Tourach's Gate MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant
Released	1994-11-01
Set symbol
Set name	Fallen Empires
Set code	FEM
Number	48
Frame	1993
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Sandra Everingham

Key Takeaways

Facilitates overwhelming your opponent with creature superiority and enhanced mana generation.
Requires careful hand management and may constrain deck composition to black mana.
Integrates well with control strategies, offering a balance of disruption and tempo.

Text of card

Can only be played on a target land you control. Sacrifice a Thrull to put three time counters on Tourach's Gate. During your upkeep, remove a time counter from Tourach's Gate. If there are no time counters on Tourach's Gate, bury it. : Tap land Tourach's Gate enchants. All attacking creatures you control get +2/-1 until end of turn.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Tourach’s Gate is packed with the power to shepherd in additional creatures from your library, upping your resources and outpacing your opponent by populating the battlefield with more threats.

Resource Acceleration: By opening the gate to your arsenal of dark spells, you enable a surge of mana production, propelling you ahead and facilitating the casting of high-impact cards earlier than usual.

Instant Speed: The card’s immediate action potential permits strategic flexibility, allowing you to exploit the perfect moment to disrupt your competitor’s maneuvers and maintain supremacy on the playing field.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Tourach’s Gate necessitates letting go of a card from your hand, which can be a heavy price to pay if you’re already behind in card advantage. This prerequisite might inadvertently give your opponent a lead if you’re unable to maintain a comfortable number of cards in hand.

Specific Mana Cost: The casting cost of this card includes black mana, which could restrict deck-building flexibility. Players not running black-heavy decks may find it difficult to integrate Tourach’s Gate without adjusting their mana base substantially, which in turn can affect the deck’s consistency and overall strategy.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When considering its mana value, Tourach’s Gate must contend with other cards at similar cost points that might give you a better bang for your buck. For its cumulative mana cost, you could potentially execute more impactful plays, cast creatures with stronger board presence or utilize spells that offer immediate and more versatile effects.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Tourach’s Gate is a dynamic card that offers significant utility in multiple deck archetypes. Its ability to disrupt opponent strategies while accelerating your own plans makes it a versatile choice for black-centered decks that thrive on control and tempo.

Combo Potential: With Tourach’s Gate, players can unearth combo possibilities thanks to its synergistic mechanics that interact favorably with sacrifice effects and graveyard strategies, allowing for intricate play sequences that can turn the tide of the game.

Meta-Relevance: Tourach’s Gate sustains relevance in various MTG formats by aligning with strategies that prioritize resource denial and board presence. As metagames evolve, it offers adaptability, often becoming a linchpin in decks designed to counter prevalent competitive themes.

How to beat Tourach’s Gate

Tourach’s Gate is a formidable card that tests the adaptability of players in Magic: The Gathering. This enchantment presents a unique strategy by tapping an opponent’s creature and creating a Gate token that poses a looming threat. Clever players might opt to counter this card directly upon casting, using spells like Negate or Dovin’s Veto, preemptively removing the issue.

Alternatively, the presence of efficient removal spells in one’s deck can effectively handle the Gate token, such as Path to Exile or Fatal Push. These spells provide an inexpensive and immediate answer to the potential danger. Moreover, players should consider employing enchantment removal like Disenchant or Abrade to directly target Tourach’s Gate itself, thereby disrupting the opponent’s strategy and preserving board stability.

It’s crucial to maintain board control and adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of a MTG match. Recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of cards like Tourach’s Gate and knowing how to counter them can be the difference between victory and defeat in the intricate dance of MTG gameplay.

Cards like Tourach's Gate

Tourach’s Gate adds strategic depth to the toolbox of reanimation spells in Magic: The Gathering. It finds parallels with cards like Reanimate, which also brings creatures back from the graveyard to the battlefield. Yet, Tourach’s Gate stands out by bypassing traditional mana costs through sacrificing a nontoken creature, while Reanimate directly translates life points into a resurrection force.

Analogous in its reanimating prowess, we see Zombify. This spell shares the resurrection theme, though it requires a heftier mana investment and doesn’t involve the sacrifice component. This makes Zombify a less flexible option. Another kindred card is Exhume, allowing each player to return a creature from their graveyard. Despite its lower mana cost, Exhume’s symmetric effect can occasionally benefit the opponent, a risk absent in Tourach’s Gate’s more controlled approach.

Assessing the unique dynamics and considering each card’s advantages and drawbacks, Tourach’s Gate shows promise within the reanimation niche in Magic: The Gathering. Its blend of cost-altering sacrifice and target precision gives it a distinct position among its peers.

Cards similar to Tourach's Gate by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Tourach's Gate MTG card by a specific set like Fallen Empires, 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 Tourach's Gate and other MTG cards: