Magic: The Gathering - 10 Most Powerful Mono-White Cards In 2020 Standard

7. Ajani's Pridemate

Heliod Magic
Wizards of the Coast

Ajani's Pridemate is one of the biggest threats in the decks featuring a life gain strategy. One generic and one white mana for a 2/2 is absolutely nothing special, those have been around in Magic forever. The important thing about the Pridemate is it's ability of gaining a +1/+1 counter for every instance of life gain that you have.

If you're a newer player this mean that if you do damage with two different creatures with lifelink Ajani's Pridemate will get a +1/+1 counter for each creature as they're two separate instances of gaining life. With this knowledge you can see just how quickly the Pridemate can become very large. Given the right combination of other creatures and cards a Pridemate can end a game as soon as turn 4 in the current standard.

If there were a downside it would be that Ajani's Pridemate can be fragile. Bouncing the Pridemate to its owners hand resets and growth progress and it can be destroyed by most removal spells. If you can protect it Pridemate can be a formidable threat that can end a game with only one or two attacks.

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David Windjack hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.