Aven Tactician
Creature — Bird Soldier
Flying
When this creature enters, bolster 1. (Choose a creature with the least toughness among creatures you control and put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Dragons of Tarkir
- Price
- $0.05
- EDHREC rank
- #27550
Aven Tactician puts a flying 2/3 on the board and hands a +1/+1 counter to any creature you control — reasonable stats, reasonable effect, unreasonable cost at five mana. A 2/3 flyer for five is well below rate in any competitive context, and the counter doesn't come close to making up the difference.
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 |
Aven Tactician is a bulk common that sees essentially no competitive play across any format. In Commander, five mana for a 2/3 with an enters-the-battlefield counter is simply too inefficient — decks that want +1/+1 counter synergies have far stronger options, and decks that want flying bodies get much better rate elsewhere. Pauper is the one format where card quality floors are lower, but even there Aven Tactician's mana cost relative to stats keeps it out of any real 60-card shell. Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, and Vintage don't register it at all.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.05 bulk tier
At $0.05, Aven Tactician sits at the absolute floor of Magic card pricing — this is bulk-bin territory. The price reflects the card's power level accurately and is unlikely to move in either direction.
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Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.