Rancor is a card I’m quite familiar with, because I play so much Commander. We’ve got a few green decks like Uril, the Miststalker and Jenara that tend to ‘go Voltron’, so I’ve had to learn how Rancor works. Mainly by telling my friends it’s not QUITE as unstoppable as they’d hope!

Now, the normal ways you’d think it returns itself, it does. If you blow it up while it’s on the board, or kill the creature that’s holding it, it’ll go right back to your hand just after it hits the graveyard. This is similar to the recent card Angelic Destiny, except you’ll still get Rancor back if they use a straight up Naturalize on it, or if the enchanted creature is bounced or exiled or what-have-you.

But, there are ways to ‘stop’ Rancor. Chiefly, it has to hit the graveyard from the battlefield to come back. If they cast Rancor aimed at their creature, and you kill the targeted creature, Rancor will be countered by the rules of the game and stay in the graveyard (because it is going there from the stack, not the battlefield). It also stays in the ‘yard if you mill it. As a final countermeasure, you get a chance to respond to the triggered ability when it hits the graveyard from the battlefield, before it returns to the hand, so your Tormod’s Crypt might come in handy!

Today’s Rules Tip written by
Trevor Nuñez, Level 1 judge from Roswell, NM