Ghost Quarter MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 16 setsSee all
RarityUncommon
TypeLand

Key Takeaways

  1. Ghost Quarter disrupts opponents’ mana, crucial against decks with essential nonbasic lands.
  2. Activating without mana cost, it offers strategic instant-speed land destruction.
  3. Despite self-sacrifice, this land remains a versatile and meta-relevant tool.

Text of card

: Add to your mana pool. , Sacrifice Ghost Quarter: Destroy target land. Its controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put it into play, then shuffle his or her library.

Where wasted life cries out to be reborn.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Ghost Quarter offers a unique form of card advantage as it allows you to disrupt your opponent’s mana base while potentially not losing land yourself. This is especially potent against decks that rely on nonbasic lands to execute their strategies, making it possible to hinder their game plan significantly.

Resource Acceleration: Though Ghost Quarter does not directly accelerate your resources, it can indirectly influence the pace of the game. By removing a critical land from your opponent’s board, you’re slowing down their development while maintaining the pace of your own gameplay, which can be seen as a form of tempo acceleration.

Instant Speed: The ability to activate Ghost Quarter at instant speed adds a layer of strategic depth to your plays. It allows you to wait until the last possible moment to disrupt your opponent, which can be crucial in response to land-dependent combos or to simply get the most information before committing to the action.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Ghost Quarter doesn’t require a card discard, it does demand you to sacrifice it, effectively diminishing your land count. This can be a setback in land-orientated strategies or when you’re already behind on board development.

Specific Mana Cost: Ghost Quarter’s ability is mana-free, providing flexibility. However, it could be seen as a disadvantage that the land it searches for comes into play untapped, slowing your mana progression in comparison to the opponent who receives an untapped land.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although Ghost Quarter has no mana cost to activate, the opportunity cost is high. Removing a land from your own board can be costly, especially if you are unable to capitalize on the temporary resource imbalance it creates against your opponent.


Reasons to Include Ghost Quarter in Your Collection

Versatility: Ghost Quarter serves an important role in any deck due to its ability to disrupt opponents’ mana bases. It can target any land, making it a versatile tool against a wide range of decks, from those relying on powerful utility lands to those with greedy mana requirements.

Combo Potential: This land provides synergy with strategies wishing to recur lands from the graveyard or capitalize on land destruction. Additionally, it can be a strategic asset in decks designed to deny resources, standing as a key piece in a larger control or denial strategy.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where nonbasic lands are prevalent, Ghost Quarter shines by providing a solution to lands that often evade common disruption tactics. It’s a valuable card in any collection for its ability to adapt and respond to current dominant strategies, keeping decks competitive.


How to beat Ghost Quarter

Ghost Quarter is a unique land card in Magic: The Gathering that can be pivotal in disrupting an opponent’s mana base. Unlike typical land destruction spells, Ghost Quarter does not set your opponent back on lands but changes the dynamic of the battlefield by potentially removing a key piece of their land strategy, such as Tron Lands or creature lands. Despite this, savvy players can navigate the Ghost Quarter’s effect with proper planning.

To effectively counter Ghost Quarter, consider running basic lands in your deck, which allows you to recover smoothly from its land exchange ability. Diversifying your mana base with various basic lands can mitigate Ghost Quarter’s impact. Furthermore, employing land search effects or land recursion spells after Ghost Quarter targets your land can turn the tables, effectively making its ability an enabler for your strategies. Cards like Life from the Loam or Crucible of Worlds excel in these situations by returning lands from the graveyard to the battlefield or your hand, bypassing the potential setback of Ghost Quarter.

Understanding and being prepared for possible interactions with Ghost Quarter elevates your strategy and ensures that your mana base remains a reliable foundation throughout the game.


Cards like Ghost Quarter

Ghost Quarter serves a pivotal role in disrupting your opponent’s mana base by destroying any land. In a game where the right mana at the right time is crucial, this can be particularly detrimental. It stands in a field alongside other land destruction cards such as Field of Ruin, which also targets lands and replaces them with basics. Yet, Ghost Quarter requires no mana investment to activate compared to Field of Ruin’s two mana and sacrifices itself without providing a replacement land for its controller, a significant factor in tight gameplay scenarios.

