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Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Abzan Kin-Guard’s ability to bolster one of your creatures strengthens your board presence and potentially generates card advantage. When used effectively, this can translate into having more impactful creatures on the board than your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: With its efficient mana cost for a 3/3 body, Abzan Kin-Guard allows you to establish a sizeable creature early in the game. Coupled with its ability to enhance another creature, it effectively contributes to accelerating your resource development on the battlefield without additional mana investment.

Instant Speed: While the Abzan Kin-Guard itself isn’t an instant, its bolster ability can be capitalized on at instant speed via other cards that interact with the Outlast mechanic. This synergy provides dynamic and reactive strategies during gameplay, particularly in response to your opponent’s actions during their turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Abzan Kin-Guard often revolves around having a formidable board presence. The need to ensure you’ve already got a creature with power 3 or greater can be restrictive, especially in the early game when resources are precious and building up your board is critical.

Specific Mana Cost: Abzan Kin-Guard demands a precise mana arrangement to cast—white, black, and green. This trifecta can be a stumbling block in decks that aren’t finely tuned to produce a balanced mana base. It might not always be a seamless fit outside of dedicated Abzan or multicolored mana-fixing decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana, Abzan Kin-Guard competes directly with other four-drops that might bring more immediate value or impact the board the moment they are played. This can lead to situations where the card sits in hand while other, more urgent plays take precedence, limiting its effectiveness.

Reasons to Include Abzan Kin-Guard in Your Collection

Versatility: Abzan Kin-Guard is a flexible creature card, capable of fitting seamlessly into decks that value resilience and creature-based strategies. Its bolster ability can strengthen your board presence in a variety of game situations.

Combo Potential: This card thrives in synergistic environments, pairing well with mechanics that put +1/+1 counters on creatures. It can be a crucial piece in combos that amplify the power of your creatures exponentially.

Meta-Relevance: As metagames evolve to include decks that focus on outlasting the opponent, Abzan Kin-Guard’s durability and potential for growth make it a strong contender, especially in formats where creatures and counter interactions are key.

How to Beat Abzan Kin-Guard

Abzan Kin-Guard is a resilient creature that benefits from the solid support of its Abzan house, gaining an edge with bolstered counters and abilities. To overcome this card, understanding its dependence on synergy is key. Timing removal spells before it receives the +1/+1 counters can neutralize this threat effectively. Removal spells that don’t target, such as board wipes or “-X/-X” effects, sidestep its protection from single-target spells when it’s bolstered by the bolster mechanic. As it requires a substantial mana investment, disrupting your opponent’s mana base or keeping them off four mana can delay the Kin-Guard’s deployment, giving you time to strengthen your board presence.

It is also worth noting that Abzan Kin-Guard is less effective when the player can’t maintain other creatures with +1/+1 counters on the battlefield. Therefore, keeping their board clear will diminish the Kin-Guard’s impact and avoid the formation of a formidable creature formation. Lastly, since Abzan Kin-Guard thrives in midrange strategies, increasing the pace of your play with an aggressive or combo-driven strategy can put pressure on your opponent before their Kin-Guard can solidify their game plan.