Yanling's Harbinger
Creature — Bird
Flying
When this creature enters, you may search your library and/or graveyard for a card named Mu Yanling, Celestial Wind, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Core Set 2020
- Price
- $0.21
- EDHREC rank
- #28790
Yanling's Harbinger enters the battlefield and puts a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control, then draws you a card for each creature that got a counter — two stapled effects that scale directly with board width. The cost is real: five mana for a 3/3 is slow, and the payoff requires you to already have a wide board when it lands.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the only format where Yanling's Harbinger is worth serious consideration — token and go-wide strategies can draw four or five cards off a single entry, which is the kind of effect that justifies five mana in a 100-card singleton context. In Legacy, Modern, and Pioneer it's simply outclassed: those formats punish five-mana do-nothings that require a board state to function, and competitive shells have no interest in a 3/3 that dies to anything. Oathbreaker is a closer call, but the smaller starting hand size and faster clock make the same problems worse. Play Yanling's Harbinger in Commander and nowhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.21 bulk tier
At $0.21, Yanling's Harbinger is deep bulk — buy a playset for under a dollar without thinking about it. Bulk rares with narrow appeal don't appreciate, so treat this as a pickup when you need it and nothing more.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.