Emissary of Hope
Creature — Spirit
Flying
Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you gain 1 life for each artifact that player controls.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Darksteel
- Price
- $0.24
- EDHREC rank
- #26739
Emissary of Hope turns every nontoken creature you put into your graveyard into a Treasure, converting board wipes and sacrifice outlets into mana without spending a card slot on acceleration. Three mana for a 2/1 flier is an acceptable rate when the death trigger does this much work, but the card earns its slot through synergy density, not raw stats.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Emissary of Hope belongs — sacrifice synergies, token engines, and mass removal are everywhere, and turning a Wrath into a mana windfall is exactly the kind of value engine the format rewards. In Legacy and Vintage it's too slow and too fragile; three mana for a 2/1 that requires creatures to die on your own timeline doesn't compete with the speed of those formats. Modern has enough redundancy in aristocrats-style builds that Emissary of Hope sits behind stronger options and rarely makes the cut. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander environment closely enough that it's a legitimate include in any death-matters shell there.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.24 bulk tier
At $0.24, Emissary of Hope is deep bulk — you're paying for the effect, not the card. Bulk rares with narrow synergy applications tend to stay at this price floor, so there's no reason to hesitate on picking up copies.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.