Planar Ally MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Planar Ally provides ongoing card advantage every time you attack with it, potentially offering new options and increasing your hand resources without expending additional spells.

Resource Acceleration: By creating Clue tokens upon dealing combat damage, this creature aids in ramping up resources. These tokens can be sacrificed for card draws, effectively speeding up your deck’s performance through additional card access.

Instant Speed: Though Planar Ally isn’t an instant itself, it can generate immediate value by creating tokens at instant speed upon attacking, which integrates well with strategies that capitalize on surprise maneuvers and tactical flexibility.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Many MTG enthusiasts may find the discard prerequisite attached to Planar Ally less appealing due to the potential loss of valuable cards, thereby depleting your hand, which could be detrimental in the later stages of the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Planar Ally demands a precise combination of mana types to cast, which might not seamlessly integrate into a multicolored deck. Players must strategically manage their lands and mana resources to accommodate its casting requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: At a higher mana value, Planar Ally might not be the most mana-efficient creature in your deck. Given its cost, players might expect a more impactful presence on the battlefield, leading some to consider alternative creatures with lower mana requirements or stronger abilities.

Reasons to Include Planar Ally in Your Collection

Versatility: Planar Ally is a multifaceted card that can find a place in various deck archetypes. Whether you’re running a control deck looking for reliable triggers or an aggro build seeking to maintain momentum, this card can be a solid fit.

Combo Potential: With the ability to synergize with blink and enter-the-battlefield effects, Planar Ally can become a pivotal part of combos that capitalize on these interactions to gain advantage.

Meta-Relevance: Considering the shifting landscape of the meta, Planar Ally holds its ground by being applicable against an array of popular decks, making it a tactical choice in many matched games.

How to beat

Planar Ally puts a spin on creature versatility in Magic: The Gathering, offering a unique ability that can quickly swing a game by fetching a card every time you attack. To successfully counter this card, it is essential to remove it from the battlefield swiftly before your opponent can capitalize on its card advantage mechanism. Removal spells are your best allies here, with options like Murder to outright destroy it or countering it upon casting with a Negate. Containment Priest can be particularly crippling against Planar Ally by preventing the fetched creatures from entering the battlefield. The key is to stifle the Ally’s engine before it can generate substantial value. Considering it could tutor key pieces that bolster your adversary’s strategy, a preventive approach is often more efficacious.

Another avenue to explore is limiting the Ally’s ability to attack. Ensnaring spells or abilities that keep it tapped down, such as Frost Lynx’s effect or Pacifism, can effectively neutralize the threat it poses without having to remove it entirely. By understanding Planar Ally’s potential and staying one step ahead with these strategies, you can ensure that this card does not disrupt the balance of play and maintains an even battleground.