Dawnstrike Vanguard
Creature — Human Knight
Lifelink
At the beginning of your end step, if you control two or more tapped creatures, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control other than this creature.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Edge of Eternities
- Price
- $0.19
- EDHREC rank
- #14240
Dawnstrike Vanguard puts a lifelink, vigilance body on the board and immediately taxes your opponents' attacks — the effect is live the turn it lands. The cost is real: five mana is a lot to ask for a creature that doesn't close games on its own, so it earns its slot primarily in decks that weaponize those keywords or drain life totals.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Dion, Bahamut's Dominant
Dion, Bahamut's Dominant rewards stacking keywords on creatures, and Dawnstrike Vanguard arrives pre-loaded with lifelink and vigilance — exactly the kind of redundancy Dion's engine wants to copy and amplify across the board.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Dawnstrike Vanguard fills a supporting role in lifegain and go-wide strategies — it won't win a game alone, but vigilance means it attacks and holds up a blocker simultaneously, which matters in a four-player pod. Constructed formats like Standard and Pioneer are harder sells: five mana for a vanilla-adjacent creature runs into stiff competition from threats that close games outright. Modern and Legacy have even less patience for it — the power ceiling on five-mana creatures in those formats is brutally high, and Dawnstrike Vanguard doesn't clear it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.19 bulk tier
At $0.19, Dawnstrike Vanguard sits firmly in bulk territory — easy to pick up, easy to cut without regret. Bulk rares rarely climb unless a combo or tournament breakout puts them in demand, and nothing about this card's role suggests that's coming.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Dion, Bahamut's Dominant
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.