Death to Commander..?

[taylorstauss]

You target a commander: If a card says something like place target creature on top of its owners library and then you play a card that makes that person discard . Is the commander like dead?

[Gorzo]

Any time a commander is placed in the graveyard or exile zones, its owner has the option to return it to the command zone at the cost of +{2} to recast it.

An effect that places the commander into any other zone (the hand, the library, etc) will succeed and the owner has no option to move it to the command zone.  However, if the commander were to enter the graveyard or exile from one of those zones, the original rule of being able to move it still applies.

For example; your commander is on the battlefield. Your opponent casts {Unsummon} on your commander. Your commander goes to your hand. If someone then casts a discard spell on you, say {Siphon Mind}, you may discard your commander. It then enters the graveyard, and you may then move it back to the command zone.

Ex 2: your commander is put at the bottom of your library by {Spin into Myth} or {Spell Crumple}. Nothing you can do about that. But say that throughout the course of the game, your library gets shuffled. Someone then casts {Traumatize} on you. Included in the giant lump of cards that you mill is your commander. You may move him back to the command zone, because it entered the graveyard.

[Rob]

So its casting cost is (the original cost) PLUS 2 Mana for every time it is cast?
So if it goes to the graveyard and I cast it a second time it's +4 Mana?

[InfinitiveDivinity]

So its casting cost is (the original cost) PLUS 2 Mana for every time it is cast?
So if it goes to the graveyard and I cast it a second time it's +4 Mana?

Every time you have your Commander re-enter the Command Zone after hitting Exile or the Graveyard, it then costs an additional {2} to cast. I.E., it has died/been exiled twice, it now costs an additional {4} mana to play, if it happens again, it then costs {6} more, and so on.

[Keyeto]

Actually, if you choose to have your commander go to the command zone, it never hits the graveyard or exile zones. This is really important when facing a commander like {Child of Alara}, and I'll bold the main points of the rules to simplify things:


903.11. If a commander would be put into its owner's graveyard from anywhere, that player may put it into the command zone instead.

903.12. If a commander would be put into the exile zone from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead.

614.1a Effects that use the word "instead" are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word "instead" to indicate what events will be replaced with other events.

614.6. If an event is replaced, it never happens. A modified event occurs instead, which may in turn trigger abilities. Note that the modified event may contain instructions that can't be carried out, in which case the impossible instruction is simply ignored.