The 53 Best Ward Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on October 11, 2025

Star Whale (Doctor Who) | Illustration by Simon Dominic

When you've got a deck of 40 cards and 23 nonlands, only so many of those are really strong, but such is the way of Limited play on Arena or paper. So who does the winner end up being?

Sometimes it's simply the player with the most or least expensive removal. Shroud had some issues, and hexproof is almost too good, so does ward land in the happy medium? With hundreds of cards and constant tweaking of costs, ward can be a balanced way for permanents to gain a safeguard against removal.

Today, I’ve got a full list of cards that ward, but not that cycle of enchant creatures from Alpha for one or their cousins.

What Is a Ward Card?

Combat Research | Illustration by Justine Cruz

Ward cards either have ward or grant ward to other permanents. Many of the cards listed below are powerful even without their ward costs, and many of them make the most interesting use of ward as a mechanic and have a cost that is more than a Mana Tithe.

Onward!

#53. Mirrorshell Crab

Stifle effects only get more important. Mirrorshell Crab isn’t a super-efficient one, but in a counterspell war, this artifact creature can only be countered by other Stifles if they lack the mana, so that’s pretty good. As turns go on and everyone can play the three this gets worse, but there are decks where this is a must include.

#52. Colossal Skyturtle

This is kind of like a turtle power charm, it’s so flexible. There’s a lot of competition in Simic () decks, which might crowd out Colossal Skyturtle, but as new Magic sets come out and I update decks, I find myself gravitating toward cards I always have a use for. This flying turtle, with its activated abilities that let you bounce creatures and recur cards, is one of those.

#51. Ancient Imperiosaur + Hierophant Bio-Titan

Two big, dumb, cost-cutting green creatures we all sorta wish had more protection than ward 2 given the investment. But in the kind of green deck that leans on Tamiyo's Safekeeping effects, Ancient Imperiosaur and Hierophant Bio-Titan are super fun.

#50. Combat Research

You know who you are (“yeah, you with the tempo deck“). You either need another Curiosity-like blue enchantment and will snap up Combat Research like candy or you’ll shrug and move along. #tempo.

#49. Lavaspur Boots

Lavaspur Boots is like a poor man's Lightning Greaves. While Swiftfoot Boots and the market price on the Lavaspurs might be really close, one thing's for sure: When equipped, they do a very similar job that almost every Commander deck wants.

#48. Cultist of the Absolute

Cultist of the Absolute seems better than it is, but this black enchantment is good value for its cost even if you're not using it as a background.

#47. Star Whale

Star Whale is simple, solid and probably soft, but I've never touched one. Giving all your creatures ward is excellent and nearly forces your opponent to board wipe to interact. If you can pull off the time counters to circumvent its suspend 6 then it's great; otherwise, the cost keeps this from a better ranking.

#46. Radagast, Wizard of Wilds

There are lots of playable beasts and birds, and ways to generate tokens of those beyond Radagast, Wizard of Wilds itself. This Simic wizard avatar is solid if you have either matching typal deck.

#45. Coppercoat Vanguard

I want Coppercoat Vanguard to pump soldiers, but humans are pretty close. While there's a bigger danger to wraths that looms over a wide board of humans, giving them an ounce of spell protection and power boost is pretty incredible for the rate of mana you put into the Vanguard.

#44. Gold-Forged Thopteryx

The Gold-Forged Thopteryx protects far more than your creatures and is really good for a multicolor 2-drop. It's super helpful, and a lifelink flier is a great nuisance to your opponents.

#43. Rith, Liberated Primeval

Rith, Liberated Primeval gives a creature type that really desperately needs ward, and if you never attacked or blocked with Rith, you especially want the triggered ability. Those traits alone make your dragon‘s deck especially appreciative that Rith has ward on its own.

#42. Koma, World-Eater

The Komas are strong if you hadn't noticed. Foundations‘ Koma, World-Eater is no exception, yes, 7 mana is a lot, but ward means players pay that on top of whatever removal spell. Doom Blade‘s much less an advantage at .

#41. Valgavoth, Terror Eater

Valgavoth, Terror Eater is terrifying on an eldrazi level, with one of the most punishing ward costs known to Magic. The kicker is turning those exiled cards into cards you play, and lifelink ensures you'll have plenty of means to cast those spells.

