Pride Guardian
Creature — Cat Monk
Defender
Whenever this creature blocks, you gain 3 life.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Magic 2012
- Price
- $0.18
- EDHREC rank
- #16817
Pride Guardian blocks, and you gain life equal to its toughness — a 0/3 that nets 3 life on contact, scaling further if you pump its toughness. It's a niche piece: run it when your deck specifically rewards life gain triggers or needs a cheap defensive body, and skip it everywhere else.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Pride Guardian earns a slot almost exclusively in life gain decks — Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Dina, Soul Steeper, or similar commanders that convert each point of life into card draw, damage, or tokens. In Pauper, the combination of a zero-power blocker and repeatable life gain is legitimate enough for certain lifegain-aggro-hate sideboards. Legacy and Vintage have no real use for Pride Guardian — the card is too slow and too fragile to matter in those formats. Modern and Pioneer have better options at every point on the curve, so it sees no play there either.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.18 bulk tier
At $0.18, Pride Guardian is deep bulk — the kind of card you pull from a common box without checking the price. It won't appreciate; supply vastly exceeds demand, and nothing in the current metagame is positioned to change that.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.