Xenagos's Strike MTG Card
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
| Released | 2014-05-25 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Defeat a God |
| Set code | TDAG |
| Number | 13 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Zoltan Boros |
Key Takeaways
- Xenagos’s Strike provides card advantage by drawing lands or creatures and accelerating mana resources.
- Despite versatility in instant casts and dealing damage, its specific mana requirement can be limiting.
- Excellent for meta play, it synergizes with damage amplifiers and fits aggressive red-green decks well.
Text of card
Xenagos's Strike deals 4 damage to each player.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Xenagos’s Strike facilitates a strategic draw, permitting you to unveil the top card of your library and if it’s a creature or land card, draw it, enhancing your hand and leveraging the flow of the game.
Resource Acceleration: This card serves as a tool to ramp your mana resources by potentially placing a land card onto the battlefield tapped, streamlining your deck’s performance and enabling bigger plays sooner than expected.
Instant Speed: The agility of casting Xenagos’s Strike at instant speed offers a tactical edge, allowing you to respond aptly to game developments, optimize your plays, and surprise opponents with unanticipated maneuvers.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Xenagos’s Strike comes with the challenge of discarding another card, potentially putting you at a disadvantage, especially if your hand is already depleting.
Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a blend of both red and green mana, which may prove restrictive if your deck isn’t tailored to easily produce both colors.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost that is on the higher side, there may be other options that accomplish similar goals more efficiently, making it less favorable in a fast-paced game.
Reasons to Include Xenagos’s Strike in Your Collection
Versatility: Xenagos’s Strike exemplifies flexibility as it seamlessly slots into various aggressive decks. Its ability to deal direct damage allows players to target both creatures and planeswalkers, ensuring that it remains useful in many game situations.
Combo Potential: This card synergizes well with strategies that amplify damage or utilize spells that trigger upon casting red spells or dealing noncombat damage, expanding your tactical horizon.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta that favors creature-based strategies, Xenagos’s Strike can serve as an efficient removal. This can disrupt your opponent’s board presence while accelerating your own game plan, making it a critical tool for staying competitive.
How to Beat Xenagos’s Strike
Xenagos’s Strike is a dynamic addition to creature enhancement spells that can turn the tide of a game in Magic: The Gathering. Its capacity to give a creature trample and an increase in power equal to the number of lands you control can be overwhelming. This scaling effect makes it especially potent in the mid to late game, allowing even a modest creature to become a significant threat.
To effectively counter Xenagos’s Strike, it’s crucial to anticipate and disrupt it. Keeping counter spells or instant removal at the ready can nullify the spell before the buff takes effect. Prioritizing the removal of creatures that could become threats with such enhancements is another solid strategy. Additionally, since the card’s impact grows with the number of lands in play, land destruction or strategies that limit land plays can indirectly weaken Xenagos’s Strike’s potential.
Ultimately, planning ahead and maintaining board control with timely removal are key to ensure that Xenagos’s Strike does not overpower your defenses. Through smart play and deck building with removal, counter measures, and land interaction in mind, you can reign in the power of this formidable spell.
Cards like Xenagos's Strike
Xenagos’s Strike is an interesting spell in the Magic: The Gathering universe, with notable similarities to other cards that initiate combat tricks. Compared to cards like Titan’s Strength, Xenagos’s Strike provides a smaller boost in power with the additional advantage of adding a counter. Titan’s Strength, while offering a larger immediate power surge, doesn’t offer the lasting presence of the counter that Xenagos’s Strike does.
Moving on to another comparison, we find art like Reckless Rage which resonates with the removal aspect of Xenagos’s Strike. While Reckless Rage deals more damage and can be repeated thanks to its Instant speed, it also requires sacrificing some of your own creature’s health. In contrast, Xenagos’s Strike offers the peace of mind of bolstering your creatures without inflicting self-damage, thereby preserving your battlefield presence.
Assessing the pros and cons, Xenagos’s Strike carves out its niche among combat spells in MTG. It’s a mix of buffing creatures and surprise removal, making it a versatile option for players seeking to strengthen their creatures and control the board.
Cards similar to Xenagos's Strike by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Xenagos's Strike MTG card by a specific set like Defeat a God, 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 Xenagos's Strike and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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