Which Fogs Are Worth Playing In Commander?
Darkness | Illustrated by Harold McNeill
Fog | Illustrated by Jaime Jones
Arachnogenesis | Illustrated by Douglas Shuler
Inkshield | Illustrated by Jarel Threat
Hey, nerds! In this week's article, I'll be ranking all (I hope I didn't miss any!) Fog
What do I consider a fog? A fog has to prevent either combat damage or all damage and be instant-speed.
The tiers are as follows:
S: The best/should try in any deck. These are either incredibly efficient or have an incredibly powerful effect.
A: Great in most decks. These are a little less efficient, are in unique colors, or have upside.
B: Great in a specific archetype/meta call. These are niche in a deck or provide some value for an archetype.
C: Probably avoid it unless you're building Turbo Fog. These are not something you're really looking to add unless you want a density of fogs.
D: Don't play. These are either incredibly conditional, inefficient, or just plain awful.
Fun fog trick you should remember: if a fog mentions all attacking creatures, you can wait until the end of the combat step to cast those fogs since the creatures are still attacking. You might want to do this if someone is attacking an opponent but you want the effect of the fog.
Angelsong
It's a white fog and has cycling, but only stops combat damage.
Arachnogenesis
It's a great fog, but you want a lot of creatures attacking you to make a bunch of Spiders. It's not as efficient vs. Voltron, Spider, and Changeling decks. You can try to kill a few creatures in combat by blocking them with Spiders.
Batwing Brume
Unique color for a fog effect. Need to spend at least to get a fog, but if you can spend , you can potentially knock someone out of the game.
Blessed Respite
Is both a fog and graveyard protection all in one for two mana at instant speed. If you want to protect your graveyard, try this.
Blinding Fog
Three mana for a fog isn't great, but this also gives your creatures hexproof. It isn't as good as Heroic Intervention
Blunt the Assault
Four mana for a fog effect isn't a great rate, even when factoring in the life gain it can provide. Maybe try this if you want to play a life gain deck.
Chameleon Blur
Another four-mana fog, but it prevents all damage creatures would deal to players, not just combat damage, which is great, but still too expensive for my liking.
Channel Harm
This is a great effect, but not at six mana. If you were able to use this as a pseudo Deflecting Palm
Chant of Vitu-Ghazi
While this is eight mana, it does have convoke, so ideally it'll cost double white. If you're playing a creature-based deck in white, I'd give this a try. Unlike Blunt the Assault, Chant gives you life equal to the damage prevented and stops all damage, not just combat damage.
Clinging Mists
It's a three-mana fog that has the upside of tapping all attacking creatures for a turn, but you need to have five or less life. If you're building turbo fog, slam it, but otherwise avoid it.
Comeuppance
Four-mana for a fog isn't great; however, this prevents all damage dealt to both you and planeswalkers you control and reflects that damage at the creature or player who dealt the damage. This almost feels like a strictly better Channel Harm. I should get one of these for my Jeskai superfriends deck.
Commencement of Festivities
It's just a two-mana fog that doesn't stop combat damage to creatures. It's cheap enough for turbo fog, but wouldn't run this in any other deck.
Constant Mists
This is likely one of the best B-list fogs. Green doesn't have a ton of issues getting lands back from the graveyard, so this is a super repeatable fog, and it's 100% a staple in Gitrog and Titania decks. The only reason it isn't A is because I don't think most decks want to sacrifice lands.
Darkness
Darkness is just a color-shifted Fog. No gimmicks or additional effects here. Solid inclusion in any black deck. It's S because of its color.
Dawn Charm
This is another borderline card for me thanks to the modality of the card. You won't often regenerate a creature, but having the option of countering a spell that targets you or fogging is great. Just not sure it should be played in most white decks.
Deep Wood
Ignore the sorcery type line, it is errata'd to be instant. The fact you have to cast this only after being attacked before blockers and can't be used as a political tool to save another player is why it's D-tier.
Defend the Hearth
Same reason as Commencement of Festivities. It's a functional reprint of that card.
Druid's Deliverance
Almost the same as Defend the Hearth, but it only stops combat damage to you and you can populate. If you have a big token creature you can copy, this gets better, but still solidly C tier.
Eerie Interference
It is three-mana, but it prevents all damage to both you and creatures, which I think lands it in low B, possibly high C.
Encircling Fissure
Three-mana fog that you can cast for five mana to turn a land into a 2/2 and you have to target an opponent. Funnily enough, Dawn Charm counters this, but that aside, not super interested in a three-mana fog or a five-mana fog that makes a 2/2.
Endure
Despite being five mana, I think this is still low B. It prevents all damage to you, planeswalkers, and creatures you control, so a giant Chandra's Ignition
Energy Arc
This is a high D-tier fog. I think the effect is unique, but the fact it targets creatures makes this an awful card. You can block the damage and untap your creatures; however, if they have trample, you still get hit for a bunch, and it doesn't stop an infinite army of tokens.
Ethereal Haze
It's a better one-mana fog in white since you can splice onto Arcane with it, and it prevents all damage, not just combat damage dealt by creatures. The splicing part is more of a meme, but I like the fact you can do that.
