Dwarven Hold MTG Card

Dwarven Hold offers incremental land growth, subtly enhancing your mana resources without extra land draws. After charging, it provides a burst of mana, potentially changing the game’s pace in your favor. Its mana can be used flexibly, supporting instant-speed spells and countering opponents’ moves.

Fallen Empires (FEM)
1994-11-01 - Number 93

Fifth Edition (5ED)
1997-03-24 - Number 414

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Rarity	Rare
Type	Land

Text of card

Comes into play tapped. You may choose not to untap Dwarven Hold during your untap phase and instead put a storage counter on it. oc T: Remove any number of storage counters from Dwarven Hold. For each storage counter removed, add o R to your mana pool.

Exploring the Riches of Dwarven Hold

Within the pantheon of land cards in MTG, Dwarven Hold offers a unique proposition. From the intriguing Fallen Empires set, Dwarven Hold stands as a testament to land cards designed with slow-building strategy in mind. Its direct counterparts include the likes of Bottomless Vault and Sand Silos. Both share the same mechanic of not untapping during your untap step and instead, building storage counters to eventual mana abundance.

Cards like Dwarven Hold

Dwarven Hold finds company with other storage lands, offering strategic depth for those patient enough to reap their benefits. The card’s closest relative may be the Bottomless Vault. Both require an initial investment of forgoing immediate mana generation for a potentially greater payoff later. Sand Silos mirrors this concept within the blue mana spectrum, demanding time to accumulate its full potential. Dwarven Hold diverges slightly in its appeal to red mana users, fueling strategies around delayed-but-plentiful resource access. What sets these storage lands apart is their ability to scale up mana production, compared to more straightforward, but less flexible, lands like Mountain or basic dual lands.

When players evaluate the addition of Dwarven Hold to their decks, they weigh the initial setup turn against the eventual burst of mana resources. It’s a nuanced decision, reflecting the strategy and timing essential to MTG gameplay. These storage lands, while niche, enrich the game by providing alternative routes to resource management, offering an interesting dynamic to MTG deck building.

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dwarven Hold offers the opportunity to incrementally increase your land count, which is a subtle form of card advantage in MTG. Unlike drawing a card, the advantage comes from the land itself becoming a reliable mana source without the need to draw additional lands.

Resource Acceleration: Once fully charged with three storage counters, Dwarven Hold can be tapped for significant resource acceleration, providing a burst of mana to cast high-cost spells or activate demanding abilities ahead of schedule, thus potentially altering the pace of the game in your favor.

Instant Speed: While the card itself does not operate at instant speed, the mana it generates can be utilized at any point during your turn or in response to an opponent’s actions. This flexibility means Dwarven Hold allows you to deploy instant-speed spells more effectively by providing an on-demand mana source that you’ve accumulated over previous turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Dwarven Hold requires a sacrifice in terms of discarding from your hand, which can be a strategic setback, especially when your hand size is reduced and each card becomes more valuable.

Specific Mana Cost: Locked with its red mana cost, Dwarven Hold may prove restrictive in multicolored decks that operate on a diverse mana base, potentially disrupting the flow of your gameplay.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When weighed against other land options, Dwarven Hold comes with a relatively hefty mana cost. This can slow down your game plan as there are alternatives that provide similar benefits without such a high investment.

Reasons to Include Dwarven Hold in Your Collection

Versatility: Dwarven Hold brings a unique dynamic to land slots in your deck. It’s not just a mana source but also an investment tool that grows over time, making it versatile enough to be considered for decks interested in long-term value generation.

Combo Potential: With the ability to store counters, Dwarven Hold works well in decks that manipulate counters or have synergies with lands that have additional functions. It could easily become a combo piece in a meticulously crafted strategy.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where slower, more controlling strategies are effective, Dwarven Hold can gain significance. Its ability to amass value as the game progresses can be a serious advantage in matches that go the distance.

How to beat

Dwarven Hold is an intriguing land card within the realm of Magic: The Gathering, nestled in a special corner alongside other storage lands. Unlike typical mana-producing lands, Dwarven Hold has the unique ability to bank mana with its cumulative storage counters mechanic. As each turn passes, the potential mana surge grows, turning what seems like a slow start into a formidable boost of resources.

Confronting a Dwarven Hold means disrupting this steady investment. Methods to remove or neutralize it before it fully charges are essential. Land destruction spells, such as Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin, can effectively remove Dwarven Hold from play. Another strategy involves applying pressure with aggressive creatures and spells to force the Dwarven Hold’s controller to use their mana defensively rather than saving it. Timing is crucial—acting too late could allow your opponent to unleash a powerful spell that could swing the game in their favor.

Ultimately, recognizing the threat of Dwarven Hold early and utilizing land disruption or applying pressure can effectively counterbalance the strategic edge that it might otherwise provide in a Magic: The Gathering match.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Dwarven Hold MTG card by a specific set like Fallen Empires and Fifth Edition, 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 Dwarven Hold and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Dwarven Hold Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1994-11-01 and 1997-03-24. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	1994-11-01	Fallen Empires	FEM		93	1993	Normal	Black	Pat Lewis
2	1997-03-24	Fifth Edition	5ED		414	1997	Normal	White	David Seeley

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Dwarven Hold has restrictions

Format	Legality
Oldschool	Legal
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Dwarven Hold card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2004-10-04	Counters are not lost if the land is changed to another land type. They wait around for the land to change back.
2004-10-04	If the land is tapped by some external effect, no counters are removed from it.
2004-10-04	It is only considered “tapped for mana” if you activate its mana ability and generate mana from it.
2004-10-04	Whether or not it is tapped is checked at the beginning of upkeep. If it is not tapped, the ability does not trigger. It also checks during resolution and you only get a counter if it is still tapped then.