Gustcloak Savior: Inclusion Rate and Win Probability in Commander Decks

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Gustcloak Savior, a white flying Bird Soldier from Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Kiora

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

White Wings, Bold Tactics: Gustcloak Savior in Commander

In the vast world of EDH, where every combat step is a potential turning point, Gustcloak Savior arrives as a measured, yet intriguing option. Casting cost of 4W for a 3/4 with Flying means it can pressure life totals while staying resilient enough to weather a swing or two. The standout is its triggered ability: whenever a creature you control becomes blocked, you may untap that creature and remove it from combat. This lets you dodge unfortunate trades, protect your attacker when a block is forced, and reallocate your battlefield with precision 🧙‍♂️🔥.

As a white creature from the Duel Decks: Elspeth vs. Kiora, Gustcloak Savior carries the classic white mechanic: tempo, defense, and careful combat planning. In practical terms, this card shines in metas where combat tricks and sudden reactivity swing the outcome. The timing matters: untapping and removing a blocked creature from combat means you can shut down lethal combat turns, preserve your board, and set up another attacker or a blocker on the following turn. That flexibility is what elevates its inclusion probability in lines that lean toward combat supremacy and resilience ⚔️🎲.

To understand its place in Commander, think about the typical 100-card singleton deck. Unlike limited formats, you don’t often count on a single finisher; you curate a suite of threats and answers. Gustcloak Savior asks: can one more flying body give you a better shot at closing out games when the board gets clogged? The answer is nuanced. In a go-wide white shell—think a chorus of evasive threats and protective auras—the Savior acts as a safety valve. When someone tries to nuke your board with a mass removal spell, the creature can loop out of combat, allowing your other attackers to remain on the battlefield in subsequent turns. It’s not a dream solution, but it’s a reliable hedge against a stalled swing turn 🧙‍♂️💎.

“Our death-arrows flew in high arcs towards the aven. And then . . . nothing.” — Coliseum guard

From a numbers perspective, inclusion rate in Commander isn’t about scaling to a modern-construct 60-card engine; it’s about the incremental edge. Most casual EDH lists remain 1-ofs for non-duplicate legendary choices and key value creatures. With Gustcloak Savior, the real win probability bump comes from repurposing a single card’s presence into better tempo and survivability on the battlefield. In a deck that already leans on evasive flyers or that uses go-wide strategies, adding this 5-mana flier increases the chance that a blocked attacker won’t simply fall to the next combat step. Your odds of stabilizing through a wipe or toiling through a crowded board improve, even if by a few percentage points per game. It’s a subtle, but meaningful, factor in long games where every decision matters 🧙‍♂️🔥.

Deck-building notes: Gustcloak Savior pairs nicely with effects that encourage large numbers of small, flying threats or with a handful of defensive enablers—cards that grant evasion, grant temporary untaps, or protect your own creatures from mass removal. Think about integration with flicker effects to re-use its combat-readiness ability or with anthem-like buffs that push your birds toward lethal damage. In mono-white or white-heavy builds that value battlefield parity and tempo, the Savior becomes a tac­tical finisher in the sense that its ability can turn blocked trades into favorable exchanges, especially when you’ve got another big attacker waiting in the wings. The happened-turn moment—the untap and remove—can flip a board state that looked grim into a chance to press your advantage 💎⚔️.

Beyond gameplay, Gustcloak Savior is also a conversation piece for collectors and deck-builders alike. Being a rare from a Duel Decks reprint, it’s a flavor-rich addition that hails from a collaborative product line rather than a core set. The card’s art by Jim Nelson captures a moment of battle-worn flight—an emblem of white’s resilience and tactical prowess. For players who value the aesthetic and the narrative of their EDH decks, the Savior offers both a practical tool and a story beat on the tabletop. Even if your meta rarely features mass blockers or stall, having a reliable tempo card with a punishingly simple, elegant trigger adds a little extra spice to your color pie 🧙‍♂️🎨.

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How to tune Gustcloak Savior into your deck

  • Best fit: white-focused commanders that lean into tempo, evasion, and battlefield resilience—think pilots and go-wide flyers who can leverage their air superiority.
  • Core synergy: a mix of evasive or Auras-focused support to ensure your flyers remain an ongoing threat, and to maximize the value when a block occurs.
  • Mana curve: at 5 cmc, you want to pair this with ramp that ensures you reach the critical turns where you can threaten a swing and use the Savior’s trigger to maintain pressure.
  • Counterplay awareness: in metagames with heavy mass removal, the ability to remove a creature from combat can be a lifeline; prepare backups or redundancy through protective spells and other defensive bodies.
  • Limit the number: one copy is typical in EDH; two can function in specialized, symmetrical lists, but only if you have a clear plan for value and board presence.

For readers curious about broader metagame signals and how individual inclusions alter win probability in epic multiplayer battles, the linked articles in this piece explore related threads—from color mismatch considerations to the evolving metagame shaped by a broader pool of artifacts, legendaries, and card interactions. The network’s coverage helps you think about how seemingly small design decisions—a card’s inclusion rate, its mana cost, its tempo—culminate in real, measurable outcomes at your pre-release table or kitchen-table marathon sessions 🧙‍♂️🎲.

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