Hollow One MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The cycling ability of Hollow One can be a potent way to filter through your deck, ensuring you’re not holding onto dead cards and potentially bringing you closer to the pieces you need for victory.

Resource Acceleration: Hollow One’s cost reduction for each card you’ve cycled or discarded this turn can lead to an efficient use of resources, enabling you to deploy a significant threat much earlier than usual, thus accelerating your board presence.

Instant Speed: While Hollow One itself isn’t an instant, its synergy with instant speed cycling cards means you can effectively reduce its casting cost on your opponent’s turn, springing a surprise blocker or aggressor when least expected.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Hollow One demands players to discard cards to fully capitalize on its potential. In environments where hand resources are vital, this can setback your game plan significantly, especially if you’re unable to draw or retrieve the discarded cards later.

Specific Mana Cost: Even though Hollow One can cost less with each card you discard, its initial {5} mana cost demands a red mana, potentially making it a challenging fit in multicolored decks not heavily invested in red resources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an initial mana value of five, Hollow One’s cost is on the higher side for creatures without an immediate board impact. This cost must be mitigated by other cards to make it worthwhile, and without the right setup, it can be a costly addition with minimal early benefit.

Reasons to Include Hollow One in Your Collection

Versatility: Hollow One presents a flexible role in different deck archetypes due to its unique cost reduction mechanic. Whether running a discard-heavy setup or a cycling-based strategy, this creature can be deployed at a minimal cost or sometimes completely free—for a substantial board presence.

Combo Potential: With its ability to have its mana cost reduced by the number of cards you’ve discarded this turn, it seamlessly integrates into combo decks that aim to cast multiple spells in a single turn. It rewards high-engagement playstyles that revolve around card churn.

Meta-Relevance: Especially in metas where graveyard synergy and fast-paced gameplay predominate, Hollow One can become a recurring threat. It can consistently provide value and quickly adapt to the shifting landscape of competitive play, often catching opponents off guard and forcing them to adjust their strategy.

How to beat Hollow One

Overcoming Hollow One in an MTG match requires strategic deck building and timely play. This artifact creature boasts a significant discount to its casting cost for each card you’ve discarded in the turn, which can lead to incredibly early and high-impact plays. To counteract this, graveyard disruption is key. Tools like Scavenging Ooze or Leyline of the Void can interrupt the synergies Hollow One relies on to enter the battlefield quickly and cheaply.

Control decks that run counter spells can also keep Hollow One at bay, as countering the spells that enable discarding, such as Burning Inquiry or Goblin Lore, disrupts the Hollow One’s strategy. Artifact removal like Abrade or Shatterstorm can remove Hollow One after it has been cast, ensuring that the board stays clear of this mechanical threat. Nonetheless, timing is crucial; removing Hollow One after your opponent has achieved a cost reduction can result in card disadvantage. Therefore, focusing on proactive disruption and swift removal can pave the way to victory against Hollow One’s swift and heavy assaults.