Hand of Honor MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Human Samurai
Abilities	Bushido,Protection
Released	2005-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Saviors of Kamigawa
Set code	SOK
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	12
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Kev Walker

Key Takeaways

Its abilities offer indirect card advantage and can disrupt opponent’s plays to secure a battlefield edge.
The card’s low mana cost facilitates a swift entry, correlating with resource and board state acceleration.
Versatile and meta-relevant, Hand of Honor is protective and aggressive, a strong addition to white strategies.

Text of card

Protection from black Bushido 1 (When this blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)

"The sword is just a tool. It is the samurai's hand that brings it to life."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Hand of Honor allows a player to maintain a strong board presence with its abilities. The inherent advantage comes from its potential to disrupt opponents’ strategies. While it doesn’t draw cards, its impact on the battlefield can indirectly translate to card advantage as it forces your opponent to deal with it or suffer the consequences.

Resource Acceleration: Although Hand of Honor is not a direct source of resource acceleration like ramp spells or artifacts, its lower casting cost enables players to establish early game presence without sacrificing tempo. This quick deployment can lead to a faster build-up of resources and board state in the right deck.

Instant Speed: Hand of Honor itself may not operate at instant speed, but it synergizes well with decks that utilize instant-speed interactions. Its passive benefits can enhance your instant-speed plays, making it a valuable addition to strategies that operate on this axis, often protecting key pieces or applying pressure at critical moments.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: To leverage the full potential of the Hand of Honor, players often need to maintain a certain board presence. Falling behind in card advantage due to an empty hand can be a serious setback, emphasizing the need for strategic planning when to play this card.

Specific Mana Cost: The Hand of Honor requires a precise mana setup to cast. Demanding both white mana and additional generic mana, it restricts the card’s flexibility, often confining it to mono-white or two-color decks that can reliably meet its casting requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the Hand of Honor brings certain advantages in combat, its mana cost places it at a competitive threshold where it contends with other valuable cards. Players must therefore weigh its battlefield impact against other potential plays available at the same cost.

Reasons to Include Hand of Honor in Your Collection

Versatility: Hand of Honor is a flexible card that can be easily incorporated into various white-based decks, including aggressive strategies and human tribal synergies where its protection ability becomes particularly useful.

Combo Potential: This creature can be an essential piece in combos centered around protection and evasion, safeguarding key pieces from targeted spells of a certain color, which enhances resilience.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where specific color strategies are prevalent, Hand of Honor can serve as a solid defensive option while also providing a consistent offensive threat that’s difficult for opponents to remove.

How to Beat

Hand of Honor presents a unique challenge on the battlefield with its protection from monocolored and samurai synergy. To outmaneuver this card, players need to think outside the box. Creatures or spells that are multicolored can sneak past its defenses, as Hand of Honor cannot block them. Cards with effects that do not target, such as mass removal spells or abilities that affect all creatures, can also overcome the protection feature.

Another tactic involves utilizing combat tricks to overpower the Hand of Honor. Pump spells or abilities that increase a creature’s power can help in defeating it in combat without the need to target it directly. Additionally, employing cards that change the rules of combat, such as those allowing you to assign damage despite protection, can turn the tide in your favor. It’s about finding clever ways to navigate around Hand of Honor’s strengths, ensuring that this card does not determine the flow of the game.

By incorporating these strategies, players can effectively deal with the challenges posed by Hand of Honor, maintaining the upper hand in MTG matches and keeping their guard up against unexpected samurai encounters.

Cards like Hand of Honor

Hand of Honor proves to be a solid asset for players focusing on white creature aggro strategies in Magic: The Gathering. This Samurai card bears a strong resemblance to Silver Knight, both boasting protection from a particular color which provides a substantial tactical advantage on the battlefield. Yet, Hand of Honor steps out from the shadow of its counterpart through its protection from black, instead of red. This shift represents a significant edge in matches against decks heavy on black removal spells.

Further in the family tree of protection-oriented creatures, we can place Elite Inquisitor. Although it costs one more mana, the Elite Inquisitor offers protection from two creature types—vampires and zombies—which can be advantageous in creature-centric matchups. It’s important to recognize this creature’s added value, particularly in the current meta that often includes such creature types. Both Hand of Honor and Elite Inquisitor share first strike, but Hand of Honor’s lower mana cost can mean a faster deployment on the board.

In essence, when critically examining card features and the synergies they can create within a game, Hand of Honor stands its ground as a notable member within its card class, being advantageous against decks utilizing substantial black elements and excelling in quick offensive strategies.

Cards similar to Hand of Honor by color, type and mana cost

Voice of the Blessed - MTG Card versions

Silverflame Squire // On Alert - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hand of Honor MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, 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 Hand of Honor and other MTG cards: