Sphere of Influence: January 9, 2026

Bitter Work | Illustrated by Bun Toujo

Welcome to Sphere of Influence, a pre-FNM look at some potential movers and shakers that are worth picking up before their prices increase.

Happy New Year, Magic players! We're starting things off with a bang with the release of Lorwyn Eclipsed later this month. The set is highly anticipated and already looks like a blast. Before our brains become fully obsessed with new kindred strategies, let's take a look at Avatar once more to unearth some fantastic (and cheap) Commander cards:

United Front - $2

Secure the Wastes has been the token-making standard for quite some time now, though others have attempted to increase the utility of a straightforward token-generating spell. Grand Crescendo is a great example: one more white pip for what is essentially a modular spell, increasing its utility. United Front is the latest, and one of the best to boot. Two mana to place +1/+1 counters on each of your creatures isn't a bad rate when you also have the option to dump more mana into the spell and flood the board with tokens, especially Ally tokens, a type that famously benefits from other Allies entering the battlefield. The card's sorcery speed hampers it a bit, but growing your token army is a welcome development at any speed.

Airbender Ascension - $0.75

Two mana for a once-a-turn flicker source is a great rate to pay, even if Airbender Ascension requires a bit of set-up beforehand. In this case, however, it collects quest counters simply from creatures entering on your side of the field, which is child's play for any white deck. The card also airbends a creature when it enters the battlefield; could be one of yours, could be one of your opponent's creatures to clear the way for an alpha strike. This is a versatile card to easily weaponize all of your enters-the-battlefield abilities.

Agna Qel'a - $0.75

Geier Reach Sanitarium is a very playable card in Commander, and Agna Qel'a represents an even better version for blue decks. Even if your gameplan doesn't involve discarding cards, having an easy extra mana sink and source of card selection is never a bad thing, especially when the opportunity cost remains low; tapping for blue mana and entering untapped elevates this land above many others.

Bitter Work - $0.25

Three mana to draw up to three cards a turn is a steal, especially in Gruul, but this card contains even more utility by allowing for a single earthbend trigger on demand so you can reuse whatever fetchland you have on the battlefield. I can see this one becoming a staple, even at uncommon, like Rhythm of the Wild before it.

Eclipse Eve

Lorwyn Eclipsed is almost here. Which cards are you already excited about? Looking forward to more spoilers next week!