#40. Maha, Its Feathers Night

Maha, Its Feathers Night essentially costs two cards to deal with, and is especially ruthless with trample combined with the toughness drop. Slip in a few Poison the Waters sort of cards with Maha and you get a cheap black board wipe that is downright vicious.

#39. Brotherhood Regalia

Brotherhood Regalia joins a select group of equipment that are beautiful on your commander. The “can't be blocked” aspect is really key for commanders that rely on saboteur abilities. As long as you target your legends, the casting and equip costs are equal to the famous Swiftfoot Boots, even if the ward is less stellar than hexproof.

#38. Roaming Throne

Roaming Throne is an incredibly useful card from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, so much that ward really keeps you a couple of steps ahead of opponents. You get a mana advantage if their removal costs 3 or more, and the Throne makes quite the rate on your ETB removal.

#37. Nine-Fingers Keene

Gates players rejoiced at a gate commander and then immediately bemoaned that Nine-Fingers Keene, as a Sultai commander, was only 3 colors. With only 12 gates that can be in this deck, does it work? Sometimes. That ward cost is smoking, though.

#36. Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa

A powerful ward text mixed with mass unearth makes Mishra, Tamer of Mak Fawa a very good buildaround.

#35. Wondrous Crucible

Wondrous Crucible does work in Mishra, Eminent One decks. This Brothers' War Commander card pays itself back when your opponents either pay the in ward costs, or play around the powerful-yet random reanimator.

#34. Voja, Jaws of the Conclave

Voja, Jaws of the Conclave rolls with the cards that are individual masterpieces that so happen to have ward as a fair alternative to hexproof. Ward isn’t the reason you put Voja in your Naya () deck, but it’s likely the reason the wolf, who is one of the best card-draw commanders in Magic and also one of the best elf commanders, hasn't been removed from your board.

#33. Octavia, Living Thesis

You ate eight seafood pieces in an octagon before reading this right? If you did, you get 8x the extra credit because Octavia, Living Thesis is all about . Let's reel it back in: You want to play this elemental octopus as soon as possible, because the magecraft trigger is one of the few stat transformations that’s really strong.

#32. Leyline Immersion

This green enchantment seems impossible to play in a normal deck, but if you can drop this onto like a Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer on turn 3, that’s a lot of ramp. But Leyline Immersion is for broken nonsense.

There are limits. It doesn’t give infinite mana on a card like Fain, the Broker because the mana can only be used for spells. But things like Leyline of Singularity make Pili-Pala legendary, so winter is coming.

#31. Felix Five-Boots

I put Felix Five-Boots in a category of cards that have great abilities that just need to stay on the battlefield, and adding more saboteur triggers is incredible considering they're difficult to achieve. Felix really rewards you for slipping in more evasion in your deck.

#30. Storm of Saruman

Thousand-Year Storm is one of the strongest Izzet enchantments; how strong is a less powerful version in mono-blue? I think better than we’re imagining, in EDH at least. Blue can cantrip its way to enabling Storm of Saruman on each opponents’ turn.

The limits are that this blue enchantment is a magecraft trigger, and most of the pieces you want to work with these kinds of cards doesn't trigger off copied spells.

#29. Graveyard Trespasser / Graveyard Glutton

Graveyard Trespasser stymied graveyard strategies during its time in Standard, although the gluttony of Graveyard Glutton is a bit less good in EDH. And that ward cost, so punishing in conjunction with its abilities, is also easier to manage in Commander.

#28. Saruman of Many Colors

Ward makes it extra annoying to get rid of because the best removal is often enchantment based, or found on instants and sorceries. Saruman of Many Colors yoinks enchantments out of opponents’ graveyards, which is easy to gloss over when reading the more common text about instants and sorceries.

It’s hard to evaluate how strong that is because we haven’t really seen a lot of it, and I don’t usually see Omniscience in graveyards. Wicked ward cost, though, with a nice bit of synergy.

#27. Svyelun of Sea and Sky

Giving all merfolk ward is pretty sweet, as is being an often-indestructible card drawer. Svyelun of Sea and Sky will be a key part of Modern merfolk if that ever happens. Until then, it’ll be a powerful part of the 99 in alongside Simic merfolk commanders.

