Herald of Hadar MTG Card

Herald of Hadar - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Human Warlock
Abilities	Treasure
Released	2021-07-23
Set symbol
Set name	Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Set code	AFR
Power	4
Toughness	4
Number	108
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Valera Lutfullina

Key Takeaways

Its triggered ability rewards aggression and disrupts opponents, leading to improved board control.
Herald of Hadar requires careful resource management, with its attack cost potentially disrupting your game plan.
Despite a higher mana cost, its versatility and combo potential make it a valuable deck addition.

Text of card

Circle of Death — : Roll a d20. 1—9 | Each opponent loses 2 life. 10—19 | Each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. 20 | Each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. Create two Treasure tokens. (They're artifacts with ", Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.")

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Herald of Hadar shines in its potential to repeatedly disrupt the opponent’s board. Each time it successfully attacks, you’re essentially peeling away at their resources, putting you at a card advantage by dealing with potential threats before they can be fully utilized.

Resource Acceleration: While Herald of Hadar doesn’t directly produce mana or tokens, it enables resource acceleration by potentially removing key blockers or mana dorks. This disruption can accelerate your game plan by keeping the opponent on the back foot, attempting to recover from your offensive maneuvers.

Instant Speed: The ability to use its triggered ability at instant speed whenever it attacks grants you significant tactical flexibility. You can tailor your decisions based on the evolving game state, ensuring that your actions always align with your strategy and the immediate demands of the match.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Herald of Hadar demands you to sacrifice another creature or pay 2 life whenever it attacks. This could strain your resources, especially in games where maintaining a board presence is crucial.

Specific Mana Cost: This demonic figure comes with a specific mana arrangement, requiring one black and two generic mana. This might not fit smoothly in decks that run multiple colors or those with a tight mana base, potentially causing it to sit unused in your hand at crucial times.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that includes three mana for a 3/3 creature, Herald of Hadar might be considered costly, especially when other creatures at this cost come with less demanding or more beneficial abilities. This could make it a less appealing option during deck building when evaluating cost-to-effectiveness ratio.

Reasons to Include Herald of Hadar in Your Collection

Versatility: Herald of Hadar is a flexible card, easy to insert into different deck strategies, particularly those seeking to leverage its ability to create Dread tokens on-demand, supporting decks focused on token generation or needing reliable creature presence.

Combo Potential: With its ability to generate tokens repeatedly, Herald of Hadar works seamlessly with mechanics that capitalize on creature deaths, such as sac outlets or aristocrat strategies, amplifying the impact each time a token is sacrificed for greater value.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment rich in creature-based combat, the constant flow of tokens from Herald of Hadar can be a strategic advantage, providing both offensive and defensive options and making it a valuable asset against a variety of opposing strategies.

How to beat

Herald of Hadar is a card that can impact the game notably with its potential to create a stream of devil tokens. To tackle this persistent threat, it’s essential to employ disruption or removal strategies effectively. One approach is to utilize instant-speed removal spells that directly eliminate Herald of Hadar before it grows out of control. Particularly, cards such as Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile can manage this task efficiently, considering their low mana cost and ability to bypass any protective abilities the Herald might have.

Control decks that consist of counter spells are also a solid strategy to prevent Herald of Hadar from entering the battlefield in the first place. Efficient counters such as Mana Leak or Dovin’s Veto allow players to stop the Herald in its tracks, keeping the board clear of potential threats. Additionally, board wipes like Wrath of God or Damnation can reset the board, removing all tokens and creatures including Herald of Hadar, thwarting the adversary’s momentum and board presence.

Finally, maintaining vigilance for any enchantments or artifacts that amplify Herald of Hadar’s ability is crucial. Having spell-based answers or artifact/enchantment removal in your deck ensures you’re prepared for not just the Herald, but any supporting pieces that accompany it.

Cards like Herald of Hadar

Herald of Hadar stands out in Magic: The Gathering as a potent force, echoing the effects of cards like Dread Presence. Like the latter, Herald of Hadar excels in using lands to trigger harmful effects on opponents. Both cards share the ability to utilize lands—Dread Presence with swamps and Herald of Hadar with tapped lands—to unleash damage and life-loss on opponents, yet Herald of Hadar requires a creature sacrifice for its most devastating effect.

Another parallel can be drawn with Vengeful Reaper. Each has flying and offers a direct approach to diminishing an opponent’s life total. However, Herald of Hadar ups the ante with its wider board impact, affecting multiple opponents at once. Comparatively, Abyssal Specter offers a different value, focusing on hand disruption through its flying attack, prompting an opponent’s card discard. Nevertheless, Herald of Hadar’s domain is in its recursive potential, shaking up the battlefield turn after turn with its triggered ability—underscoring its unique tactical advantage in multiplayer scenarios.

Although these cards present varied strategies, Herald of Hadar distinctively carves its niche. Its synergistic interplay with tapped lands and consistent damage output makes it a formidable card for players seeking to exert relentless pressure on the opposing party’s life totals across the course of a game.

Cards similar to Herald of Hadar by color, type and mana cost

Predatory Nightstalker - MTG Card versions

Wei Elite Companions - MTG Card versions

Phyrexian Plaguelord - MTG Card versions

Bloodlord of Vaasgoth - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Herald of Hadar MTG card by a specific set like Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, 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 Herald of Hadar and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Herald of Hadar has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2021-07-23	An ability that tells you to roll a die will also specify what to do with the result of that roll. Most often, this is in the form of a “results table” in the card text.
2021-07-23	An effect that says “choose a target, then roll a d20” or similar still uses the normal process of putting an ability on the stack and resolving it. Choosing targets is part of putting the ability on the stack and rolling the d20 happens later, as the ability resolves.
2021-07-23	Dice are identified by the number of faces each one has. For example, a d20 is a twenty-sided die.
2021-07-23	Dice used must have equally likely outcomes and the roll must be fair. Although physical dice are recommended, digital substitutes are allowed, provided they have the same number of equally likely outcomes as specified in the original roll instruction.
2021-07-23	Some abilities, like that of Pixie Guide and Barbarian Class, replace rolling a die with rolling extra dice and ignoring the lowest roll. The ignored rolls are not considered for the effect that instructed you to roll a die, and do not cause abilities to trigger. For all intents and purposes, once you determine which dice count, any extra dice were never rolled.
2021-07-23	Some effects instruct you to roll again. This uses the same number and type of dice as the original roll, and that roll will use the same set of possible outcomes.
2021-07-23	Some effects may modify the result of a die roll. This may be part of the instruction to roll a die or it may come from other cards. Anything that references the “result” of a die roll is looking for the result after these modifications. Anything that is looking for the “natural result” is looking for the number shown on the face of the die before these modifications.
2021-07-23	The instruction to roll a die and the effect that occurs because of the result are all part of the same ability. Players do not get the chance to respond to the ability after knowing the result of the roll.
2021-07-23	Tournament events have more specific rules regarding dice and die-rolling. For more information, please see the most recent version of the Magic Tournament Rules at https://wpn.wizards.com/en/document/magic-gathering-tournament-rules.
2021-07-23	While playing Planechase, rolling the planar die will cause any ability that triggers whenever a player rolls one or more dice to trigger. However, any effect that refers to a numerical result will ignore the rolling of the planar die.