Armored Guardian
Creature — Cat Soldier
: Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
: This creature gains shroud until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- UW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Invasion
- Price
- $0.28
- EDHREC rank
- #28246
Armored Guardian lets you pay mana at instant speed to give any target creature shroud or protection from a color until end of turn — reactive insurance that costs a 5/5 body at five mana. That rate is too slow and too mana-intensive to compete with cheaper, unconditional protection pieces, and Armored Guardian rarely earns its slot.
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 |
In Commander, Armored Guardian is a fringe inclusion at best — five mana for a 5/5 with reactive protection activations is playable in theory, but the activation cost means you're often choosing between developing your board and actually using the ability. Legacy and Vintage are legal but irrelevant; no competitive shell is looking for this effect at this rate when cheaper options exist. Oathbreaker faces the same structural problem: the format's compressed game length makes a five-mana do-nothing-on-arrival creature hard to justify. Armored Guardian is a casual Commander card, full stop.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.28 bulk tier
At $0.28, Armored Guardian is deep bulk — you'll find it in a commons box, not a trade binder. Demand is low enough that the price is unlikely to move without an unexpected reprint into a popular precon or a spike in casual Commander interest.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.