Un-sets Art as Storytelling: The Werefox Bodyguard

Un-sets Art as Storytelling: The Werefox Bodyguard

In TCG ·

Werefox Bodyguard art from Magic: The Gathering, Wilds of Eldraine

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Art as Storytelling in MTG: Lessons from a Werefox Guardian

Magic: The Gathering has long invited us to read beyond the card text and into the world the artwork paints. In the era of Un-sets, storytelling often rides on playful misdirection, visual gags, and meta-commentary. Yet mainstream sets like Wilds of Eldraine demonstrate that art can carry its own steady narrative cadence—one that threads through a card’s flavor, mechanics, and even its moment in a game. The Werefox Bodyguard is a perfect case study: a rare white guardian whose elegance in armor and moonlit mood invites you to imagine a woodland protector who is both sly and steadfast 🧙‍♂️. Its artwork and design work in concert to tell a story of guardianship, cunning, and the odd, charming tension between human knightly order and wild fox-wisdom. 🔥

At first glance, Werefox Bodyguard announces itself with classic Eldraine vibes: elves, knights, and woodland whimsy coalescing into a creature that feels both noble and a touch mischievous. The card’s mana cost of {1}{W}{W} places it squarely in white’s wheelhouse—a space where resilience, protective instincts, and strategic tempo live. Its rarity—a rare from the Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) set—signals to collectors that this isn’t merely a filler body; it’s a piece with story weight and a distinct visual signature. The list of attributes reads like a quick abridged fable: a creature with Flash, a battlefield entry that can exile a foe’s non-Fox creature until it leaves, and a life-gain payoff when you sacrifice it. Each line of text nudges you toward imagining what this guardian is guarding and why its sudden, fox-crisp reentry matters in the scene. ⚔️

Design and Flavor: The Werefox in the White Weave

What makes Werefox Bodyguard a compelling storytelling anchor is how its mechanics articulate a guardian’s dilemma in forested fairy-tale spaces. The ability Flash allows this elf fox knight to leap into a moment of crisis, ensuring that the protective instinct arrives just as danger peaks. Exiling up to one other target non-Fox creature on entry creates a narrative beat: the guardian interrupts a threat, buying the moment for allies or, perhaps, for a clever feint that reshapes the turn’s tempo. It’s a small theater piece, enacted in a single combat phase. When the knight leaves the battlefield, the exile ends, and the tension dissolves—restoring balance to the woodland scene. And then there’s the life-gain option: pay {1}{W} to sacrifice this guardian and secure 2 life, a quiet reward that mirrors the classic white motif of endurance and renewal. This little cycle—guard, disrupt, recover life—reads like a bedtime story told by moonlight in Eldraine’s enchanted forests. 🧙‍♂️

The art by Néstor Ossandón Leal further anchors the narrative. The fusion of elf, fox, and knight suggests a protector who knows every trail and every whisper of the glade. The armor carries a polished, almost heraldic sheen, while the fox’s gaze hints at a cunning that keeps threats honest without losing sight of mercy. In Eldraine’s fairy-tale lexicon, that balance is essential: chivalry tempered by wry wit. The illustration’s color palette—muted greens and silvery whites with a splash of ember glow—invites players to feel the card as a mood piece as much as a tactical tool. In the hands of a storyteller-into-commander player, this card becomes a small legend you can draft into your board, then narrate aloud as a rival’s threats are stilled by a flash of white light. 🎨

Un-sets: Humor, Narrative, and the Bigger Picture

The Un-sets have long experimented with how art communicates jokes, parodies, and meta-narratives. Yet even in the formal panels of a traditional set like Wilds of Eldraine, the Werefox Bodyguard demonstrates that storytelling in MTG isn’t only about flavor text or card names; it’s about art that cues a story, and rules text that performs a tiny scene. The Werefox’s blend of loyalty and wily speed mirrors the Un-set ethos—playful, surprising, and capable of turning the tide with a single, well-timed action—while still delivering the clean, memorable fantasy tableau that Eldraine fans cherish. The result is a bridge: while Un-sets push storytelling through humor and subversion, traditional sets carry it through character design, encounter moments, and visual storytelling that feel like pages from a living fairy tale. ⚔️💎

Playability, Value, and Collector Vibe

From a competitive perspective, Werefox Bodyguard is a flexible, tempo-friendly piece in formats where Flash and protective utility shine. Its current market presence—priced around a few dimes in USD with foil options and modest EUR equivalents—echoes its status as a solid but not overpowered rare. The card’s 2/2 body for 3 mana, combined with a flashy enter-the-battlefield effect and a life-earning sacrifice, makes it a thoughtful inclusion in white-centered aggro-control blends, or in midrange shells that prize resilience and late-game survivability. The rarity and foil availability add to its collector’s appeal, turning the Werefox Guardian into a recommended pickup for storytellers who want a piece that sparks conversation about art, lore, and design as much as it does about board state. 🔥💎

As you weave Werefox Bodyguard into your deck, you’re not just playing a card—you’re inviting a micro-narrative to unfold on the battlefield. The conflict between a fox’s cunning and a knight’s duty becomes a metaphor for any magic match: sometimes you outwit the moment with a sudden exiled threat, other times you lean into steady defense and life gain until the story tilts in your favor. The card’s art does more than decorate the page; it hands you a scene you can describe to friends at the table, a vignette you can point to when you recall why you fell in love with this game in the first place 🧙‍♂️🎲. And when the story feels a little more cinematic, that’s the moment where MTG art, mechanics, and a well-timed flip of the battlefield come together to remind us: magic is a story you get to live, one turn at a time.

Feeling inspired to carry a little magic with you off the table? Consider a sleek companion for your daily adventure—a Neon Tough Phone Case 2-Piece Armor for iPhone & Samsung keeps your tech protected with the same “guard and go” spirit that Werefox embodies. Click below to check it out and keep your gear as stylish as your playstyle.

Neon Tough Phone Case 2-Piece Armor for iPhone & Samsung

More from our network


Werefox Bodyguard

Werefox Bodyguard

{1}{W}{W}
Creature — Elf Fox Knight

Flash

When this creature enters, exile up to one other target non-Fox creature until this creature leaves the battlefield.

{1}{W}, Sacrifice this creature: You gain 2 life.

ID: 4494dfa1-1343-417e-b0c5-2b096442dd0e

Oracle ID: d5ee2ced-29f4-430f-962e-2f930b92624c

Multiverse IDs: 629540

TCGPlayer ID: 512676

Cardmarket ID: 728465

Colors: W

Color Identity: W

Keywords: Flash

Rarity: Rare

Released: 2023-09-08

Artist: Néstor Ossandón Leal

Frame: 2015

Border: black

EDHRec Rank: 5819

Penny Rank: 2315

Set: Wilds of Eldraine (woe)

Collector #: 39

Legalities

  • Standard — legal
  • Future — legal
  • Historic — legal
  • Timeless — legal
  • Gladiator — legal
  • Pioneer — legal
  • Modern — legal
  • Legacy — legal
  • Pauper — not_legal
  • Vintage — legal
  • Penny — legal
  • Commander — legal
  • Oathbreaker — legal
  • Standardbrawl — legal
  • Brawl — legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — not_legal
  • Duel — legal
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

  • USD: 0.33
  • USD_FOIL: 0.41
  • EUR: 0.55
  • EUR_FOIL: 0.94
  • TIX: 0.02
Last updated: 2025-11-15