Sultai Emissary MTG Card

Fate Reforged (FRF)
2015-01-23 - Number 85

Sultai Emissary - Magic Online Promos (PRM)

Magic Online Promos (PRM)
2002-06-24 - Number 55753

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Zombie Warrior
Abilities	Manifest
Power	1
Toughness	1

Key Takeaways

Gains card advantage through exploration and manifest ability, providing potential blockers or surprise elements.
Indirectly accelerates resources by manifesting without additional mana cost, optimizing board development.
Death-triggered manifest offers flexibility, benefiting from opponents’ actions even on their turn.

Text of card

When Sultai Emissary dies, manifest the top card of your library. (Put that card onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)

To the Sultai, Ugin's power was just one more resource to be exploited.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Sultai Emissary can be a key component in achieving card advantage. Upon entering the battlefield, it impacts the game immediately by allowing you to explore the top card of your library. If a nonland card is revealed, it gives you an extra creature to work with, effectively providing two blockers for the price of one. And if its life ends, it manifests the top card of your library, potentially turning it into another creature or giving you a surprise element versus your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: While Sultai Emissary itself doesn’t directly accelerate your mana, it contributes to resource acceleration by its manifest ability. Turning the top card of your library into a 2/2 creature can unexpectedly ramp up your board presence without spending additional mana, thus accelerating your strategy indirectly. This allows you to allocate resources elsewhere while still developing your board state.

Instant Speed: While Sultai Emissary isn’t an instant, its death-triggered ability works at any speed, including during your opponent’s turn. This means that even if it is removed, you will instantly benefit from the manifest effect, keeping the pace of your game plan and maintaining pressure on your opponent.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While playing Sultai Emissary, you might find yourself at a tactical disadvantage if the card forces a discard from your hand. Discarding can deplete your resources, especially in a tight game where every card counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Sultai Emissary demands a precise mana arrangement to cast. Requiring a blend of black, green, and blue mana, it restricts deck-building options and could be incompatible with more flexible, less color-intensive strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When evaluating the mana cost of Sultai Emissary against its abilities, some players may consider the cost a little steep. Alternative creatures or spells offer similar or better effects for a lower investment, potentially making them more competitive choices in your deck.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Sultai Emissary seamlessly integrates into a multitude of decks, notable for those that capitalize on sacrificing creatures or creating and leveraging token creatures.

Combo Potential: Upon its demise, this creature morphs into a manifest token, which could unearth other powerful creatures or synergize with effects that manipulate the top of the library.

Meta-Relevance: With its low casting cost and resilience against removal through creating a manifest token, Sultai Emissary holds its own in environments that favor incremental advantage and board presence.

How to Beat Sultai Emissary

Sultai Emissary is a creature card that brings an interesting dynamic to the tabletop with its ability to manifest the top card of your library upon death. This feature can turn an innocuous card into a temporary creature that may turn the tides of battle. It’s smaller size though means it can be easily dealt with using creature removal spells like Fatal Push or Shock, which are efficient and effective ways to clear the board of smaller threats such as the Sultai Emissary.

Board wipes, such as Damnation or Wrath of God, remain one of the most effective strategies since they remove multiple threats at once, including any manifested creatures that might arise from the Emissary’s ability. Using spot removal after the Emissary has been turned into a manifest creature ensures that you don’t have to deal with another layer of threats later on. It’s also worth noting that graveyard control cards can prevent the Emissary’s ability from being used to its full potential by disrupting the library-to-graveyard transition.

When facing Sultai Emissary, always be mindful of the trickery it brings to the battlefield. Smart, preemptive plays, and control strategies can negate the advantages it gives to your opponent, maintaining the pace of the game in your favor.

Cards like Sultai Emissary

Sultai Emissary brings versatility to the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. Its comparison with cards like Doomed Traveler is inevitable due to their shared ability to leave a creature token behind after departing the field. However, Sultai Emissary offers a twist with its manifest ability, providing the chance to possibly turn the token into a formidable creature at a later stage. Doomed Traveler, in contrast, sticks to creating a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying.

