Hidden Courtyard MTG Card
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Land — Cave |
| Abilities | Discover |
| Released | 2023-11-17 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | The Lost Caverns of Ixalan |
| Set code | LCI |
| Number | 274 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Josu Solano |
Text of card
Hidden Courtyard enters the battlefield tapped. : Add . , , Sacrifice Hidden Courtyard: Discover 4. Activate only as a sorcery. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 4 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
Cards like Hidden Courtyard
Hidden Courtyard introduces an interesting dynamic within the land card category in MTG. It shares common ground with lands like Temple of Silence, offering both mana fixing and a way to manipulate upcoming draws through the scry mechanic. However, Hidden Courtyard offers a unique benefit by providing life gain, which Temple of Silence lacks. This can be a subtle yet impactful advantage in games where health conservation is crucial.
When considering lifegain lands, Scoured Barrens comes to mind—it not only taps for black or white mana but also gives you a life point. What sets Hidden Courtyard apart is its scry ability, giving you a glimpse into future turns, allowing for strategical planning. Scoured Barrens, however, doesn’t possess this foresight capability. Then there’s Radiant Fountain, another land with a lifegain feature, but it lacks the color diversity that Hidden Courtyard provides, restricting its inclusivity in multicolor decks.
To sum up, Hidden Courtyard sits comfortably among its counterparts with its dual utility of mana fixing and life stabilization, an appealing combination for decks that value endurance and strategic draw manipulation in MTG.
Cards similar to Hidden Courtyard by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Hidden Courtyard card shines by allowing you to peek at the top card of your library, providing valuable foreknowledge and potential draw manipulation, giving you a strategic edge over the course of the game.
Resource Acceleration: This card facilitates resource acceleration by offering an alternate casting cost, tapping an untapped creature you control, which can be incredibly beneficial for maintaining momentum and allowing for more significant and impactful plays earlier in the game.
Instant Speed: Its capability to be cast at instant speed affords you tremendous flexibility, allowing you to react swiftly to opponents’ actions or end-of-turn scenarios, maximizing your tactical responses without skipping a beat in your own strategy.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Hidden Courtyard necessitates discarding a card for its accompanying ability, which may deplete your hand when you might least afford it.
Specific Mana Cost: This card comes with a restrictive mana cost that includes white mana, potentially making it a less flexible option for multi-colored decks not focused on white.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a nontrivial mana investment required to activate its benefits, players might find that other cards could be a more economical alternative for securing an advantage on the battlefield.
Reasons to Include Hidden Courtyard in Your Collection
Versatility: Hidden Courtyard offers a flexible mana base for multicolored decks, adapting easily to the shifting needs of the game at hand. This land is a must-have for players who enjoy testing different strategies and deck types.
Combo Potential: In decks focusing on landfall or those that benefit from the presence of multiple land types, the Courtyard can become a powerhouse. Its ability to shift identity can activate various triggers and synergizes well with cards that capitalize on diverse mana sources.
Meta-Relevance: Given the ever-evolving metagame, having a land like Hidden Courtyard, which supports multicolored strategies and buffers against mana color shortages, can give players a significant advantage. As decks adapt to the meta, Hidden Courtyard’s adaptability can be the key to maintaining a competitive edge.
How to beat
Hidden Courtyard is one of those land cards in Magic: The Gathering that can subtly strengthen a player’s position on the battlefield. Its ability to tap for colorless mana or transform into a creature with vigilance and lifelink can catch unwary opponents by surprise, providing defensive and offensive versatility. Notably, Hidden Courtyard is resilient against spells that target nonland permanents, but there are still strategies to counter it effectively.
One approach is using land destruction spells or abilities that can target any land, thereby neutralizing Hidden Courtyard before it activates its creature ability. Another tactic to consider is employing cards that restrict the abilities of lands or negate them altogether, like Blood Moon, which can effectively render Hidden Courtyard’s special abilities useless. Additionally, cards with exile effects can be particularly useful, as they bypass the Courtyard’s creature indestructibility, providing a direct answer to it once it becomes a creature on the battlefield.
Overall, while Hidden Courtyard adds a layer of depth and strategy to a match, its presence should encourage players to think ahead about land interaction and the importance of having versatile answers in their decks to deal with multifaceted threats.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Hidden Courtyard MTG card by a specific set like The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, 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 Hidden Courtyard and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Hidden Courtyard has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Standard | Legal |
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Alchemy | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Future | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Brawl | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Hidden Courtyard card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2023-11-10 | "Discover N" means "Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value N or less. That card is the "discovered" card. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost if the resulting spell's mana value is less than or equal to N. If you don't cast it, put that card into your hand. Put the remaining exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order." |
| 2023-11-10 | A spell's mana value is determined only by its mana cost. Ignore any alternative costs, additional costs, cost increases, or cost reductions. |
| 2023-11-10 | If the discovered card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost. |
| 2023-11-10 | If you can't cast the discovered card (perhaps because there are no legal targets for the spell), you'll put it into your hand. |
| 2023-11-10 | If you cast a spell "without paying its mana cost", you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the spell has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those to cast it. |
| 2023-11-10 | If you discover an adventurer card, split card, or modal double-faced card, you might be able to cast that card with either set of characteristics depending on the effect's discover value. For example, if you discover 4 and reveal Galvanic Giant (an adventurer card from Wilds of Eldraine with a mana value of 4), you could cast Galvanic Giant, but not Storm Reading (its Adventure, which has a mana value of 7). If you discover 7 and reveal Galvanic Giant, you could cast either Galvanic Giant or Storm Reading. |
| 2023-11-10 | Some spells and abilities that cause you to discover may require targets. If each target chosen is an illegal target as that spell or ability tries to resolve, it won't resolve and you won't discover. |
| 2023-11-10 | The mana value of a split card is determined by the combined mana cost of its two halves. If discover allows you to cast a split card, you may cast either half (as long as its mana value is less than or equal to the effect's discover value) but not both halves. |
| 2023-11-10 | When you discover, you must exile cards. The only optional part of the ability is whether you cast the exiled card or put it into your hand. |
| 2023-11-10 | You exile the cards face up. All players will be able to see them. |