Dig Up MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityRare
TypeSorcery
Abilities Cleave

Key Takeaways

  1. Dig Up ensures card advantage, allowing precise control over upcoming draws to maintain lead.
  2. Its instant speed and cleave mechanic afford flexibility and adaptability throughout the game.
  3. The card reinforces strategic depth, aligning well with decks focusing on resource acceleration.

Text of card

Cleave (You may cast this spell for its cleave cost. If you do, remove the words in square brackets.) Search your library for a
-asic land] card,
-eveal it,] put it into your hand, then shuffle.

Things buried on Innistrad rarely seem to stay that way.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dig Up harnesses the potential of your deck by allowing you to search for exactly the card you need at any given time. With this, you can effectively manipulate your draws, ensuring you don’t fall behind in the all-important battle for card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: As a scalable spell—thanks to its cleave mechanic—Dig Up can fit into your game plan at various stages. Early on, it can secure land drops to maintain pace, while later in the game, it can fetch critical nonland cards to accelerate your path to victory without spending extra card resources.

Instant Speed: By facilitating searches at instant speed, Dig Up allows for strategic depth in gameplay. Respond to your opponent’s actions with precision, or adapt to the evolving game state by selecting the perfect card at the end of their turn, keeping up the pressure and maintaining momentum.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Dig Up card compels you to part with another card from your hand, which might deplete your hand size and leave you at a disadvantage in the longer game. This effect reduces your overall card advantage, which can be a critical factor in many matchups, particularly when your strategy requires maintaining a variety of options in hand to respond effectively to your opponent’s moves.

Specific Mana Cost: Dig Up requires both green mana and generic mana for its casting, potentially restricting its inclusion in multi-color decks that are not heavily focused on green. This can complicate the deck-building process, as you must ensure a sufficient number of sources of green mana, which could affect the deck’s consistency and its ability to cast other spells with different color demands on curve.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Looking at the mana efficiency of the card, Dig Up carries a cost that may be perceived as steep for the effect it provides. With numerous alternative options available for land fetching or graveyard interaction, the four mana investment to utilize this card without its cleave cost can put you behind, particularly in fast-paced games where tempo is crucial. Players may opt for lower-cost spells that deliver similar or better benefits without such a taxing requirement.


Reasons to Include Dig Up in Your Collection

Versatility: Dig Up proves its flexibility by seamlessly integrating into various deck builds. It’s perfect for strategies that capitalize on graveyard retrieval, ensuring your key spells are always within reach.

Combo Potential: This card has immense synergy with decks that manipulate the graveyard. Whether it’s returning a crucial creature or setting up for a game-changing sorcery, its combo potential is undeniable.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where graveyard strategies prevail or when facing opponents with disruption tactics, Dig Up can provide a consistent means of reclaiming your most impactful cards, maintaining your competitive edge.


How to beat

Dig Up is a versatile card in Magic: The Gathering, allowing players to search their library for a card and put it into their hand. With its Cleave cost, it bypasses the need to sacrifice a creature, setting it apart from similar cards. To outmaneuver Dig Up, consider disrupting your opponent’s game plan early on. Keep pressure with aggressive creatures or deny them the resources they need by countering key spells or hindering their mana development.

Timing graveyard disruption can also be critical. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt can remove their graveyard, negating the value of Dig Up if played after it’s cast. Moreover, hand disruption tools like Thoughtseize can pluck Dig Up from your opponent’s hand before they even have a chance to use it. Always be mindful of the state of their graveyard and their available mana, as this will guide you when to strike and nullify the advantage Dig Up could provide them.

At its core, dealing with Dig Up is about recognizing the pivotal moments to intervene, whether through direct countermeasures or subtle resource denial. Thus, a strategic approach tailored to the situation will contain the threat posed by this resourceful MTG card.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the nuanced mechanics of MTG takes both clever strategy and valuable cards like Dig Up. This multifaceted spell packs a punch, weaving card advantage and resource acceleration into your game plan. However, keep an eye on its potential downsides, such as the handshake with your hand and mana pool constraints. Despite these considerations, the card’s flexibility makes it a compelling choice for decks that thrive on adaptability and resource retrieval. Delve into the pages of your deck building guide with Dig Up, and harness its power to ensure your collection is as dynamic as the game itself. Want to unearth the full potential of your deck? Learn more about how Dig Up can revolutionize your gameplay.


Cards like Dig Up

Dig Up offers a versatile tutor mechanic to Magic: The Gathering players, adding strategic depth to the gameplay. Its closest competitors include Increasing Ambition, which also allows players to search their library for a card. While Increasing Ambition has a higher mana cost, its flashback ability provides an additional use, yet it lacks the scalability of Dig Up’s cleave cost.

A notable peer is Entomb, which has a different approach by placing a card directly into the graveyard, paving the way for reanimation strategies, rather than ensuring a card goes to hand as Dig Up does. Sylvan Scrying stands out for its ability to fetch lands specifically, and while it’s cheaper, it doesn’t offer the same flexibility in card selection. Beseech the Queen enters the fray as another search tool, its cost scales with the number of lands you control, and although useful, it doesn’t match the instant speed or modifiable cost of Dig Up.

Considering its adaptability in early or late-game scenarios, Dig Up demonstrates its value in a player’s deck. Its combination of instant speed, variable cost, and unconditional search makes it a worthy inclusion when compared to other similar MTG cards.

Increasing Ambition - MTG Card versions
Entomb - MTG Card versions
Sylvan Scrying - MTG Card versions
Beseech the Queen - MTG Card versions
Increasing Ambition - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Entomb - Odyssey (ODY)
Sylvan Scrying - Mirrodin (MRD)
Beseech the Queen - Shadowmoor (SHM)

Cards similar to Dig Up by color, type and mana cost

Deadly Allure - MTG Card versions
Urborg Repossession - MTG Card versions
Deadly Allure - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Urborg Repossession - Dominaria United (DMU)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Dig Up MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and The List, 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 Dig Up and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Dig Up Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2021-11-19 and 2022-01-28. Illustrated by Slawomir Maniak.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 954112015normalblackSlawomir Maniak
22020-09-26The ListPLST VOW-1972015normalblackSlawomir Maniak
32021-11-19Innistrad: Crimson VowVOW 1972015normalblackSlawomir Maniak
42021-11-19Innistrad: Crimson VowVOW 3872015normalblackSlawomir Maniak
52022-01-28Innistrad: Double FeatureDBL 4642015normalblackSlawomir Maniak

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Dig Up has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2021-11-19 A cleave cost is an alternative cost that's paid instead of the spell's mana cost. Casting a spell for its cleave cost doesn't change the spell's mana value.
2021-11-19 If an effect allows you to “cast a spell without paying its mana cost,” you can't cast that spell for its cleave cost.
2021-11-19 If you cast a spell for its cleave cost, that spell doesn't have any of the text in square brackets while it's on the stack.
2021-11-19 If you paid the cleave cost, you must put a card into your hand as Dig Up resolves (assuming there is at least one card in your library).
2021-11-19 You can't cast a spell for both its cleave cost and another alternative cost. For example, if an effect gives an Alchemist's Retrieval in your graveyard a flashback cost of , you can't cast it from your graveyard for its cleave cost.

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