Cradle Clearcutter MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	6
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Artifact Creature — Golem
Abilities	Prototype
Released	2022-11-18
Set symbol
Set name	The Brothers' War
Set code	BRO
Power	3
Toughness	6
Number	198
Frame	2015
Layout	Prototype
Border	Black
Illustred by	Daarken

Key Takeaways

Cradle Clearcutter accelerates mana, allowing quicker access to powerful spells and abilities.
The card offers instant speed options, providing strategic flexibility during opponents’ turns.
Its mana-intensive nature and discard cost necessitate careful deck integration and planning.

Text of card

Prototype — 1/3 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.) : Add an amount of equal to Cradle Clearcutter's power.

A thousand years of growth, harvested in minutes.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Cradle Clearcutter card is a veritable asset for players looking to maintain a fluid game state. It enables you to effectively manipulate your deck by cutting down excess lands and transforming them into tools for imminent threats or strategic plays.

Resource Acceleration: Resourceful in its design, Cradle Clearcutter excels in ramping up your mana pool swiftly. Its unique ability to exchange lands for fast mana can turn the tides of the game, propelling you toward casting high-cost spells sooner than expected.

Instant Speed: The allure of instant speed interactions cannot be overlooked. Cradle Clearcutter stands out by offering a way to react to dynamic game situations. Having the option to utilize its abilities at the end of your opponent’s turn grants you flexibility and leverage, all while keeping your strategic options wide open.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Cradle Clearcutter demands a card from your hand to be discarded when played. In a game where each card counts, especially in the late stages, this could potentially set you back by depleting precious hand resources.

Specific Mana Cost: With its specific mana requirements, Cradle Clearcutter may not seamlessly fit into multicolored decks. Its inclusion might necessitate a deck build around its mana needs, potentially limiting deck diversity and flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Cradle Clearcutter has a relatively hefty mana cost attached to it, which could hinder its playability. Alternatives exist that may provide similar effects or advantages at a lower cost, making them more appealing choices for players looking to optimize their deck performance.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Cradle Clearcutter offers diverse utility across multiple deck archetypes, ideally fitting into strategies that aim to manipulate land dynamics for an advantage.

Combo Potential: This card can serve as a crucial component in engine combos, seamlessly interacting with landfall mechanics or supporting powerful land untap combos.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where land-based strategies are prevalent, integrating Cradle Clearcutter could significantly enhance your deck’s performance against the prevailing competition.

How to beat

Cradle Clearcutter is a creature card that poses a formidable challenge on the battleground of Magic: The Gathering. This card can significantly accelerate mana generation, especially in decks that maximize land usage. To counteract Cradle Clearcutter, consider employing land destruction or control strategies. Cards that force a player to sacrifice a permanent can efficiently remove Cradle Clearcutter from the field, curtailing an opponent’s rapid mana expansion.

Artifact removal spells, such as Naturalize or Disenchant, can also dismantle any equipment or enchantments boosting Cradle Clearcutter’s effectiveness. Board wipes like Wrath of God or Damnation are additional universal solutions, sweeping away all creatures including this potent card. Thus, keeping a balanced mix of targeted removal and broader answers in your deck enhances your chances of toppling a strategy centered around Cradle Clearcutter.

By recognizing the threat that Cradle Clearcutter brings, players can strategically adapt their decks with answers that handle not just the creature, but also the overarching strategies that support it. Through calculated disruption and removal, Cradle Clearcutter can be managed, maintaining an equilibrium and ensuring a fair challenge in the game.

BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the art of MTG begins with understanding the complexity of each card’s abilities and how they can transform your gameplay. Cradle Clearcutter exemplifies this with its dynamic land conversion, giving you a mana advantage that can be pivotal in pivotal matches. Yet, navigating its high cost and specific mana requirements calls for strategic deck-building. By considering the pros and cons laid out above, and drawing comparisons with similar cards, you’re well on your way to optimizing your collection. Interested in evolving your strategies and learning more about harnessing the full potential of cards like Cradle Clearcutter? Dive deeper with us, and empower your deck to compete with the best.

Cards like Cradle Clearcutter

Cradle Clearcutter brings a unique dynamic to the realm of land synergy in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to untap a land akin to Arbor Elf, offers a spin on acceleration in green decks. However, Cradle Clearcutter goes a step further by converting any land into a potent mana engine capable of producing an additional green mana. This effect is reminiscent of the renowned Wild Growth, which also dresses a land with the power to tap for more, creating a parallel in utility but with separate modalities.

Comparably, Voyaging Satyr and Magus of the Candelabra share similarities with Cradle Clearcutter, but Cradle Clearcutter’s self-sustaining nature stands out. Both the Satyr and the Magus require external mana to activate, while Cradle Clearcutter autonomously powers itself, allowing for smoother and more efficient mana plays. This is particularly evident when juxtaposed with Magus of the Candelabra, which indeed manipulates multiple lands but at the cost of additional mana and being more susceptible to summoning sickness.

Ultimately, Cradle Clearcutter secures its spot in the landscape of MTG cards specializing in mana ramp and land optimization. Its independence and capacity to amplify the potential of any land makes it an asset in decks looking to accelerate their mana capabilities efficiently.

Magus of the Candelabra - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Cradle Clearcutter by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Cradle Clearcutter 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 Cradle Clearcutter and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Cradle Clearcutter 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
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Cradle Clearcutter 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	A prototype card is a colorless card in every zone except the stack or the battlefield, as well as while on the stack or the battlefield if not cast as a prototyped spell. Ignore its alternative characteristics in those cases. For example, while it's in your graveyard, Blitz Automaton is a colorless creature card with mana value 7. It can't be the target of Recommission, a spell that targets an artifact or creature card with mana value 3 or less in your graveyard.
2022-10-14	Casting a prototyped spell isn't the same as casting it for an alternative cost, and an alternative cost may be applied to a spell cast this way. For example, if an effect allows you to cast an artifact card without paying its mana cost, you could either cast Blitz Automaton normally, or as a prototyped spell.
2022-10-14	If an effect copies a prototyped spell, that copy (as well as the token it becomes on the battlefield) will have the same characteristics as the prototyped spell. Similarly, if an effect creates a token that's a copy of a prototyped permanent or causes another permanent to become a copy of it, the copy would have the same characteristics as the prototyped permanent.
2022-10-14	Regardless of how it was cast, a prototype card always has the same name, abilities, types, and so on. Only the mana cost, mana value, color, power, and toughness change depending on whether the card was cast as a prototyped spell.
2022-10-14	The prototype ability functions in any zone that the spell could be cast from. For example, if an effect allows you to cast artifact spells from your graveyard, you could cast a prototyped Blitz Automaton from your graveyard.
2022-10-14	When cast as a prototyped spell, that spell has the mana cost, power, and toughness characteristics shown in its colored, secondary text box rather than the normal values of those characteristics. Its color and mana value are determined by that mana cost. The permanent that spell becomes as it resolves has the same characteristics. If the spell leaves the stack in any other way, or the permanent it becomes leaves the battlefield, it immediately resumes using its normal characteristics.
2022-10-14	When casting a prototyped spell, use only its prototype characteristics to determine whether it's legal to cast it. For example, if Blitz Automaton is exiled with the last ability of Chandra, Dressed to Kill, you would be able to cast it for (because it's a red spell), even though you wouldn't be able to cast it as a colorless spell for its normal cost.