Variant A
UnCommander: Legal - use with caution
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.
• Target creature can’t be blocked this turn.
• Draw a card.
• Assemble a Contraption. (Put the top card of your Contraption deck face up onto one of your sprockets.)
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Wayne England
Printing: Unstable
The third choice will only draw a card, and doesn’t care who that card’s illustrator is.
Variant B
UnCommander: Legal - use with caution
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Untap two target permanents.
• Discard all the cards in your hand, then draw that many cards.
• Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Zoltan Boros
Printing: Unstable
Very Cryptic Command’s second printed mode has been removed from the card entry in errata. It cannot be activated.
Variant C
UnCommander: Legal
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Draw a card from the library of an opponent of your choice.
• Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
• Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a blue Frog with base power and toughness 1/1.
• Create a 1/1 colorless Gnome artifact creature token with a silver border.
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Zoltan Boros
Printing: Unstable
Not suitable for play if the cards of players’ decks can’t be easily distinguished from the back.
Variant D
UnCommander: Legal
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Return target permanent to its controller’s hand.
• Draw two cards, then discard a card.
• Change the target of target spell with a single target.
• Turn over target nontoken creature. (if it’s a double-faced card, transform it. If it’s a non double-sided card, turn it face down if it is currently face up, or turn it face up if it is currently face down. If it is a melded creature, exile it, then return those meld cards to the battlefield under their owners’ control with their front faces up. This effect does nothing to nonmelded meld cards. If it is a combined creature, treat all its constituents (regardless of type) as though they were individual objects and apply this process to each constituent. The constituents remain combined.)
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Zoltan Boros
Printing: Unstable
Not suitable for play if the cards of players’ decks can’t be easily distinguished from the back.
Variant E
UnCommander: Legal - use with caution
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Counter target black-bordered spell.
• Return target creature to its owner’s hand.
• Untap each permanent you control with a watermark.
• Roll two six-sided dice. Target player mills X cards, where X is the total of those results.
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Zoltan Boros
Printing: Unstable
Variant F
UnCommander: Legal
Card Name:
Very Cryptic Command
Mana Cost:
Converted Mana Cost:
4
Types:
Instant
Rules Text:
Choose two —
• Scry 3.
• Create a 2/2 black Rogue creature token with menace and with an “Agents of S.N.E.A.K.” watermark and silver border.
• Change the text of target spell or permanent by adding or subtracting 1 or one from a number (or number word) until end of turn.
• Return all artifacts target player controls to their owner’s hand.
Color:
Blue
Color Identity:
Watermark:
None
Border Type:
Silver-bordered
This printing Illustrated by Zoltan Boros
Printing: Unstable
Hindu–Arabic numerals (0, 3, 64 etc.), Roman numerals (“nulla”, III, LXIV etc.) and number words (“zero”, “three”, “sixty-four” etc.) are all considered numbers. This includes numbers within mana symbols. Nothing within an object’s name, supertype, type or subtype is considered a number. See the Compiled Rulings page for details.
This spell can change numbers in the mana cost, rules text, power, toughness or loyalty of a card. Note that this may only change the loyalty characteristic of a spell, not the numbers of loyalty counters on a permanent.
Characteristic-defining abilities generally determine characteristics before text-based effects.
See 612 in the official Comprehensive Rules (10/5/2018) for more detail on text-changing effects.
The 2/2 black Rogue token created by the second mode has an “Agents of S.N.E.A.K.” watermark because the relevant token printed in Unstable has one, Unstable being this card’s original and only printing.