Arcane Proxy MTG Card
2022-11-18 - Number 75
2022-11-18 - Number 319
2002-06-24 - Number 105680
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 7 |
| Rarity | Mythic |
| Type | Artifact Creature — Wizard |
| Abilities | Prototype |
| Power | 4 |
| Toughness | 3 |
Key Takeaways
- Provides strategic card selection and enhanced hand options, setting up advantageous plays.
- Access to more mana enables casting of high-cost spells sooner, disrupting opponent rhythm.
- Its instant speed flexibility allows players to tactically respond to opponent’s actions.
Text of card
Prototype — 2/1 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.) When Arcane Proxy enters the battlefield, if you cast it, exile target instant or sorcery card with mana value less than or equal to Arcane Proxy's power from your graveyard. Copy that card. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Arcane Proxy allows players to delve deep into their library, providing the ability to selectively sift through multiple cards. This not only immediately increases their hand options but also strategically shapes future draws to maintain a lead over the opponent.
Resource Acceleration: By enabling access to additional mana through the copied spell, Arcane Proxy can significantly ramp up a player’s available resources. This potentially unlocks higher-cost spells earlier in the game, altering the pace in your favor and putting pressure on the adversary.
Instant Speed: The utility of Arcane Proxy at instant speed offers the versatility to react to opponents’ moves on their turn. This can disrupt their strategies or create surprise advantages, improving both the defensive and offensive capabilities during the heat of the moment.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Arcane Proxy comes with a caveat that necessitates discarding a card as part of its casting cost. This can be a significant disadvantage when your hand is running on empty, forcing you to lose potentially valuable resources to bring this spell to the battlefield.
Specific Mana Cost: To cast Arcane Proxy, you must pay a precise combination of mana, including at least one blue. This restricts its inclusion to decks that can consistently generate the required mana, potentially excluding it from more color-diverse or color-restricted strategies.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Arcane Proxy may offer intriguing benefits, its mana cost is on the higher side when comparing it to other cards with similar abilities. Savvy players might find other options that grant them a more efficient use of mana and resources.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Arcane Proxy shines as a flexible piece in various deck builds. Its capacity to operate as any instant or sorcery in your graveyard makes it a key player, opening up a wide array of strategic approaches at critical moments.
Combo Potential: This card’s inherent ability to replicate prior spells sets the stage for potential combo plays. Imagine the possibilities when Arcane Proxy is paired with spells that have powerful enter-the-battlefield or leave-the-battlefield effects, amplifying both immediate and long-term plans.
Meta-Relevance: In a shifting MTG environment, a card like Arcane Proxy can prove invaluable. It adjusts as the meta evolves, giving players the adaptability to respond to prevalent deck types and strategies, ensuring its significance in competitive play.
How to defeat Arcane Proxy
Arcane Proxy is an intriguing card that can pose a considerable challenge in MTG if not tackled properly. To effectively combat it, it’s essential to understand its capabilities and limitations. Like many other cards that have an impact on the battlefield, the key to overcoming Arcane Proxy is to disable its effects or remove it from play as swiftly as possible.
Targeted removal spells are the most straightforward way to deal with Arcane Proxy. Spells that can destroy or exile it without triggering its abilities are ideal. Additionally, countering Arcane Proxy before it hits the battlefield can circumvent its troublesome effects altogether. It’s also worth considering strategies that limit its activation conditions or use its own mechanics against it. For example, if Arcane Proxy hinges on certain triggers, controlling those game states can render it ineffective.
Remember that staying informed about the current meta and adapting your deck to include answers to threats like Arcane Proxy will always be beneficial. By preparing your strategy in advance and keeping key removals at the ready, you can ensure that Arcane Proxy’s magic is short-lived in your games against it.
Cards like Arcane Proxy
Arcane Proxy enters a storied lineage of modal spells within Magic: The Gathering that grant players the flexibility to face various situations. Arcane Proxy resembles cards like Cryptic Command in its ability to choose from multiple effects. Yet, Arcane Proxy provides a unique spin with a more focused selection of abilities catered towards sorcery and instant spells, reminiscent of Snapcaster Mage. Arcane Proxy allows for the recasting of a spell from the graveyard, differing from Snapcaster Mage by exiling the proxy card instead of itself.
