Benalish Honor Guard MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Benalish Honor Guard’s power increases with each legendary creature you have on the battlefield. It may not directly provide card advantage in the traditional sense, but by bolstering its power, it can become a more formidable force without requiring additional card investment.

Resource Acceleration: While the Benalish Honor Guard does not inherently provide resource acceleration, its low casting cost makes it an efficient use of mana. Its role in a deck is to support legendary creatures, potentially freeing up mana you would have spent on a larger creature early on.

Instant Speed: Even though Benalish Honor Guard is not an instant, its interactions within a deck fulfill a strategic role. It can act as an early defense that works in concert with flash or instant speed spells, allowing you to establish a board presence while keeping mana available for immediate responses.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While the Benalish Honor Guard doesn’t have a discard requirement per se, it’s important to be mindful of discards that can result from hand disruption tactics by your opponents. Having a hand specifically built around synergizing with the Guard might leave you more vulnerable to such strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: The Benalish Honor Guard requires white mana, locking it firmly into decks that have a white mana base. This restriction can limit its inclusion in multicolored decks that may not always have the necessary mana available.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana cost for the Benalish Honor Guard may be perceived as high relative to its stats and abilities. In a game where efficiency is key, there could be other creatures or spells that provide more value or better synergy with your deck’s strategy for the same, or even lower, converted mana cost.

Reasons to Include Benalish Honor Guard in Your Collection

Versatility: The Benalish Honor Guard is a flexible addition that can bolster your lineup, fitting well within decks that capitalize on the legendary theme or those that focus on soldier synergies.

Combo Potential: This card thrives in combination with other legendary spells or permanents, gaining power and offering an affordable yet significant threat on the battlefield when paired correctly.

Meta-Relevance: As the gaming environment fluctuates, a cost-efficient creature like the Benalish Honor Guard can adapt to various meta shifts, holding its own in a diverse range of matchups.

How to beat

Within the realm of Magic: The Gathering, the Benalish Honor Guard represents a reliable creature card, particularly in decks emphasizing the legendary aspect. Its strength increases with each legendary card you reveal, incentivizing a strategy rich in such cards. To counteract the Benalish Honor Guard, one effective tactic is to reduce their impact by limiting the number of legendary creatures on the battlefield. Surveillance and removal spells are particularly effective in this regard, ensuring that the Honor Guard doesn’t become an unstoppable force.

Moreover, employing cards that can bypass or neutralize creature abilities, such as those with reach or “can’t be blocked” traits, allows you to undermine the Honor Guard’s increased power. Swift removal spells like Cast Down or Seal Away can also be instrumental in dealing with this threat before it escalates, preventing your opponent from leveraging their potential power boost. Thus, while the Benalish Honor Guard can fortify a player’s position, strategic removal and control can ensure it remains just another soldier on the battlefield, rather than the vanguard of a crushing victory.