Celestial Unicorn MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Unicorn
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. It offers card advantage through life-draw synergy, boosting your hand while sustaining board presence.
  2. Accelerates resources by leveraging life gain for quicker spell casting and activation of abilities.
  3. Can trigger life gain unexpectedly with instant-speed creature plays, disrupting opponents’ strategies.

Text of card

Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Celestial Unicorn.

When all hope fails, its light remains.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Celestial Unicorn’s ability to gain life whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control can lead to significant card advantage when paired with life-draw effects. This synergistic interaction enables you to draw an extra card, sustaining momentum and keeping your hand plentiful.

Resource Acceleration: The life gained from Celestial Unicorn’s effect can bolster strategies reliant on life totals to activate abilities or cast spells. This incremental gain can accelerate your resource pool, providing the necessary leverage to cast powerful spells earlier in the game.

Instant Speed: While Celestial Unicorn itself is not an instant, its ability can be exploited at instant speed. By playing creatures with flash or activating creature tokens during an opponent’s turn, you can trigger the Unicorn’s life gain ability unexpectedly, which can disrupt the opponent’s strategy and enhance your board state on their turn.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For empowering the Celestial Unicorn, you may have to discard another card, a potentially problematic scenario if your hand is already running thin on options.

Specific Mana Cost: The Celestial Unicorn requires both white mana and one of any other type. This specificity can limit flexibility, necessitating a dedicated mana base that caters to white mana availability.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Having to allocate three mana for a 3/2 creature might not be the most mana-efficient play, especially when considering other creatures with similar or even greater power and toughness that can be cast for less.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Celestial Unicorn is a flexible addition to any deck that emphasizes life gain. This card shines in environments where incremental advantages are key, making it a reliable play in various match-ups.

Combo Potential: With the ability to grow with each instance of life gained, Celestial Unicorn pairs excellently with cards and strategies that frequently trigger life gain, bolstering your board presence dramatically.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where lifegain decks surface as a counter to aggressive strategies, Celestial Unicorn serves as both a defensive and offensive asset, potentially turning the tides of the game in your favor.


How to beat

Celestial Unicorn is a creature card that can quickly escalate in power in any life gain MTG deck. Its main feature is the one power boost it gets every time you gain life, making it a formidable opponent in prolonged matches. The key to countering Celestial Unicorn lies in preventing the life gain mechanic altogether or removing the creature before the life gain triggers become overwhelming.

Consider cards with life gain negation effects or cards that can swiftly remove creatures from the battlefield. Instants like “Swords to Plowshares” offer an immediate solution to exile the unicorn, whereas enchantments like “Tainted Remedy” turn the life gain strategy against the opponent, causing damage instead of bolstering their creatures. Board wipes also serve well to reset the state and manage any creature-based escalation, including a quickly growing Celestial Unicorn. Always aim to have a response ready to counteract the unicorn’s boosts as soon as it hits the field or immediately after the first life gain event.

Thoughtful strategy and prompt reactions can ensure that this luminous creature doesn’t outshine your chances at victory when facing a deck that harnesses the Celestial Unicorn’s potentially game-changing abilities.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the synergies and counters of Celestial Unicorn can significantly impact your gameplay, whether you’re including this creature in your deck or preparing to face it across the battlefield. Understanding the balance of card advantage, mana management, and timing is key to leveraging its potential or mitigating its threat. Whether you’re integrating life-gain combos or seeking to disarm your opponent’s tactics, remember that strategy evolves with each match. We invite you to dive deeper into the art of MTG strategy, tuning your deck to its finest and gaining the upper hand. Join us to expand your knowledge and conquer the game.


Cards like Celestial Unicorn

The Celestial Unicorn steps into the vibrant world of MTG as a herald of life-gain focused strategies. It finds its kinship with Ajani’s Pridemate, a creature card that thrives in a similar ecosystem. Both cards grow in strength with each instance of life gain, becoming formidable threats if left unchecked. However, the Celestial Unicorn offers a noteworthy divergence; it gains counters specifically on the event of gaining life on your turn, while Ajani’s Pridemate is less restrictive, beefing up on any life gain event.

Blossoming in this garden of life-related mechanics is the Twinblade Paladin. Its larger initial stature sets it apart from the more modest Celestial Unicorn, and with an ability that scales not just with life gain but also sets your life total to a minimum threshold. The Paladin, by virtue, can be an anchor in decks that aim to exploit life gain on a grander scale. These creatures each present unique advantages while sharing a thematic link, crafting varied experiences within the same archetype.

Ultimately, the Celestial Unicorn finds its place in MTG as an enchanting creature ideal for turns structured around life gain, complementing its counterparts and offering a unique twist to the life-gain synergy within the game.

Ajani's Pridemate - MTG Card versions
Twinblade Paladin - MTG Card versions
Ajani's Pridemate - MTG Card versions
Twinblade Paladin - MTG Card versions

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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
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
Zhalfirin Commander - MTG Card versions
Silverblade Paladin - MTG Card versions
Emancipation Angel - MTG Card versions
Steelform Sliver - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Celestial Unicorn MTG card by a specific set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, 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 Celestial Unicorn and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Celestial Unicorn Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-07-23 and 2022-07-07. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-07-23Adventures in the Forgotten RealmsAFR 52015NormalBlackJohannes Voss
22021-07-23Adventures in the Forgotten RealmsAFR 3012015NormalBlackJustine Mara Andersen
32022-07-07Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's GateHBG 862015NormalBlackJohannes Voss

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Celestial Unicorn has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2021-07-23 An ability that triggers “whenever you gain life” triggers just once for each life gain event, no matter how much life you gain.
2021-07-23 Each creature with lifelink dealing combat damage causes a separate life gain event. For example, if two creatures you control with lifelink deal combat damage at the same time, a “whenever you gain life” ability will trigger twice. However, if a single creature you control with lifelink deals combat damage to multiple creatures, players, and/or planeswalkers at the same time (perhaps because it has trample or was blocked by more than one creature), the ability will trigger only once.
2021-07-23 If you gain an amount of life “for each” of something, that life is gained as one event and the ability will trigger only once.
2021-07-23 If you gain life at the same time Celestial Unicorn is dealt lethal damage, it dies before its ability can put a +1/+1 counter on it.

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