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Heronblade Elite

Creature — Human Warrior

Vigilance
Whenever another Human you control enters, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
{T}: Add X mana of any one color, where X is this creature's power.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Magic Online Promos
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#4523
Buy on TCGplayer
Heronblade Elite card art
Heronblade Elite enters as a 1/1 and leaves as a mana engine that can tap for double digits once your Human count climbs — the ceiling is absurd for a four-mana creature. Pair it with Staff of Domination in a Kyler, Sigardian Emissary shell and you have an infinite mana outlet that also draws your deck.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Kyler, Sigardian Emissary

Kyler, Sigardian Emissary

83.6% of decks · synergy 0.78

Kyler, Sigardian Emissary stacks +1/+1 counters on every Human you cast, and Heronblade Elite's tap ability scales directly off those counters — by mid-game it's producing more mana than most dedicated ramp packages, which is why 84% of Kyler decks run it.

02
Katilda, Dawnhart Prime

Katilda, Dawnhart Prime

56.5% of decks · synergy 0.51

Katilda, Dawnhart Prime already turns every Human into a mana source, and Heronblade Elite doubles down on that density by converting its own counter growth into explosive tap activations that let the deck storm through its top end.

03
Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss

Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss

36.5% of decks · synergy 0.35

Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss rewards creatures with tap abilities that produce multiple mana by giving them haste and +2/+2, and Heronblade Elite qualifies the moment it has two counters — Raggadragga effectively hands it a free Speed upgrade every time it enters.

04
Katilda and Lier

Katilda and Lier

35.1% of decks · synergy 0.34

Katilda and Lier leans on the same Human-centric mana doubling as its predecessor, making Heronblade Elite a natural inclusion that turns Human density into a mana advantage the deck can immediately reinvest into spells flashed back through Lier.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Heronblade Elite is a Commander card through and through — its power scales with board state and game length in ways that competitive 60-card formats punish immediately. In Legacy and Vintage it's technically legal but irrelevant; a four-mana 1/1 that does nothing the turn it enters has no place in formats where the game is often decided by turn two. Commander is where Heronblade Elite earns every slot: multiplayer games give it the time to accumulate counters, Human tribal shells provide the density to make each counter worth a mana, and the format's tolerance for long games means the tap ability regularly produces five, eight, or ten mana in a single activation. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format worth a mention, where a dedicated Humans oathbreaker could realistically exploit it in the same way.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1,508 decks
Staff of DominationHeronblade Elite

Staff of DominationHeronblade Elite

Infinite colored mana; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinite lifegain; Infinite card draw; Infinite untap of creatures you control; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
1,272 decks
Umbral MantleHeronblade Elite

Umbral MantleHeronblade Elite

Infinite colored mana; Infinitely large creature until end of turn; Infinite untap of creatures you control; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Pricing data for Heronblade Elite isn't available in the current index, so check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for the live number. Given its near-universal inclusion in Kyler, Sigardian Emissary builds and strong overlap with Katilda strategies, it's consistently in demand and unlikely to be a bulk throwaway.

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Sources

Mentioned

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