Affa Guard Hound MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Dog
Abilities Flash
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Affa Guard Hound excels in saving creatures and reusing their enter-the-battlefield effects, maximizing card value.
  2. With flash ability, it offers strategic flexibility, disrupting the enemy’s tempo or saving crucial mana.
  3. Despite some mana cost concerns, its defensive utility makes it a relevant pick for MTG collections.
Flash card art

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

Flash When Affa Guard Hound enters the battlefield, target creature gets +0/+3 until end of turn.

Once a welcoming hub for explorers, Affa became a place of guarded tongues and quick defenses.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Affa Guard Hound offers not just a creature on the board but also the tactical advantage of potentially saving one of your more valuable creatures from removal with its ability to return another creature you control to your hand.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly accelerating resources, Affa Guard Hound provides a tempo boost by allowing you to reuse enter-the-battlefield effects of your creatures, essentially doubling their initial value.

Instant Speed: Affa Guard Hound’s flash ability means it can be summoned at the end of your opponent’s turn or during combat to surprise your opponent, disrupt their strategy, or simply to save mana for other instant-speed interactions during their turn.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Affa Guard Hound doesn’t come with a discard requirement per se, but it does ask for a creature to be flashed in. This can be seen as a sort of “hand discard” because you’re potentially using up a creature card from your hand that you might prefer to keep for a more opportune moment.

Specific Mana Cost: Requiring one white mana plus two generic mana, Affa Guard Hound may not fit seamlessly into multi-colored decks that aren’t heavily focused on white. Its mana cost demands a certain level of commitment to white mana sources, which can impact deck building and strategy.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While a 2/2 creature with flash that can boost another creature’s toughness by two may seem decent, there are alternatives that might provide more value or versatility at a lower cost. In competitive play, where efficiency is key, the three-mana investment for Affa Guard Hound could be considered steep for the effect it provides.


Reasons to Include Affa Guard Hound in Your Collection

Versatility: Affa Guard Hound offers a flexible defense tactic for decks that focus on protecting key creatures or buying time against aggressive opponents. Its flash ability allows for surprise blocks and strategic plays, fitting well in control or midrange decks.

Combo Potential: As a creature with flash, Affa Guard Hound can be a component in combos that revolve around entering the battlefield effects. It can synergize with cards that care about the number of creatures you control or those that grant benefits each time a creature enters the battlefield under your control.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where quick, aggressive creatures dominate, having a card like Affa Guard Hound can be crucial. It serves as a handy tool to thwart an opponent’s attack and potentially shift the tempo of the game in your favor, making it a relevant choice in many MTG matchups.


How to beat

The Affa Guard Hound is a creature card in Magic: The Gathering that offers a unique benefit of flashing onto the battlefield and giving a target creature an untimely boost in defense. This white card is sometimes a thorn in an opponent’s side as it disrupts the combat phase and turns the tide with its surprise block or by shoring up a key creature’s toughness. To effectively outmaneuver this hound, consider using instant speed removal to address it before it can declare a block or to prevent the bolstering of a creature it aims to protect. Conditional removal that circumvents the hound’s ability by not targeting it directly—like board wipes—can also be effective.

Timing is crucial when dealing with Affa Guard Hound. Anticipate when your opponent might have the mana open for this hound and plan your attacks or spells accordingly. Sorcery speed threats are less likely to be disrupted by its flashing ability, so laying out your major plays while the hound’s caster is tapped out can sidestep its protective capabilities. Lastly, since the hound hinges on combat tricks, consider strategies that minimize combat interaction or render battlefield presence less of a deciding factor.


Cards like Affa Guard Hound

Affa Guard Hound serves as a notable protector in creature-focused decks within Magic: The Gathering. With its flash ability, it mirrors cards like Whitemane Lion, enabling a surprise block or saving another creature from an untimely demise. Unlike Whitemane Lion, Affa Guard Hound also provides a welcome toughness boost to a creature, which Whitemane Lion forgoes for its low casting cost and return-to-hand feature.

Looking to other canine counterparts, we have Watchdog, which shares the characteristic of vigilance. It also has a lower casting cost, making it an accessible early defense option. However, it does not offer the immediate impact in combat that Affa Guard Hound grants with the power and toughness boost during key interactions in the game.

Considering the benefits and tactical advantages of creature cards with protective abilities, Affa Guard Hound holds a steady position in MTG. Its blend of instant speed interaction and bolstering friendly creatures can pivot the flow of battle, making it a versatile choice for players building around defensive strategies.

Whitemane Lion - MTG Card versions
Watchdog - MTG Card versions
Whitemane Lion - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Watchdog - Tempest (TMP)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Affa Guard Hound MTG card by a specific set like Rise of the Eldrazi and Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi, 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 Affa Guard Hound and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Affa Guard Hound Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2010-04-23 and 2020-07-17. Illustrated by Ryan Pancoast.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12010-04-23Rise of the EldraziROE 142003normalblackRyan Pancoast
22015-08-28Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. EldraziDDP 22015normalblackRyan Pancoast
32016-08-26Conspiracy: Take the CrownCN2 812015normalblackRyan Pancoast
42020-07-17JumpstartJMP 812015normalblackRyan Pancoast

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Affa Guard Hound has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

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