Alora, Merry Thief MTG Card


Alora offers card advantage, enabling nuanced strategy adjustments and greater hand flexibility. Including Alora helps accelerate resources, allowing earlier high-cost card deployment. Despite advantages, her discard requirement and mana specificity can limit utility.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeLegendary Creature — Halfling Rogue
Abilities Choose a background
Power 3
Toughness 2

Text of card

Whenever you attack, up to one target attacking creature can't be blocked this turn. Return that creature to its owner's hand at the beginning of the next end step. Choose a Background (You can have a Background as a second commander.)


Cards like Alora, Merry Thief

Alora, Merry Thief, offers Magic: The Gathering players a unique blend of strategic diversity and prowess in the game’s rogue-focused decks. It holds a resemblance to other MTG rogues, like Rankle, Master of Pranks, in its potential to disrupt the opponent’s momentum. Unlike Alora, Rankle possesses flying and haste, wide-reaching abilities that can swing a match more immediately. However, Alora sets itself apart with its ability to generate card advantage through its pure card-drawing capability, a feature not present in Rankle’s toolkit.

When compared to Oona’s Blackguard, another pillar in rogue strategies, Alora shines with its lower mana cost, providing early game presence. Although Oona’s Blackguard can enhance other rogues and force card discard when buffed, Alora remains a standalone powerhouse that can fuel its own effectiveness without relying on other creatures.

Factoring in the synergy with tokens generated from rogues and its inherent card draw ability, Alora, Merry Thief, stands out in its category for those who value escalating one’s hand size while developing a formidable board presence in MTG.

Rankle, Master of Pranks - MTG Card versions
Oona's Blackguard - MTG Card versions
Rankle, Master of Pranks - MTG Card versions
Oona's Blackguard - MTG Card versions

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Wall of Water - MTG Card versions
Prodigal Sorcerer - MTG Card versions
Apprentice Wizard - MTG Card versions
Homarid - MTG Card versions
Wall of Air - MTG Card versions
Daring Apprentice - MTG Card versions
Time Elemental - MTG Card versions
Reef Pirates - MTG Card versions
Rootwater Shaman - MTG Card versions
Wind Drake - MTG Card versions
Volrath's Shapeshifter - MTG Card versions
Clam Session - MTG Card versions
Stronghold Biologist - MTG Card versions
Quicksilver Wall - MTG Card versions
Phantom Warrior - MTG Card versions
Wormfang Drake - MTG Card versions
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Ghost of Ramirez DePietro - MTG Card versions
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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Alora, Merry Thief ensures a steady stream of card advantage. When played early, this card can help build a solid hand, enabling strategy execution and providing options to outmaneuver your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: Alora’s ability to tap and expend treasures translates into significant resource acceleration. This function allows players to deploy high-cost cards earlier in the game, altering the battlefield dynamic in their favor.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of activating Alora’s ability at instant speed is invaluable. Players can optimize their turn structure, respond to opponent’s moves on-the-fly, and capitalize on unspent resources at the end of their opponent’s turn, making it an exemplary tactical asset in any match.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Alora, Merry Thief’s ability advantages are gated behind a discard mechanism, leading to potentially unfavorable trades in card advantage, especially if you’re in dire need of maintaining hand size.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana alignment, which can complicate casting in multi-colored decks not heavily focused on green and white mana resources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although Alora carries intrigue as a utility creature, its mana investment can outweigh its immediate impact on the game, making it a less than optimal choice when curve efficiency is critical.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Alora, Merry Thief, can seamlessly integrate into numerous deck styles that thrive on leveraging creatures’ abilities. Its ability to draw cards upon creatures entering the battlefield makes it a valuable addition to strategies that focus on creature play.

Combo Potential: This card’s capacity to draw upon creature entry opens up avenues for combinations with enter-the-battlefield effects or those that rely on constant creature casting, enhancing deck synergy and effectiveness.

