Heavy Mattock MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact — Equipment
Abilities	Equip
Released	2012-02-03
Set symbol
Set name	Dark Ascension
Set code	DKA
Number	150
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Winona Nelson

Key Takeaways

Heavy Mattock strengthens creatures and preserves board resources, enhancing game strategy.
It requires creature sacrifice and green mana commitment, affecting hand and deck flexibility.
The card excels in meta dominated by creatures, thus it’s a valuable addition for various tactics.

Text of card

Equipped creature gets +1/+1. As long as equipped creature is a Human, it gets an additional +1/+1. Equip (: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Heavy Mattock may not directly allow you to draw additional cards, but it does enable equipped creatures to potentially eliminate opposing threats without being traded off, effectively preserving your card resources on the board.

Resource Acceleration: While Heavy Mattock itself doesn’t accelerate your mana resources, it can certainly make your creatures more formidable, requiring less investment in playing numerous creatures and instead enhancing the ones you already have in play.

Instant Speed: Although Heavy Mattock is not an instant, its potentially immediate impact when it hits the field can be game-changing. As an equipment, it can be attached to a creature right before damage is dealt, improving combat results in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: To fully utilize Heavy Mattock, a player must have a creature to discard, potentially diminishing their hand and board presence, which can be particularly detrimental in game states where maintaining card advantage is crucial.

Specific Mana Cost: Heavy Mattock requires a dedicated commitment to green mana. This restriction can be challenging for multi-color decks that may not always have the necessary green mana sources at the right time, thus impeding the card’s playability and flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Heavy Mattock provides a stat boost, its casting and equip costs are substantial when compared to similar equipment cards. This high investment can slow down the player’s overall game tempo and hinder the development of their board, especially in the early stages of a match where speed and efficiency are critical.

Reasons to Include Heavy Mattock in Your Collection

Versatility: Heavy Mattock presents flexibility in deck building. Whether you’re running an aggressive strategy or a long game control deck, this card can provide the needed boost in power to your creatures, making it a solid addition to various archetypes.

Combo Potential: With its ability to increase a creature’s strength and toughness, Heavy Mattock works well with cards that benefit from larger creatures. It can become a key piece in synergistic combos that rely on creature stats, enhancing your board’s threat level significantly.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creature-based strategies often dictate the pace of play, having Heavy Mattock can give you an edge. It is a tool that can adapt to the evolving battlefield, ensuring your creatures can stand toe-to-toe against prevalent threats.

How to beat

Heavy Mattock stands out as a useful equipment card in the vast array of artifacts that Magic: The Gathering has to offer. With the ability to boost a creature’s power and toughness, it can often become a problem on the battlefield if not addressed promptly. Despite its obvious power-up for creature-based decks, there are ways to ensure that Heavy Mattock doesn’t become the game-winning tool for your opponent.

To counteract the benefits Heavy Mattock provides, consider using artifact removal cards such as Naturalize or Disenchant that can destroy it directly. Another strategy involves targeting the creature it’s equipped to with removal spells like Doom Blade or Path to Exile; this not only gets rid of the immediate threat but also makes your adversary invest more resources to re-equip the Heavy Mattock. Alternatively, playing counter spells or relying on a quick and aggressive strategy can prevent the opponent from gaining the upper hand with this equipment. Keeping the pressure on and limiting their resources can render the advantages of Heavy Mattock insignificant as you navigate towards victory.

Ultimately, understanding the card’s strengths and potential vulnerabilities is key. By summarily addressing either the artifact itself or the creatures carrying it, players can mitigate the impact of Heavy Mattock and maintain control over the game’s flow.

Cards like Heavy Mattock

Heavy Mattock functions as a reliable equipment card in Magic: The Gathering, enhancing a creature’s power and toughness. In line with other similar equipment cards, such as Bone Saw and Short Sword, Heavy Mattock offers a slight increase in creature stats. Nonetheless, it provides a unique bonus. When equipped to a Human, it grants an additional increase in power, setting it apart from the aforementioned options which do not discriminate by creature type.

Comparably, Trusty Machete shares the equipment archetype but executes its effect with a different distribution of stats, offering a balanced boost to both power and toughness with no creature type condition. Adventuring Gear is another alternative, excelling in landfall decks. While not offering a continuous boost, it can potentially provide a larger temporary power surge with each land played.

In brief, Heavy Mattock holds a niche position within the world of equipment cards in Magic: The Gathering. Its specificity towards Humans is both its unique charm and limitation, making it a compelling choice in tribal strategies but less versatile than its counterparts without type restrictions.

Cards similar to Heavy Mattock by color, type and mana cost

Arena of the Ancients - MTG Card versions

Scale of Chiss-Goria - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Heavy Mattock MTG card by a specific set like Dark Ascension, 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 Heavy Mattock and other MTG cards: