Hold the Gates
Enchantment
Creatures you control get +0/+1 for each Gate you control and have vigilance.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Gatecrash
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #15372
Hold the Gates gives every creature you control vigilance and +0/+1 for each Gate you have in play — in the right deck, that's a meaningful defensive buff stapled to an always-on keyword. Outside dedicated Gate builds, it does almost nothing, so the card lives and dies by your land base.
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 |
Hold the Gates is a Gate-tribal payoff first and a combat trick second, which means its ceiling is strictly Commander, where 100-card singleton decks can be built around a specific land type. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's technically legal but irrelevant — no competitive shell wants a do-nothing enchantment unless it's assembling a Gate package, and Gate decks aren't competitive in those formats. Commander is where dedicated Gate commanders can actually justify it, turning a bulk enchantment into a board-wide vigilance grant that compounds as the land count climbs. Oathbreaker offers a similar niche case, but the smaller deck size makes consistent Gate density harder to achieve.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Hold the Gates is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not scarcity. It's unlikely to climb unless a Gate commander breaks into high-profile play, so grab copies cheaply now if you're building the deck, and don't expect to recoup anything if the archetype doesn't pan out.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.