Echo Inspector MTG Card

Echo Inspector enhances hand quality by allowing strategic card peeking and selection at instant speed. The card demands a discard, tailoring use to decks able to mitigate hand depletion. Its mana cost and color specificity may deter some, yet its utility can justify inclusion.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Bird Rogue
Abilities	Connive,Flying
Released	2022-04-29
Set symbol
Set name	Streets of New Capenna
Set code	SNC
Power	2
Toughness	3
Number	40
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Lucas Graciano

Text of card

Flying When Echo Inspector enters the battlefield, it connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)

The rendezvous took place hours ago, but the Obscura agent read the residue with ease.

Cards like Echo Inspector

Echo Inspector is a card that finds its peers among a distinct group of creatures with built-in card advantage mechanics. Much like Mulldrifter, Echo Inspector also offers the ability to draw cards upon entering the battlefield. Mulldrifter allows you to draw two cards straightforwardly, but Echo Inspector introduces a new twist by providing scry before the draw, enhancing card selection. Moreover, it also boasts the evoke ability, similar to Mulldrifter, which can be a flexible tool during gameplay.

Another card worth considering in this comparison is Cloudblazer. Cloudblazer shares the theme of entering the battlefield to trigger an effect, offering both life gain and card draw, albeit at a different mana value and within specific color requirements, emphasizing white-blue mana. While Cloudblazer dives more into life cushioning, Echo Inspector focuses on card quality and future planning via scry.

Overall, Echo Inspector carves out its niche in MTG by blending familiar card advantage with strategic scrying. This makes it a versatile option for players looking for both immediate and long-term benefits, proving to be a noteworthy consideration among creatures that can influence hand dynamics and future plays.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Echo Inspector provides a significant ability that lets you look at the top two cards of your library, offering strategic insight and selection to improve your hand and overall game plan. This peek can be the key to setting up future turns for success.

Resource Acceleration: The card’s synergy with mechanics that involve playing with the top card of your library revealed or cards that care about scrying ensures that Echo Inspector isn’t just about drawing cards but also about smoothing out future draws and potentially accelerating your resource deployment.

Instant Speed: The versatility of Echo Inspector lies in its instant speed, allowing you to keep up the tempo and respond to an opponent’s move without skipping a beat. This level of adaptability ensures you’re maximizing efficiency while keeping opponents guessing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One downside to Echo Inspector is the obligation to discard a card in order to utilize its full potential. When your hand is nearly empty, this requirement can compromise your game strategy and resource availability.

Specific Mana Cost: Echo Inspector comes with a particular mana prerequisite that includes blue. This specificity can limit the card’s inclusion in decks, making it less versatile than more flexible options. If your deck doesn’t consistently produce blue mana, including Echo Inspector could lead to situations where you’re unable to play it when needed.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost being on the higher side for the value it provides, players may find that Echo Inspector competes with other key plays in the same mana range. This can make it a less appealing choice when building a deck, as there are other cards that offer similar or greater impact for the same or lower mana investment.

Reasons to Include Echo Inspector in Your Collection

Versatility: Echo Inspector slides easily into various deck archetypes. Its ability to investigate upon entering the battlefield makes it a solid addition to decks that prize card draw and resource advantage.

Combo Potential: The clues generated by Echo Inspector can synergize with decks that capitalize on artifact synergies, potentially unlocking new avenues for combo interactions and incremental value.

Meta-Relevance: For formats where card advantage is king, Echo Inspector’s built-in card draw mechanism makes it a relevant option, especially in metas dominated by grindy, incremental value decks.

How to beat

Echo Inspector is a card that brings both a challenge and an opportunity to MTG players. As a creature that can potentially draw multiple cards, Echo Inspector can significantly bolster an opponent’s hand, giving them a broad range of options. To tackle this, consider using removal spells that can target and eliminate Echo Inspector before its ability triggers. Such spells, like Fatal Push or Path to Exile, can efficiently remove Echo Inspector from the game at a low mana cost, stifling your opponent’s card advantage early on.

Another route is to employ counterspells to prevent Echo Inspector from hitting the battlefield altogether. Spells such as Negate or Essence Scatter excel in this role and can preserve your lead by keeping the card count high on your side and low on your opponent’s. Timing is critical here, and a well-placed counterspell may be all you need to maintain control.

For a more permanent solution to repeated card draw issues, players might involve a card that restricts draw abilities, like Narset, Parter of Veils, which limits the opponent to drawing only one additional card each turn, thereby dampening the impact of Echo Inspector’s ability and gaining an upper hand in the match.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Echo Inspector MTG card by a specific set like Streets of New Capenna, 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 Echo Inspector and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Echo Inspector has restrictions

Format	Legality
Standard	Legal
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Future	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Penny	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2022-04-29	If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to connive but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still connives. If you discard a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything. Abilities that trigger “when -hat creature] connives” will trigger.
2022-04-29	If no card is discarded, most likely because that player's hand is empty and an effect says they can't draw cards, the conniving creature does not receive a +1/+1 counter.
2022-04-29	Once an ability that causes a creature to connive begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the conniving creature after you discard a nonland card but before it receives a counter.