Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection MTG Card
2022-06-10 - Number 225
2022-07-07 - Number 206
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 7 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Instant — Adventure |
Key Takeaways
- Dread Linnorm provides card advantage by drawing upon death, maintaining hand resourcefulness.
- Its instant speed casting surprises opponents and disrupts them during unguarded moments.
- While powerful, it demands specific mana conditions and can slow early game tempo.
Text of card
Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature and untap it. It gains hexproof until end of turn. (Then exile this card. You may cast the creature later from exile.)
A serpent's cruelty, a dragon's appetite.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Dominating play with its sheer size, Dread Linnorm ensures you stay ahead by replacing itself in your hand once it dies.
Resource Acceleration: This fearsome serpent sets the stage for big plays, allowing the deployment of heavy hitters ahead of schedule by untapping lands with each strike.
Instant Speed: Unleash the Linnorm’s might when least expected. Its ability to be cast at instant speed during the end step keeps adversaries on their toes, ensuring you capitalize on their unpreparedness.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Engaging a powerful creature like Dread Linnorm onto the battlefield isn’t without its pitfalls. One key drawback is its demand for player sacrifice—specifically, the necessary action of discarding a card. This trade-off, while it might pave the way for this formidable serpent’s entrance, can leave you depleted, particularly if your hand is already waning. Managing resources is crucial, and having to part with one of them could put you at a disadvantage during the late game phases.
Specific Mana Cost: Harnessing the might of the Dread Linnorm comes with a stringent mana requirement, one that leans heavily on the presence of green mana. For players who prefer a multicolored deck arrangement or those who run color-scarce mana bases, summoning this creature could pose a challenging feat. It limits the serpent’s adaptability across diverse deck strategies, anchoring it firmly within the realms of green-centric builds.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The cost to call upon the power of the Dread Linnorm is not one to overlook lightly. Its casting price stands at a fairly elevated point on the mana curve, potentially slowing down your early to mid-game momentum. Other creatures and spells could be summoned for less, offering immediate impacts on the board state or bolstering your defenses while the Linnorm bides its time in your hand, awaiting its costly debut.
Reasons to Include Dread Linnorm in Your Collection
Versatility: Dread Linnorm is a shrewd addition to any collection due to its ability to adapt to various deck themes. Its substantial body makes it a solid defender and an intimidating offensive force, suitable for ramp and midrange decks alike.
Combo Potential: The card’s death-trigger effect, which allows you to put a land card onto the battlefield, can be harnessed to synergize with landfall abilities or used to unlock powerful late-game cards quicker. Its interaction with graveyard play also offers diverse strategic approaches.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta that highly values creature presence and land acceleration, Dread Linnorm carves its niche. As players grapple with efficient board stabilization and resource management, this serpentine monster offers both, making it a tactically valuable choice in competitive play.
How to beat
Dread Linnorm is a creature card that has become a topic of interest among MTG players. With its formidable presence, it offers both a challenge and an opportunity for strategic gameplay. Being a creature with flying, Dread Linnorm can typically evade ground blocks, requiring opponents to think outside the box when planning their defense or finding ways to remove it from the battlefield.
In order to outmaneuver this card, you may want to consider using removal spells that can target flying creatures or include abilities that can deal with intimidating creatures regardless of their airborne status. Cards like Murder or Path to Exile are effective tools to deal with such threats. Alternatively, having creatures with reach in your deck can provide a defensive wall against Dread Linnorm’s attacks. Engaging it in combat is often less advantageous, so focus on direct removal or using enchantments that can neutralize its abilities.
Evaluating and preparing for high-threat cards like Dread Linnorm in MTG can greatly enhance your gameplay experience. It encourages thoughtful deck building and shows the importance of having versatile answers to a variety of situations that may arise during a game.
BurnMana Recommendations
As you sharpen your skills and evolve your MTG strategies, Dread Linnorm is a card worth considering for strategic depth and power on the battlefield. With a robust set of advantages that include card advantage, resource acceleration, and adaptive speed, it can be a game-changing addition. However, the complexities of resource management and potential mana constraints call for careful deck customization. Embrace the challenge, optimize your deck, and witness the Dread Linnorm’s potential unfold in your hands. Delve deeper with us, refine your gameplay, and make each match a step towards your ultimate victory.