Another relative in this family is Mission Briefing, which also enables the casting of spells from the graveyard. Unlike Arcane Proxy, it provides Surveil 2 before the casting, offering additional card selection at the cost of no physical board presence. Conversely, Arcane Proxy offers an immediate threat on the board. Lastly, there’s Kess, Dissident Mage, which permits casting from the graveyard once each turn, without the exile clause. Kess differs with a larger mana investment and body on the battlefield.
Assessing Arcane Proxy’s place among these varied options shows its strength in providing strategic flexibility and immediate board impact, making it a card to watch in MTG strategies that capitalize on instants and sorceries.
Cards similar to Arcane Proxy by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Arcane Proxy MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and The Brothers' War, 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 Arcane Proxy 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 Arcane Proxy Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2022-11-18 and 2022-11-18. Illustrated by Kekai Kotaki.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Magic Online Promos | PRM | 105680 | 2015 | Prototype | Black | Kekai Kotaki | ||
| 2 | 2022-11-18 | The Brothers' War | BRO | 75 | 2015 | Prototype | Black | Kekai Kotaki | |
| 3 | 2022-11-18 | The Brothers' War | BRO | 319 | 2015 | Prototype | Black | Kekai Kotaki |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Arcane Proxy has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Arcane Proxy card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2022-10-14 | A prototype card is a colorless card in every zone except the stack or the battlefield, as well as while on the stack or the battlefield if not cast as a prototyped spell. Ignore its alternative characteristics in those cases. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Blitz Automaton is a colorless creature card with mana value 7. It can't be the target of Recommission, a spell that targets an artifact or creature card with mana value 3 or less in your graveyard. |
| 2022-10-14 | Casting a prototyped spell isn't the same as casting it for an alternative cost, and an alternative cost may be applied to a spell cast this way. For example, if an effect allows you to cast an artifact card without paying its mana cost, you could either cast Blitz Automaton normally, or as a prototyped spell. |
| 2022-10-14 | If an effect copies a prototyped spell, that copy (as well as the token it becomes on the battlefield) will have the same characteristics as the prototyped spell. Similarly, if an effect creates a token that's a copy of a prototyped permanent or causes another permanent to become a copy of it, the copy would have the same characteristics as the prototyped permanent. |
| 2022-10-14 | If another effect causes Arcane Proxy's power to be less than the mana value of the target card as the ability tries to resolve, the target is illegal. The card won't be exiled, and you won't get to cast a copy. |
| 2022-10-14 | If the spell you cast has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X. |
| 2022-10-14 | If you cast a spell "without paying its mana cost," you can't pay any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs, such as kicker costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those. |
| 2022-10-14 | If you don't want to cast the copy, you can choose not to; the copy ceases to exist the next time state-based actions are checked. |
| 2022-10-14 | Regardless of how it was cast, a prototype card always has the same name, abilities, types, and so on. Only the mana cost, mana value, color, power, and toughness change depending on whether the card was cast as a prototyped spell. |
| 2022-10-14 | The prototype ability functions in any zone that the spell could be cast from. For example, if an effect allows you to cast artifact spells from your graveyard, you could cast a prototyped Blitz Automaton from your graveyard. |
| 2022-10-14 | When cast as a prototyped spell, that spell has the mana cost, power, and toughness characteristics shown in its colored, secondary text box rather than the normal values of those characteristics. Its color and mana value are determined by that mana cost. The permanent that spell becomes as it resolves has the same characteristics. If the spell leaves the stack in any other way, or the permanent it becomes leaves the battlefield, it immediately resumes using its normal characteristics. |
| 2022-10-14 | When casting a prototyped spell, use only its prototype characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast it. For example, if Blitz Automaton is exiled with the last ability of Chandra, Dressed to Kill, you would be able to cast it for (because it's a red spell), even though you wouldn't be able to cast it as a colorless spell for its normal cost. |
| 2022-10-14 | You cast the copy while the ability is resolving and still on the stack. You can't wait to cast it later in the turn. |