Frantic Salvage MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Instant |
| Released | 2011-02-04 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Mirrodin Besieged |
| Set code | MBS |
| Number | 6 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Scott Chou |
Text of card
Put any number of target artifact cards from your graveyard on top of your library. Draw a card.
"We will mourn when there is time. For now, we survive."
Cards like Frantic Salvage
Frantic Salvage is a unique artifact recursion spell within Magic the Gathering. It shares thematic similarities with cards like Roar of Reclamation, which retrieves all artifacts from the graveyard to the battlefield but with a heftier mana cost. Frantic Salvage, by contrast, puts artifacts from the graveyard on top of your library, allowing you to draw them in subsequent turns. This distinction places a greater emphasis on strategic planning and potential card draw.
Buried Ruin is another card that echoes this theme of retrieving precious artifacts from the graveyard. While the land recovers only one artifact, Frantic Salvage potentially revives multiple, albeit to your library. This difference makes Frantic Salvage a potential game-changer in decks heavy on artifacts, leading to a potential draw engine. Trading Post also merits a comparison as it offers recurring utility, with one ability specifically returning an artifact from the graveyard to your hand, a more direct but single-use method.
Analyzing Frantic Salvage against its peers displays its niche in Magic the Gathering, particularly for decks that heavily capitalize on artifacts. Its ability to meticulously reorder numerous tools for future use can set up a commanding lead, illustrating the potent synergy it brings to artifact-oriented strategies.
Cards similar to Frantic Salvage by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Frantic Salvage can potentially return multiple artifacts from your graveyard to your library, ensuring that you won’t run out of crucial resources as the match progresses.
Resource Acceleration: By recycling artifacts, you can effectively streamline your deck, ensuring your draws are more focused and increasing the likelihood of getting the tools you need when you need them.
Instant Speed: Since Frantic Salvage can be played at instant speed, it offers flexibility by allowing you to wait until the most opportune moment—perhaps the end of your opponent’s turn—to execute your strategy without sacrificing the chance to respond to their moves.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Frantic Salvage, while valuable for its recycling ability, necessitates that you have an ample stockpile of artifacts in your graveyard to fully capitalize on its effect. If your graveyard isn’t well-stocked, you could miss out on optimizing this card’s potential.
Specific Mana Cost: Deploying Frantic Salvage requires a precise combination of mana: one blue and three other. This particular requirement can make it challenging to incorporate into multicolor decks that might struggle with mana flexibility, thereby restricting its use primarily to artifact-centric or blue-focused decks.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana to reorder artifacts from your graveyard into your library, some players could find Frantic Salvage a bit costly. In faster paced games or those where mana conservation is key, having to allocate four mana to this specific function might be seen as a less efficient use of resources, especially when there are other cards that could perform similar actions, or more impactful plays at the same or lower cost.
Reasons to Include Frantic Salvage in Your Collection
Versatility: Frantic Salvage offers a unique approach to managing your graveyard, allowing you to reorder any number of artifact cards and prepare for future draws. This adaptability shines in various deck types, particularly those that rely on artifact synergies or recursion strategies.
Combo Potential: By retrieving key artifact pieces from your graveyard, Frantic Salvage can be instrumental in setting up potent combinations. It fuels strategies that capitalize on recurring artifacts or using the graveyard as a resource, thus enabling intricate and powerful plays.
Meta-Relevance: As the metagame shifts and artifact-centric decks become more prevalent, Frantic Salvage finds its place by offering an efficient way to recycle valuable resources. Whether combating artifact hate or optimizing your own artifact-based tactics, this card adapts to the challenges posed by the evolving meta.
How to beat
Frantic Salvage, a utility spell in the intricate tapestry of Magic: The Gathering, carves out niche advantages by arranging artifacts from a player’s graveyard back into their library. This provides card advantage by recycling critical components, ideal for decks that depend heavily on artifacts. However, to navigate against this card, understanding the right countermeasures is key.
Targeted graveyard removal abilities stand out as the most effective strategy. By exiling key artifacts before your opponent can retrieve them with Frantic Salvage, you hinder their plan significantly. Cards like Bojuka Bog, Relic of Progenitus, or even a Tormod’s Crypt can disrupt the sequencing of a Frantic Salvage play. Additionally, utilizing instant speed interaction allows players to respond in accordance with the attempt to cast Frantic Salvage, thus maintaining the upper hand. Control decks that can counter spells prove formidable as well, with counterspells like Negate or Dovin’s Veto that can stop Frantic Salvage right in its tracks.
In essence, ensuring your deck is equipped with the tools to interrupt or remove artifacts from the game, or the counter spells to nullify Frantic Salvage’s resolution, is the blueprint for mitigating this card’s potential impact on the match’s outcome.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Frantic Salvage MTG card by a specific set like Mirrodin Besieged, 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 Frantic Salvage and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Frantic Salvage has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Frantic Salvage card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2011-06-01 | You can cast this with zero targets. If you do, you’ll get to draw a card. However, if you cast this with at least one target and all of those targets become illegal (because another effect has removed them from the graveyard, perhaps), the spell won’t resolve and you won’t get to draw a card. |
| 2011-06-01 | You choose the order of the cards you put on top of your library. |