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Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage

Legendary Creature — Spirit Soldier

Flash
First strike
Whenever another nontoken creature you control dies, Anafenza endures 2. (Put two +1/+1 counters on it or create a 2/2 white Spirit creature token.)

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Price
$0.22
EDHREC rank
#8111
Buy on TCGplayer
Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage card art
Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage turns every dying creature into a 1/1 Spirit token and a ward trigger that blankets your whole board — the tax is cheap to pay but punishing to ignore at scale. The cost is that she does nothing without creatures dying, and shadow creatures like Nether Traitor exploit her trigger better than most; Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan lists run her as an engine piece, not a value-add.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

31.8% of decks · synergy 0.30

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan cares deeply about creatures entering and leaving play in the same turn, and Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage delivers a Spirit token every time something dies — feeding both the token count and the ward trigger that keeps Felothar's board sticky.

02
Millicent, Restless Revenant

Millicent, Restless Revenant

19.6% of decks · synergy 0.19

Millicent, Restless Revenant wants a steady supply of non-Millicent Spirits hitting the field, and Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage converts every creature death into exactly that — each token is a free Millicent trigger waiting to happen.

03
Duskana, the Rage Mother

Duskana, the Rage Mother

19.1% of decks · synergy 0.19

Duskana, the Rage Mother pumps 2/2 tokens, and the 1/1 Spirits Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage produces aren't 2/2s — but the ward tax she generates scales hard when Duskana's beatdown plan means opponents need to answer multiple creatures every combat.

04
King of the Oathbreakers

King of the Oathbreakers

18.9% of decks · synergy 0.17

King of the Oathbreakers builds around Rogue tribal and shadow creatures, and Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage's token generation synergizes with the recurring death loops those lists run — Nether Traitor in particular bounces back from the graveyard to die again and again.

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

Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage is legal everywhere except Pauper, but Commander is the only format where her passive ward effect does meaningful work — you need enough creatures dying repeatedly for the tax to accumulate into real protection. In 60-card formats she competes with stronger three-drops that don't require a board state to function, and the 1/1 Spirit tokens are largely irrelevant in Legacy or Vintage. Pioneer and Standard are the most plausible non-Commander homes, particularly in token-sacrifice shells where death triggers chain naturally. Commander remains her clear best format — token producers and sacrifice outlets run deep, and ward-on-the-board effects become progressively more oppressive as the game goes long.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.22 bulk tier

At $0.22, Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage is firmly bulk — easy to pick up as a four-of or a casual inclusion without budget consideration. That price reflects her narrow combo-dependent role; she won't climb without a breakout list that puts the engine on the map.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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