Heiko Yamazaki, the General
Legendary Creature — Human Samurai
Trample
Whenever a Samurai or Warrior you control attacks alone, you may cast target artifact card from your graveyard this turn.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #9273
Heiko Yamazaki, the General puts a +1/+1 counter on a Samurai or Warrior you control at the start of combat — free, repeatable, and stackable with other counter engines — at the cost of just two mana to cast. The ceiling is high when you pair her with Coretapper-style counter synergies or slot her under Raiyuu, Storm's Edge, where every swinging Samurai gets beefier each time the combat step rolls around.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Raiyuu, Storm's Edge
Raiyuu, Storm's Edge triggers an additional combat step whenever a lone Samurai or Warrior attacks, and Heiko Yamazaki, the General fires at the start of each combat — so every extra combat Raiyuu creates is also a free counter on your biggest threat.
Tetsuo, Imperial Champion
Tetsuo, Imperial Champion rewards you for attacking with multiple Warriors and Samurai, and Heiko Yamazaki, the General steadily inflates those attackers so Tetsuo's damage-based removal hits harder and the team closes games faster.
Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms
Gilgamesh, Master-at-Arms cares deeply about +1/+1 counters on creatures, and Heiko Yamazaki, the General delivers one for free every combat step, plugging directly into that counter-accumulation gameplan.
Isshin, Two Heavens as One
Isshin, Two Heavens as One doubles attack triggers, and while Heiko Yamazaki, the General's ability isn't an attack trigger itself, the synergy lies in the Samurai and Warrior tribal overlap — Isshin decks run the same creatures Heiko wants to buff, making her a natural inclusion even at lower synergy.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Heiko Yamazaki, the General actually lives — Samurai and Warrior tribal is almost exclusively an EDH archetype, and the repeating combat-phase trigger compounds over a long game in ways that matter at a 100-card, multiplayer table. In Modern and Legacy she's technically legal but has no competitive home; two mana for a 2/2 that slowly increments a single creature is nowhere near the power threshold those formats demand. Pioneer is the same story — the card simply isn't fast or impactful enough to compete in a format full of turn-four kills. Oathbreaker is a plausible home if you're building around a Samurai or Warrior planeswalker, but that's a narrow construction.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Heiko Yamazaki, the GeneralCoretapperMagistrate's Scepter
Infinite turns; Lock
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Heiko Yamazaki, the General is firmly bulk — you can pick up a copy for the cost of a pack of gum. Bulk rares in active tribal archetypes tend to stay cheap indefinitely, so don't expect any movement unless Samurai tribal gets a major push.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.