Coati Scavenger MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Raccoon |
| Abilities | Descend |
| Released | 2023-11-17 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | The Lost Caverns of Ixalan |
| Set code | LCI |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 2 |
| Number | 179 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Alessandra Pisano |
Text of card
Descend 4 — When Coati Scavenger enters the battlefield, if there are four or more permanent cards in your graveyard, return target permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
The difference between trash and treasure is a matter of perspective.
Cards like Coati Scavenger
Coati Scavenger joins the ranks of beneficial death trigger cards in Magic: The Gathering. It bears similarities to creatures like Scavenging Ooze, with both focusing on graveyard interaction. While Scavenging Ooze provides incremental life gain and stat growth through its exile ability, Coati Scavenger offers an alternative advantage upon its demise by allowing the retrieval of an instant or sorcery card from the graveyard.
Comparatively, Eternal Taskmaster is another creature that enables resource recapture upon combat, yet Taskmaster restores the card directly to the hand and applies to any creature card, which opens different strategic avenues. Mourning Thrull is also a creature that shares the resurrection theme, albeit in a more limited aspect, by only returning enchantment cards.
In analyzing creatures with death-triggered abilities, it’s clear that Coati Scavenger has a unique place with its focus on spells. Its potential to recur high-impact instants or sorceries may prove invaluable in strategies that leverage the graveyard as a resource. This sets it apart from other options and highlights its strategic importance in specific MTG decks.
Cards similar to Coati Scavenger by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Coati Scavenger provides the ability to potentially recover a card from the graveyard, offering players a chance to reuse powerful spells or creatures and thereby gaining an edge over opponents through increased card utility.
Resource Acceleration: When entering the battlefield, Coati Scavenger may return a land card from the graveyard to your hand, potentially ramping up your mana resources and smoothing out land drops in the mid to late game.
Instant Speed: Its flash ability allows you to deploy Coati Scavenger at the most opportune moment, surprising an adversary during their turn or simply maximizing the efficiency of your mana usage by waiting until the end of an opponent’s turn to play.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Coati Scavenger introduces a deck-building challenge with its discard necessity. Having to discard a card to fully leverage its abilities could deplete your hand faster than desired, especially in formats where maintaining card advantage is crucial for victory.
Specific Mana Cost: Coati Scavenger’s casting cost is pinned to specific mana colors, requiring both green and black. This can create restrictions for deck construction and make the card a less versatile choice for players who prefer a broader color palette or mono-colored decks.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: As players evaluate options for their decks, the mana investment for Coati Scavenger could seem steep compared to other creatures of similar size or effect range. There are creatures at a lower mana cost that may not have the discard synergy but offer greater immediate board presence or utility.
Reasons to Include Coati Scavenger in Your Collection
Versatility: Coati Scavenger offers flexibility in various deck builds, bringing utility as both a creature and an enabler for graveyard strategies. Its ability to recover from the graveyard itself makes it a consistent board presence.
Combo Potential: This card pairs well with mechanics that benefit from death triggers or strategies revolving around graveyard manipulation, enabling intricate combos that could turn the tide of the game.
Meta-Relevance: With graveyard-based strategies common in several metas, Coati Scavenger can quickly become a key component in decks that seek to exploit these tactics, maintaining board advantage against numerous popular archetypes.
How to beat
Coati Scavenger presents itself as a clever piece on the battlefield, offering its controller a recurring source of card advantage in the form of graveyard synergy in Magic: The Gathering. The key to surpassing this creature lies in disrupting this synergy. Removing key components from the graveyard, such as with cards like Scavenging Ooze or Relic of Progenitus, can effectively render the Coati Scavenger’s ability obsolete, preventing the repeated threat recursion that can overwhelm an unprepared opponent.
Additionally, because Coati Scavenger depends on the death of other creatures to trigger its effect, employing removal spells that exile rather than destroy creatures can further impair its usefulness. Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares are efficient at this, ensuring the Scavenger has less to feed on. It’s also worth considering that, as a creature itself, Coati Scavenger is susceptible to the usual suite of creature removal, such as Doom Blade or Lightning Bolt, which can remove the threat outright before it has the chance to accrue value.
In essence, overcoming Coati Scavenger hinges on depriving it of resources and swiftly managing the threat before it can gain momentum. Tactic and foresight are paramount, making this more than just a test of power but a true battle of wits.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Coati Scavenger MTG card by a specific set like The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, 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 Coati Scavenger and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- 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
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Coati Scavenger has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Coati Scavenger card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2023-11-10 | Cards with the ability word "descend N" have abilities that care if you have at least N permanent cards in your graveyard. |
| 2023-11-10 | Some descend triggered abilities include intervening "if" clauses (i.e. "if you have -our or eight] permanent cards in your graveyard" in the middle of the ability). Each of these abilities checks your graveyard at the moment it would trigger to see if it does. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability doesn't trigger at all. If it does trigger, it will check again as it tries to resolve. If you don't have the required number of permanent cards in your graveyard at that time, the ability won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. |