Blood-Toll Harpy MTG Card

The Harpy’s life-loss ability creates an indirect card advantage, pressuring opponents while boosting your game plan. Demands strategy around its specific mana cost and discard effect, which may limit its playability in some decks. Its combo potential and impact on multiple opponents make it a formidable addition in various MTG formats.
Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Harpy
Abilities Flying
Power 2
Toughness 1

Text of card

Flying When Blood-Toll Harpy enters the battlefield, each player loses 1 life.

When harpies demand a toll to cross through their territory, consider yourself lucky if they permit payment in coin.

Cards like Blood-Toll Harpy

Blood-Toll Harpy stands as an intriguing creature within the pantheon of flying creatures in Magic: The Gathering. It finds kinship with creatures such as Liliana’s Specter, inviting comparisons with its entrance-triggered ability that affects each opponent. While Liliana’s Specter forces each opponent to discard a card, Blood-Toll Harpy demands each opponent to sacrifice a life – both disruptive in their own right.

Another similar entity is Falkenrath Noble, which is also a creature with flying and ties its ability to life loss for opponents. However, its ability triggers upon any creature’s death, not just on entry, marking a different strategic point in the game. Then there’s Poison-Tip Archer, which broadens the impact with reach and a death-triggered ability affecting each opponent and planeswalker they control. The Archer deals with a wider array of threats but doesn’t possess the aerial advantage.

Despite the nuances, Blood-Toll Harpy offers a blend of aerial aggression and life-toll leverage. It garners a solid position among its peers, ideally in decks that capitalize on consistent life chipping to undermine foes over the course of a match.

Liliana's Specter - MTG Card versions
Falkenrath Noble - MTG Card versions
Poison-Tip Archer - MTG Card versions
Liliana's Specter - MTG Card versions
Falkenrath Noble - MTG Card versions
Poison-Tip Archer - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Blood-Toll Harpy creates a scenario where each opponent loses 1 life and you gain life equal to the life lost in that way. This life swing can represent an indirect form of card advantage, as it weakens your opponents while bolstering your position, potentially leading to more favorable trades and longer game presence.

Resource Acceleration: While the Harpy itself doesn’t directly provide mana acceleration, the life loss inflicted on opponents can disrupt their strategies, providing you with a relative resource advantage, especially if you’re leveraging a strategy designed to capitalize on opponent life loss.

Instant Speed: Although Blood-Toll Harpy is a creature and not an instant, the effect it has on the game upon entering the battlefield can be akin to an instant speed interaction, forcing opponents to immediately deal with the shift in life totals or risk it tipping the scales further in subsequent turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Blood-Toll Harpy requires each player to sacrifice a creature when it enters the battlefield. This can put you at a disadvantage if you are behind on board presence or want to maintain a specific creature for strategic purposes.

Specific Mana Cost: This harpy demands a precise blend of one black and two generic mana. This restricts its inclusion to decks that can reliably produce black mana, potentially sidelining it in multicolored decks that don’t focus on black.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For a 2/1 flyer, three mana can be seen as a hefty investment, especially when other cards at a similar cost could offer more significant impact or utility on the battlefield.

Reasons to Include Blood-Toll Harpy in Your Collection

Versatility: Blood-Toll Harpy offers a unique combination of flying and life-loss abilities that make it a viable option in multiple deck builds. Its ability to chip away at opponents’ life totals while providing an evasive body makes it a multifaceted card that can perform in various situations.

Combo Potential: This harpy synergizes well with cards that exploit your opponents’ life totals, potentially working in tandem with effects that trigger when an opponent loses life or cards that grow stronger as life totals diminish.

Meta-Relevance: In a gameplay environment where decks focus on gaining and maintaining board presence, Blood-Toll Harpy can be particularly effective. Its ability to affect all opponents makes it a valuable asset in multiplayer formats, where impacting multiple players simultaneously can shift the tide of the game.

How to beat

Blood-Toll Harpy presents a unique challenge on the battlefield, chipping away at each player’s life total when it enters the play. This flying creature is at home in decks focused on life loss and incremental damage. To counteract Blood-Toll Harpy, consider implementing creature removal spells that can target flying creatures, such as Skywhaler’s Shot or Plummet, which can eliminate the Harpy before it takes a significant toll on your life total.

Moreover, enhancing your life gain strategies could help mitigate the effect of the Blood-Toll Harpy’s ability. Cards that offer life gain on creature entry, like Healer’s Hawk or Fountain of Renewal, provide a steady stream of life that can offset the Harpy’s damage. Remember, Blood-Toll Harpy affects all players, so using it in a multiplayer setting can turn the tides if used strategically with symmetry-breaking cards like Teyo’s Lightshield, which buffs your creatures while reducing the impact on your life points.

In essence, tackling the Blood-Toll Harpy effectively requires a mix of proactive removal, strategic life gain, and a good understanding of how it interacts within your opponent’s strategy. Neutralize it swiftly, and you’ll preserve your life total, paving the way to victory.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Blood-Toll Harpy MTG card by a specific set like Theros and Conspiracy: Take the Crown, 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 Blood-Toll Harpy and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Blood-Toll Harpy Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-09-27 and 2016-08-26. Illustrated by Kev Walker.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12013-09-27TherosTHS 792003NormalBlackKev Walker
22016-08-26Conspiracy: Take the CrownCN2 1292015NormalBlackKev Walker

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Blood-Toll Harpy has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal
PennyLegal