Royal Warden
Artifact Creature — Necron
Phalanx Commander — When this creature enters, create two tapped 2/2 black Necron Warrior artifact creature tokens.
Unearth 
(: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.)
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Warhammer 40,000 Commander
- Price
- $0.42
- EDHREC rank
- #10065
Royal Warden is a three-mana 2/3 that gives your Necrons ward 1, turning every alpha strike into a tax your opponents have to either pay or respect. Outside of dedicated Necron builds helmed by Imotekh the Stormlord, it does almost nothing — the payoff is entirely tribal.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Imotekh the Stormlord
Royal Warden is nearly mandatory in Imotekh the Stormlord decks because blanket ward 1 on your Necron army means removal becomes measurably more expensive, protecting the board presence Imotekh needs to keep generating Warrior tokens and triggering his raise-the-dead recursion.
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 |
Royal Warden is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but Legacy and Vintage have no tribal Necron payoff structure, so it will never see play there. Commander is the only format where it matters, and even there it's a strict Imotekh the Stormlord include — the effect is narrow enough that any non-Necron Commander deck has no reason to slot it. In Oathbreaker it's the same story: legal, irrelevant outside the tribe.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.42 bulk tier
At $0.42, Royal Warden sits firmly in bulk territory, which is accurate given its single-deck applicability. If you're building Imotekh the Stormlord, it's an easy pickup; don't expect the price to move unless Necron tribal gets a meaningful competitive push.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.