Cavalier of Dawn – Core Set 2020 MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

All of the Cavalier names from M20 would actually have been great in an Arthurian block. Good thing we’re getting one soon, then! The Cavalier of Dawn reminds me of Terastodon – technically the big elephant was the precursor to Beast Within, albeit only by one block. Why is that? A friend of mine used to joke that Terastodon has no drawback because you can target your own permanents and get even more elephants. There’s a lot of truth to that. At five mana, you might be able to spare a land, or at the very least a cheap equipment or some such. Even if not, turning something like Liliana into a vanilla 3/3 is sometimes a great trade, and those combat stats mean he’s hard to stop once he gets going.

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5

Cavalier of Dawn is arguably one of the weaker members of the mythic-rare Cavalier cycle…which is still powerful, natch. Five mana for a Beast Within/Generous Gift effect, stapled to a 4/6 with vigilance, is still pretty darn powerful! And the death trigger is a bit harder to make use of than other Cavalier death triggers, unless you build around it. But a Regrowth effect, even if limited, is good value. It adds up to a creature that’s a bit less than the sum of its parts; it’s crazy in Limited formats, but a color-intensive mana cost makes this a hard sell in Constructed, coupled with other cards doing more. But being able to pop a troublesome permanent will always give Cavalier of Dawn something to do.

Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 4
Limited: 4.75
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.75