Veteran Bodyguard MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Despite not directly offering new cards into your hand, Veteran Bodyguard provides a form of card advantage through board protection. By safeguarding your valuable creatures, it effectively saves the cards in play, maintaining your board presence and negating opponents’ removal efforts.

Resource Acceleration: While Veteran Bodyguard itself does not accelerate resources, its presence can indirectly lead to resource saving. The need to commit fewer creatures for block duty allows you to invest mana and plays elsewhere, potentially accelerating your overall gameplay and resource deployment.

Instant Speed: Veteran Bodyguard does not operate at instant speed, but its passive ability is always “on,” providing a constant deterrent against attacks or spells targeting your other creatures. This unyielding shield can force opponents to alter their strategies, often in your favor, and potentially disrupt their tempo.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Veteran Bodyguard provides a valuable protective feature, a significant downside is reaching its full potential requires you to maintain a varied board presence. Without other creatures to shield, its utility diminishes, which is akin to a discard requirement in terms of board resource management.

Specific Mana Cost: A challenge posed by the Veteran Bodyguard comes from its specific mana cost which requires two white mana. This cost may not seamlessly fit into multi-colored decks, thus limiting its inclusion to mainly mono-white or two-color decks where the white mana is sufficiently available.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Clocking in at three mana, Veteran Bodyguard’s cost is considerable for its defensive capabilities. In a card pool rich with options, there are other creatures and spells that provide similar or better protection at a lower mana cost, making this card’s value potentially less efficient in a tightly constructed deck.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Veteran Bodyguard offers a unique form of protection for your important creatures. It can slot into various decks, particularly those that rely on key creatures for winning strategies.

Combo Potential: When combined with cards that prevent damage to itself, Veteran Bodyguard can create a durable shield for your creatures, freeing you to execute your game plan without fear of disruption.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where targeted removal is prevalent, Veteran Bodyguard can maintain your board presence and give you an edge by safeguarding your essential creatures.

How to beat

The Veteran Bodyguard is a classic card in MTG, offering a unique form of protection for your other creatures. While it stands as a bulwark against threats, it’s not invincible. One strategic approach to counter it is to leverage spells that can bypass its protective ability – think spot removals, board wipes, or direct damage spells that don’t target other creatures.

Control decks can also manage the Veteran Bodyguard effectively by preventing it from hitting the battlefield in the first place. Counterspells are perfect for keeping this card in your opponent’s hand or sending it to the graveyard before it can have an impact on the game. Another tactic is to utilize sacrifice effects; since the Bodyguard’s ability only functions when it is untapped, forcing the opponent to tap it during their turn could leave an opening. Lastly, make sure to check the updated list of cards from Wizard’s official content to stay ahead of any changes to rules or card interactions.