Guardians of Koilos MTG Card

Guardians of Koilos recasts historic cards, triggering beneficial effects and gaining card advantage. It enables refreshing mana artifacts, accelerating your resource availability for pivotal moves. Returning permanents with flash or instant abilities adds an element of surprise, enhancing strategy.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact Creature — Construct
Released	2018-04-27
Set symbol
Set name	Dominaria
Set code	DOM
Power	4
Toughness	4
Number	216
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Yeong-Hao Han

Text of card

When Guardians of Koilos enters the battlefield, you may return another target historic permanent you control to its owner's hand. (Artifacts, legendaries, and Sagas are historic.)

Archaeologists depend on automatons inspired by their previous discoveries at Koilos to guard the excavations.

Cards like Guardians of Koilos

The distinctive recursion ability of Guardians of Koilos sets it apart in the realm of artifact creatures within Magic: The Gathering. Like the Retrievers (Myr Retriever and Junk Diver), Guardians of Koilos returns a fellow artifact to its owner’s hand upon entering the battlefield. However, it diverges in its more substantial form, able to swing in for battle or block adversaries effectively due to its favorable stats.

Another similar entity is the Workshop Assistant, which also promises to salvage artifacts from the graveyard but activates only upon the creature’s death, whereas Guardians of Koilos offers immediate utility upon casting. Additionally, unlike Sculpting Steel or Phyrexian Metamorph which can copy artifacts, Guardians of Koilos maintains its unique role in enabling the player to reuse artifacts with beneficial enter-the-battlefield effects, leading to potential game-shifting consequences.

All factors considered, Guardians of Koilos exemplifies an engine for value, especially when paired with artifacts that have potent abilities upon entering or leaving the battlefield. This positional flexibility across various strategies solidifies its place in MTG as a card that can recur artifacts repeatedly, offering a blend of aggression and tactical advantage.

Cards similar to Guardians of Koilos by color, type and mana cost

The Deck of Many Things - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: When casting Guardians of Koilos, the ability to return another target historic permanent you control to your hand can be utilized to re-trigger enter-the-battlefield effects, effectively generating additional value and card advantage without expending extra resources from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: In decks that capitalize on artifact synergies, playing Guardians of Koilos can be part of a strategy that accelerates your mana. It can reset mana rocks or enable repeated uses of other artifacts that can be tapped for resources. This can help you execute key plays faster and more efficiently.

Instant Speed: While Guardians of Koilos itself is not an instant, it can indirectly benefit from instant-speed interactions in MTG. By returning historic permanents with flash or those with instant-speed activated abilities, you can create surprise blockers or use those abilities again, keeping your opponents guessing and maximizing the timing of your strategic plays.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Guardians of Koilos lacks any discard effect, meaning it doesn’t directly contribute to strategies that benefit from discarding cards or graveyard interactions, which may not synergize well with decks centered around those mechanics.

Specific Mana Cost: This artifact creature requires a colorless mana pool, which might not be readily available in all types of MTG decks, especially those that rely heavily on colored mana for their other spells and creatures.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of five mana, Guardians of Koilos may come into play too late in the game where faster, more cost-efficient creatures or artifacts could have had an immediate impact on the board state.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Guardians of Koilos can adapt to various playstyles, as it finds a place in decks that leverage artifact synergies and require recurring cast effects for strategic advantages.

Combo Potential: This card shines when integrated into engines that capitalize on entering or leaving the battlefield triggers, bridging the gap between intricate combo lines and value plays.

Meta-Relevance: In matchups where resilience to removal is key, Guardians of Koilos can repeatedly protect and recur valuable creatures or artifacts, maintaining board presence against control-heavy opponents.

How to beat

Guardians of Koilos presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. This artifact creature is not just about muscle; its real power lies in its ability to bounce another artifact back to the player’s hand when it enters the battlefield. In essence, it creates a loop for recasting artifacts with enter-the-battlefield effects, potentially building up a significant advantage over time.

To effectively counter this recurring benefit, one strategy is to limit the Guardians’ board time. Efficient removal spells are key. Cards that force an opponent to sacrifice a creature can sidestep the potential to recast the artifact creature. Temporary solutions like Pacifism can render the Guardians harmless, but be aware they do not address the core issue of the looping mechanic.

Disruption is another avenue. Counterspells can prevent the Guardians from entering the battlefield in the first place, breaking the loop before it starts. Hand disruption can rid your opponent of artifacts worth recurring, undermining the value Guardians of Koilos could provide. With these strategies in play, overcoming the resilience of this artifact creature becomes a manageable task.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Guardians of Koilos MTG card by a specific set like Dominaria, 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 Guardians of Koilos and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Guardians of Koilos has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2018-04-27	A card, spell, or permanent is historic if it has the legendary supertype, the artifact card type, or the Saga subtype. Having two of those qualities doesn’t make an object more historic than another or provide an additional bonus—an object either is historic or it isn’t.