Keeper of the Nine Gales
Creature — Bird Wizard
Flying
, Tap two untapped Birds you control: Return target permanent to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $9.13
- EDHREC rank
- #10434
Keeper of the Nine Gales converts any two Birds you control into a repeatable bounce engine, threatening to lock opponents off permanents as early as turn three. The activation cost is steep in tempo but trivial in a deck built around flyers — and in any shell where Kastral, the Windcrested is generating Birds, the effect is practically free, bouncing anything up to and including The One Ring.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Kastral, the Windcrested
Kastral, the Windcrested floods the board with Bird tokens every combat, which makes Keeper of the Nine Gales a turn-by-turn wrath replacement — you tap two fresh tokens, return the biggest threat on the table, and attack with the rest.
Choco, Seeker of Paradise
Choco, Seeker of Paradise incentivizes stacking the board with small creatures across multiple types, and Keeper of the Nine Gales slots directly into that package as a repeatable bounce threat that doubles as a payoff for going wide.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Keeper of the Nine Gales is a Commander card — full stop. In a 100-card singleton environment with 40 life, the ability to bounce a permanent every turn for the cost of two Birds is back-breaking in a way 60-card formats rarely allow time to set up. Legacy and Vintage are both legal homes on paper, but neither format is patient enough to let a 2/3 for three mana sit and activate; those formats want their bounce spells instant-speed and unconditional. Commander is where the math works: Bird tribal is a real archetype, games go long enough to leverage repeated activations, and the singleton rule means there are fewer redundant bounce effects competing for the slot.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
The One RingKeeper of the Nine Gales
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you; You have protection from everything; Lock
View combo details →
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Aethertow and Disperse cover the bounce effect at a fraction of the cost but lose the repeatability entirely — you're trading an engine for a one-shot answer. If the goal is recurring bounce in a Bird shell, Waterfront Bouncer is the closest structural analog at near-bulk pricing, though it requires a card in hand rather than tapping Birds, which matters in the late game when hands run dry.
Price Context
Current price
$9.13 mid tier
At $9.13, Keeper of the Nine Gales sits in the mid tier — not an impulse buy, but not a barrier for a dedicated Bird or flyer build either. The price reflects a narrow but enthusiastic audience; it is unlikely to drop significantly as long as Kastral, the Windcrested keeps generating new Bird decks.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- The One Ring
- Kastral, the Windcrested
- Choco, Seeker of Paradise
- Stasis
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.