Fog of War
A three-mana Blunt the Assault but only fogs creatures with power three or less. Just pay one more mana for Blunt the Assault and fog all the creatures.
Fog
The namesake of this effect. It's super efficient at one mana. It's not S because I think there have been better fogs printed, but it's still a high A.
Galadhrim Ambush
This is Arachnogenesis, but costs one more mana and gives you Elves. In an Elf deck, this is incredible since you'll usually have plenty of mana to cast this, and you can use these Elves to block other Elves or hopefully kill a few of their creatures. This is higher than Arachnogenesis since you can use this to make Elves if someone else is getting attacked.
Harmless Assault
It's a four-mana fog, but it doesn't prevent the damage from blocking creatures, allowing you to not only stop the damage but hopefully remove some key threats in the process.
Haze Frog
It's a five-mana fog, which is a lot, so it's best in decks that can blink it. I don't think you be spending five mana multiple times for this effect.
Haze of Pollen
It's a strictly better Commencement of Festitives and Defend the Hearth since you can also cycle this.
Heavy Fog
The same card as Deep Wood.
Hindervines
If you're playing a +1/+1 counters deck, this fog might be worth including, but at three mana, it's a tough call.
Holy Day
It's a literal white fog but worse than Ethereal Haze, so it goes into A-tier.
Hunter's Ambush
I don't want my fogs to be conditional like this. Unlike the kindred fogs earlier, this doesn't fog an entire color.
Inkshield
This is one of the best fogs in the game. It is expensive at five mana; however, this can easily give you a massive board of flying creatures to block with or swing in on your turn to finish the game.
Inspire Awe
I am not interested in four-mana conditional fogs with the upside of scrying 2.
Jaheira's Respite
I want this card to be good so bad. At five mana, it's a bit too expensive for my liking, even if it ramps you.
Lull
This is a strictly better Haze of Pollen since it cycles for one less mana.
Moment's Peace
This is a solid fog with flashback, great in Pauper, and I think pretty good in EDH. I think it's high C-tier, since you mostly want this in turbo fog decks.
Moonmist
If you're playing werewolves/wolves.dek you have an on-theme fog that flips your Humans, so that's cool.
Obscuring Haze
The best fog in the game because it's free, asymmetrical, and prevents all damage. I've won many of games since including this card in my green decks, and it's only $2 at the time of recording, with the borderless version being $2.50. Pick a few of these up and try them in your green deck. Trust me, you'll love it.
Pause for Reflection
A worse Chant of Vitguzahi, but still a convoke fog, which is great if you can easily pay the convoke cost. Torn if this should be B or C, but putting it in C since it doesn't have any additional effects.
Pollen Lullaby
A fog that gives you the ability to prevent a player's creatures from untapping. This is a great political tool in case you want to save an ally or stop an opponent from comboing off if you can win the clash.
Prismatic Strands
Only stops one color and you need a white creature to flash it back. Great in pauper, not so much in EDH.
Repel the Abominable
Since it prevents all damage, it earns its spot in the C-tier. Human is the most common creature type, so as much as I want to put it in B, I can't.
Respite
A fog that can gain you a bunch of life and prevent combat damage.
Revealing Wind
Unless you have a morph/disguise/manifest deck in your pod, I don't think you want to pay a bit more for a fog that gives you a small benefit.
Riot Control
This gives you one life for each creature all your opponents control, and it prevents all damage dealt to you. Seems like it might be worth a shot in life gain decks.
Root Snare
Same card as Commencement of Festivities and Defend the Hearth.
Safe Passage
Three mana to prevent all damage to you and creatures you control in white. Seems solid, but not amazing.
Snag
It's a free fog if you can discard a Forest
Spore Cloud
This is a weird one since it taps the blocking creatures and prevents both attacking and blocking creatures from untapping, so you can use it to lock down two players' boards, but maybe wait until after damage.
Spore Frog
This little frog is great if you have ways to recur it repeatedly, like in Meren of Clan Nel Toth
Take the Bait
This is a great way to not only prevent combat damage from being dealt to you but also turn someone's board against other players. Four mana is a bit more than I usually want to pay, but for this effect, I'm all-in. It's not S, because there are some decks that want attack triggers, and this helps them.
Tangle
A two-mana fog that keeps the attacking creatures tapped for a turn. Great fog and a great rate.
Tanglesap
When I'm fogging, I want to block all combat damage, not just the combat damage I could easily chumpblock.
Terrifying Presence
It's a strictly worse Rootsnare since you have to target a creature.
Thwart the Enemy
It's an asymmetrical fog similar to Obscuring Haze, but not free. Still seems like a solid inclusion.
Undergrowth
It's literal fog with kicker. I don't know how often you want to pay four mana to fog everything but red creatures; however, the option exists, so that's fun.
Vine Snare
I don't want super conditional fogs that don't stop attacks from big creatures.
Winds of Qal Sisma
It's strictly better Rootsnare. If you can get ferocious it becomes an asymmetrical fog, which is amazing for two mana.
You Look Upon the Tarrasque
It's a five-mana fog that can also force your opponents to block a giant deathtouch creature. Let's be real, we aren't playing this for the fog mode on it.
