Builder's Blessing MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Enchantment
Released	2012-05-04
Set symbol
Set name	Avacyn Restored
Set code	AVR
Number	8
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	John Stanko

Key Takeaways

Enhances your creatures making them tougher, potentially changing the outcome of battles and conserving resources.
May require sacrificing other valuable cards, thus posing a strategic dilemma regarding resource management.
Provides versatility in decks focusing on defense, though its mana cost and specificity could be limiting.

Text of card

Untapped creatures you control get +0/+2.

"Mix the mortar with holy wards, or blood will run in the streets." —Vadvar, Thraben stonewright

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Builder’s Blessing, your deck gains a lasting advantage by making your creatures tougher to take down. This card fortifies your defenses, potentially turning each creature into a more formidable blocker that can survive combat that would otherwise defeat them, thus preserving your in-game resources.

Resource Acceleration: By augmenting your creatures, Builder’s Blessing could potentially free up other spells and resources in your hand that you would have spent on creature buffs or protective spells. This functional enchantment allows you to focus your mana and card resources on more pressing concerns or offensive strategies.

Instant Speed: While Builder’s Blessing itself is an enchantment that requires strategic timing for its deployment, it synergizes well with instant speed spells by bolstering your creatures’ toughness. With enhanced defense, your creatures are more likely to survive to benefit from your instant speed tricks and counteractions during critical moments of play.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One potential downside of Builder’s Blessing is that it may necessitate the discard of valuable cards to benefit from its effect. This can put players at a disadvantage, especially when their hand is already running low on cards.

Specific Mana Cost: Builder’s Blessing requires a particular combination of mana, which restricts its integration into various deck types. This mana specificity means not all decks can accommodate it without affecting the mana curve or requiring a reconfiguration of the land base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana investment for Builder’s Blessing can be seen as relatively steep for its offered benefit. Given that MTG is a game where tempo and resource management are crucial, dedicating a significant portion of your mana to this single card could mean forgoing other potentially more impactful plays.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Builder’s Blessing is a unique enchantment that boosts the durability of your creatures and fortifications. It provides a static ability that can be a game-changer in any deck that synergizes with fortifications or seeks to sustain a formidable board presence.

Combo Potential: With Builder’s Blessing in play, you can explore various combinations with cards that benefit from having untapped creatures or heavy defenses, potentially creating lock-down scenarios or surprising your opponents with unanticipated mana availability for instant-speed interactions.

Meta-Relevance: As the gameplay ebbs and flows with the shifting meta, Builder’s Blessing can emerge as a countermeasure to aggressive strategies that rely on dealing damage to creatures, allowing you to maintain a resilient frontline while setting up for your winning moves.

How to beat Builder’s Blessing

Builder’s Blessing is a unique aura that offers a solid defense boost in Magic: The Gathering, making your untapped creatures tougher to take down. To counter this, you need to focus on versatility and removal. Sweep the board with spells capable of bypassing the protective layer that Builder’s Blessing provides, such as “Wrath of God” or “Damnation”, which do not discriminate between tapped or untapped creatures.

Direct damage spells also come in handy to overcome Builder’s Blessing’s fortifications, since they can target creatures regardless of their state. Incorporating effects that reduce the opponent’s creature strength, like “Flame Slash” or “Dismember”, before they benefit from Builder’s Blessing’s static buff, can also be a strategic approach. Remember, one well-timed removal or damage spell can often disrupt your opponent’s entire strategy, especially if they’re relying heavily on Builder’s Blessing to maintain their defense.

Additionally, leveraging enchantment removal spells such as “Disenchant” or “Nature’s Claim” directly dismantles Builder’s Blessing, leaving your opponent’s creatures vulnerable once again. Careful monitoring of the battlefield and knowing when to strike are the keys to effectively neutralizing the boost that Builder’s Blessing provides to your opponent’s creatures in Magic: The Gathering.

Cards like Builder's Blessing

Builder’s Blessing in MTG offers a unique defensive advantage by boosting the toughness of untapped creatures. This can be compared to cards like Always Watching, which similarly grants a toughness bonus, but also provides vigilance and buffs power, thereby enhancing both defense and offense. Fortress of the Legion is another card that shares the toughness enhancement theme, reinforcing your creatures as long as they are untapped, however, it lacks the all-encompassing nature of Builder’s Blessing as it only applies to a single creature at a time.

In the landscape of defensive enchantments, Castle also plays a role, offering a conditional toughness boost when blocking. Though its effect is more limited to certain situations, it can still be a game-changer during combat. Conversely, Builder’s Blessing’s blanket effect applies whether creatures are blocking or not, providing a constant shield for your army. Lastly, Brave the Sands is worth mentioning, it gives your creatures vigilance in addition to the ability to block an additional attacker, offering a slightly different strategic angle on defense.

Each of these cards serves a similar function to Builder’s Blessing, yet none matches its straightforward and universal toughness increase for untapped creatures across the battlefield in MTG, a sturdy bastion for any player seeking to fortify their defenses.

Cards similar to Builder's Blessing by color, type and mana cost

Divine Transformation - MTG Card versions

Diversionary Tactics - MTG Card versions

Teleportation Circle - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Builder's Blessing MTG card by a specific set like Avacyn Restored, 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 Builder's Blessing and other MTG cards: