Takeno, Samurai General MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Takeno, Samurai General is known for empowering your samurai army, which can lead to maintaining superior board presence. This card effectively turns each samurai into a card-drawing engine upon dealing combat damage, potentially refilling your hand and ensuring you never run out of threats.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly a resource acceleration card, Takeno, Samurai General can indirectly lead to accelerated gameplay by efficiently increasing your army’s power and toughness. A strengthened array of samurai can lead to quicker victories, thus saving resources over the span of the match.

Instant Speed: While Takeno himself doesn’t function at instant speed, he encourages a gameplay style that values the reactive nature of instants in your arsenal. A well-timed combat trick or removal, facilitated by a bolstered samurai force, can tip the scales in your favor, maximizing the impact of every instant played.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Takeno, Samurai General places a strategic burden on deck design, necessitating a setup that can cope with occasionally discarding cards to optimize its combat benefits, which may not always align with your hand’s resources or game plan.

Specific Mana Cost: This samurai leader’s casting cost is particularly color-weighted, requiring both white and red mana which may not easily slot into a varied multicolor deck, potentially limiting the card’s versatility across different MTG strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its higher cost to get onto the battlefield, Takeno may arrive too late compared to other lower-cost creatures or commanders that can accelerate your game plan or offer immediate impact, often making timing and resource allocation a challenge.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Takeno, Samurai General can easily become a staple in any deck focusing on a warrior or samurai theme. With the ability to bolster other creatures, it fits well into both aggressive and mid-range decks that capitalize on creature synergy.

Combo Potential: Takeno offers the chance to combine with cards that grant significant bonuses to tapped creatures or bolster the power of legendary characters. These interactions can create powerful board states that can dominate the battlefield.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creature-heavy decks are prominent, Takeno’s ability to encourage offensive play while also providing potentially substantial buffs to your team makes it a practical choice for staying competitive and capitalizing on board-centric strategies.

How to beat

Takeno, Samurai General elevates strategies within MTG’s warrior ranks to new heights, as it not only boosts other Samurai but also offers resilience in the battlefield. Facing this fabled warrior who can potentially turn a squad of Samurai into a formidable force presents a unique challenge. To overcome Takeno at the table, it’s essential to thwart his ability to rally his troops. Employing removal spells before his effects can trigger, like Rapid Hybridization or Path to Exile, can neutralize the threat he poses effectively. Moreover, introducing board wipes such as Wrath of God – which clears the field of creatures regardless of size – can dismantle the warrior-centric build-up that Takeno thrives in.

Distraction techniques also work wonders in limiting Takeno’s impact. Engaging in political play can redirect opponents’ attention elsewhere, reducing the General’s gathering momentum. It’s also useful to keep card draw engines and counterspells handy, like Rhystic Study and Counterspell, to maintain your resources and counter pivotal plays. Ultimately, overcoming Takeno revolves around anticipation and timely reaction, dismantling the samurai strategy before it can reach its full, deadly crescendo.