Gandalf the White

Bracket

• B1 Exhibition — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B2 Core — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B3 Upgraded — allowed: No restriction at this bracket
• B4 Optimized — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list
• B5 cEDH — allowed: No restriction beyond the banned list

Why

• No Game Changer, mass land denial, extra turn, tutor or two-card combo

How Lotus Vault estimates a bracket

Bracket: Lotus Vault analysis, with Commander Spellbook flags

Combos

18 known combos.

• Gandalf the White + Scrap Trawler + Myr Retriever + Krark-Clan Ironworks
  Produces: Infinite colorless mana, Infinite death triggers, Infinite creature ETB
  View on Commander Spellbook
• Gandalf the White + Junk Diver + Myr Retriever + Krark-Clan Ironworks
  Produces: Infinite colorless mana, Infinite death triggers, Infinite creature ETB
  View on Commander Spellbook
• Gandalf the White + Workshop Assistant + Myr Retriever + Krark-Clan Ironworks
  Produces: Infinite colorless mana, Infinite death triggers, Infinite creature ETB
  View on Commander Spellbook

Combos: Commander Spellbook

Rulings

• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  Replacement effects are unaffected by Gandalf the White's ability. For example, a legendary creature that enters the battlefield with one +1/+1 counter on it won't receive an additional +1/+1 counter.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  Abilities that apply "as [this permanent] enters the battlefield," such as choosing a color with Gauntlet of Power, are also unaffected.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  The second ability applies only to casting spells. It does not, for example, change when you may activate abilities that can be activated "only as a sorcery."
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  You don't need to control the permanent entering or leaving the battlefield, only the permanent that has the triggered ability.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  Gandalf the White's effect doesn't copy the triggered ability; it just causes the ability to trigger twice. Any choices made as you put the ability onto the stack, such as modes and targets, are made separately for each instance of the ability. Any choices made on resolution, such as whether to put counters on a permanent, are also made individually.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  If a legendary permanent or an artifact entering or leaving the battlefield at the same time as Gandalf the White (including Gandalf the White itself) causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  Look at each legendary permanent and each artifact as it exists on the battlefield, taking into account continuous effects, to determine whether any triggered abilities will trigger multiple times. For example, if a nonlegendary creature that has become legendary (probably because it's a player's Ring-bearer) dies, an ability that triggers when it leaves the battlefield triggers twice.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  If you somehow control two copies of Gandalf the White, a legendary permanent or an artifact entering or leaving the battlefield causes abilities to trigger three times, not four. A third Gandalf the White causes abilities to trigger four times, a fourth causes abilities to trigger five times, and so on.
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  Gandalf the White affects a permanent's own enters-the-battlefield and leaves-the-battlefield triggered abilities as well as other triggered abilities that trigger when that permanent enters or leaves the battlefield. Such triggered abilities start with "when" or "whenever."
• 2023-06-16 · Wizards of the Coast
  The trigger event doesn't have to specifically refer to legendary permanents or to artifacts, nor does it have to specifically refer to when something "leaves the battlefield." For example, an ability that triggers "whenever a creature dies" would trigger twice if a legendary creature or an artifact creature dies while Gandalf the White is on the battlefield, as would an ability that triggers "whenever a permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield."

Rulings: Scryfall · Wizards of the Coast