Frightshroud Courier MTG Card

Frightshroud Courier offers card advantage by returning creatures to your hand, ensuring a full board. It provides haste and instant-speed reanimation for tactical surprise, enhancing combat readiness. The card is versatile, fitting well into mono-black or black-centric decks for increased tactic options.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Zombie
Released	2002-10-07
Set symbol
Set name	Onslaught
Set code	ONS
Power	2
Toughness	1
Number	149
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Ron Spears

Text of card

You may choose not to untap Frightshroud Courier during your untap step. o B, oc T: As long as Frightshroud Courier remains tapped, target Zombie gets +2/+2 and has fear. (It can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

Cards like Frightshroud Courier

Frightshroud Courier offers a unique twist on creature buffs in Magic: The Gathering, standing out from its counterparts. Cards like Courier’s Capsule share similarities, as they also provide card advantage; however, the Capsule does so in an artifact format and without bolstering creatures. Frightshroud Courier differentiates itself by offering a stealthy power-up with the potential to dramatically sway combat in your favor.

Explore the likes of Aether Tunnel for another approach to stealth tactics. This enchantment renders a creature unblockable, much like Frightshroud Courier can temporarily do. Nonetheless, Aether Tunnel lacks the creature buff aspect, being a single-use card while Frightshroud Courier continues to enhance your battlefield presence turn after turn. Shadow Lance is another close relation, combining evasion with a power increase. But, unlike Frightshroud Courier, it demands more mana investment and is less reusable.

While analyzing these similar cards, Frightshroud Courier reveals its dual strengths in both recurring utility and combat advantage. Its capacity to repeatedly grant unblockability and a strength boost without a high mana cost makes it a distinctive choice amongst cards in its category within the strategic framework of Magic: The Gathering.

Cards similar to Frightshroud Courier by color, type and mana cost

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Frightshroud Courier facilitates sneaky tactics to ensure a steady flow of creatures to fuel your board presence. It delivers a relentless advantage by returning shadow-empowered creatures to your hand, thereby maintaining your grip on the game.

Resource Acceleration: This nimble courier enables haste atop your undead legions, granting you an unexpected burst of speed. By getting creatures combat-ready quicker, the card effectively shaves crucial turns off your plan, propelling you towards victory.

Instant Speed: This card’s unearth ability shines at instant speed, allowing you to ambush opponents when least expected. With the power to reanimate your creatures at a moment’s notice, Frightshroud Courier stands as a testament to flexibility and tactical surprise on the battlefield.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Frightshroud Courier necessitates that you discard a card to activate its ability. This can pose a setback, especially in scenarios where maintaining hand advantage is crucial. Also, it may become a liability if the game extends and you’re already low on cards, potentially limiting your strategic options and weakening your position.

Specific Mana Cost: The mana cost for Frightshroud Courier is locked into black mana, making it a card that fits primarily within mono-black or black-centric multicolored decks. This requirement can be restrictive; for players who favor versatility or are building decks that run on a broader color scheme, incorporating Frightshroud Courier may not align well with their strategy.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value of three where two of which must be black, Frightshroud Courier falls on the higher end of the curve for its ability set. Considering its performance against other options in the same mana range, the card may often be overshadowed by more impactful creatures or spells that provide greater advantage without the need to part with valuable hand resources.

Reasons to Include Frightshroud Courier in Your Collection

Versatility: Frightshroud Courier offers flexibility in deck building. Its ability to grant fear to a targeted creature enriches black-centric or multi-colored decks with a tactical advantage, ensuring key creatures have a better chance to hit opponents unblocked.

Combo Potential: This card synergizes well with strategies aiming to make creatures unblockable. The element of surprise it brings to the table by instantaneously powering up and providing evasion can turn the tides in a tight matchup, offering unexpected combat tricks or enabling lethal strikes.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where combat interactions are crucial, Frightshroud Courier provides a unique tool. Its relevance grows in metas with fewer creatures that can block fear-enabled attackers, and it serves as a fantastic enabler for aggressive strategies that require unimpeded attack paths to succeed.

How to beat

The Frightshroud Courier card in Magic: The Gathering offers a unique battlefield advantage. With the ability to grant fear to a target black creature, it can be a thorny challenge to deal with, especially if your deck is light on artifact creatures or colors other than black. Despite its uses, it’s not an insurmountable obstacle in a match.

To effectively counter Frightshroud Courier, consider incorporating cards that don’t rely on blocking to remove threats. Targeted removal spells, such as Path to Exile or Doom Blade, can efficiently dispose of the creature before the fear ability becomes an issue. Moreover, board wipes like Wrath of God can reset the playing field, nullifying the Courier’s tactical edge. Additionally, cards with reach or those that can block creatures with fear regardless of color, like artifacts or creatures with intimidate, can provide a reliable defense against fear-empowered black creatures.

Ultimately, your strategy against Frightshroud Courier should involve preemptive measures and a versatile deck composition, ensuring that you have the tools necessary to counteract its ability and maintain control of the game state.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Frightshroud Courier MTG card by a specific set like Onslaught, 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 Frightshroud Courier and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Frightshroud Courier has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2004-10-04	It checks the creature type when the ability is announced and resolved, but once the effect is placed on the creature, if its creature type changes the effect still continues.