Benevolent Bodyguard

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Highlander Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Planechase Legal
Premodern Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Benevolent Bodyguard

Creature — Human Cleric

Sacrifice Benevolent Bodyguard: Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.

golgarigirl on Life Gain Voltron (Trelasarra)

1 year ago

I always loved Trelissara's design. Sadly, my lifegain deck is Esper, so she didn't really fit! I don't know if this helps at all, but I think of my deck in terms of lifegain enablers (our Soul Warden and friends that gain us life) and payoffs (things that benefit us when we gain life, like Trudge Garden).

I would pay special attention to one thing with life gain payoffs: a lot of the cards care about one of 2 things...either 'instance of life gain' (the ones worded 'whenever'...they do not care how much life you gain, just if you do or not), and the ones that care about quantity (the ones worded 'if you gained X or more life).

You're going to want to sculpt your life gain enablers in the deck around what of those you have, and how much life gain they want you to have in a turn, to make sure they can hit your X.

I would consider that a little more next time you play, pay attention to what cards want what effects.

For example, my deck is built entirely around the 'instance of life gain effects', so I seldom need to worry about how much I gain.

That said, some weak spots I noticed: Benevolent Bodyguard, Ilysian Caryatid, Soulmender, From Beyond, Indomitable Might, Hedgewitch's Mask. These are excellent places to start with upgrades! They're not bad on their own, but we can do better!

Note on Aetherflux Reservoir: There are some playgroups that playing this will just get you ganged up on. I always caution people about that. If that's fine with you, it's a strong card. I didn't find it could gain enough life to make it worth it in my deck.

Some possible (not too expensive) upgrades that I enjoy:

Good in an 'instance of life gain' deck: Linden, the Steadfast Queen, Sunscorch Regent, Suture Priest, Gideon's Company, Twinblade Paladin, Omen of the Sun, Ajani's Pridemate, Oketra's Monument, Regna, the Redeemer

Good in a 'gain X or more life' deck: Nykthos Paragon, Gideon Blackblade

Good in both: Dusk / Dawn, Austere Command, Dawn of Hope, Shamanic Revelation

Spell_Slam on Oops, your dead on turn 4.

1 year ago

Empyrial Armor is a pretty nice choice, as it will typically buff your creature by at least 3+ in the early/midgame and gives you more options to fetch with Light Paws at 3 CMC.

Benevolent Bodyguard and Selfless Savior are also great 1-drops that allow you to play Light Paws on turn 2 with protection up.

Davinoth on

2 years ago

     Sorry it took so long for me to get back to you on this! I like your build but I do have a few questions and suggestions. =)

     I assume not running Ashnod's Altar and/or Phyrexian Altar is part of the pursuit of making this a 'fair' deck? I think I'd still recommend a few sacrifice outlets like Viscera Seer or maybe Altar of Dementia.

     Do you feel like you're getting good value out of Herald's Horn? I used to run Edgewalker and Urza's Incubator in my build but eventually cut them as I didn't feel my creature package had a high enough average CMC to make them worthwhile. If you like the extra card advantage from it then I wonder if Phyrexian Arena would be a better fit in this slot for you?

     I also cut Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes in favour of Benevolent Bodyguard and Vigilant Martyr as I really felt like I needed creatures I wanted to kill.

     I kind of disagree with your inclusion of Containment Priest, Athreos, God of Passage & Liesa, Forgotten Archangel, as Orah wants things in your graveyard. And his trigger will cause Containment Priest to exile whatever you return to the battlefield. If you're looking for wipe protection you may get better value out of Faith's Reward or Akroma's Will.

     Only other suggestion is more lands! Especially if you're not willing to run the mana Altars. Thirty-two lands is simply too few without significantly more card draw.

     I hope I was helpful, and thanks again for checking out my build! =)

RambIe on An Afterlife Commander

2 years ago

I was thinking has access to a ton of humans that provide utility by sacrifice themselves
Some Examples:Cathar Commando,Priest of Fell Rites,General Kudro of Drannith,Plaguecrafter,Doomed Necromancer,Benevolent Bodyguard,Children of Korlis,Martyr of Sands,Bounty Agent,Garza's Assassin
There to many to list here but there is enough to continually feed Ramos and tormad engine creating 3/3 zombie tokens every turn while also keeping the board in check by recurring the utility

Daedalus19876 on Judgment Day: Avacyn the Purifier EDH [PRIMER]

2 years ago

Lord_Rivandere: I'm glad this deck inspires you, in all its MANY incarnations!

Yeah, the current version is definitely much more complex to pilot than the early versions -- the synergies are less obvious, but they're still there!

There's a few more ways to flip Avacyn you might have missed! Beyond the four obvious self-sacrifice creatures ( Benevolent Bodyguard , Ranger-Captain of Eos , Selfless Spirit , and Remorseful Cleric ), we also have two other controllable death triggers in Solitude 's evoke ability and the germ when we unequip Nettlecyst . Also, Ranger of Eos almost always retrieves Benevolent Bodyguard as one of its two creatures, so that's essentially a guaranteed flip as well :)

And sometimes it's worth just using a Sword of Fire and Ice or Umezawa's Jitte trigger to hit our own things in a pinch ;) But yeah, the flip damage has become a bit less of a true FOCUS and more of a... deterrent? "You'd better not block/kill/attack my hatebear, otherwise Avacyn will Purify your battlefield with deathtouch!"

I don't quite understand something you said: why can't I use Fiery Emancipation without flipping Avacyn?

And yeah, there are SO many things I want to add to this deck... Hope of Ghirapur seems playable again given Urza's Saga , I want to find a slot for Kaldra Compleat so I can cheat it out with Stoneforge (and get another death trigger off the germ), and there's at least 4 cards I'm definitely testing in Avacyn from the new set ( Share the Spoils , Fighter Class , Oswald Fiddlebender , Mantle of the Ancients) and like 20 more I'm considering (including Robe of Stars)... This deck does so many things, though (voltron-control-hatebears-combo), that it's really hard to find slots...

I'd love to talk further about Avacyn whenever you want! You can either ask me here, or reach out on Discord: daedalus#8885

Caran_Lyg on

3 years ago

Benevolent Bodyguard isn’t modern legal. Unless this is a casual or legacy format deck.

legendofa on New options for red/white

3 years ago

I've seen a lot of discussion recently about the limited roles and abilities of the color combination. I'm starting this thread as a place to propose new options for this color pair. If you post here, please keep comments constructive - suggest something yourself or offer useful commentary on another suggestion.

So my thought is to give a self-sacrifice archetype. White will sacrifice itself to protect its community, the people it cares about, and the things it deems worthy of protection. Red will sacrifice itself to protect something it cares about, to get revenge, or because it wants a thrill. Both colors can produce lots of small creatures and creature tokens quickly, and white has a minor recursion theme for the mechanical benefits of sacrificing creatures repeatedly. There should be a distinction between creatures sacrificing themselves and the black ability of sacrificing creatures for power. I'm envision phrasing like "Creatures you control have 'Sacrifice this creature: Effect effect effect'" instead of "Sacrifice a creature: Effect effect effect," although red already has several of the latter effect. There isn't really a color combination that focuses on this right now, so I see it as a primary red and white ability that all colors can use on occasion.

Specific cards I want to call out are Mask of Immolation , Goblin Legionnaire , Benevolent Bodyguard , Goblin Bombardment , Cautery Sliver , Assemble the Legion , and Strixhaven's Lorehold Command.

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