Professor Hojo
Legendary Creature — Human Scientist
The first activated ability you activate during your turn that targets a creature you control costs 
less to activate.
Whenever one or more creatures you control become the target of an activated ability, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn.
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- G
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Final Fantasy Commander
- Price
- $0.27
- EDHREC rank
- #5923
Professor Hojo puts a +1/+1 counter on every creature you control whenever Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER deals combat damage — that's a board-wide pump stapled to a repeatable trigger. The cost is real: a five-mana 3/3 with no immediate impact is asking a lot, but the payoff in the right shell justifies the ask.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER
Professor Hojo is in nearly 70% of Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER decks because the pairing is the engine — every hit Cloud lands distributes counters across the whole board, turning a voltron gameplan into a simultaneous go-wide threat.
Emiel the Blessed
Emiel the Blessed flickers Professor Hojo to reset ETB value, but the real draw is that Hojo's counter trigger fires off any combat damage dealer in the deck, and Emiel's blink loop keeps the board growing.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Marath, Will of the Wild already wants a board full of creatures accumulating counters, and Professor Hojo's trigger converts every combat step into free power additions that Marath can later redistribute or spend.
Wayta, Trainer Prodigy
Wayta, Trainer Prodigy cares about creatures with counters, and Professor Hojo automates the distribution — each swing that connects leaves the board in a better position for Wayta to exploit.
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 |
Professor Hojo is a Commander card through and through — the trigger is slow, cumulative, and only worth it across a long game with multiple creatures, which is exactly the Commander environment. In Legacy and Vintage, where it's technically legal, a five-mana 3/3 with a delayed payoff doesn't compete with the pace of those formats, so expect zero play there. Oathbreaker is the only other real home, specifically in a pairing that can deal combat damage consistently and already runs a creature-heavy shell.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.27 bulk tier
At $0.27, Professor Hojo is bulk — pick it up in any common-and-uncommon lot or grab a copy without thinking twice. Given its near-70% inclusion rate in Cloud, Ex-SOLDIER decks, demand is real enough that the price won't drop further, but it's not climbing either.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.