Grisly Salvage MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 8 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Grisly Salvage enables precise card selection, improving hand and graveyard composition for various strategies.
  2. The instant speed of Grisly Salvage offers flexibility, allowing for strategic plays in response to opponents.
  3. Despite its strengths, it does inform opponents about your deck’s contents which can be a drawback.

Text of card

Reveal the top five cards of your library. You may put a creature or land card from among them into your hand. Put the rest into your graveyard.

To the Golgari, anything buried is treasure.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Grisly Salvage shines by allowing players the option to survey the top five cards of their library, ensuring that they find either a creature or land card that best suits their current situation. This capability makes it a strategic asset in building hand presence and maintaining a flow of resources.

Resource Acceleration: Through its selective process, Grisly Salvage efficiently sifts through the deck, accelerating your access to vital land resources or key creatures. The surplus cards expedited to the graveyard can also be an implicit asset for strategies that capitalize on graveyard mechanics, furthering your game progress.

Instant Speed: Executing this spell at instant speed grants players significant flexibility during gameplay. It enables them to wait until the most opportune moment within a turn cycle before committing to a strategy, keeping opponents guessing and preserving mana for potential countermoves or interactions.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: After using Grisly Salvage, you’re compelled to discard the remaining cards not chosen. This can inadvertently supply your opponent with information about your potential strategy and current resources, which could be used against you.

Specific Mana Cost: With the demand for both black and green mana, Grisly Salvage requires a dedicated Golgari deck. This can hinder its flexibility in deck construction, leaving it incompatible with decks that cannot efficiently provide both types of mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While two mana might not seem like much, in the world of fast-paced games, this might be too slow. Many prefer spells such as Thought Scour or opt to play creatures that can affect the battlefield immediately, providing both a body to defend with and graveyard filling synergies.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Grisly Salvage offers flexibility in various deck builds, letting you dig five cards deep to find a creature or land. This makes it highly useful in ensuring you get the resources or threats you need when you need them.

Combo Potential: The card is essential in graveyard-based strategies, enabling combos with reanimation tactics or other graveyard synergies. It can set up potent plays by placing key creatures in the bin for later revival.

Meta-Relevance: Given its efficiency in sculpting the perfect hand or graveyard setup, Grisly Salvage remains relevant in metagames where graveyard interaction is prevalent. It’s a staple in formats like Commander, where versatility and consistency are key.


How to Beat Grisly Salvage

Grisly Salvage is a versatile card that can be quite impactful in MTG, specifically in decks that capitalize on graveyard mechanics. Playing against Grisly Salvage means preparing for a potential rush of synergy from the opponent, as it plucks relevant creatures and lands from the top five cards of a library and beefs up the graveyard for further strategizing. To beat this card, savvy players will want to bring graveyard hate into their deck, using cards that can exile or shuffle graveyards back into the library, disrupting the Salvage’s value.

Cards like Rest in Peace or Scavenging Ooze work well since they can either remove entire graveyards from the game or selectively eat away at important targets that Grisly Salvage might retrieve. Timing is crucial; activating these effects in response to Grisly Salvage can negate the advantage it would provide. Another strategy is to present more immediate threats that require a response, thus diverting your opponent’s plans away from their graveyard setup. Deny the opponent the time they need to exploit Grisly Salvage, and you’ll have them scrambling to keep up with your pace.

Understanding and neutralizing an opponent’s strategy is a key element in MTG, and Grisly Salvage is no exception. Plan your moves, disrupt your opponent’s graveyard, and stay one step ahead to emerge victorious.


BurnMana Recommendations

Grisly Salvage is a unique MTG card offering strategic depth for any player looking to leverage their graveyard as a resource. Its value in fine-tuning hand and land choices while fueling graveyard-based plays makes it a versatile addition to your deck. However, to truly maximize its potential, understanding its intricate playstyle and integrating it within the right framework is crucial. We encourage MTG enthusiasts to explore the synergies and scenarios where Grisly Salvage can turn the tides of a match. Keen to dive deeper and harness the full power of this card? Visit us for insightful strategies, synergistic card pairings, and expert tips to optimize your gameplay with Grisly Salvage.


Cards like Grisly Salvage

Grisly Salvage is a key player in the realm of card selection in MTG, with a firm place among instant-speed card advantage spells. Its closest kin could be Satyr Wayfinder, which not only lets you look at the top four cards of your library but also puts a land card from among them into your hand. However, Grisly Salvage offers a broader choice, allowing the selection of a creature or land card and putting the rest into the graveyard, a boon for graveyard-focused strategies.

Another spell that fits into the echelon of Grisly Salvage is Commune with the Gods. This enchantment-heavy search spell peeks into the top five cards instead of four, and like Grisly Salvage, it lets you pick a creature or enchantment card. But Commune lacks the instant-speed flexibility, which can be crucial in the heat of a match. Strategic Planning also offers a glimpse into the top three cards of your deck, letting you take one into your hand, but again, it misses on targeting specific card types like Grisly Salvage does.

When evaluating cards centered around deck manipulation and graveyard synergy, Grisly Salvage stands out. It cleverly combines the depth of choice with the ability to operate at instant speed, an invaluable asset that elevates it in comparison with its counterparts.

Satyr Wayfinder - MTG Card versions
Commune with the Gods - MTG Card versions
Strategic Planning - MTG Card versions
Satyr Wayfinder - Born of the Gods (BNG)
Commune with the Gods - Theros (THS)
Strategic Planning - Portal Three Kingdoms (PTK)

Cards similar to Grisly Salvage by color, type and mana cost

Assassin's Trophy - MTG Card versions
Rushed Rebirth - MTG Card versions
Abrupt Decay - MTG Card versions
Golgari Charm - MTG Card versions
Tend the Pests - MTG Card versions
Infuse with Vitality - MTG Card versions
Tear Asunder - MTG Card versions
Assassin's Trophy - Murders at Karlov Manor Promos (PMKM)
Rushed Rebirth - Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos (PSTX)
Abrupt Decay - Time Spiral Remastered (TSR)
Golgari Charm - Explorer Anthology 3 (EA3)
Tend the Pests - Strixhaven: School of Mages (STX)
Infuse with Vitality - Strixhaven: School of Mages (STX)
Tear Asunder - Dominaria United (DMU)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Grisly Salvage MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Return to Ravnica, 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 Grisly Salvage and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Grisly Salvage Magic the Gathering card was released in 8 different sets between 2012-10-05 and 2021-05-27. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 501082003normalblackMaciej Kuciara
22012-10-05Return to RavnicaRTR 1652003normalblackDave Kendall
32015-11-13Commander 2015C15 2222015normalblackDave Kendall
42017-06-09Commander AnthologyCMA 1782015normalblackDave Kendall
52018-08-09Commander 2018C18 1822015normalblackDave Kendall
62018-11-02GRN Guild KitGK1 642015normalblackDave Kendall
72020-04-17Commander 2020C20 2152015normalblackDave Kendall
82021-05-27Historic Anthology 5HA5 232015normalblackDave Kendall

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Grisly Salvage has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

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