Armguard Familiar
Artifact Creature — Equipment Beast
Ward 
(Whenever this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter it unless that player pays .)
Equipped creature gets +2/+1 and has ward .
Reconfigure 
(: Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn't a creature.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #15498
Armguard Familiar enters the battlefield and immediately boosts another target creature's toughness, turning it into a harder-to-kill blocker or protecting a key piece from removal that checks power-toughness thresholds — all on a body that sticks around. The cost is that it demands a target, so its value is entirely dependent on the board state you've already built.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Armguard Familiar occupies a support role in go-wide token strategies or decks that need to keep a specific creature alive through combat — the enter-the-battlefield trigger stacks nicely with blink and flicker commanders. In Pauper, where commons fight over every point of toughness and blocking is a real game, it's more competitive than it looks, especially in aggressive white strategies that want a cheap two-drop with upside. Modern and Pioneer have too many efficient threats and removal spells at every point on the curve for Armguard Familiar to make main deck cuts outside of very specific synergy shells. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters unless something very unusual is happening.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Armguard Familiar is bulk — you're paying almost nothing for it, and that price is unlikely to move unless a specific Commander or Pauper deck breaks out around its effect. Pick up as many copies as you need without a second thought.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.