Varchild's War-Riders
Creature — Human Warrior
Cumulative upkeep—Have an opponent create a 1/1 red Survivor creature token. (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
Trample; rampage 1 (Whenever this creature becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each creature blocking it beyond the first.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- R
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Masters Edition
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #13068
Varchild's War-Riders puts a 3/4 trampler with cumulative upkeep on the board for two mana — obscene stats for the cost — but the price is handing opponents Survivor tokens every upkeep you keep it alive. The card is a deliberate trap for decks that can't weaponize donated tokens, and a genuine engine for the ones that can, particularly anything helmed by General Marhault Elsdragon.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
General Marhault Elsdragon
General Marhault Elsdragon's 'rampage' ability triggers whenever a creature is blocked by multiple creatures, and the Survivor tokens Varchild's War-Riders generates go straight to opponents — meaning those tokens will be attacking you, not the other way around, which sets up trades that fuel Marhault's buff and puts trample on a creature already big enough to punish any blocker math that goes wrong.
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 |
Varchild's War-Riders is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it's a Commander card in practice. In Legacy and Vintage the cumulative upkeep is a liability against any proactive strategy, and the token-gifting downside has no payoff in those formats' goldfish dynamics. Commander is where Varchild's War-Riders finds its footing: multiplayer tables mean the Survivor tokens spread across opponents rather than arming a single enemy, token-hate effects like Illness in the Ranks or Cursed Flesh become one-sided punishments, and sacrifice outlets, political leverage, or 'opponents control' payoffs all give you a real reason to maintain the upkeep. The card asks a lot of you, but Commander is the one format where the ask has an answer.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't currently available for Varchild's War-Riders, so check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for a live number. It's a niche card with a narrow home, which historically keeps supply-driven prices low, but single-printing older cards can spike hard when a new commander creates demand — buy it when you need it, not before.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- General Marhault Elsdragon
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.