Lifecrafter's Bestiary MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 10 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeArtifact
Abilities Scry

Key Takeaways

  1. Lifecrafter’s Bestiary offers card advantage and strategic insight with its scry and draw abilities.
  2. The artifact effectively boosts hand size and resource acceleration, integral for MTG strategies.
  3. While powerful, it’s important to manage its mana demands and anticipate its initial setup cost.

Text of card

At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may pay . If you do, draw a card.

"Inspiration is found by looking outward." —Oviya Pashiri, sage lifecrafter


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Lifecrafter’s Bestiary provides a consistent flow of cards, offering you a glimpse at the top card of your library whenever you cast a creature spell and the option to draw it for a single green mana. This benefit is crucial for sustaining your hand size over the course of a match and outpacing opponents with a steady stream of new options.

Resource Acceleration: While the bestiary itself does not directly generate mana, the ability to see and draw more cards increases your chances of hitting land drops and creature spells. Efficiently curating your hand can indirectly lead to faster development of your board, giving you the edge in resource acceleration.

Instant Speed: Although the bestiary’s abilities are not activated at instant speed, the scry 1 triggered by casting a creature can immediately inform your next moves. This knowledge allows for more strategic plays and better use of your mana on subsequent turns. You can also utilize its draw ability at the end of your opponent’s turn after fully understanding the state of the game, effectively simulating instant-speed advantage.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The card does not make you discard, but it does necessitate having a creature to play to get maximum value. If your hand is empty, the scry feature becomes significantly less impactful, making the card less effective.

Specific Mana Cost: Lifecrafter’s Bestiary requires a commitment of one green mana, which could potentially be restrictive in multicolored decks that are mana-hungry or have a tight color curve, limiting its flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its initial three mana investment, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary can be considered slow, particularly in fast-paced games where tempo is crucial. There are alternatives such as “The Great Henge” which, while costlier upfront, may yield higher and more immediate returns.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Lifecrafter’s Bestiary offers adaptability across numerous deck archetypes, excelling in those that capitalize on creature-based strategies and consistent card advantage.

Combo Potential: The scry ability ensures that players can setup their draws effectively, while the card draw mechanism can supplement engines that thrive on casting creatures or simply maintaining resources in hand.

Meta-Relevance: With a meta that shifts and turns, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary holds its ground, providing persistent value against decks that require an answer to perpetual card advantage and the capacity to fine-tune draws.


How to beat

Lifecrafter’s Bestiary is a unique artifact that boosts a player’s strategy through both card filtering and drawing in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to scry at the beginning of your upkeep ensures that you keep drawing into useful cards, while its card drawing mechanism, triggered by casting creature spells, can give a significant advantage to creature-heavy decks.

To successfully counter this persistent advantage, you should focus on artifact removal options. Cards like Nature’s Claim and Disenchant can directly target and remove Lifecrafter’s Bestiary from the battlefield. Additionally, pressuring your opponent with a fast-paced aggressive deck could hinder their ability to leverage the Bestiary’s benefits before you achieve victory. It’s also strategic to include versatile spells that can deal with multiple permanent types or specifically inhibit activation of abilities, like Phyrexian Revoker, denying the Bestiary’s activation and neutralizing its influence during critical turns in the game.

Mastering the tempo and knowing when to deploy your removal cards can be pivotal when facing a player utilizing Lifecrafter’s Bestiary. By disrupting the synergy and resources it provides, you can tilt the match in your favor and maintain control over the field.


BurnMana Recommendations

Delving into Lifecrafter’s Bestiary is a strategic move for any MTG player looking to enhance their gameplay. Understanding the pros and cons of this versatile artifact is key to dominating the battlefield. Armed with knowledge of similar cards and techniques to beat it, a well-informed player can optimally integrate or counter this card in their deck. Its ability to provide card advantage and fit within different archetypes makes it an appealing choice for your collection. If you’re ready to tap into the full potential of Lifecrafter’s Bestiary and fine-tune your creature-heavy strategy, join us and deepen your MTG mastery.


Cards like Lifecrafter's Bestiary

Lifecrafter’s Bestiary is a unique addition to the artifact set in Magic: The Gathering, offering not just scrying but also card draw. A similar card that falls into this group is the enchantment Phyrexian Arena, which allows a player to draw an extra card at the cost of life rather than mana each turn. While Phyrexian Arena draws cards passively, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary requires an active choice and the payment of mana along with a creature spell to trigger the card draw.

Another artifact, Mind’s Eye, echoes the Bestiary’s draw ability but relies on opponents’ actions, permitting card draw when they draw. Mind’s Eye requires more investment each time you wish to draw, making Lifecrafter’s Bestiary more cost-effective for the creature-heavy deck. Then there’s Mirri’s Guile, offering a scrying ability comparable to the Bestiary’s but with an enchantment that focuses only on top-deck manipulation rather than adding cards to hand.

Considering the synergistic support it offers to creature-based decks and its dual utility, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary stands out for its capacity to both smooth out draws and boost hand size over the course of a game, making it a versatile choice in the MTG environment.

Phyrexian Arena - MTG Card versions
Mind's Eye - MTG Card versions
Mirri's Guile - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Arena - Apocalypse (APC)
Mind's Eye - Mirrodin (MRD)
Mirri's Guile - Tempest (TMP)

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A-Jade Orb of Dragonkind - Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate (HBG)
Bone Sabres - Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K)
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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lifecrafter's Bestiary MTG card by a specific set like Aether Revolt Promos and Aether Revolt Promos, 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 Lifecrafter's Bestiary and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Lifecrafter's Bestiary Magic the Gathering card was released in 9 different sets between 2017-01-20 and 2024-02-09. Illustrated by Izzy.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12017-01-20Aether Revolt PromosPAER 162s2015normalblackIzzy
22017-01-20Aether Revolt PromosPAER 162p2015normalblackIzzy
32017-01-20Aether RevoltAER 1622015normalblackIzzy
42020-04-17Commander 2020C20 2442015normalblackIzzy
52020-11-12Kaladesh RemasteredKLR 2492015normalblackIzzy
62021-09-24Midnight Hunt CommanderMIC 1602015normalblackIzzy
72022-04-29New Capenna CommanderNCC 3702015normalblackIzzy
82023-01-01Wizards Play Network 2023PW23 21997normalblackIzzy
92023-11-17The Lost Caverns of Ixalan CommanderLCC 3072015normalblackIzzy
102024-02-09Murders at Karlov Manor CommanderMKC 2312015normalblackIzzy

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lifecrafter's Bestiary has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2017-02-09 Lifecrafter's Bestiary's second triggered ability resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger. The ability will resolve even if that spell is countered.
2017-02-09 The draw step is after the upkeep step, so you'll scry 1 before you draw for the turn.
2017-02-09 While resolving Lifecrafter's Bestiary's second triggered ability, you can't pay multiple times to draw multiple cards.

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