Land Drop
0 online 0 games Log in Sign up
Mendicant Core, Guidelight

First printed in Aetherdrift (2025)

All 5 prints

Log in to choose your favorite print: the site shows it in your decks, in the search and in the simulator.

  • Aetherdrift (DFT) #213, 2025
  • Aetherdrift (DFT) #365, 2025
  • Aetherdrift (DFT) #485, 2025
  • Aetherdrift Promos (PDFT) #213p, 2025
  • Aetherdrift Promos (PDFT) #213s, 2025

Mendicant Core, Guidelight

Legendary Artifact Creature — Robot

Mendicant Core's power is equal to the number of artifacts you control.
Start your engines! (If you have no speed, it starts at 1. It increases once on each of your turns when an opponent loses life. Max speed is 4.)
Max speed — Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may pay 1 generic. If you do, copy it. (The copy becomes a token.)

*/3

Illustrated by
Zezhou Chen

Legality

Legal in
Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Not legal in
Pauper, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH

Rulings (8)
  • “Max speed — [ability]” means “As long as you have max speed, this object has [ability].” If the granted ability functions in a zone other than the battlefield, the max speed ability does too.
  • If an effect needs to know what a player’s speed is and that player doesn’t have a speed, their speed is considered 0.
  • The copy remembers any decisions that were made for the original spell as it was cast, including values chosen for X in its mana cost and whether any alternative or additional costs were chosen. For example, if the original artifact spell had kicker and its kicker cost was paid, the copy will also be kicked.
  • A resolving copy of a permanent spell becomes a token, so the token isn’t “created.” Effects that care about a token being created won’t interact with a token that enters the battlefield from Mendicant Core’s last ability.
  • A player “has max speed” if their speed is 4.
  • Start your engines! isn’t a triggered ability. Increasing your speed to 1 is something that happens as a state-based action as soon as you control a permanent with the ability. Notably, this includes gaining control of a permanent with the ability that another player controls.
  • Your speed doesn’t change until a spell or ability says so, such as the inherent triggered ability that cares about opponents losing life during your turn. Notably, losing control of permanents with start your engines! doesn’t affect your speed.
  • Each player tracks their speed (or lack thereof) separately. Increasing your speed has no effect on whether another player has speed.

Prices

MTGO price: 0.006 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).

In Limited on MTG Arena

Win rates in Arena drafts and sealed, retrieved from 17Lands (CC BY 4.0).

Set GIH WR vs set IWD Games
Aetherdrift (DFT), Premier Draft 55.9% +1.0 +5.2 11745
Aetherdrift (DFT), Sealed 55.9% -1.2 +2.9 732
GIH WR
win rate of the games in which the card was in the opening hand or drawn
vs set
points above or below the average win rate of all decks in the set
IWD
improvement when drawn: GIH WR minus the win rate when the card stayed in the library
Games
games in which the card was seen

Combos

10 combos, the most popular first: