Preening Champion
Creature — Bird Knight
Flying
When this creature enters, create a 1/1 blue and red Elemental creature token.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- March of the Machine
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #22761
Preening Champion puts a free counter on itself every time a Bird or Merfolk enters the battlefield under your control, snowballing into a genuine threat without spending additional mana. The effect is strong enough that tribal decks running either creature type want it, and the setup cost is zero beyond slotting it in.
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 | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Preening Champion earns its slot in any Bird or Merfolk tribal build — both tribes have enough redundancy that the champion grows fast, and a single combat step with a pumped flier can close games that stall out. Pauper is where it gets interesting: common-legal tribal synergies are narrow, but Merfolk in particular has the density to make Preening Champion a reliable threat at that price point. In Modern and Pioneer the competition at two mana is fierce enough that it rarely makes the cut outside dedicated tribal shells. Legacy and Vintage have no interest in it at all.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Preening Champion is pure bulk — pick up as many copies as you need without a second thought. Bulk rares with narrow tribal conditions rarely climb unless a new commander or precon pushes the tribe into the spotlight, so don't expect movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.