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Guardian Project

Enchantment

Whenever a nontoken creature you control enters, if it doesn't have the same name as another creature you control or a creature card in your graveyard, draw a card.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{3}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Ravnica Allegiance
Price
$11.62
EDHREC rank
#304
Buy on TCGplayer
Guardian Project card art
Guardian Project turns every unique creature you cast into a free card, and four mana is a reasonable ask for an enchantment that keeps refilling your hand as long as you're doing what creature decks already want to do. Leashling and The Wise Mothman both illustrate the ceiling: in decks that churn through creatures, Guardian Project doesn't draw you one card — it draws you ten.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
The Wise Mothman

The Wise Mothman

53.0% of decks · synergy 0.42

The Wise Mothman dumps +1/+1 counters on every nonland permanent that enters — which means every creature draw off Guardian Project triggers a new counter distribution, creating a self-reinforcing loop of card advantage and board growth that accelerates faster than opponents can answer either piece.

02
Emiel the Blessed

Emiel the Blessed

47.3% of decks · synergy 0.36

Emiel the Blessed blinks creatures for profit repeatedly, but Guardian Project only triggers on the first time a creature with a given name enters each turn, so Emiel's value here is about the volume of distinct creatures in the 99 — the more variety you run, the more Guardian Project rewards you.

03
Roon of the Hidden Realm

Roon of the Hidden Realm

42.3% of decks · synergy 0.35

Roon of the Hidden Realm flickers creatures at instant speed, and while Guardian Project won't retrigger on the same card name, Roon lists naturally pack a high density of unique ETB creatures — exactly the condition where Guardian Project converts into a card each turn without any additional effort.

04
Bello, Bard of the Brambles

Bello, Bard of the Brambles

45.3% of decks · synergy 0.33

Bello, Bard of the Brambles builds around Forests and enchantments entering the battlefield, but its creature suite is wide and varied enough that Guardian Project fires consistently, turning a go-wide green strategy into one that never runs out of action.

05
Tyvar the Bellicose

Tyvar the Bellicose

38.8% of decks · synergy 0.32

Tyvar the Bellicose decks run dense elf packages with many different creature names, and Guardian Project converts that tribal variety into sustained card draw — something green elf lists historically struggle to find outside of specific lords.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is where Guardian Project earns its inclusion rate: 99-card decks with high creature variety give it the most targets, and a four-mana enchantment that draws a card per unique creature is exactly the kind of slow-building engine that thrives in a multiplayer game with time to set up. In competitive Legacy, Modern, or Pioneer, it's too slow and too conditional — those formats punish turn-four do-nothings, and creature-based decks there would rather run Collected Company or similar burst-draw. Guardian Project is legal in all of those formats, but it's essentially a Commander card that happens to be legal elsewhere.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Elemental Bond and Beast Whisperer both approximate what Guardian Project does at a lower price point — Elemental Bond draws on power-3-or-greater creatures entering, and Beast Whisperer triggers on casting rather than entering, which matters against counterspells but misses blink and reanimation lines. Neither filters by unique name the way Guardian Project does, which makes them better in token-light builds but removes the downside of a duplicate-creature penalty entirely.

Price Context

Current price

$11.62 mid tier

At $11.62, Guardian Project sits in mid-tier pricing — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate slot, cheap enough that it belongs in most creature-heavy Commander builds without budget justification. It's a heavily played, widely reprinted card that won't spike further, so the current price is likely close to its floor.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.