Blue Scarab MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant
Released	1995-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Ice Age
Set code	ICE
Number	9
Frame	1993
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Amy Weber

Key Takeaways

Blue Scarab allows additional draw and mana acceleration, offering a strong resource advantage during gameplay.
Played at instant speed, it provides strategic flexibility and surprise, crucial in tight situations.
Despite its power, it has downsides like a discard requirement and a specific mana cost for casting.

Text of card

Target creature gets +2/+2 as long as any opponent controls any blue cards. That creature cannot be blocked by blue creatures.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Blue Scarab card excels at providing players with additional draw power, ensuring a steady flow of options in your hand. This creates a strong advantage by outpacing your opponent in resources and choices.

Resource Acceleration: This card gives a significant boost to your mana resources, enabling quicker execution of power plays and facilitating a swifter deployment of high impact cards, keeping the pressure on your adversaries consistently high.

Instant Speed: The ability to play Blue Scarab at instant speed offers the strategic flexibility to respond to an opponent’s actions or to end your turn with the possibility of an advantageous move, keeping them guessing and providing you with the element of surprise.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Blue Scarab necessitates that you discard a card to activate its ability. This can pose a drawback when your hand is running thin on cards, making you sacrifice potential plays or crucial strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: To cast Blue Scarab, you need a precise combination of blue mana. This requirment restricts its versatility, making it a challenging fit for multi-colored or colorless decks that may not consistently produce the necessary mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The investment to get Blue Scarab on the board is significant, considering the cost in your mana curve. When compared with other artifacts or spells in the same range, Blue Scarab may fall short in terms of immediate board impact or overall game value.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Blue Scarab offers a unique flexibility, seamlessly integrating into decks that capitalize on spell-slinging or artifact synergies. Its ability to adjust to varying play styles makes it a handy addition to any collection.

Combo Potential: Known for its synergy with bounce and clone mechanics, Blue Scarab can become a linchpin in complex combos, enabling players to exploit its beneficial artifact type for impressive board states or game-winning plays.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames where control decks or artifact themes are prevalent, Blue Scarab’s ability to tip the scales with its synergistic properties can provide strategic advantage, keeping your deck competitive and reactive to trends.

How to beat

Confronting the Blue Scarab card in Magic: The Gathering requires strategic insight to effectively disarm its advantages. This enchanting artifact can become an imposing presence on the battlefield, offering card draw and control elements that could tip the scales in your opponent’s favor. Combatting this card, therefore, involves a mix of proactive and reactive measures.

One effective method is to wield artifact removal cards, such as Abrade or Naturalize, which can directly address the Blue Scarab’s presence and remove it from play, thus mitigating its influence. Another approach involves denying your opponent the card advantage through hand disruption strategies – deploying spells like Thoughtseize or Duress can extract this threat before it becomes active. Lastly, countering the Blue Scarab before it resolves, using spells like Counterspell or Negate, ensures that its potential never materializes, keeping the control in your hands.

In essence, countering Blue Scarab hinges on timing and resource management, as well as keeping a keen eye on the state of the game. Incorporating these strategies into your gameplay can help maintain an edge against opponents wielding this powerful MTG card.

Cards like Blue Scarab

The Blue Scarab is a captivating piece within the arsenal of counter spells in MTG. Its closest relatives include the iconic Counterspell and Mana Leak. Much like its forerunners, the Blue Scarab disrupts the opponent’s strategies by negating their spell. What sets Blue Scarab aside is its conditional nature, often requiring a specific board state to reach its full potential, whereas Counterspell offers an unconditional denial of any spell at the same mana value.

Dive into the world of Negate and you’ll find a card that operates on similar lines, yet has a more focused application, targeting only noncreature spells. Blue Scarab occupies a niche where it can counter any type of card under the right conditions, making it versatile in different stages of the game. Syncopate is yet another parallel, offering scalability in its countermeasure capability based on the mana you’re willing to invest. While Syncopate exiles the spell, Blue Scarab might offer additional benefits, emphasizing strategic planning and resource management.

When considering the tactical advantages and constraints of Blue Scarab, it’s evident that it possesses unique applications that can be instrumental in controlling the game’s flow, demonstrating its significance amongst MTG counter spells.

Cards similar to Blue Scarab by color, type and mana cost

Mask of Law and Grace - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Blue Scarab MTG card by a specific set like Ice Age, 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 Blue Scarab and other MTG cards: