Ghost Town MTG Card

Ghost Town offers recurring card advantage by evading destruction and triggering landfall abilities. It guarantees land drops but requires discarding a card during upkeep, which limits hand size. Despite its mana and tempo costs, Ghost Town’s flexibility makes it a valuable deck addition.

Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Land
Released	1997-10-14
Set symbol
Set name	Tempest
Set code	TMP
Number	318
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Tom Wänerstrand

Text of card

oc T: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool. : Return Ghost Town to owner's hand. Use this ability only during another player's turn.

"The air here smells like a grave." —Crovax

Cards like Ghost Town

Exploring the vast array of land cards in Magic: The Gathering, Ghost Town rises as a unique choice in deck construction. Much like other utility lands such as Blinkmoth Nexus, it serves a multifaceted role beyond providing mana. While Blinkmoth Nexus can become a creature with flying, Ghost Town has the quirky ability to return to its owner’s hand during another player’s turn, ensuring land drops are maintained and safeguarded from adverse effects.

Similarly, Safe Haven offers a degree of protection by exiling creatures to be returned later, mirroring Ghost Town’s preservation theme. Although Safe Haven doesn’t interact with land drops, the core idea of safeguarding something valuable—be it creatures or land plays—echoes through both cards. Then there’s Gargoyle Castle, which also capitalizes on the land slot by converting into a creature. Though not directly relating to Ghost Town’s playstyle, it underscores the versatility and strategic depth these utility lands contribute to the game.

When considering the tactical advantages and how it can influence the rhythm of a match, Ghost Town presents a remarkable flex-play for deck builders seeking to exploit every phase of the game, ensuring that land plays are optimized and resilient against disruption.

Cards similar to Ghost Town by color, type and mana cost

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Ghost Town can be returned to its owner’s hand at instant speed for zero cost, which is a form of resilience against land destruction and synergy with landfall mechanics, thus potentially providing a recurring card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: While Ghost Town doesn’t directly accelerate resources like mana ramp cards, it ensures a land drop for the next turn. This is critical in MTG to consistently make land drops and have the necessary mana for casting spells each turn.

Instant Speed: The ability to bounce Ghost Town back to your hand at instant speed offers flexibility. You can decide to do so at the end of your opponent’s turn to guarantee a land play the following turn or in response to an interaction, keeping your lands safe and maintaining board presence.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For Ghost Town to be returned to your hand, you must discard a card during your upkeep. This can become a setback when your hand is already depleted, placing you at a disadvantage in maintaining card advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: The activation of Ghost Town requires colorless mana, which restricts its integration exclusively within decks that can reliably generate this type of mana, potentially limiting its versatility across various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The cost to play Ghost Town and activate its ability can be regarded as high, especially when compared to other lands that provide mana without additional setup or resources. This can hamper your tempo and reduce the efficiency of your mana base in the early-to-mid game phases.

Reasons to Include Ghost Town in Your Collection

Versatility: Ghost Town offers a unique flexibility to land slots in your deck. Its ability to return to your hand during your opponent’s turn ensures you can consistently make your land drops or avoid discard effects.

Combo Potential: This card works exceptionally well with landfall abilities or any card that benefits from lands entering the battlefield. Whether you’re triggering ramp, creating tokens, or powering up creatures, Ghost Town amplifies those strategies.

Meta-Relevance: In a format where land interaction is essential, Ghost Town has a place. It’s relevant in games that go long and can help maintain a consistent land count in hand, allowing for strategic plays and interaction with other cards that perform well with full hands or landfall.

How to beat Ghost Town

Confronting a card like Ghost Town on the playing field requires strategic insight into Magic: The Gathering’s land interaction mechanics. This unique land stands out for its ability to return to a player’s hand at a moment’s notice, often used to dodge land destruction or to guarantee a land drop for the next turn. It’s a tool commonly used in decks that rely on landfall triggers or wish to maintain a certain number of lands in hand.

Overcoming Ghost Town’s potential advantage involves leveraging cards that restrict or punish your opponent for having a bloated hand. Cards like Black Vise or Ebony Owl Netsuke, which deal damage based on the opponent’s hand size, suddenly turn Ghost Town’s retreat effect into a liability. Additionally, deploying quick, aggressive strategies can also apply pressure, forcing your opponent to use their resources defensively, which may limit the effectiveness of Ghost Town’s tactical retreats. It’s about pacing and ensuring that the bounce effect of Ghost Town doesn’t become a repeated advantage for your opponent.

Ultimately, staying one step ahead of your opponent’s strategies and recognizing the opportune moments to strike or disrupt can mitigate the flexibility that Ghost Town offers in an MTG duel, ensuring that this shifty land doesn’t undermine your path to victory.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ghost Town MTG card by a specific set like Tempest, 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 Ghost Town and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ghost Town has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal