Animate Wall MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: When summoning an Animate Wall, you effectively transform a defensive card into a potential source of offense, which could lead to an unexpected advantage. The Wall you animate was initially just a barrier, but now it’s a threat to your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: Animate Wall enables dormant defense walls to become active attackers without requiring additional mana investment to play another creature. This accelerates your board presence without depleting resources typically necessary for deploying additional threats.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Animate Wall at instant speed offers flexibility in gameplay. You can catch your opponent off-guard by converting a blocking wall into an attacker right before your turn, potentially swinging the game in your favor without telegraphing your strategy.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Animate Wall mandates that players have a wall on the battlefield to target, which could narrow deck-building options and necessitate additional cards dedicated to walls in your deck design.

Specific Mana Cost: This card asks for a white mana, which might not be readily available in multicolor decks that don’t emphasize white mana sources, thus potentially limiting its integration into diverse deck strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring two mana, one of which is white, might seem low; however, the effect of simply allowing a wall to attack may not stack up against other two-mana cost cards that could provide more impactful board presence or utility.

Reasons to Include Animate Wall in Your Collection

Versatility: Animate Wall lends itself to a variety of strategies, enabling walls you’d typically use for defense to turn into aggressive creatures. This can lead to unexpected attacks, catching opponents off guard and adjusting your board position fluidly.

Combo Potential: Pairing Animate Wall with high toughness walls or those with significant abilities enhances their utility, allowing you to engage in combat or exploit abilities that typically lie dormant. The synergistic possibilities open up numerous tactical plays in your matches.

Meta-Relevance: Since many players overlook walls for more direct threats, incorporating Animate Wall into your deck adds a layer of complexity to your game plan. It presents a novel challenge for opponents who might not be prepared for your defensive structures to come to life offensively.

How to beat

Animate Wall is a unique card in the vast universe of Magic: The Gathering, functioning as an enabler for defensive walls to join the offense. The ability to turn a wall, typically a stationary defender, into an active attacker can certainly catch opponents off guard. However, like all strategies, there are ways to dismantle this approach. Consider employing removal spells that can bypass the defensive statistics of a wall. Since walls generally boast higher toughness, direct damage spells might falter, so spells that can exile or force a player to sacrifice a creature could prove more effective. Targeted removal like Path to Exile or board wipes that don’t discriminate based on toughness, like Wrath of God, can clear the path to victory.

Another effective tactic is to utilize spells that prevent the wall from attacking or neutralize abilities. Abilities like “tap target creature” or enchantments such as Pacifism can render Animate Wall ineffective. This strategy not only stops the converted attackers in their tracks but also ensures that your opponent’s defenses are down, paving the way for your creatures to press an advantage. Overall, adapting your strategy to include versatile removal and control elements will increase your resilience against cards like Animate Wall and similar unexpected tactics in Magic: The Gathering.