Baird, Steward of Argive
Legendary Creature — Human Soldier
Vigilance
Creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays 
for each of those creatures.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Dominaria
- Price
- $0.30
- EDHREC rank
- #2533
Baird, Steward of Argive makes every attack at you cost an extra mana — a soft tax that compounds fast in multiplayer and buys you the turns you need to stabilize or close out. The cost is that a 2/3 for four mana with no offensive upside does nothing if the table goes over or around you, which is exactly why Myrel, Shield of Argive and similar token engines exist to back it up.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Myrel, Shield of Argive
Myrel, Shield of Argive generates Soldier tokens on your turn, and every extra body you accumulate makes the attack tax from Baird, Steward of Argive geometrically worse for opponents — they either pay more mana than they can spare or leave your board alone while you build toward a lethal token swing.
Commander Mustard
Commander Mustard rewards you for attacking with a diverse creature lineup, and Baird, Steward of Argive keeps opposing attacks economically painful while you assemble your own board — the tax buys the tempo Mustard needs to go wide without racing into a counterattack.
Gluntch, the Bestower
Gluntch, the Bestower is a politics engine that wants opponents choosing you as a gift target rather than an attack target, and Baird, Steward of Argive hard-reinforces that calculus by making aggression against you cost real mana.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV already raises the cost of everything opponents want to do, and stacking Baird, Steward of Argive on top means combat requires paying through two independent tax effects — a combination that can lock aggressive decks out of meaningful turns entirely.
Ms. Bumbleflower
Ms. Bumbleflower thrives when opponents are making suboptimal choices, and Baird, Steward of Argive turns the simple act of attacking into a resource drain that nudges the table toward the passive, gift-giving behavior Ms. Bumbleflower wants to exploit.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Baird, Steward of Argive earns its slot in any white deck that wants to slow the board down — the tax scales with the number of attackers, so four-player games punish go-wide combat strategies far more than one-on-one matches ever could. In Legacy and Vintage, a four-mana creature with a soft tax is too slow to matter; those formats end before the tax accumulates. Modern and Pioneer present the same problem: Ghostly Prison and Propaganda do the same job at lower mana cost and don't die to Lightning Bolt. Baird is a Commander card through and through — the multiplayer environment is the only context where a 2/3 for four that does nothing the turn it enters is worth the slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.30 bulk tier
At $0.30, Baird, Steward of Argive is deep bulk — you're picking it out of a dollar box, not budgeting for it. It's a low-demand uncommon with a narrow best use case, so there's no price pressure pushing it up, but for what it does in the right Commander shell it punches well above its cost.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.