#26. Kairi, the Swirling Sky

Is the dragon spirit Kairi, the Swirling Sky the best blue dragon aside from reigning champ Ancient Silver Dragon? Yes, it is.

#25. Winged Boots

Granting ward 4 reasonably easily is really nice. And Winged Boots has to be high on any equipment deck that uses blue.

#24. Flowering of the White Tree

Flowering of the White Tree is the cheapest way to cast Glorious Anthem we have, even ignoring the legendary text. We’ve seen a few cards now that give ward 1 to the whole team. This white enchantment is the best of those cards. It’s hard to evaluate how important that is, but it can’t be nothing.

#23. Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep

Kiora, Sovereign of the Deep is a powerful card looking for the right build, as the most popular commander for sea creatures is Runo Stromkirk, and we don’t really have a good Sultai () commander yet to unite the factions.

#22. Invasion of Karsus / Refraction Elemental

Three-damage wraths aren’t always the thing these days, but Invasion of Karsus is a battle that flips into a spellslinger wincon Guttersnipe variant, so it can’t be discounted.

#21. Ratadrabik of Urborg

Ratadrabik of Urborg is a value player in 60-card legends decks, a role it also plays in the 99 of pretty much every legends matter deck that can run it.

#20. Invasion of New Phyrexia / Teferi Akosa of Zhalfir

The added angels in Finale of Glory are better than the ward-granting planeswalker from March of the Machine Invasion of New Phyrexia flips into, but this is still an excellent card. Teferi dishing out buffs and ward emblems is really nice.

#19. Kappa Cannoneer

In the right kind of blue affinity decks, Kappa Cannoneer regularly comes down on turns 2 or 3. At that stage of the game, ward 4 is basically hexproof. This blue artifact creature starts growing and hitting for big unblockable combat damage right away assuming you can keep dropping artifacts.

This is a powerful blue creature because this easily slots into decks that already run most of the pieces it needs.

#18. Sedgemoor Witch

The Witch’s Young Pyromancer effect is super nice in black decks which want sacrifice fodder. The fact that the pests Sedgemoor Witch makes synergize with life drain and lifegain effects like Dina, Soul Steeper make this black creature really good.

#17. Tivit, Seller of Secrets

Tivit, Seller of Secrets makes a lot of artifact tokens, probably once. They all either crack for mana or draw cards. You need blink or an engine that’s rolling along with Tivit as grease to the wheels. Even adding vote adjustment cards, this rogue sphinx feels too twitchy to me, but it can really go off and it's an excellent rogue commander.

#16. Sire of Seven Deaths

Life is a resource they tell you. Well Sire of Seven Deaths is here to remind players that reaching 0 life is also the primary way you lose the game. This eldrazi of the #7 is happy to help any opponent reach the end of their life total, because seven life is a steep price to pay to target it.

#15. Ovika, Enigma Goliath

Enigma, that’s for sure! This Phyrexian nightmare requires some careful building. Ovika, Enigma Goliath is a powerful buildaround, but it’s also a 7-drop. It’s a giant Young Pyromancer, and there aren’t that many of those in command zones.

#14. Sheltered by Ghosts

The ward isn't terribly special on Sheltered by Ghosts, but then you consider it in the aggressive white strategies and how quickly it can be cast, and you get one of the more valuable uncommons in Standard. The flexibility to hit many types of permanents extends the usefulness of the aura to Pioneer and Duel Commander.

#13. Vein Ripper

Vein Ripper is exceptionally good at seeing the value in every creature, and there will come a point in the game when losing becomes inevitable for your opponents. What kills it for me is that the big flier having ward would have been solid on its own, so the ward cost and triggered ability make this vampire brutal.

#12. Aboleth Spawn

Flash out Aboleth Spawn to snap up a broken ETB like Craterhoof Behemoth or Fury and rejoice.

#11. Pippin, Guard of the Citadel

Pippin, Guard of the Citadel indeed! Need another Mother of Runes effect? Sure.

#10. Bronze Guardian

Bronze Guardian giving all artifacts ward is more useful than effects that give other tribal creatures ward, as there are less all-artifact wipes than there are creature board wipes. I usually don’t swing with this white creature, even if its power swells, until I feel confident I won’t lose it.

That team ward is really important, especially in an artifact combo deck. Isn’t that really the only kind? The value of this card goes up the higher power the table, when you can expect more interaction.

