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Basri's Lieutenant

Creature — Human Knight

Vigilance, protection from multicolored
When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
Whenever this creature or another creature you control dies, if it had a +1/+1 counter on it, create a 2/2 white Knight creature token with vigilance.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{W}
Color identity
W
Rarity
rare
Set
Foundations Jumpstart
Price
$0.29
EDHREC rank
#7924
Buy on TCGplayer
Basri's Lieutenant card art
Basri's Lieutenant replaces every creature you lose with a 2/2 Knight token and stacks a +1/+1 counter on each survivor — a two-line effect that turns board wipes into recruitment drives. The four-mana ask is fair for that kind of resilience, and alongside Cathars' Crusade the counter triggers compound fast enough to end games; Dion, Bahamut's Dominant decks hit 61% inclusion for exactly that reason.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01

Dion, Bahamut's Dominant

61.2% of decks · synergy 0.60

Dion, Bahamut's Dominant cares about +1/+1 counters entering the battlefield, so every death trigger from Basri's Lieutenant feeds the engine twice — token enters, counter lands, Dion's payoffs fire.

02
Shadrix Silverquill

Shadrix Silverquill

24.9% of decks · synergy 0.24

Shadrix Silverquill builds around token generation and counter accumulation, and Basri's Lieutenant turns every removal spell or board wipe aimed at the team into free bodies and stat bumps.

03
Felisa, Fang of Silverquill

Felisa, Fang of Silverquill

23.3% of decks · synergy 0.22

Felisa, Fang of Silverquill creates Inkling tokens whenever a non-token creature with counters dies, so Basri's Lieutenant pre-loads every creature with a +1/+1 counter and guarantees Felisa has fuel on each casualty.

04
Hamza, Guardian of Arashin

Hamza, Guardian of Arashin

16.1% of decks · synergy 0.15

Hamza, Guardian of Arashin reduces costs for each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter, so Basri's Lieutenant functions as a passive cost-reducer that also rebuilds the board when opponents try to answer it.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Basri's Lieutenant earns its slot — multiplayer means more death triggers, and the combination of token replacement and counter distribution scales up with every board wipe at the table. In Modern and Pioneer it's too slow and too passive; a four-mana creature that does nothing the turn it arrives needs immediate board impact to compete, and creature decks there are looking for proactive threats rather than reactive insurance. Legacy and Vintage are non-starters for the same reason at a higher power ceiling. Oathbreaker can support it in the right counter-matters or go-wide shell, but Commander remains the format where the effect is consistently worth the cost.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.29 bulk tier

At $0.29, Basri's Lieutenant is bulk — pick it up without thinking about it. The effect is legitimate enough that the price could tick up if a counter-matters commander breaks through the popularity threshold, but at this tier you're just paying for cardboard.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.