casting them one after another so opponents never get a turn back is what Brackets 2 and 3 specifically ask you not to do.Open the Extra Turns pageExtra TurnsSpells that grant you an additional turn. CHAINING means casting them repeatedly so opponents never get a turn back.What the brackets meanExtra Turns that chainSpells that grant you an additional turn. CHAINING means casting them repeatedly so opponents never get a turn back.What the brackets meanCounter ManipulationAdds, moves or multiplies counters already on permanents. It works on any kind (+1/+1, loyalty, charge), so the same card can serve very different decks. Karn's Bastion, Doubling SeasonOpen the Counter Manipulation pageExtra TurnsExtra Turns decks cast spells that give them another turn right after this one, and try to take several in a row. Taking them back to back is hard to play against, so Commander's three most casual brackets ask players not to.Open the Extra Turns pageDeath TriggerTriggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn SimulacrumOpen the Death Trigger pageTurn SkippingSkips a step, phase, or turn. Sometimes it is aimed at an opponent, but more often it is your own draw step given up as the price of a strong effect. Necropotence, Solitary ConfinementOpen the Turn Skipping pageGraveyard HateEmpties graveyards or stops cards from coming back out of them, shutting down decks built on reusing their graveyard. Bojuka Bog, Scavenger Grounds. It answers a whole plan rather than one card: without it, something like Eternal Witness keeps returning the same card all game.Open the Graveyard Hate pageReanimationReturns a creature card from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost. That is why decks built around it put their biggest creatures into the graveyard on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate DeadOpen the Reanimation pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageAbility SuppressionSwitches abilities off instead of removing the permanent itself. It stops activated abilities from being used, stops triggers from firing, or stops library searching. Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Torpor OrbOpen the Ability Suppression pageStax/TaxMakes the game more expensive or more restrictive for everyone: taxing spells and attacks, or stopping permanents from untapping. Propaganda, Ghostly Prison. Many groups dislike playing against it, so check what your table expects first.Open the Stax/Tax page

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