Glistening Extractor MTG Card

Glistening Extractor - Alchemy: Phyrexia

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact
Abilities	Seek
Released	2023-02-28
Set symbol
Set name	Alchemy: Phyrexia
Set code	YONE
Number	21
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Jonas De Ro

Key Takeaways

Glistening Extractor accelerates resources, allowing faster casting of impactful spells.
Instant speed activation provides strategic flexibility during gameplay.
A steep mana cost and discard requirement may limit early game usage.

Text of card

Glistening Extractor enters the battlefield with four oil counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are one or more oil counters on Glistening Extractor, seek a card with mana value equal to the number of oil counters on Glistening Extractor, then remove an oil counter from Glistening Extractor.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Glistening Extractor shines when it comes to card economy by offering a repeatable effect that can draw you additional cards over time. This card’s ability can be key in outpacing your opponent by providing a steady flow of new options from your deck.

Resource Acceleration: Glistening Extractor can be a dynamo in decks that thrive on resource acceleration. It’s an asset for strategies that require a quick ramp in resources, paving the way for casting high-impact spells much earlier than normal.

Instant Speed: The capability to operate at instant speed grants you the flexibility to react swiftly to the evolving battlefield. Deploy Glistening Extractor when it’s most tactically advantageous, ensuring that your mana is never lying dormant when it could be used to influence the game state.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Glistening Extractor demands a card to be discarded as an additional cost to cast it. This can be particularly punishing when your hand is already depleted, ultimately narrowing your strategic options and potentially upsetting crucial plays.

Specific Mana Cost: One of the challenges this card presents is its specific mana requirement, narrowing its seamless inclusion to decks aligned with its mana color. The necessity for green mana could exclude it from a variety of deck builds that do not support green or multi-color synergies, reducing its overall flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Its mana cost is on the steeper side, potentially limiting its play early in the game. When evaluating mana efficiency against other available options, players may find the Glistening Extractor’s cost somewhat exorbitant for the advantage it yields, especially when considering the tempo of the game and alternative cards that may provide more immediate or impactful results.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Glistening Extractor offers flexibility to players by functioning as both a removal and life-gain tool. This makes it suitable for a wide range of decks, aiming to control the board while maintaining a healthy life total.

Combo Potential: As a card that interacts with life totals, Glistening Extractor can be a key piece in combos that capitalize on life changes. It’s particularly nifty in decks that exploit such variations to trigger powerful effects or win conditions.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where small creatures and aggressive strategies are prevalent, the Glistening Extractor shines by providing a low-cost solution to manage early threats while keeping you in the game with incremental life gain.

How to beat

Glistening Extractor introduces unique tactical challenges in MTG due to its feature of being an artifact creature combined with life drain capabilities. When you’re facing off against it, you’re up against not just a creature but a steady source of your opponent’s life gain. To effectively counter this card, you’ll want to consider strategies that revolve around artifact removal or direct damage spells to remove it from play before its life drain effect can accumulate to your disadvantage.

Direct damage spells like Lightning Bolt provide a perfect solution, as they deal damage enough to destroy Glistening Extractor without the need for a combat phase. Alternatively, artifact removal spells such as Disenchant or Abrade can directly target and eliminate this card, mitigating its life-draining impact on your health pool. Having a handful of these spells in your deck ensures that you can respond swiftly when Glistening Extractor hits the battlefield.

Remember, timing is critical. Acting quickly to remove Glistening Extractor from the game can save you from a slow drain of resources and put you back on the path to victory. By incorporating efficient removal cards into your strategy, you can prepare to disarm the threat this card poses without letting it disrupt your own game plan.

Cards like Glistening Extractor

Glistening Extractor offers intrigue within the subset of artifact creatures of Magic: The Gathering. With echoes of similarity to the likes of Steel Overseer, it can be perceived as a creature that benefits from proliferation and +1/+1 counters synergy. While Steel Overseer actively boosts other artifacts by placing +1/+1 counters, Glistening Extractor stands out with its inherent ability to exploit these counters for life gain.

Contrasting it with Arcbound Ravager, another artifact creature, we see a different utilization of counters. Arcbound Ravager famously sacrifices other artifacts to increase its own power, and thereby, its combat effectiveness. Glistening Extractor on the other hand leverages its counters for a more defensive and gradual advantage, bolstering its owner’s life total instead of offensive capabilities.

In evaluating Glistening Extractor, it is clear that it offers a unique combination of counter management and life gain. It doesn’t exhibit the aggressive tendency of Arcbound Ravager nor the group utility of Steel Overseer, yet it provides a sustainable edge for strategies that prioritize long-term vitality over immediate power surges in the game of Magic: The Gathering.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Glistening Extractor MTG card by a specific set like Alchemy: Phyrexia, 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 Glistening Extractor and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Glistening Extractor has restrictions

Format	Legality
Gladiator	Legal
Alchemy	Legal
Historic	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Timeless	Legal