Combat Courier MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Artifact Creature — Construct |
| Abilities | Unearth |
| Released | 2022-11-18 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | The Brothers' War |
| Set code | BRO |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 77 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Alix Branwyn |
Key Takeaways
- Combat Courier provides consistent card advantage, empowering your play with a steady influx of options.
- It prompts strategic instant card play, enriching your tactical arsenal during pivotal game moments.
- Despite benefits, the discard activation and specific mana cost pose deck-building considerations.
Text of card
, Sacrifice Combat Courier: Draw a card. Unearth (: Return this card from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Unearth only as a sorcery.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Combat Courier enables drawing a card whenever it attacks, helping players consistently gain card advantage. This can provide a vital edge in keeping up the momentum and options available through each turn of the game.
Resource Acceleration: Though not directly impacting mana resources, Combat Courier’s ability to offer card draw accelerates access to a broader range of resources. This can indirectly lead to drawing into more land cards or mana-generating spells, thereby quickening the pace at which one can deploy threats or answers.
Instant Speed: While Combat Courier is not an instant itself, its mechanic encourages players to be strategic about other instant speed cards in their hand. By attacking with Combat Courier and potentially drawing an instant speed card, you can immediately respond to the unfolding combat or end step scenarios, ensuring versatility and unpredictability during the match.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Combat Courier necessitates discarding a card from your hand to activate its ability. This can potentially deplete your hand, making it challenging to maintain card advantage in the game.
Specific Mana Cost: With a casting cost that demands both red and white mana, Combat Courier could be a difficult fit for decks that are not specifically tailored to support these colors, thereby limiting its overall versatility.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sporting a casting cost higher than some other creatures in its class, Combat Courier may not be the most mana-efficient choice, especially when players are considering curve optimization in their deck build.
Reasons to Include Combat Courier in Your Collection
Versatility: Combat Courier slots into a variety of deck builds, owing to its ability to swiftly carry Equipment or Auras. Its low mana cost makes it a reliable early game creature for aggressive strategies.
Combo Potential: With the right setup, Combat Courier can be the linchpin in a combo that revolves around dealing combat damage, enabling potent draw effects or direct damage mechanisms upon hitting an opponent.
Meta-Relevance: Given the card’s synergy with fast-paced, equipment-centric strategies, it gains importance in metas where tempo and early board presence are decisive factors in securing victory.
How to beat
Overcoming Combat Courier hinges on understanding its abilities. This card allows for the drawing of a card at the beginning of your upkeep if you have attacked with a creature this turn. It’s a card that advocates for an aggressive playstyle, rewarding players for continuously applying pressure.
To disrupt this strategy, preventing attacks is key. Utilize creatures with “reach” or “flying” to defend against attackers, or spells that remove creatures from combat or tap them. Cards like “Pacifism” or “Frost Lynx” can effectively neutralize threats, halting the card-draw engine that Combat Courier offers.
Alternatively, instant-speed removal spells can be invaluable. Eliminating the Combat Courier before the attack phase or during your opponent’s upkeep can stop the card advantage it would provide. Focus on keeping the board clear and limiting your opponent’s opportunities to swing in for combat. By doing so, Combat Courier’s influence wanes, and your chances of winning increase substantially.
Cards like Combat Courier
Combat Courier’s role is an intriguing one in the landscape of vehicle cards in Magic: The Gathering. Much like its counterparts such as Smuggler’s Copter, it offers players a way to convert creatures into swift and impactful threats. However, Combat Courier offers a unique twist; it enables you to draw a card when it attacks, much like the effect seen on Rogue’s Gloves. The difference is that the card draw is embedded in the vehicle itself, removing the need for additional card attachments.
Another close relative in terms of functionality is the Sky Skiff, which shares the same mana cost and flying ability. Yet, it lacks the built-in card draw that gives Combat Courier an edge in terms of resource advantage. Furthermore, the Weatherlight, whilst significantly costlier in terms of mana, serves a similar purpose but offers a more powerful form of card selection when it deals combat damage. It digs deeper into the deck, providing not just card quantity but also quality.
Ultimately, Combat Courier finds its niche as a low-cost, card-advantage vehicle, setting itself apart from alternatives by merging efficient combat potential with consistent card draw, pertinent for decks that aim to maintain tempo and resource flow.
Cards similar to Combat Courier by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Combat Courier MTG card by a specific set like 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 Combat Courier 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
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Combat Courier has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Combat Courier 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 | Activating a card's unearth ability isn't the same as casting that card. The unearth ability is put on the stack, but the card is not. Spells and abilities that interact with activated abilities (such as Defabricate's second mode) will interact with unearth, but spells and abilities that interact with spells (such as Scatter Ray) will not. |
| 2022-10-14 | At the beginning of the next end step, a permanent returned to the battlefield with unearth is exiled. This is a delayed triggered ability, and it can be countered by effects such as Defabricate that counter triggered abilities. If the ability is countered, the permanent will stay on the battlefield and the delayed triggered ability won't trigger again. However, the replacement effect will still exile the permanent if it eventually leaves the battlefield. |
| 2022-10-14 | If a permanent returned to the battlefield with unearth would leave the battlefield for any reason, it's exiled instead—unless the spell or ability that's causing the permanent to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it! In that case, it succeeds at exiling it. If that spell or ability later returns the card to the battlefield (as Static Net might, for example), the permanent card will return to the battlefield as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effects will no longer apply to it. |
| 2022-10-14 | If you activate a card's unearth ability but that card is removed from your graveyard before the ability resolves, that unearth ability will do nothing as it resolves. |
| 2022-10-14 | Unearth grants haste to the permanent that's returned to the battlefield (even if it's not a creature card). However, neither of the "exile" abilities is granted to that permanent. If that permanent loses all its abilities, it will still be exiled at the beginning of the next end step, and if it would leave the battlefield, it is still exiled instead. |