Tectonic Edge is another land removal option that offers a different balance – requiring four or more lands to be active. While Ghost Quarter can be employed at any stage, Tectonic Edge demands a more developed game board and also costs mana to activate but does not require you to sacrifice one of your own lands in the process, unlike Ghost Quarter.

From a strategic viewpoint, Ghost Quarter may be the more versatile option for land removal in MTG, easily fitting into various deck compositions due to its cost-less activation, despite the self-sacrifice requirement. Assessing the strengths of comparable cards illuminates Ghost Quarter’s unique position in the realm of land control strategies.

Field of Ruin - MTG Card versions
Tectonic Edge - MTG Card versions
Field of Ruin - Ixalan (XLN)
Tectonic Edge - Worldwake (WWK)

Cards similar to Ghost Quarter by color, type and mana cost

Cathedral of Serra - MTG Card versions
Mishra's Factory - MTG Card versions
Bad River - MTG Card versions
Griffin Canyon - MTG Card versions
Ice Floe - MTG Card versions
Ghost Town - MTG Card versions
Urza's Mine - MTG Card versions
City of Brass - MTG Card versions
Bloodstained Mire - MTG Card versions
Zoetic Cavern - MTG Card versions
Grixis Panorama - MTG Card versions
Rupture Spire - MTG Card versions
Terramorphic Expanse - MTG Card versions
Tectonic Edge - MTG Card versions
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - MTG Card versions
Buried Ruin - MTG Card versions
Wasteland - MTG Card versions
Eldrazi Temple - MTG Card versions
Maze of Ith - MTG Card versions
Homeward Path - MTG Card versions
Cathedral of Serra - Legends (LEG)
Mishra's Factory - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Bad River - Mirage (MIR)
Griffin Canyon - Visions (VIS)
Ice Floe - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Ghost Town - Tempest (TMP)
Urza's Mine - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
City of Brass - World Championship Decks 2002 (WC02)
Bloodstained Mire - World Championship Decks 2003 (WC03)
Zoetic Cavern - Future Sight (FUT)
Grixis Panorama - Commander 2013 (C13)
Rupture Spire - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Terramorphic Expanse - Commander 2018 (C18)
Tectonic Edge - Zendikar Expeditions (EXP)
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Theros (THS)
Buried Ruin - Commander 2014 (C14)
Wasteland - Zendikar Rising Expeditions (ZNE)
Eldrazi Temple - Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (DDP)
Maze of Ith - Eternal Masters (EMA)
Homeward Path - Judge Gift Cards 2017 (J17)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ghost Quarter MTG card by a specific set like Dissension and Magic Online Theme Decks, 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 Ghost Quarter and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Ghost Quarter Magic the Gathering card was released in 14 different sets between 2006-05-05 and 2023-06-23. Illustrated by 4 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12006-05-05DissensionDIS 1732003normalblackHeather Hudson
22010-11-08Magic Online Theme DecksTD0 A1282003normalblackHeather Hudson
32011-09-30InnistradISD 2402003normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
42014-05-30Modern Event Deck 2014MD1 262003normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
52014-11-07Commander 2014C14 2982015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
62015-11-13Commander 2015C15 2852015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
72017-06-09Commander AnthologyCMA 2512015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
82018-06-08Commander Anthology Volume IICM2 2532015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
92019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 16712015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
102019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 4682015normalblackSidharth Chaturvedi
112019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 6792015normalblackSidharth Chaturvedi
122020-03-12Historic Anthology 2HA2 222015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
132020-09-26The ListPLST DIS-1732003normalblackHeather Hudson
142020-09-26The ListPLST CM2-2532015normalblackPeter Mohrbacher
152023-06-23Tales of Middle-earth CommanderLTC 3142015normalblackLorenzo Lanfranconi
162023-06-23Tales of Middle-earth Art SeriesALTR 782015art_seriesborderlessLorenzo Lanfranconi

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ghost Quarter has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
GladiatorLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2006-05-01 If you target Ghost Quarter with its own ability, the ability won't resolve because its target is no longer on the battlefield. You won't get to search for a land card.
2011-09-22 If the targeted land is an illegal target by the time Ghost Quarter's ability resolves, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. The land's controller won't get to search for a basic land card.
2013-07-01 The target land's controller gets to search for a basic land card even if that land wasn't destroyed by Ghost Quarter's ability. This may happen because the land has indestructible or because it was regenerated.

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