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Pippin, Warden of Isengard

Legendary Creature — Halfling Advisor

Partner with Merry, Warden of Isengard (When this creature enters, target player may put Merry into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
{1}, {T}: Create a Food token.
{T}, Sacrifice four Foods: Other creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain haste until end of turn. Activate only as a sorcery.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{B}{G}
Color identity
BG
Rarity
rare
Set
Tales of Middle-earth Commander
Price
$3.74
EDHREC rank
#4139
Buy on TCGplayer
Pippin, Warden of Isengard card art
Pippin, Warden of Isengard puts a Food token on the table every time a creature enters under your control — that's incidental life gain and sacrifice fodder that costs nothing extra once he's in play. The cost is a three-mana 2/3 with no built-in protection, so he lives or dies by how much your deck wants a Food engine; in a dedicated Hobbit shell alongside Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant or a Food-payoff package with Hazel's Brewmaster, he's a slam include.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Frodo, Adventurous HobbitSam, Loyal Attendant

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant

78.8% of decks · synergy 0.70

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit // Sam, Loyal Attendant is a Food-matters commander in the most literal sense, and Pippin, Warden of Isengard turning every creature ETB into a Food token means the engine runs on autopilot — nearly 80% of those decks run him for exactly that reason.

02
Gyome, Master Chef

Gyome, Master Chef

48.6% of decks · synergy 0.45

Gyome, Master Chef already makes Food on his own, but Pippin, Warden of Isengard stacks a second token on each creature ETB, which means Gyome's tap-to-tap-down ability triggers far more often and the life gain adds up fast.

03
Camellia, the Seedmiser

Camellia, the Seedmiser

42.4% of decks · synergy 0.39

Camellia, the Seedmiser cares about Halflings entering the battlefield, so Pippin, Warden of Isengard does double duty — he's a Hobbit that produces a Food on each subsequent creature ETB, giving the deck both a tribal body and a passive resource engine.

04
Ygra, Eater of All

Ygra, Eater of All

24.5% of decks · synergy 0.21

Ygra, Eater of All converts Food sacrifices into +1/+1 counters and life, so Pippin, Warden of Isengard feeding a constant stream of tokens into that machine is a clean, redundant source of counters that doesn't require dedicated slots to support.

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

Commander is the format Pippin, Warden of Isengard was built for — 100-card singleton means the Food and Hobbit tribal synergies he supports have the density to matter, and a passive ETB trigger scales naturally with the creature-heavy boards the format encourages. Legacy and Vintage have him legal on paper, but a 2/3 for three that makes Food tokens has no competitive home in either; the effect is far too slow for those formats and there's no shell that wants it. Oathbreaker is the one alternative 60-card-adjacent format where a Food engine could theoretically slot in under the right signature spell, but it's niche. This is a Commander card through and through.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

4 decks
Pippin, Warden of IsengardKrark-Clan IronworksUmbral MantleAcademy Manufactor

Pippin, Warden of IsengardKrark-Clan IronworksUmbral MantleAcademy Manufactor

Infinite card draw; Infinite Clue tokens; Infinite colored mana; Infinite colorless mana; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite Food tokens; Infinite lifegain; Infinite lifegain triggers; Infinitely large creature until end of turn; Infinite Treasure tokens; Infinite untap of creatures you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Price Context

Current price

$3.74 cheap tier

At $3.74, Pippin, Warden of Isengard sits in the sweet spot where the price reflects genuine demand from Hobbit and Food tribal decks without tipping into inflated territory. It's a fair ask for what he does, and nothing on the horizon suggests that price moves significantly in either direction.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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