Gavony Dawnguard MTG Card


Enhances deck search and card advantage with its day-night mechanic, bolstering hand resources significantly. Accelerates board presence, indirectly leading to quicker force deployment and strategic gameplay. Offers synergy with instant spells, controlling day-night cycles, and stocking hands for subsequent turns.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Human Soldier
Abilities Ward
Power 3
Toughness 3

Text of card

Ward If it's neither day nor night, it becomes day as Gavony Dawnguard enters the battlefield. Whenever day becomes night or night becomes day, look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card with mana value 3 or less from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.


Cards like Gavony Dawnguard

Gavony Dawnguard bolsters Magic: The Gathering’s robust lineup of creature-based support cards for creature-centric strategies. This card reminds seasoned players of Tireless Tracker, a venerable creature that also thrives on card advantage. While Tireless Tracker accumulates clues and strengthens with each land played, Gavony Dawnguard relies on daybound and nightbound mechanics to draw a card for each creature spell you cast during your turn with a mana value of three or less.

Another card worth mentioning in the same breath is Mentor of the Meek, a creature that provides card draw whenever another creature with power two or less enters the battlefield under your control. Comparatively, Gavony Dawnguard offers a higher mana value but brings an aggressive stat line and potential synergy with a day-night werewolf deck theme. Lastly, Bygone Bishop, similar to Mentor of the Meek, triggers a clue token that can be converted into card draw, rewarding players who commit to a low mana curve.

Analyzing these choices, each card serves a specific role within decks that favor creature-based strategies. Gavony Dawnguard stands out by offering a robust body and a synergistic edge in decks designed to exploit the daybound and nightbound mechanics and providing consistent card advantage when casting low-cost creatures.

Tireless Tracker - MTG Card versions
Mentor of the Meek - MTG Card versions
Bygone Bishop - MTG Card versions
Tireless Tracker - MTG Card versions
Mentor of the Meek - MTG Card versions
Bygone Bishop - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Gavony Dawnguard by color, type and mana cost

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Argivian Blacksmith - MTG Card versions
Jamuraan Lion - MTG Card versions
Snow Hound - MTG Card versions
Elvish Healer - MTG Card versions
Femeref Knight - MTG Card versions
Border Guard - MTG Card versions
Stern Marshal - MTG Card versions
Benalish Knight - MTG Card versions
Regal Unicorn - MTG Card versions
Wild Griffin - MTG Card versions
Pianna, Nomad Captain - MTG Card versions
Dogged Hunter - MTG Card versions
Diving Griffin - MTG Card versions
Faithful Squire // Kaiso, Memory of Loyalty - MTG Card versions
Kitsune Palliator - MTG Card versions
Freewind Equenaut - MTG Card versions
Sanctum Guardian - MTG Card versions
Field Marshal - MTG Card versions
Kithkin Healer - MTG Card versions
Kor Hookmaster - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Gavony Dawnguard enhances your ability to sift through your deck by allowing you to reveal the top card of your library whenever day becomes night or night becomes day. If it’s a creature card, it goes straight into your hand, bolstering your resources and maintaining a card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: This card serves as a valuable asset in accelerating your board presence. While it may not create treasure or mana directly, getting creature cards into your hand more consistently can lead to faster deployment of your forces, which is integral to overwhelming the opponent.

Instant Speed: The synergy Gavony Dawnguard has with instant-speed spells is noteworthy. By playing instants on your opponent’s turn, you can effectively control the transition between day and night, enabling you to trigger Gavony Dawnguard’s ability and potentially draw extra creature cards, ensuring that your hand is well-stocked for your following turns.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Gavony Dawnguard requires players to reveal a human or werewolf card from their hand or discard a card whenever it attacks. This can pressure your hand, leading to potentially unfavorable trades of resources especially if you’re not holding relevant creature types.

Specific Mana Cost: Featuring a specific cost of one white and two generic mana, it needs a deck tailored with sufficient white mana sources. This can restrict the card’s inclusion to decks that can reliably produce white mana early in the game.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While three mana is not excessively high, some players may find Gavony Dawnguard’s cost steep for a 3/3 creature. Other cards in the three mana slot might provide more immediate board impact or utility, which could make Gavony Dawnguard less attractive in a competitive setting.


Reasons to Include Gavony Dawnguard in Your Collection

Versatility: Gavony Dawnguard offers a proactive addition to decks focused on creature strategies. Its ability to draw you a card for each creature drawn in the late game solidifies your board presence, making it a flexible pick for various playstyles.

Combo Potential: With this card, synergies with human-centric or werewolf mechanics are expansive. It can help fuel your deck, consistently providing creature draws that can enable combo plays or escalate your threat level on the board.

Meta-Relevance: As the game shifts and adapts, Gavony Dawnguard maintains relevance due to its inherent ability to provide card advantage. In a meta where creatures are king, having a card that encourages and rewards you for playing more creatures can give you a critical edge.


How to Beat Gavony Dawnguard

Gavony Dawnguard stands out in MTG as a powerful vigilance creature that has the potential to keep your card advantage flowing. As a card that seeks to maximize daytime and nighttime mechanic benefits, it can be a relentless source of pressure, especially if transforms into its nightbound counterpart, Gavony Silversmith. This adds a layer of resilience and a boost to the deck’s offensive strategies through its passive ability.

However, facing this three-mana Human Werewolf, the key is disruption and removal. Efficiently countering it involves keeping pace with your opponent and leveraging instant-speed removal spells to prevent the Dawnguard from generating too much value. Spells that exile creatures can be particularly effective, skirting around indestructible or graveyard recursion that can protect or return this tenacious werewolf. Moreover, utilizing board wipes before it transforms can be crucial, as its nightbound form can prove to be more bothersome due to the additional buff it provides to other creatures. Timing is critical— by strategically managing your turns and spell casting, you can maintain control and prevent your opponent from gaining too much momentum with their Gavony Dawnguard.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Gavony Dawnguard MTG card by a specific set like Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Gavony Dawnguard and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Gavony Dawnguard Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-09-24 and 2022-01-28. Illustrated by Micah Epstein.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight HuntMID 3872015NormalBlackMicah Epstein
22021-09-24Innistrad: Midnight HuntMID 202015NormalBlackMicah Epstein
32022-01-28Innistrad: Double FeatureDBL 202015NormalBlackMicah Epstein

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Gavony Dawnguard has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Gavony Dawnguard card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2021-09-24 Before a player untaps their permanents during the untap step, the game checks to see if the day/night designation should change.
2021-09-24 Day and night are designations that the game itself can have. The game starts as neither. Once the game becomes day (or less commonly, night), the game will be exactly one of them—day or night—going back and forth for the rest of the game.
2021-09-24 For more information about Day and Night and the Daybound and Nightbound abilities, please see the Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Mechanics atricle (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/innistrad-midnight-hunt-mechanics-2021-09-02).
2021-09-24 If a triggered ability triggers whenever day becomes night or night becomes day, it only triggers if it was already either day/night and becomes the other. It does not trigger when the game becomes day or night for the first time.
2021-09-24 If it is day, and the active player of the previous turn cast no spells during their turn, it becomes night.
2021-09-24 If it is night, and the active player of the previous turn cast two or more spells during their turn, it becomes day.