Clattering Skeletons MTG Card
2021-07-23 - Number 312
2021-07-23 - Number 93
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Skeleton |
| Abilities | Venture into the dungeon |
| Power | 4 |
| Toughness | 3 |
Key Takeaways
- Clattering Skeletons provide card advantage, returning to your hand after a defeat.
- Its mana specificity may limit its inclusion in diverse MTG deck strategies.
- Despite high cost, Clattering Skeletons’ graveyard synergy makes it a collection must-have.
Text of card
When Clattering Skeletons dies, venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Clattering Skeletons facilitate card advantage with their ability to return from the graveyard to your hand when they die, ensuring a persistent presence and continuous hand replenishment.
Resource Acceleration: Though not directly providing mana, the recurring nature of Clattering Skeletons can serve as a steady stream of blockers, saving precious life points and stalling the game until you can access more resources.
Instant Speed: While Clattering Skeletons themselves are not an instant, their synergistic potential with instant speed graveyard retrieval spells amplifies their utility, allowing for strategic reanimation during your opponent’s turn for defensive setups or surprise counterplays.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The ability of Clattering Skeletons often comes at a price, particularly requiring the discard of another card from your hand to trigger its beneficial effect. This can be detrimental when you are holding a hand with crucial spells that you are reluctant to discard.
Specific Mana Cost: Clattering Skeletons demands a specific mana allocation, which includes black mana that might not align well with multi-color decks. This specificity can restrict deck-building strategies and limit your ability to cast it on curve in a game where mana flexibility can be critical to your success.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With alternative creatures available at lower mana costs, the mana required to cast Clattering Skeletons can be considered high. This might render the card less attractive compared to other options that provide more immediate board presence or effects offering greater value for the mana invested.
Reasons to Include Clattering Skeletons in Your Collection
Versatility: Clattering Skeletons is a flexible addition to decks seeking to leverage graveyard mechanics. It can easily fit into various black-centric or multi-color builds aiming to benefit from creature recycling.
Combo Potential: This card opens up numerous combo possibilities with its death-triggered ability to venture into the dungeon, enhancing strategies that interact with dungeons or death triggers.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where attrition and control are prevalent, Clattering Skeletons offers repeated value, making it a relevant and strategic choice for sustaining momentum during extended play.
How to Beat Clattering Skeletons
Clattering Skeletons is an interesting creature that offers a unique twist in MTG games. With its ability to bolster your library upon dying, it can be slightly intimidating for opponents who must consider the long-term consequences of destroying it. To effectively combat Clattering Skeletons, you should turn your attention towards exile effects or cards that can remove it without triggering its ability. Graveyard hate cards, such as Rest in Peace or Relic of Progenitus, can help neutralize the impact Clattering Skeletons could have over the course of a game.
Tactics like enchantment-based removal or bounce effects can also sidestep the issue, ensuring that you don’t have to deal with the recursive aspect of Clattering Skeletons. Another smart approach is taking control of the board early, thereby limiting the opportunities for your opponent to take advantage of the Skeletons’ death-triggered ability. With careful planning and the right removal strategy, you can effectively minimize the advantage Clattering Skeletons might bring to your opponent’s deck strategy.
Finally, emphasizing on speed and efficiency in your gameplay can keep the pressure on your opponent, reducing the advantage gained from the Skeletons’ library shuffle ability and inching you closer to victory without letting the card disrupt your path.
Cards like Clattering Skeletons
Clattering Skeletons holds its ground in the realm of Magic: The Gathering creature cards that offer added value upon death. It is akin to Sengir Autocrat in terms of gameplay impact. Both creatures create additional board presence after leaving the battlefield, with Sengir Autocrat producing three Serf tokens. Clattering Skeletons, however, brings versatility by shuffling back into the player’s library, poised for a potential encore.
Exploring further, we come across Tenacious Dead, a card that similarly returns after death, albeit going straight to the battlefield. While Clattering Skeletons facilitates deck recycling and future draws, Tenacious Dead immediately reenters the fray, albeit with a cost to reactivate. Comparatively, Doomed Dissenter is a card that serves a similar purpose, creating a creature token after demise, bolstering the player’s army. However, unlike the reusability of Clattering Skeletons, Doomed Dissenter’s one-time token offering may not sustain long-term strategy as effectively.
In examining these creatures and their post-mortem advantages, Clattering Skeletons emerges as a formidable choice in player decks that capitalize on creature longevity and cycling, spotlighting its unique role in the game’s intricate dance of permanence and impermanence.
Cards similar to Clattering Skeletons by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Clattering Skeletons MTG card by a specific set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Clattering Skeletons and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Clattering Skeletons Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2021-07-23 and 2021-07-23. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2021-07-23 | Adventures in the Forgotten Realms | AFR | 312 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Phil Stone | |
| 2 | 2021-07-23 | Adventures in the Forgotten Realms | AFR | 93 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Aleksi Briclot |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Clattering Skeletons has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Clattering Skeletons card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-07-23 | A player may only have one dungeon in the command zone at a time. |
| 2021-07-23 | Choosing the dungeon or room to venture into is part of resolving the venture into the dungeon keyword action. Once that choice is made, players may not respond until after the appropriate room ability has triggered. |
| 2021-07-23 | Dungeon cards are not part of a player's deck or sideboard. In both constructed and limited formats, players can use any dungeon card when they venture into the dungeon. |
| 2021-07-23 | Dungeons are removed from the game as a state-based action. |
| 2021-07-23 | If you somehow venture into the dungeon while a room's ability is on the stack, you will continue on in the dungeon. If you're already in the last room, complete that dungeon and start a new one. |
| 2021-07-23 | Moving into a dungeon room will cause its room ability to trigger. |
| 2021-07-23 | Once you resolve the last room ability of a dungeon, that dungeon is now completed and is removed from the game. |
| 2021-07-23 | The player venturing into the dungeon chooses which dungeon they will venture into. They may choose a dungeon that they have already completed this game. |
| 2021-07-23 | To venture into the dungeon, a player moves their venture marker into the next room of the dungeon they are currently in. If they aren't currently in a dungeon, that player instead chooses a dungeon card from outside the game, puts it into the command zone, and moves their venture marker onto the first room. |
| 2021-07-23 | You can only move forward (well, downward) in a dungeon, never backwards or sideways. |
