Gatewatch Beacon
Artifact
This artifact enters with three loyalty counters on it.
: Add 
.
Whenever a planeswalker you control enters, if this artifact has loyalty counters on it, you may move a loyalty counter from this artifact onto that planeswalker.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Commander Masters
- Price
- $0.35
- EDHREC rank
- #8814
Gatewatch Beacon puts a loyalty counter on each planeswalker you control the moment it enters — in a deck running five or six walkers, that's immediate, tangible impact before it ever taps for mana. The two-mana investment is trivial, and Commodore Guff decks will almost always get their money's worth on the turn it lands.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Commodore Guff
Commodore Guff's ability to accumulate and redistribute loyalty counters turns Gatewatch Beacon from a one-time boost into a force multiplier — every walker entering closer to an ultimate means more free activations, and Guff's static that draws cards when planeswalkers tick up makes each counter added by the Beacon a potential card.
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 |
Gatewatch Beacon is a Commander card through and through — the payoff scales with the number of planeswalkers on board, and that density only realistically exists in a 100-card singleton format built around a planeswalker-tribal commander. Legacy and Vintage are legal venues, but no competitive archetype in either format wants a two-mana artifact that taxes counters one at a time. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where Gatewatch Beacon has a genuine case, since the format's planeswalker-as-commander structure means you're nearly guaranteed at least one walker in play when it resolves.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.35 bulk tier
At $0.35, Gatewatch Beacon sits firmly in bulk territory — easy to pick up as a throw-in without any deckbuilding budget math. Bulk cards tied to a single niche commander strategy rarely climb unless that commander spikes in popularity, so don't expect movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.