Safehold Elite MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Elf Scout
Abilities Persist
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Persist ability ensures Safehold Elite returns, offering key card advantage and strategic battlefield presence.
  2. Its specific mana requirement and high cost can limit deck-building options and hinder game tempo.
  3. Safehold Elite excels in metas with heavy removal, providing consistent board presence and combo potential.

Text of card

Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

"I refuse to die—not at the hands of one such as you."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Safehold Elite’s persist ability shines in providing repeated board presence. This characteristic keeps materializing as an asset on the battlefield, even after being destroyed, effectively granting a card advantage. As the creature returns with a -1/-1 counter, it reaffirms its value in strategies that capitalize on creatures entering the battlefield multiple times.

Resource Acceleration: While Safehold Elite itself doesn’t directly translate to ramp or traditional resource acceleration, its resilience complements decks that aim to exploit the sacrifice mechanic for extra mana or effects. Its persistence allows for repeated activations of such abilities, indirectly contributing to a form of resource acceleration within the right deck framework.

Instant Speed: Although Safehold Elite operates at sorcery speed, its impact resonates well with strategies that use instant speed interactions. The ability to return after dying makes it a reliable participant in combat tricks or during the end step before your turn, ensuring that you perpetually have a creature ready for action as you navigate through instant-speed play.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Gaining advantages from Safehold Elite can sometimes come with a discard requirement, constraining plays when your hand is already depleted.

Specific Mana Cost: Safehold Elite requires both green and white mana, which restricts deck-building options and may not harmonize with a player’s strategic repertoire.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Safehold Elite’s persist ability is valuable, it carries a relatively high mana cost for a 2/2 creature, potentially slowing down your game tempo when compared to lower-cost creatures with similar or more impactful abilities.


Reasons to Include Safehold Elite in Your Collection

Versatility: Safehold Elite’s persist mechanic allows it to be a resilient threat in a multitude of decks, returning to the battlefield after death with a -1/-1 counter, ready for more action.

Combo Potential: As a creature with persist, it interacts well with cards that manipulate counters, enabling various combos and opening avenues for creative deckbuilding.

Meta-Relevance: In metas where removal is prevalent, Safehold Elite’s ability to withstand a killing blow makes it a persistent nuisance, ensuring that you always have a board presence.


How to beat

Safehold Elite is a resilient creature card that presents a unique challenge on the battlefield in MTG. It’s not your typical creature, thanks to its persist ability, which allows it to return to the board after being destroyed. However, this is also where its vulnerability lies. The key to overcoming Safehold Elite is to neutralize its ability to come back. Cards that can exile it, rather than destroy it, circumvent the persist mechanic altogether. Think along the lines of Path to Exile or a well-timed Relic of Progenitus to eliminate it from the game completely.

Another strategy involves preventing counters from being placed on the creature. With the help of cards like Solemnity, you can ensure that Safehold Elite won’t gain the -1/-1 counter it receives from persist, negating its ability to return. Moreover, utilizing control elements to limit creature abilities, such as Pithing Needle, can shut down any creature’s ability, including persist. By focusing on exile effects or prohibiting abilities, you can turn what may seem like an endless cycle of return into a one-time appearance on the battlefield, thereby simplifying the task at hand.


Cards like Safehold Elite

Safehold Elite stands out in the realm of Magic: The Gathering for its resilience and persist ability, allowing it to return to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter after being destroyed. One card that shares a similar persistence is Kitchen Finks, which not only comes back after being dealt lethal damage but also provides a valuable 2 life gain on each entry. Compared to Safehold Elite, Kitchen Finks is favored in life-gain strategies, yet both offer consistent board presence.

Another comparable creature is Rendclaw Trow. Although it returns with two -1/-1 counters via persist, it initially presents greater power. Meanwhile, Safehold Elite remains advantageous in enchantment synergies given its elf and warrior creature types. Undying Evil, while not a creature, is an enchantment that mirrors this concept of perseverance. When cast on a creature, it grants a similar effect by bringing the creature back with a +1/+1 counter post destruction, offering occasional tactical advantages over Safehold Elite’s persistent return.

Assessing these parallels, Safehold Elite maintains a balanced position in MTG due to its combination of affordability, creature types, and the persist mechanic, fitting smoothly into decks that exploit counter manipulation or those hinging on stalwart defenses.

