Arboria
World Enchantment
Creatures can't attack a player unless that player cast a spell or put a nontoken permanent onto the battlefield during their last turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $6.41
- EDHREC rank
- #17571
Arboria locks opponents out of attacking you as long as you don't play spells, tap permanents, or put tokens into play on your own turns — a surprisingly hard constraint to weaponize, but in the right shell it's a one-sided fog that never expires. The catch is real: build wrong and you lock yourself out of playing Magic.
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 |
Arboria is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — formats where singleton construction and long game plans make its setup cost more palatable. In Commander it sees the most play, slotting into pillow-fort and group-hug builds that pair it with flash enablers to keep the protection clause active. Legacy and Vintage have the tools to abuse it but no real incentive — faster, cleaner lock pieces exist, and Arboria's symmetry makes it awkward in competitive shells. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander case at a smaller scale, where the compressed game speed actually makes the do-nothing-on-your-turn constraint harder to sustain.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Elephant Grass covers similar ground for a fraction of the price — opponents pay cumulative upkeep to attack you, which isn't a hard lock but requires zero setup on your part. Glacial Chasm is the closest functional replacement if pure damage prevention is the goal, though its own cumulative upkeep means Arboria's permanence is a real edge it holds over both options.
Price Context
Current price
$6.41 mid tier
At $6.41, Arboria sits in the mid tier — affordable enough to include without much deliberation, but high enough that you'd want to confirm the deck can actually satisfy its condition before buying in. The price has held steady because the card is old, supply is limited, and nothing else does exactly what it does; it's unlikely to crater.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.