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Hardened Academic

Creature — Bird Cleric

Flying, haste
Discard a card: This creature gains lifelink until end of turn.
Whenever one or more cards leave your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{R}{W}
Color identity
RW
Rarity
rare
Set
Secrets of Strixhaven
Price
$1.06
EDHREC rank
#16003
Buy on TCGplayer
Hardened Academic card art
Hardened Academic enters the battlefield swinging — it draws you a card immediately, and every instant or sorcery you cast after that triggers a free impulse draw, with Goblin Bombardment and similar free sacrifice outlets turning each draw trigger into lethal damage in the right shell. The cost is handing an opponent a card each time you trigger it, which matters exactly as much as how fast your deck closes games.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Quintorius, History Chaser

Quintorius, History Chaser

37.4% of decks · synergy 0.32

Quintorius, History Chaser casts spells from exile constantly, meaning Hardened Academic's triggered impulse draws fire almost every turn while Quintorius converts the exiled cards into spirit tokens — the two cards are essentially co-pilots of the same engine.

02
Queen Kayla bin-Kroog

Queen Kayla bin-Kroog

20.4% of decks · synergy 0.15

Queen Kayla bin-Kroog cheats artifacts and creatures into play at discount, and Hardened Academic slots in as a repeatable card-advantage piece that keeps fueling her activated ability without needing to spend resources on conventional draw.

03

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant

15.4% of decks · synergy 0.10

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant rewards casting instants and sorceries from exile, the exact zone Hardened Academic keeps feeding — every impulse draw that hits an instant or sorcery sets up another trigger and another free cast.

04
Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death

10.1% of decks · synergy 0.09

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death recurs creatures with power two or less from the graveyard, and Hardened Academic fits that profile exactly — Alesha can rebuy it after a board wipe and immediately reload the engine.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Commander is where Hardened Academic does its best work — four opponents means giving one player a card rarely swings the table, and the triggered impulse draw compounds aggressively over a long game. In competitive 1v1 formats like Legacy and Modern, the symmetry clause is a real cost: handing your single opponent a card every time you cast a spell is a meaningful concession that demands a fast, combo-oriented shell to justify it. Pioneer and Standard can support it in spell-heavy decks, but the card competes in a more crowded draw-engine market there and rarely rises above a role-player. Oathbreaker shares Commander's multiplayer math and is a fine home.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$1.06 cheap tier

At $1.06, Hardened Academic is a low-friction pickup — it's in cheap territory where you don't need a deck built around it to justify slotting it in. The price reflects solid demand without the spike risk attached to narrower combo pieces, so it's unlikely to crater.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

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