Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Mendicant Core, Guidelight: Legendary Artifact Creature - Robot, Aetherdrift. MTG card printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.
- Mana cost
- {W}{U}
- Mana value
- 2
- Type
- Legendary Artifact Creature - Robot
- Colour identity
- White and blue (WU)
- Power / toughness
- */3
- Rarity
- Rare
- Set
- Aetherdrift (DFT)
- Released
- 2025-02-14
- Collector number
- 213
- Artist
- Zezhou Chen
- Keywords
- Max speed, Start your engines!
- Commander
- Can be your commander
Build around this card with Grover
About Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Mendicant Core, Guidelight is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare white and blue legendary artifact creature from Aetherdrift (DFT), an expansion set released in February 2025. It is collector number 213 in that set, with art by Zezhou Chen. It costs {W}{U} (one white and one blue mana) to cast, for a mana value of 2. It is a */3 creature. Its colour identity is white and blue. It is legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Gladiator and Penny Dreadful. It has been printed in 2 sets. It can be your commander. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.78 (normal finish, as of 2026-10-23).
Card text
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}. If you do, copy it. (The copy becomes a token.)
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.78 (as of 2026-10-23).
The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.
Format legality
Legality of Mendicant Core, Guidelight by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
| Standard | Legal |
|---|---|
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Standard Brawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Penny Dreadful | Legal |
Other printings of Mendicant Core, Guidelight
Mendicant Core, Guidelight has been printed in 2 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.
| Printing | Rarity | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Aetherdrift (DFT) #365 | Rare | 2025 |
| Aetherdrift (DFT) #485 | Rare | 2025 |
| Aetherdrift Promos (PDFT) #213p | Rare | 2025 |
| Aetherdrift Promos (PDFT) #213s | Rare | 2025 |
Official rulings
The 8 most recent official rulings for Mendicant Core, Guidelight, newest first.
- “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.
Similar cards
Other artifact creature cards with a white and blue colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.