Erosion MTG Card

The Dark (DRK)
1994-08-01 - Number 26

Fourth Edition (4ED)
1995-04-01 - Number 70

Erosion - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)

Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)
1995-04-01 - Number 70

Renaissance (REN)
1995-08-01 - Number 29

Card sets	Released in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant

Key Takeaways

Erosion gradually degrades an opponent’s land, producing consistent board advantage over time.
While not accelerating your resources, it disrupts opponents, potentially speeding up your game position.
Its continuous enchantment effect works at game speed, influencing play without further mana investment.

Text of card

Target land is destroyed unless its controller pays o1 or pays 1 life during his or her upkeep. Effects that prevent or redirect damage may not be used to counter this loss of life.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Erosion offers an avenue for consistent attrition, slowly degrading the opponent’s land-based resources turn after turn, which can lead to an advantageous board state.

Resource Acceleration: While it doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration to you, Erosion disrupts your opponent’s mana development, which can indirectly speed up your relative position in the game.

Instant Speed: As an enchantment, its persistent effect is like having an ability that activates at the speed of the game itself, always influencing play without the need to sink additional mana once it’s on the battlefield.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Erosion requires a regular sacrifice of lands, which can be crippling to your mana base and hinder your ability to cast spells efficiently.

Specific Mana Cost: Erosion’s casting cost demands both blue and generic mana, potentially making it a less flexible choice for multicolored decks that are not focused on blue.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that may be considered steep for its effect, Erosion could slow down your game plan, especially when there are other enchantments or spells that hinder opponents at a lower cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Erosion offers unique gameplay dynamics, fitting well into control-heavy decks that aim to systematically deplete an opponent’s resources. Its ability to target land ensures it can be a part of various game plans.

Combo Potential: This card works seamlessly with strategies emphasizing land destruction or denial. Coupled with cards that hinder land recovery, Erosion can be a key component in a lock-down combo to disrupt the opponent’s tempo significantly.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where land plays are critical, Erosion holds relevance. It can be especially potent in metas that don’t heavily utilize land acceleration or where games tend to extend to many turns, allowing it to incrementally erode away an opponent’s position.

How to beat

Erosion is an intriguing enchantment card in MTG that gradually depletes an opponent’s land resources. Players facing Erosion must carefully strategize to mitigate its debilitating effects on their mana base. The key is maintaining a reserve of extra lands in hand to compensate for any potential destruction, ensuring the continuous ability to cast spells. Cards like Life from the Loam become invaluable in this scenario, offering a steady return of lands from the graveyard to the hand.

Alternatively, employing enchantment removal spells such as Disenchant or Naturalize can directly counter Erosion’s presence on the battlefield. Running such spells provides not only a solution to Erosion but also protects against other troublesome enchantments one might encounter. Moreover, fast-paced decks aiming to defeat an opponent before Erosion can impose significant damage are another viable strategy. Aggressive decks that focus on reducing an opponent’s life total quickly may undermine Erosion’s long-term strategy by ending the game promptly.

By anticipating Erosion and incorporating these strategies into your deckbuilding and gameplay, you can maintain the edge over this insidious blue enchantment and preserve your valuable land resources for a victorious outcome in your MTG matches.

Cards like Erosion

Erosion is a unique enchantment that fits into the niche of land control strategies within Magic: The Gathering. Much like Erosion, which requires a player to sacrifice a land or take damage, cards like Psychic Venom impose a cost on target land. While Psychic Venom inflicts damage whenever the enchanted land is tapped, it doesn’t force a sacrifice, allowing for a different type of pressure. Similarly, Seismic Spike destroys land outright and rewards the player with mana, which can be crucial for aggressive strategies.

Considering other comparisons, Ice Storm targets lands directly and inhibits your opponent’s mana flow, which Erosion also aims to disrupt over time. Comparatively, Ice Storm has an immediate impact as opposed to Erosion’s gradual attrition. Then there’s Pooling Venom, which presents a direct threat to the player’s life total if they choose to tap the affected land, mirroring the potential damage Erosion can deal over several turns. It’s important to note that Erosion’s strength lies in its ability to continually tax land resources, a feature unique to its effect amongst land disruption enchantments.

In essence, while Erosion and its counterparts each manipulate lands to hobble an opponent’s strategy, Erosion manages to stand out with its persistent demand for resource sacrifice, presenting a slow but steady path to victory.

Cards similar to Erosion by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Erosion MTG card by a specific set like The Dark and Fourth 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 Erosion and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Erosion Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 1994-08-01 and 1995-08-01. Illustrated by Pete Venters.

#	Released	Name	Code	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	1994-08-01	The Dark	DRK	26	1993	Normal	Black	Pete Venters
2	1995-04-01	Fourth Edition	4ED	70	1993	Normal	White	Pete Venters
3	1995-04-01	Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border	4BB	70	1993	Normal	Black	Pete Venters
4	1995-08-01	Renaissance	REN	29	1993	Normal	Black	Pete Venters