Ali from Cairo
Creature — Human
Damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Masters Edition IV
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #25086
Ali from Cairo makes your life total unable to be reduced below 1 — as long as it's in play, you cannot lose to damage or direct life-loss that would finish you off. The cost is real: four mana for a 0/1 with no evasion means it dies to nearly everything and does nothing to advance your board beyond the survival effect.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Ali from Cairo sees its most relevant play, slotting into lifegain and pillow-fort strategies that want to extend the game indefinitely — pair it with ways to gain life above 1 each turn and you're functionally unkillable by damage. In Legacy and Vintage it's legal but essentially unplayed; those formats move too fast for a four-mana 0/1 with no immediate impact to matter. Oathbreaker is the other format worth mentioning, where its effect can lock out aggressive strategies if you can protect it for even a few turns.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't available for Ali from Cairo at the moment, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for a current figure. As an old, obscure card with niche Commander applications, it tends to sit in a range driven more by collector interest than competitive demand — verify before buying.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.