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Zirda, the Dawnwaker

Legendary Creature — Elemental Fox

Companion — Each permanent card in your starting deck has an activated ability. (If this card is your chosen companion, you may put it into your hand from outside the game for {3} as a sorcery.)
Abilities you activate that aren't mana abilities cost {2} less to activate. This effect can't reduce the mana in that cost to less than one mana.
{1}, {T}: Target creature can't block this turn.

CMC
3
Mana cost
{1}{R/W}{R/W}
Color identity
RW
Rarity
rare
Set
Multiverse Legends
Price
—
EDHREC rank
#3289
Buy on TCGplayer
Zirda, the Dawnwaker card art
Zirda, the Dawnwaker cuts the activation cost of every permanent ability you own — and when paired with Basalt Monolith, that reduction collapses into an infinite mana loop that ends games on the spot. The cost is the companion restriction: every card in your deck must have an activated ability, which is why shells like Queen Kayla bin-Kroog, built around artifacts that already bristle with activations, barely feel the constraint.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

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

Zirda, the Dawnwaker is banned in Legacy, where the Basalt Monolith loop was trivially assembled and the companion mechanic removed the consistency tax that normally keeps combo honest. Everywhere else it's legal — Modern, Pioneer, Vintage, and Commander — though the companion restriction does real work as the natural rate limiter. Commander gives it the cleanest pass: a 99-card singleton format full of activated-ability permanents means the deckbuilding cost is low, the payoff is enormous, and nobody is surprised to see it show up.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Queen Kayla bin-Kroog

Queen Kayla bin-Kroog

65.2% of decks · synergy 0.61

Queen Kayla bin-Kroog runs an artifact-dense shell where nearly every permanent already has an activation, so Zirda, the Dawnwaker slots in as a companion with almost zero deckbuilding friction — and the cost reduction on mana rocks and equipment turns her wheel-and-rebuild gameplan several turns faster.

02
Captain America, First Avenger

Captain America, First Avenger

46.0% of decks · synergy 0.42

Captain America, First Avenger leans on equipment and combat-trigger activations throughout the deck, and Zirda, the Dawnwaker's cost reduction makes equipping and re-equipping on the same turn financially painless while satisfying the companion clause without rebuilding around it.

03

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant

43.3% of decks · synergy 0.40

Joshua, Phoenix's Dominant cares about repeated activations to stack counters and trigger effects, so Zirda, the Dawnwaker functions both as a companion and as an on-board engine that makes each activation cheaper than the last.

04
Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot

Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot

37.6% of decks · synergy 0.34

Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot runs a high density of activated abilities on weapons and support creatures, and Zirda, the Dawnwaker's blanket reduction lets the deck fire those activations multiple times in a turn without running dry on mana.

05
Osgir, the Reconstructor

Osgir, the Reconstructor

31.7% of decks · synergy 0.28

Osgir, the Reconstructor's own activated ability is expensive, and Zirda, the Dawnwaker cuts that cost — plus the costs on every artifact Osgir rebuilds — making the artifact recursion engine materially faster and letting Osgir fire twice in a single turn far more easily.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

unknown tier

Current pricing data for Zirda, the Dawnwaker isn't available in this context, so check Scryfall or your preferred vendor for the live number. As a companion with a proven infinite-mana line, it tends to carry a meaningful price tag relative to its raw card complexity — verify before budgeting.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

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