Benevolent Ancestor
Creature — Spirit
Defender (This creature can't attack.)
: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to any target this turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Iconic Masters
- Price
- $0.05
- EDHREC rank
- #26606
Benevolent Ancestor trades a tap and its own life for a point of damage prevention — that's a steep ongoing cost for a marginal effect. It's a 0/4 wall that protects exactly one permanent once per turn, and almost every Commander deck has better uses for that slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Benevolent Ancestor is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but sees essentially no competitive play in any of them. In Commander, where board states escalate fast and damage comes from multiple angles, a once-per-turn prevention effect on a tapped creature rarely influences outcomes. Pauper is the one format where defensive commons can carve out niche roles, but even there Benevolent Ancestor is too slow and too narrow to matter. Across every format it's legal in, it's a bulk common with no meaningful competitive footprint.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.05 bulk tier
At $0.05, Benevolent Ancestor is deep bulk — you'll find it in a commons box long before you'd bother ordering it. The price reflects the demand accurately and isn't going anywhere.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.