Price$1.85 – $6.78
Buy on TCGplayerPongify
Instant
LegalRemovalRank #156
Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller creates a 3/3 green Ape creature token.
Why is this card good?
Pongify is one of blue's premier pieces of cheap, unconditional creature removal, and at one mana it's an auto-include in most blue decks that want interaction.
The downside — giving the opponent a 3/3 Ape — is almost always irrelevant. In Commander, you're usually killing a commander, a combo piece, a hexproof-but-not-this beater, or a value engine that's worth far more than a vanilla 3/3. Trading a 3/3 for a $50 threat is a steal.
Who wants it: any blue deck running interaction — control, spellslinger, midrange, combo decks needing protection or to break up enemy combos. It pairs naturally with Rapid Hybridization and Reality Shift as a cheap removal package.
When NOT to play it: in heavy aggro/aristocrats matchups where handing over a 3/3 body matters (it fuels their attacks, sacrifice fodder, or blink synergies), or against decks that want tokens. If you can afford slightly more mana, Reality Shift exiles and gives a less useful manifest — sometimes the safer pick.
Related cards
Rapid Hybridization
Nearly identical one-mana blue instant creature removal giving a token.
Reality Shift
One-mana blue exile removal that gives a manifest instead of a token.
Beast Within
Green version, destroys any permanent leaving a 3/3 token.
Generous Gift
White Beast Within variant for any permanent removal.
Swords to Plowshares
Premier cheap white exile removal in the spot-removal role.
Chaos Warp
Red catch-all removal with a similar random downside trade-off.
Imprisoned in the Moon
Blue aura that neutralizes a creature without giving a token.
Snap
Cheap blue tempo removal alternative bouncing a creature.
Printings (12)
Played by these commanders
Teferi, Temporal Archmage100% of 1
Omo, Queen of Vesuva100% of 2
Morophon, the Boundless100% of 1
Stella Lee, Wild Card100% of 1
Shiko and Narset, Unified100% of 1