Yanling's Harbinger MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Bird
Abilities	Flying
Released	2019-07-12
Set symbol
Set name	Core Set 2020
Set code	M20
Power	2
Toughness	4
Number	289
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Zezhou Chen

Key Takeaways

Yanling’s Harbinger provides card filtering and resource acceleration for a tactical advantage in gameplay.
Requires careful mana and hand management due to its specific play conditions and cost.
Its meta-relevant adaptability makes it a competitive choice for creature-focused strategies.

Text of card

Flying When Yanling's Harbinger enters the battlefield, you may search your library and/or graveyard for a card named Mu Yanling, Celestial Wind, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Crafting the right strategy in MTG often hinges on card availability. Yanling’s Harbinger ensures that players can maintain a flow of options by filtering through their decks and drawing into the cards they need when they need them.

Resource Acceleration: Managing your resources effectively is paramount, and Yanling’s Harbinger doesn’t disappoint. It enables players to access additional lands or creatures, speeding up their game plan and allowing them to outpace the opposition with a more robust board presence earlier in the game.

Instant Speed: Flexibility during gameplay can’t be undervalued. The ability to play Yanling’s Harbinger at instant speed provides a tactical edge, allowing players to react to an opponent’s moves or end their turn with a surprise that could shift the game’s momentum in their favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Yanling’s Harbinger requires a player to discard another blue card upon casting, which can potentially strip away a valuable piece from your hand, possibly weakening your tactical position especially when you’re managing a scarce hand.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s mana cost is exclusively blue, demanding a heavy commitment to that color and potentially restricting deck-building options. Players not running a blue-focused deck may find this card hard to integrate smoothly.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost that demands three blue in the mix, Yanling’s Harbinger can be a steep investment in the early to mid-game phases. Other cards may offer similar effects or better tempo advantage at a lower or more flexible cost, making this card a less likely pick for decks that favor speed or mana efficiency.

Reasons to Include Yanling’s Harbinger in Your Collection

Versatility: Yanling’s Harbinger offers a broad spectrum of value across various deck archetypes. Its ability to fetch essential elementals or birds can seamlessly tie into diverse game plans, ensuring its place in a range of deck builds that capitalize on creature synergies.

Combo Potential: When it comes to unleashing powerful combinations, this card shines by setting up the board with key creatures that can interact with other pieces in your deck. Whether you’re aiming to assemble a particular creature-based combo or just seeking to maximize the efficiency of your plays, the Harbinger acts as a reliable enabler.

Meta-Relevance: As the MTG landscape evolves, so too does the importance of responsiveness to shifting tactics. Yanling’s Harbinger’s ability to adapt and ensure you have the right creatures at the right time can be a game-changer, making it a potent choice if the current meta favors creatures with enter-the-battlefield effects or tribal synergies.

How to beat

Yanling’s Harbinger is a card that brings strategic depth to any MTG deck, presenting players with a multifaceted challenge to overcome. To effectively beat this card, understanding its abilities is crucial. Primarily, it gives flight to other creatures, making terrestrial blockers ineffective. One approach to counter this is by incorporating creatures with reach or spells that can deal damage to flying units. This way, you can maintain air control even in the presence of the Harbinger.

Additionally, the card has a penchant for fetching powerful Elemental cards from your deck, rapidly escalating the threat level on the board. A well-timed counter spell or hand disruption tactic can prevent these Elementals from ever hitting the field. Consider keeping instant-speed removal in hand or employing thoughtseize effects to extract the Harbinger’s targets from your opponent’s grip before they can capitalize on its tutoring ability.

Lastly, maintaining a swift pace in pressuring your opponent is vital. The window to react to Yanling’s Harbinger is small, so prioritize keeping your opponent on the back foot to lessen the impact of their potential plays. By disrupting their strategy early, you can prevent the Harbinger from ever truly taking the stage.

Cards like Yanling's Harbinger

Yanling’s Harbinger is a card that blends seamlessly into the niche of creature-based advantage in MTG. At its core, it shares similarities with cards like Sea Gate Oracle, where both provide insight into the deck’s upcoming plays by manipulating the order of cards. The Harbinger edges out Sea Gate Oracle through its ability to specifically tutor elemental or Yanling cards, offering a more targeted approach to deck synergy and cohesiveness.

When looking at closely related cards, we have Risen Reef, another elemental that, while not tutoring, allows a player to draw a card whenever it or another elemental enters the battlefield. Risen Reef presents a different angle of value generation, creating more immediate board presence and advantage. Then there’s Woodland Bellower, it can fetch a nonlegendary green creature card with a lesser mana cost, directly to the battlefield. This stands in contrast to Yanling’s Harbinger, which places the card into your hand, giving players more control over timing and strategic deployment of their creatures.

Through this lens, Yanling’s Harbinger is a compelling choice for decks seeking to not only filter their draws but also to ensure pivotal card combinations are within reach, solidifying its role in dedicated MTG elemental or Planeswalker-focused strategies.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Yanling's Harbinger MTG card by a specific set like Core Set 2020, 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 Yanling's Harbinger and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Yanling's Harbinger has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal