Stonecloaker MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 6 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Gargoyle
Abilities Flying, Flash
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Stonecloaker ensures continuous card advantage by returning creatures from graveyards to hands.
  2. Its flash ability allows for surprise plays, complicating opponents’ strategies during their turns.
  3. Despite its benefits, Stonecloaker requires careful deck building due to mana cost and creature return.
Flash card art

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

Flash (You may play this spell any time you could play an instant.) Flying When Stonecloaker comes into play, return a creature you control to its owner's hand. When Stonecloaker comes into play, remove target card in a graveyard from the game.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Stonecloaker Mtg Card offers unique card advantage due to its ability to return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand. This means the card inherently offers a 2-for-1 mechanism, ensuring you always stay one step ahead of your opponent in terms of available cards.

Resource Acceleration: Stonecloaker serves double duty as a resource accelerator, its enter-the-battlefield effect ensures you can rescue a key creature from your graveyard which can be reused later. This provides substantial recycling of resources, elevating the potential to develop overwhelming board presence in less time.

Instant Speed: Stonecloaker is a flash card, and this trait is incredibly valuable in MTG. It can be played at any phase of the turn, even during the opponent’s turn, preventing them from planning effectively and creates surprise attacks or blocks. A true game-changer, the Stonecloaker Mtg card lets you master the pace of the match.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Although Stonecloaker offers an instant-speed graveyard disruption and bounce creature capability, it requires the player to return a creature they control to their hand when it enters the battlefield. This can be a downside if there aren’t expendable creatures or if field presence is significant.

Specific Mana Cost: Stonecloaker necessitates two colorless and one white mana to cast. This could restrain the flexibility of its use, limiting it to decks with white mana or multicolored decks with white in the mix. It may not always fit seamlessly into the mana base of a deck—even if the creature’s abilities are highly sought after.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite its abilities, Stonecloaker’s relatively high mana cost for creature of its power (3/2) might be seen as a limiting factor. In addition to the casting cost, its ability also requires three mana, which is quite substantial in the early stages of the game. Players could potentially find other creatures with similar capabilities but more affordable mana costs, making Stonecloaker less attractive by comparison.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Stonecloaker is a flexible card that can shape-shift into different roles. It is especially effective in decks where creatures with flash are favored or graveyard play is an important factor.

Combo Potential: Pairing Stonecloaker with cards that benefit from creatures entering or leaving the battlefield multiple times can result in powerful and unexpected combinations. The continuous cycling of this card also helps in keeping your hand fresh.

Meta-Relevance: As MTG meta often sees a prevalence of cards utilizing graveyard strategies, Stonecloaker can provide ways to disrupt your opponent’s game plan. Its ability to exile a card from a graveyard combined with its flying trait, ensures the card’s relevance in many measures.


How to Beat

Stonecloaker, with its combination of flying ability and flash mechanic, can certainly be a formidable adversary on the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. A creature card that can be played at any time, Stonecloaker also grants the player the ability to return cards from the battlefield or graveyard back to their hand. This unusual function can upset the rhythm of the opposition’s game.

The trick to overcoming Stonecloaker lies mainly in anticipating its flash mechanic. You must be prepared for sudden appearance. Casting a spell to restrict your opponent’s ability to play spells during your turn could be advantageous. A card like Teferi, Time Raveler is instrumental in this strategy.

Additionally, cards that penalize the opponent’s hand could be highly beneficial. The use of Thoughtseize or Duress to cause your opponent to discard the Stonecloaker before it’s cast can mitigate its potential impact. Finally, ensure to have removal spells at disposal to manage Stonecloaker after it hits the battlefield. Cards like Murder or Doom Blade could serve useful.

In summary, to successfully tackle Stonecloaker, you should aim to curtail its surprise element, manage the opponent’s hand and have swift removal methods in your deck.


BurnMana Recommendations

Exploring the strategic depths of MTG is an enriching journey, and the Stonecloaker card is a hidden gem for those looking to refine their deck strategies. The card’s unique abilities allow you to maintain card advantage, accelerate resources, and dictate the pace of gameplay. However, it’s essential to balance its benefits with its mana demands and the field presence trade-off. If you’re keen on integrating Stonecloaker into your collection, leveraging its versatility and meta relevance, we encourage you to join our community. Discover how to optimize your deck, explore powerful combinations and counter-play tactics, and climb to the top of your MTG gaming experience.


Cards like Stonecloaker

In the world of Magic: The Gathering, Stonecloaker stands out for its unique traits. This card, with its flash ability, bears resemblance to the likes of Whitemane Lion and Kor Skyfisher, sharing the mechanic of returning creatures to its owner’s hand. But, where Stonecloaker outshines is in its added dimension of exiling a card from a graveyard- an advantageous move to thwart resurrection strategies of opponents.

Approaching similarities from a different angle, we find Aether Adept and Man-o’-War. Both share a similar gameplay essence, focusing on bouncing creatures back to hands- a disruption mechanism against opponents. However, Stonecloaker again takes the lead with its graveyard exile clause, thus delimiting the repeated usage of creatures by opponents.

Finally, Rest in Peace is another card that interacts extensively with graveyards, like Stonecloaker. But, instead of focusing on one card, Rest in Peace exiles all cards from all graveyards- a broader sweep, but lacks Stonecloaker’s creature bouncing capacity.

In conclusion, the unique dynamics of Stonecloaker makes it a distinctive and versatile card in Magic: The Gathering, due to its blend of creature bouncing and graveyard management mechanisms.

Whitemane Lion - MTG Card versions
Kor Skyfisher - MTG Card versions
Aether Adept - MTG Card versions
Man-o'-War - MTG Card versions
Rest in Peace - MTG Card versions
Whitemane Lion - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Kor Skyfisher - URL/Convention Promos (PURL)
Aether Adept - Magic 2011 (M11)
Man-o'-War - Visions (VIS)
Rest in Peace - Return to Ravnica (RTR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Stonecloaker MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Magic Online Theme Decks, 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 Stonecloaker and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Stonecloaker Magic the Gathering card was released in 6 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Tomas Giorello.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12007-02-02Planar ChaosPLC 192003normalblackTomas Giorello
22010-11-08Magic Online Theme DecksTD0 A162003normalblackTomas Giorello
32013-11-01Commander 2013C13 222003normalblackTomas Giorello
42014-09-05Duel Decks: Speed vs. CunningDDN 532015normalblackTomas Giorello
52017-06-09Commander AnthologyCMA 252015normalblackTomas Giorello
62021-03-19Time Spiral RemasteredTSR 452015normalblackTomas Giorello

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Stonecloaker has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Stonecloaker card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2021-03-19 Stonecloaker’s first triggered ability doesn’t target any creature. Because of this, no player may take actions between the time you choose the creature to return and the time you return it.
2021-03-19 You may return Stonecloaker itself to its owner’s hand as its first triggered ability resolves. If you don’t control any other creature, you must return it.

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