Meta-Relevance: Given its ability to provide card advantage in creature-centric decks, Alora, Merry Thief, maintains relevance in various meta environments where card draw and creature presence are instrumental.


How to Beat Alora, Merry Thief

Alora, Merry Thief emerges as a cunning character on the playing field of Magic: The Gathering, offering advantages to those who strategize around her ability to grant card advantage every time you draw your second card each turn. Confronting this plucky rogue demands a specific tactic to keep her abilities in check and prevent your opponent from leveraging her card-drawing synergy.

To curb Alora’s influence, focus on removal spells that can bypass her low toughness. Direct damage spells or those that allow targeting of creatures regardless of their size can be particularly effective. Furthermore, implementing graveyard disruption tactics can impede any plans to recycle Alora from the graveyard, a common strategy among those employing her. Additionally, cards that restrict the number of spells each player can cast per turn will prevent the ability from triggering too often, thereby diminishing her overall impact on the game.

Ultimately, while Alora, Merry Thief can certainly be a slippery adversary, a well-planned removal strategy coupled with limitations on card draw or casting can efficiently nullify her deceptive allure and keep her larcenous hands from tipping the balance of the game in your opponent’s favor.


BurnMana Recommendations

Alora, Merry Thief, stands as a compelling card for players looking to maintain card advantage and accelerate resource potential in MTG. With the ability to tactically use treasures and draw at instant speed, Alora can substantially change the course of gameplay. However, it’s crucial to balance her discard requirement and specific mana needs within your strategy. Including Alora in your collection brings versatility to creature-based decks and opens up combo potential, making her a worthy asset in variable meta environments. Want to discover how Alora fits within your deck and how to optimize her abilities? Dive deeper with us and enhance your MTG expertise.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Alora, Merry Thief MTG card by a specific set like Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate and Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, 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 Alora, Merry Thief and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Alora, Merry Thief Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2022-06-10 and 2022-06-10. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12022-06-10Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's GateCLB 552015NormalBlackAaron Miller
22022-06-10Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's GateCLB 3812015NormalBlackJeff Dee
32022-06-10Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's GateCLB 4812015NormalBlackAaron Miller

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Alora, Merry Thief has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Alora, Merry Thief card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2022-06-10 An effect that checks whether you control your commander is satisfied if you control one or both of your two commanders.
2022-06-10 Both commanders start in the command zone, and the remaining 98 cards (or 58 cards in a Commander Draft game) of your deck are shuffled to become your library.
2022-06-10 Choose a Background is a variant of the partner ability. You may have two commanders if one of them is a legendary creature with the choose a background ability and the other is a legendary Background enchantment. Backgrounds and cards with choose a Background do not interact with cards which have any other partner ability.
2022-06-10 If a card refers to a commander creature you own, a Background won't usually be counted or included for that effect. If another spell or ability causes your Background to become a creature, however, it will be included. Any effect that refers to your commander or a commander you own or control without specifying creature will apply to a Background that is your commander, as appropriate.
2022-06-10 If something refers to your commander while you have two commanders, it refers to one of them of your choice. If you are instructed to perform an action on your commander (e.g. put it from the command zone into your hand due to Command Beacon), you choose one of your commanders at the time the effect happens.
2022-06-10 If you control a Background that grants an ability to commander creatures you own, and you own more than one commander creature, each of them will have that ability.
2022-06-10 If your Commander deck has two commanders, you can include only cards whose own color identities are also found in your commanders’ combined color identities.
2022-06-10 If your commander loses the choose a Background ability or stops being a Background during the game, as appropriate, it is still your commander.
2022-06-10 Once the game begins, your two commanders are tracked separately. If you cast one, you won’t have to pay an additional the first time you cast the other. A player loses the game after having been dealt 21 combat damage from any one of them, not from both of them combined (although your Background won’t usually be a creature anyway).
2022-06-10 You can choose two commanders that are the same color or colors.