Knight Paladin
Artifact — Vehicle
Trample
Rapid-fire Battle Cannon — When this Vehicle enters, it deals 4 damage to each opponent.
Crew 1 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 1 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Warhammer 40,000 Commander
- Price
- $5.04
- EDHREC rank
- #5645
Knight Paladin puts +1/+1 counters on every Vehicle you crew and attack with — a static buff engine that compounds fast in artifact-heavy shells. The cost is real: a five-mana 3/4 with no evasion is a slow entry point, but Greasefang, Okiba Boss decks run it at a 64% clip for a reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Greasefang, Okiba Boss
Greasefang, Okiba Boss reanimates Vehicles and swings them immediately, so Knight Paladin's counter trigger fires the same turn the Vehicle hits the battlefield — every attack snowballs the board state without any additional investment.
Kolodin, Triumph Caster
Kolodin, Triumph Caster cares about crewing and attacking with Vehicles repeatedly, which means Knight Paladin turns each combat step into a permanent size upgrade across the whole fleet.
Balthier and Fran
Balthier and Fran generate artifact and Vehicle synergies that reward running a wide Vehicle suite, and Knight Paladin layers counters onto whichever crew gets sent in each turn.
Mishra, Eminent One
Mishra, Eminent One creates artifact token copies at combat, giving Knight Paladin additional crewing bodies and additional Vehicles to stack counters onto inside a single attack step.
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 |
Knight Paladin is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — but its home is unambiguously Commander, where Vehicle synergy commanders turn a static counter engine into a genuine threat multiplier over a long game. In Legacy and Vintage the card sees essentially no play; five mana for a 3/4 without immediate impact cannot compete with the speed of those formats. Oathbreaker is the one fringe case where a Vehicle-focused signature spell shell could support it, but the pool of relevant commanders is narrow. Play it in Commander or not at all.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Smuggler's Copter and other low-cost Vehicles can fill crew slots without needing Knight Paladin's counter effect, though they don't replicate the compounding buff it provides. If the goal is simply a body that synergizes with Vehicles, cheaper anthem effects or crew-payoff creatures in the two-to-three mana range cover most of the same ground at a fraction of the price — Knight Paladin's specific niche is the permanent counters, so budget cuts make sense only if the deck can close games without that snowball.
Price Context
Current price
$5.04 mid tier
At $5.04, Knight Paladin sits in the mid tier — not a throw-in but not a budget stretch either. Its price is driven almost entirely by Greasefang, Okiba Boss demand, so as long as that commander remains popular in Commander, Knight Paladin holds its floor.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Greasefang, Okiba Boss
- Kolodin, Triumph Caster
- Balthier and Fran
- Mishra, Eminent One
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.