Looking towards other relations, Jeskai Sage also piques interest with its prowess ability and the promise of card draw upon death. This mechanic leans towards a different strategy, emphasizing the reactive nature of spells during gameplay. Unlike Sultai Emissary’s element of surprise, Jeskai Sage offers immediate card value. Then there’s Carrier Thrall’s ability to delve into resource acceleration, leaving behind a Scion token that can be sacrificed for mana. This differs from Sultai Emissary’s more strategic play of card potential on the battlefield.

Accordingly, within the realm of Magic: The Gathering, Sultai Emissary captures the imagination for those looking to combine graveyard strategy with the possibilities of the manifest mechanic, marking its own distinct niche in the multitude of creature cards.

Cards similar to Sultai Emissary by color, type and mana cost

Order of the Ebon Hand - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Sultai Emissary MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Fate Reforged, 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 Sultai Emissary and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Sultai Emissary Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2015-01-23 and 2015-01-23. Illustrated by Mathias Kollros.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	~~2002-06-24~~	Magic Online Promos	PRM		55753	2015	Normal	Black	Mathias Kollros
2	2015-01-23	Fate Reforged	FRF		85	2015	Normal	Black	Mathias Kollros

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Sultai Emissary has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2014-11-24	A permanent that turns face up or face down changes characteristics but is otherwise the same permanent. Spells and abilities that were targeting that permanent, as well as Auras and Equipment that were attached to the permanent, aren’t affected.
2014-11-24	Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested creature face up by revealing that it’s a creature card (ignoring any copy effects or type-changing effects that might be applying to it) and paying its mana cost. This is a special action. It doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to.
2014-11-24	At any time, you can look at a face-down permanent you control. You can’t look at face-down permanents you don’t control unless an effect allows you to or instructs you to.
2014-11-24	Because face-down creatures don’t have names, they can’t have the same name as any other creature, even another face-down creature.
2014-11-24	Because the permanent is on the battlefield both before and after it’s turned face up, turning a permanent face up doesn’t cause any enters-the-battlefield abilities to trigger.
2014-11-24	If a face-down permanent you control leaves the battlefield, you must reveal it. You must also reveal all face-down spells and permanents you control if you leave the game or if the game ends.
2014-11-24	If a manifested creature would have morph if it were face up, you may also turn it face up by paying its morph cost.
2014-11-24	Some older Magic sets feature double-faced cards, which have a Magic card face on each side rather than a Magic card face on one side and a Magic card back on the other. The rules for double-faced cards are changing slightly to account for the possibility that they are manifested. If a double-faced card is manifested, it will be put onto the battlefield face down. While face down, it can’t transform. If the front face of the card is a creature card, you can turn it face up by paying its mana cost. If you do, its front face will be up. A double-faced permanent on the battlefield still can’t be turned face down.
2014-11-24	The face-down permanent is a 2/2 creature with no name, mana cost, creature types, or abilities. It’s colorless and has a converted mana cost of 0. Other effects that apply to the permanent can still grant or change any of these characteristics.
2014-11-24	There are no cards in the Fate Reforged set that would turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, but some older cards can try to do this. If something tries to turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, reveal that card to show all players it’s an instant or sorcery card. The permanent remains on the battlefield face down. Abilities that trigger when a permanent turns face up won’t trigger, because even though you revealed the card, it never turned face up.
2014-11-24	Turning a permanent face up or face down doesn’t change whether that permanent is tapped or untapped.
2014-11-24	Unlike a face-down creature that was cast using the morph ability, a manifested creature may still be turned face up after it loses its abilities if it’s a creature card.
2014-11-24	You must ensure that your face-down spells and permanents can easily be differentiated from each other. You’re not allowed to mix up the cards that represent them on the battlefield in order to confuse other players. The order they entered the battlefield should remain clear. Common methods for indicating this include using markers or dice, or simply placing them in order on the battlefield. You must also track how each became face down (manifested, cast face down using the morph ability, and so on).