Basilica Guards MTG Card
2013-02-01 - Number 5
2024-01-12 - Number 7
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Human Soldier |
| Abilities | Defender,Extort |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 4 |
Key Takeaways
- Detain mechanic of Basilica Guards allows strategic board control and maintaining card advantage.
- Requires specific mana but introduces a slight delay in opponents’ tempo, aiding in resource buildup.
- Leveraging detain at key moments simulates instant speed advantage, dictating combat flow.
Text of card
Defender Extort (Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay {WB}. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
"None may pass . . . for free."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: An essential pro of Basilica Guards is its detain mechanic. This action prevents an opponent’s card from causing trouble for a turn, effectively allowing you to maintain or improve your board position without losing card equity.
Resource Acceleration: While Basilica Guards itself does not directly accelerate resources, its presence can slow down opponents, giving you the time needed to develop your resources and establish a stronger board presence.
Instant Speed: Although Basilica Guards isn’t an instant speed card, its effect at detaining enemy creatures can be tactically similar. By putting it into play at a strategic moment, it disrupts an opponent’s plans, simulating an instant’s timing advantage by influencing the flow of combat on their turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While Basilica Guards doesn’t have a discard requirement, players must always evaluate the cost-benefit of cards that do. Ensuring hand advantage is essential, and cards with this mechanic could lead to a diminished hand size, impacting late-game potential.
Specific Mana Cost: Basilica Guards requires a specific mana setup with one white and two other mana. This may not fit smoothly into all deck archetypes, especially those that operate on a more color-diverse mana base or prefer lower-cost creatures for quicker board presence.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, Basilica Guards could be considered costly for its 1/4 stats and abilities. In many scenarios, players could find alternative creatures or spells that provide more immediate impact or versatility for the same, or lower, mana investment.
Reasons to Include Basilica Guards in Your Collection
Versatility: Basilica Guards offer a mix of defense and utility for deck builders looking for reliable board presence. As a 1/4, it excels in blocking early aggressive creatures, which makes it highly useful in decks aiming for a longer game.
Combo Potential: This card brings to the field the extort ability, which allows you to gain life while draining your opponents, enhancing any strategy that takes advantage of life total manipulation or requires a steady life drain to whittle down the opposition.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where aggressive starts are common, the Guards act as a barrier, and their extort ability can be particularly effective against decks that lack early direct removal. Their efficiency in stalling the game can be crucial for control decks to reach their powerful late-game plays.
How to beat
Basilica Guards stand as a defensive bulwark in the world of Magic the Gathering, offering a unique blend of offense stalling and incremental life sapping with their extort ability. This combination can be tough to dismantle if not approached with the right strategy. The key to overcoming these vigilant defenders lies in circumventing their ability to extort or removing them from play swiftly before their life-draining effect becomes overwhelming.
Utilizing removal spells that can bypass a potential hexproof or indestructible status is one effective way to dispatch these guards. In the same breath, aggressive decks can overpower them by deploying threats more rapidly than the Basilica Guards can handle. Alternatively, sideboarding in cards that neutralize abilities, such as those that silence activated abilities or provide protection from creature types, can render them little more than simple blockers with no lasting impact.
Deck crafting with the foresight to counter defensive strategies like those the Basilica Guards embody will always pay dividends. As such, ensure your arsenal is equipped with tools to handle creatures that leverage life as a resource, which allows you to keep your strategy on the offensive and maintain control of the game.
Cards like Basilica Guards
Basilica Guards stand as a reliable presence on any battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. Akin to creatures like Syndic of Tithes, both share the vigilance ability, providing a defensive advantage without compromising their assault posture. However, the Guards differentiate themselves with a more defensive edge – the potential to detain another nonland permanent an opponent controls, thereby restricting an adversary’s options.
Delving further into the realm of comparable defenders, we find Azorius Arrester. Like the Guards, it plays into the detain mechanic, this time targeting a creature to hinder your opponent’s plans directly. Although it detains upon entering the battlefield, unlike the repeated ability of the Guards, it is more mana-efficient, offering a strategic choice for earlier game control.
Within the same strategy spectrum, the presence of Lavinia of the Tenth cannot go unnoticed. She poses a greater detain capability, affecting each nonland permanent with mana value 4 or less. Although her effect is broader and affects the board once upon entry, the higher casting cost and lack of repeatability weigh against Basilica Guards’ ongoing control potential.
Comparing these cards reveals how Basilica Guards offer a balance between cost efficiency and control, ensuring a player can persistently constrain the battlefield at a steady rate within the MTG universe.
Cards similar to Basilica Guards by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Basilica Guards MTG card by a specific set like Gatecrash and Ravnica Remastered, 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 Basilica Guards and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Basilica Guards Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-02-01 and 2024-01-12. Illustrated by Dan Scott.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2013-02-01 | Gatecrash | GTC | 5 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Dan Scott | |
| 2 | 2024-01-12 | Ravnica Remastered | RVR | 7 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Dan Scott |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Basilica Guards has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Basilica Guards card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2013-04-15 | The amount of life you gain from extort is based on the total amount of life lost, not necessarily the number of opponents you have. For example, if your opponent’s life total can’t change (perhaps because that player controls Platinum Emperion), you won’t gain any life. |
| 2013-04-15 | The extort ability doesn’t target any player. |
| 2013-04-15 | You may pay {W/B} a maximum of one time for each extort triggered ability. You decide whether to pay when the ability resolves. |
