Guardian Automaton
Artifact Creature — Construct
When this creature dies, you gain 3 life.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic Origins
- Price
- $0.03
- EDHREC rank
- #26101
Guardian Automaton is a 3/2 artifact creature for five mana that gains you 3 life when it dies — a modest body with a minor lifegain rider that rarely justifies the slot. The only shell where it earns serious consideration is Audacious Reshapers and similar artifact-sacrifice engines that want expendable bodies with on-death triggers.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Guardian Automaton is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, Pauper, and Oathbreaker, but competitive play across all those formats passes it by entirely. In Commander, a 3/2 for five with a 3-life death trigger doesn't clear the bar — the format's 40-life total makes that lifegain negligible, and five mana buys far more impactful artifacts. Pauper is the one format where bulk commons occasionally find niche roles, but Guardian Automaton's stats are too poor even there to see real play.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Audacious ReshapersMortuaryIntruder AlarmGuardian Automaton
Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite LTB; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite sacrifice triggers; Infinite untap of creatures; Infinite untap of creatures you control
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.03 bulk tier
At $0.03, Guardian Automaton is deep bulk — the kind of card that fills a commons box without ever getting pulled out. That price isn't going anywhere; there's no competitive demand and no casual breakout waiting to happen.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.