MagicTheGathering.fyi

Aerith Gainsborough

Legendary Creature — Human Cleric

Lifelink
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Aerith Gainsborough.
When Aerith Gainsborough dies, put X +1/+1 counters on each legendary creature you control, where X is the number of +1/+1 counters on Aerith Gainsborough.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Final Fantasy
Price
$1.94
EDHREC rank
#2561
Buy on TCGplayer
Aerith Gainsborough card art
Aerith Gainsborough puts a +1/+1 counter on a creature every turn for free — the cost is that she has to survive to do it, and a 2/2 for three mana in a multiplayer game is not surviving without help. The upside ceiling is real: slotting her into Agatha's Soul Cauldron lines or building around Aerith, Last Ancient turns that incremental counter drip into a genuine engine.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Aerith, Last Ancient

Aerith, Last Ancient

75.1% of decks · synergy 0.71

Aerith, Last Ancient is the obvious home — Aerith Gainsborough feeds counters onto creatures that Aerith, Last Ancient can then leverage, and the thematic overlap means deckbuilders are actively hunting this card down at 75% inclusion.

02
Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness

Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness

61.1% of decks · synergy 0.56

Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness cares about creature death and graveyard value, and Aerith Gainsborough's steady counter generation keeps creatures relevant enough to sacrifice profitably while she sits in the background ticking up.

03
Bre of Clan Stoutarm

Bre of Clan Stoutarm

54.2% of decks · synergy 0.52

Bre of Clan Stoutarm rewards stacking +1/+1 counters on a single creature, so Aerith Gainsborough's free counter each turn is a no-brainer inclusion — one more counter per rotation toward whatever Bre is trying to snowball.

04
Hope Estheim

Hope Estheim

48.5% of decks · synergy 0.44

Hope Estheim runs a wide counter-synergy shell, and Aerith Gainsborough plugs in as a low-cost, low-maintenance piece that generates value without demanding deck space beyond a single slot.

05

Cecil, Dark Knight

44.0% of decks · synergy 0.39

Cecil, Dark Knight builds around counters and creature transformation, and Aerith Gainsborough's consistent counter output gives Cecil something to work with every single turn without any additional investment.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Aerith Gainsborough actually does something — the slow, incremental counter generation fits multiplayer's longer games, and the density of counter-synergy commanders makes her a clean fit in the right 99. In constructed formats like Standard, Pioneer, and Modern she's legal but functionally unplayable; a 2/2 for three that puts one counter on one creature per turn doesn't come close to the rate those formats demand. Legacy and Vintage are similarly uninterested — the card doesn't interact with anything broken enough to matter. Stick to Commander and Oathbreaker, where the pace of play lets her earn her slot.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.94 cheap tier

At $1.94, Aerith Gainsborough sits at a price point that costs you nothing to try in a counter-synergy build. Demand is narrow — she's a role-player, not a staple — so there's no reason to expect the price to climb unless the Final Fantasy crossover commanders sustain long-term interest.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.