Eaten Alive MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Eaten Alive offers the ability to potentially deal with two threats, provided the additional cost is paid, which can edge out your opponents in terms of card economy on the battlefield. Removing a creature or planeswalker while also triggering your own death effects can lead to an overall gain in resources.

Resource Acceleration: The alternate casting cost of sacrificing a creature can be a strategic play in a pinch, offering a way to utilize your assets and maintain tempo even when available mana is low. This can be particularly effective in decks that benefit from their creatures being eaten alive, so to speak.

Instant Speed: Although Eaten Alive is a sorcery, its flexibility in casting cost and potential to alter the board greatly complements any strategy that operates at a swift pace. It ensures that players can develop their strategy and still hold back the necessary resources to interact with the board at crucial junctures.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: To fully utilize Eaten Alive’s potential, you need to sacrifice a creature or pay its additional cost, which can be taxing if your board presence is weak or you’re aiming to maintain a creature-based strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Eaten Alive requires black mana, potentially restricting it to mono-black or multi-color decks with a reliable mana base to consistently cast it on curve.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Eaten Alive offers the utility of removal or a sacrifice outlet, a total cost of four mana including the sacrifice can feel steep, especially when competing against lower-costed removal spells in the format that may afford more flexibility and efficiency in gameplay.

Reasons to Include Eaten Alive in Your Collection

Versatility: Eaten Alive offers a flexible removal option that can be seamlessly integrated into various black decks, from aggressive builds to more controlling strategies. Its ability to exile creatures or planeswalkers makes it a valuable tool in diverse game scenarios.

Combo Potential: This card also works well with strategies revolving around sacrificing creatures for value. Its alternate casting cost can turn an extra creature into a strategic advantage, fueling synergies with death-triggered abilities.

Meta-Relevance: Given that creature-based strategies often dominate the scene, Eaten Alive’s presence is timely, offering an efficient and cost-effective solution to remove key threats from the battlefield, thus keeping your deck competitive in various metagames.

How to beat

Eaten Alive stands out as a removal option for players who aim to maintain a tempo advantage. Comparable to other removal spells like Murder, which cleanly destroys a creature for three mana, Eaten Alive offers versatility with its additional sacrifice outlet for a single black mana. But, it’s crucial to acknowledge the limitations of Eaten Alive – it’s a sorcery, limiting its activation to your own turn. This is a notable contrast to instant-speed removals like Fatal Push or Cast Down.

Bypassing Eaten Alive’s impact involves a multi-faceted game plan. Creatures with hexproof or protection from black are impervious to it—think cards like Shalai, Voice of Plenty or cards with built-in indestructibility like Darksteel Myr. Additionally, playing at instant speed can outmaneuver Eaten Alive, forcing opponents to commit to it on their turn, leaving them vulnerable during yours. Prioritizing creatures that either replace themselves upon death or negate the drawback of sacrifice—such as tokens or creatures with Afterlife—can diminish Eaten Alive’s value.

Therefore, while Eaten Alive provides a cheap and potent removal tool, strategic deck building and gameplay can effectively minimize its effectiveness. Players need to craft their strategy around instant-speed responses and resilient creatures to overcome this hurdle.

BurnMana Recommendations

Dive deeper into your MTG deck-building skills with Eaten Alive as a key card. Its ability to offer card advantage by handling two threats simultaneously is crucial for outsmarting opponents. Embrace the strategic value of its alternate casting cost, which can maintain your tempo and turn creatures into valuable resources. Although sorcery speed and specific mana demands present challenges, its versatility and meta relevance make Eaten Alive a potent addition to any black deck, enhancing your removal toolkit. For a deeper understanding of how to maximize the impact of Eaten Alive in your gameplay, join BurnMana where we unravel the intricacies of MTG strategy and deck optimization.