Cards like Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection
Dread Linnorm adds a new level of threat to creature-based strategies in Magic: The Gathering. This card draws parallels with other formidable serpentine creatures like Wretched Gryff, with both being sizable creatures that offer an additional effect upon casting. Dread Linnorm sets itself apart through its powerful “exile any number of cards” ability, boosting its power for every exiled card, a feature that Wretched Gryff lacks.
When considering other cards in this monstrous repertoire, Ghalta, Primal Hunger comes to mind. Ghalta can be a more affordable heavy-hitter, considering its cost may be reduced depending on the total power of creatures you control. However, it doesn’t provide the same immediate deck-thinning and powering up potential that Dread Linnorm possesses. Then there’s Mossbridge Troll, a card with a resilience factor given its regeneration ability. Unlike Dread Linnorm, though, it doesn’t offer the aggressive deck manouverability or the direct scaling of power.
Each of these creatures has a place in the tapestry of powerful MTG monsters. Yet, with its unique exile-and-power-boost mechanic, Dread Linnorm stands out as a formidable option for players looking to take advantage of their graveyard while developing a board presence with a rapidly growing threat.
Cards similar to Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection MTG card by a specific set like Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate and Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate, 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 Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection 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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Printings
The Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2022-06-10 and 2022-07-07. Illustrated by Caio Monteiro.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2022-06-10 | Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate | CLB | 225 | 2015 | Adventure | Black | Caio Monteiro | |
| 2 | 2022-07-07 | Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate | HBG | 206 | 2015 | Adventure | Black | Caio Monteiro |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Dread Linnorm // Scale Deflection card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2022-06-10 | An adventurer card is a permanent card in every zone except the stack, as well as while on the stack if not cast as an Adventure. Ignore its alternative characteristics in those cases. For example, while it’s in your graveyard, Altar of Bhaal is an artifact card whose mana value is 2. |
| 2022-06-10 | An effect may refer to a card, spell, or permanent that “has an Adventure.” This refers to a card, spell, or permanent that has an adventurer card’s set of alternative characteristics, even if they’re not being used and even if that card was never cast as an Adventure. |
| 2022-06-10 | Casting a card as an Adventure isn’t casting it for an alternative cost. Effects that allow you to cast a spell for an alternative cost or without paying its mana cost may allow you to apply those to the Adventure. |
| 2022-06-10 | If a spell is cast as an Adventure, its controller exiles it instead of putting it into its owner’s graveyard as it resolves. For as long as it remains exiled, that player may cast it as a permanent spell. If an Adventure spell leaves the stack in any way other than resolving (most likely by being countered or by failing to resolve because its targets have all become illegal), that card won’t be exiled and the spell’s controller won’t be able to cast it as a permanent later. |
| 2022-06-10 | If an adventurer card ends up in exile for any other reason than by exiling itself while resolving, it won’t give you permission to cast it as a permanent spell. |
| 2022-06-10 | If an effect copies an Adventure spell, that copy is exiled as it resolves. It ceases to exist as a state-based action; it’s not possible to cast the copy from exile. |
| 2022-06-10 | If an effect instructs you to choose a card name, you may choose the alternative Adventure name. Consider only the alternative characteristics to determine whether that is an appropriate name to choose. |
| 2022-06-10 | If an object becomes a copy of an object that has an Adventure, the copy also has an Adventure. If it changes zones, it will either cease to exist (if it’s a token) or cease to be a copy (if it’s a nontoken permanent), and so you won’t be able to cast it as an Adventure. |
| 2022-06-10 | If you cast an adventurer card as an Adventure, use only its alternative characteristics to determine whether it’s legal to cast that spell. |
| 2022-06-10 | Reducing a creature's power to 3 or less after it has blocked Dread Linnorm won't cause it to become unblocked. |
| 2022-06-10 | Scale Deflection can target an untapped creature. If the target creature is untapped as Scale Deflection resolves, you will still put two +1/+1 counters on it and it will still gain hexproof. |
| 2022-06-10 | When casting a spell as an Adventure, use the alternative characteristics and ignore all of the card’s normal characteristics. The spell’s color, mana cost, mana value, and so on are determined by only those alternative characteristics. If the spell leaves the stack, it immediately resumes using its normal characteristics. |
| 2022-06-10 | You must still follow any relevant timing rules for the permanent spell you cast from exile. Normally, you’ll be able to cast it only during your main phase while the stack is empty. |