Elder Arthur Maxson
Legendary Creature — Human Knight
Creature tokens you control have training. (Whenever a creature token you control attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on that token.)
Blind Betrayal — Sacrifice another creature: Elder Arthur Maxson gains indestructible until end of turn.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BW
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Fallout
- Price
- $0.38
- EDHREC rank
- #8306
Elder Arthur Maxson enters swinging: a 4/4 with vigilance that pumps every non-Human you control by +1/+1 and generates a 2/2 Brotherhood of Steel Paladin token each combat, making it one of the more threatening five-drops in token-and-synergy strategies. The competition at five mana is fierce, and Caesar, Legion's Emperor does similar tribal-adjacent work in its own shell, but Maxson's static buff separates it from pure token-generators.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Caesar, Legion's Emperor
Caesar, Legion's Emperor sacrifices tokens for value, and Elder Arthur Maxson's continuous Paladin production feeds that sacrifice engine every single combat step — the two cards form a self-sustaining loop of tokens created and cashed in.
Commissar Severina Raine
Commissar Severina Raine rewards you for having expendable creatures to throw away, and Elder Arthur Maxson reliably manufactures fresh bodies; the result is consistent trigger fuel without depleting your board state.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Elder Arthur Maxson is a Commander card through and through — the five-mana cost and token-generation payoff only really shine in a multiplayer game where combat happens multiple times and the board state compounds. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but has no realistic role; those formats move too fast for a five-drop with no immediate protection or haymaker effect. Commander is where the vigilance, the static pump, and the per-combat token matter enough to justify the slot, particularly in Mardu token shells that can attack repeatedly and benefit from the +1/+1 anthem. Oathbreaker is a legal option, but the fifty-card singleton format rarely wants a five-mana creature without an attached game-breaking effect.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.38 bulk tier
At $0.38, Elder Arthur Maxson sits firmly in bulk territory, which makes it an easy inclusion to test without financial commitment. Bulk rares from licensed IP sets tend to stay cheap unless a deck archetype breaks them out, so don't expect significant price movement — grab it for the synergy, not the speculation.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.