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Warden of the Grove

Creature — Hydra

At the beginning of your end step, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
Whenever another nontoken creature you control enters, it endures X, where X is the number of counters on this creature. (Put X +1/+1 counters on the creature that entered or create an X/X white Spirit creature token.)

CMC
3
Mana cost
{2}{G}
Color identity
G
Rarity
rare
Set
Tarkir: Dragonstorm
Price
$3.00
EDHREC rank
#2516
Buy on TCGplayer
Warden of the Grove card art
Warden of the Grove hits the table and immediately replaces itself or fixes your mana, making a five-mana 4/4 feel like it costs less than it does. Pair it with Ashnod's Altar and a sacrifice loop, or slot it into Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan where its enters-the-battlefield trigger gets doubled, and the value compounds fast.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan

50.0% of decks · synergy 0.45

Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan appears in half of all Felothar decks because the commander's ability to double triggered effects turns Warden of the Grove's single ETB into two — drawing two cards or ramping twice off one creature.

02
Tayam, Luminous Enigma

Tayam, Luminous Enigma

46.7% of decks · synergy 0.41

Tayam, Luminous Enigma runs a counter-based recursion engine, and Warden of the Grove sits at exactly three power, making it a clean Tayam activation target that reburies and re-triggers on demand.

03
Gargos, Vicious Watcher

Gargos, Vicious Watcher

44.1% of decks · synergy 0.40

Warden of the Grove is a Hydra, so Gargos, Vicious Watcher reduces its cost and can fight off blockers the moment it enters — the tribal discount turns a five-mana card into a three-mana cantrip creature.

04
Jenova, Ancient Calamity

Jenova, Ancient Calamity

40.1% of decks · synergy 0.38

Jenova, Ancient Calamity rewards stacking high-power creatures, and Warden of the Grove's 4/4 body with a built-in ETB makes it a natural fit for a shell that wants every creature to generate value on arrival.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Warden of the Grove is legal everywhere except Pauper, but Commander is where it actually belongs. In 60-card formats, a five-mana 4/4 with a modal ETB is too slow to matter — Modern and Pioneer have cheaper, more explosive options for every role it fills. Commander's longer game and multiplayer card-disadvantage pressure make the ETB choice genuinely relevant, and the Hydra creature type opens tribal synergy lines that don't exist in other formats. Run it in Commander; ignore it elsewhere.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$3.00 cheap tier

At $3.00, Warden of the Grove sits in the sweet spot where it's cheap enough to include without budgetary hesitation but priced high enough to signal real demand. Given its strong synergy scores across multiple popular commanders, that price is unlikely to erode.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.