#9. Adrix and Nev, Twincasters

The face of one of the Strixhaven Commander precons, Doubling Season on a stick Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is far more commonly used in the 99 for Simic commanders running busted tokens builds. Which is, like, every Simic deck, right? Koma, Cosmos Serpent is especially nice.

#8. Hall of Storm Giants

Hall of Storm Giants is one of the better creature lands for EDH. It hits big enough to matter for all sorts of control shells, especially after a board wipe.

#7. Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

Sure you play your shock lands and Phyrexian mana, but the measly two life ward cost on Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls cuts much deeper than most. To Dismember it still gives Valgavoth's controller another card out of it. Barring immediate removal, there's simply too many ways for and to ping a player for one life for this demon not to become a card advantage nightmare.

#6. Innkeeper's Talent

Innkeeper's Talent just needed to hand out ward to the first 50,000 fans in attendance to get on this list. It doesn't matter is that counter is a -1/-1 counter, charge counter, or a weird counter you want to proliferate with Atraxa. The addition of ward on several of your permanents is often enough of an annoyance to solidify this class among the best all-time with stellar abilities at each level.

#5. Ulamog, the Defiler

Ulamog, the Defiler is cost-prohibitive at , and since many decks can't produce 10 mana in a given turn. And you’ll want to cast Ulamog, because the cast ability is traumatizing. If you do end up attacking with this biggie, it has the most scalable annihilator ability yet, and the only card with annihilator 6 is banned in Commander. The ward cost also synergizes deliciously.

#4. Sauron, the Dark Lord

Sauron, the Dark Lord has the most pushed ward text we’ve seen, and it’ll feel like hexproof against a lot of decks. That final sentence in the text box seems just totally cracked, like the only way to beat this horror is to get eight friends and have three books’ worth of adventures.

#3. Jin-Gitaxias / The Great Synthesis

Jin-Gitaxias is super powerful, and I don’t think we’ve seen the best build of it yet as a blue commander. Like Keruga, the Macrosage, which has a similar ability, it’s hard to get the balance right of cheap and 3+ cost spells.

The key is probably in some kind of cost reduction space like convoke since this legendary praetor looks to the mana value.

#2. Raffine, Scheming Seer

As the final boss of the Standard Esper () legends deck, Raffine, Scheming Seer just plows through a lot of your deck thanks to its connive ability. It can do something similar as an Esper commander or as just a value piece of any Esper deck.

In EDH you can pair it with all sorts of powerful cards like Archfiend of Ifnir, Bone Miser, and even Elenda and Azor. The ward 1 doesn’t matter so much in Commander, but it can still pull a gotcha.

#1. Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm

One of the best dragon commanders and among the strongest Temur cards, Miirym, Sentinel Wyrm is just a value machine for dragon ETBs, making it worth ditching the black and white from most dragons builds.

Best Ward Payoffs

Auras and Equipment

Voltron and Bogles decklists are riddled with these tools, so here are a few you might have missed. The point is, ward works to protect against targeted removal which is the biggest danger to bestowing or equipping a stack of permanents on one creature.

Stax

Hindering your opponent's ability to interact and play cards is a big deal, and ward is a small version of stax that digs the same tunnel from another direction. So ultimately working against your opponent's resources is the point of both stax and ward, for which they'll likely have to chose between targeting your creature or attacking.

Ward Off

Jin-Gitaxias | Illustration by Ekaterina Burmak

I think it's great when Wizards gets creative with ward costs and the R&D team gets job security for being able to turn their knobs on ward versus a hard “no” from hexproof and shroud. While you expect to see plenty more ward in the future scheduled releases, you don't know quite how it'll work, or how your opponent will play against it. As for seeing ward across the table, you know there are hoops to jump through to get rid of something, but at least there's a chance.

Got a story about an opponent making the mistake of letting ward counter their spell? Is paying life a ward cost you don't mind? If so, how much life? Everyone has a price they're willing to pay, and I'd love to see it in the comments or on the Draftsim Discord. If you just came to this article to see Pentarch Ward, Curator's Ward, and Spectra Ward mentioned, well there you go.

Thank you for sticking with me in this article. Please cap your drinks, stretch, and shuffle up, then I'll see you next time.