Kitchen Finks - MTG Card versions
Rendclaw Trow - MTG Card versions
Undying Evil - MTG Card versions
Kitchen Finks - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Rendclaw Trow - Eventide (EVE)
Undying Evil - Dark Ascension (DKA)

Cards similar to Safehold Elite by color, type and mana cost

Femeref Enchantress - MTG Card versions
Llanowar Knight - MTG Card versions
Qasali Pridemage - MTG Card versions
Watchwolf - MTG Card versions
Selesnya Evangel - MTG Card versions
Saffi Eriksdotter - MTG Card versions
Medicine Runner - MTG Card versions
Valeron Outlander - MTG Card versions
Steward of Valeron - MTG Card versions
Selesnya Guildmage - MTG Card versions
Knight of the Skyward Eye - MTG Card versions
Knotvine Paladin - MTG Card versions
Voice of Resurgence - MTG Card versions
Fleecemane Lion - MTG Card versions
Victual Sliver - MTG Card versions
Gaddock Teeg - MTG Card versions
Siegehorn Ceratops - MTG Card versions
Shanna, Sisay's Legacy - MTG Card versions
Vernadi Shieldmate - MTG Card versions
Worldsoul Colossus - MTG Card versions
Femeref Enchantress - Visions (VIS)
Llanowar Knight - Invasion (INV)
Qasali Pridemage - The List (PLST)
Watchwolf - Masters 25 (A25)
Selesnya Evangel - Starter Commander Decks (SCD)
Saffi Eriksdotter - Time Spiral (TSP)
Medicine Runner - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Valeron Outlander - Conflux (CON)
Steward of Valeron - Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons (DDG)
Selesnya Guildmage - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)
Knight of the Skyward Eye - The List (PLST)
Knotvine Paladin - Duel Decks: Knights vs. Dragons (DDG)
Voice of Resurgence - Explorer Anthology 3 (EA3)
Fleecemane Lion - Theros (THS)
Victual Sliver - Tempest Remastered (TPR)
Gaddock Teeg - Judge Gift Cards 2017 (J17)
Siegehorn Ceratops - Rivals of Ixalan (RIX)
Shanna, Sisay's Legacy - Multiverse Legends (MUL)
Vernadi Shieldmate - Ravnica: Clue Edition (CLU)
Worldsoul Colossus - Guilds of Ravnica (GRN)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Safehold Elite MTG card by a specific set like Shadowmoor and Ultimate Masters, 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 Safehold Elite and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Safehold Elite Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2008-05-02 and 2018-12-07. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12008-05-02ShadowmoorSHM 2392003normalblackRichard Whitters
22018-12-07Ultimate MastersUMA 2202015normalblackJesper Ejsing

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Safehold Elite has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2013-06-07 If a creature with persist stops being a creature, persist will still work.
2013-06-07 If a creature with persist that has +1/+1 counters on it receives enough -1/-1 counters to cause it to be destroyed by lethal damage or put into its owner’s graveyard for having 0 or less toughness, persist won’t trigger and the card won’t return to the battlefield. That’s because persist checks the creature’s existence just before it leaves the battlefield, and it still has all those counters on it at that point.
2013-06-07 If a permanent has multiple instances of persist, they’ll each trigger separately, but the redundant instances will have no effect. If one instance returns the card to the battlefield, the next to resolve will do nothing.
2013-06-07 If a token with no -1/-1 counters on it has persist, the ability will trigger when the token is put into the graveyard. However, the token will cease to exist and can’t return to the battlefield.
2013-06-07 If multiple creatures with persist are put into the graveyard at the same time (due to combat damage or a spell that destroys all creatures, for example), the active player (the player whose turn it is) puts all of their persist triggers on the stack in any order, then each other player in turn order does the same. The last trigger put on the stack is the first one that resolves. That means that in a two-player game, the nonactive player’s persist creatures will return to the battlefield first, then the active player’s persist creatures do the same. The creatures return to the battlefield one at a time.
2013-06-07 The persist ability triggers when the permanent is put into a graveyard. Its last known information (that is, how the creature last existed on the battlefield) is used to determine whether it had a -1/-1 counter on it.
2013-06-07 When a permanent with persist returns to the battlefield, it’s a new object with no memory of or connection to its previous existence.

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