Rootborn Defenses card art

Rootborn Defenses

Instant MV 3

Tracked across real Commander games played through TurnZero HQ.

Buy on TCGplayer Track your own decks
Jump to section ▾
What it doesCombosRulingsIn the 99Every version

What it does

Populate. Creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn. (To populate, create a token that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

Combos with Rootborn Defenses

Lines this card is part of — what it needs alongside it, and what the two of them do. An infinite result is the one that moves a deck's bracket.

Combo data from Commander Spellbook, the community-maintained database of Magic combos. Mirrored nightly.

Rulings

7 official rulings, in the order Wizards published them.

  • 2017-03-14

    Rootborn Defenses affects only creatures you control after populating at the time it resolves. The creature token you create will gain indestructible, but creatures you begin to control later in the turn will not.

  • 2024-01-12

    If you control no creature tokens when you populate, nothing will happen.

  • 2024-01-12

    If you choose to copy a creature token that's a copy of another creature, the new creature token will copy the characteristics of whatever the original token is copying.

  • 2024-01-12

    Any enters-the-battlefield abilities of the copied token will trigger when the new token enters the battlefield. Any "as [this creature] enters the battlefield" or "[this creature] enters the battlefield with" abilities of the copied token will also work.

  • 2024-01-12

    The new creature token copies the characteristics of the original token as stated by the effect that created the original token.

  • 2024-01-12

    Populate doesn't target the creature token you're copying. You choose that creature token as you're taking the populate action. You can choose any creature token you control. If a spell or ability causes you to create a creature token and then instructs you to populate, you may choose to copy the token you just created, or you may choose to copy another creature token you control.

  • 2024-01-12

    The new token doesn't copy whether the original token is tapped or untapped, whether it has any counters on it or Auras and Equipment attached to it, or any noncopy effects that have changed its power, toughness, color, and so on.

Rulings are Wizards of the Coast's own, mirrored from Scryfall and refreshed nightly.

In the 99

Every deck whose current list includes Rootborn Defenses, whatever its commander.

Decks running it 6
Games played 0
Win rate — Fewer than 5 completed games — not enough to publish a rate yet.
Confirmed on board 0 Games where a board photo caught it actually in play.

Most played under

Commander Decks Games Win rate
Edgar Markov 1 0 —
Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan 1 0 —
Ms. Bumbleflower 1 0 —
Myrel, Shield of Argive 1 0 —
Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation 1 0 —
Trostani, Selesnya's Voice 1 0 —

Colors it shows up in

  • Mono-White 2 decks
  • Abzan 1 deck
  • Mardu 1 deck
  • Selesnya 1 deck
  • Bant 1 deck

Every version of Rootborn Defenses

7 printings, newest first. Prices are the market figures Scryfall publishes, refreshed nightly — a printing with no figure shows a dash rather than a zero, because Scryfall genuinely publishes none for some of them.

Prices from Scryfall, which tracks the TCGplayer and Cardmarket markets. They move daily and are a guide rather than a quote. Search TCGplayer for Rootborn Defenses — a name search across every version, for the printings TCGplayer publishes no direct link to.

Aggregated from Commander games tracked in TurnZero HQ. Every figure counts decks and games only — no individual deck list, player or playgroup is identified. Win rates are withheld below 5 completed games, where the sample is too small to mean anything.