Ivory Giant MTG Card
2006-10-06 - Number 24
2013-06-07 - Number 19
2021-03-19 - Number 20
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 7 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Giant |
| Abilities | Suspend |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 4 |
Text of card
When Ivory Giant comes into play, tap all nonwhite creatures. Suspend 5— (Rather than play this card from your hand, you may pay and remove it from the game with five time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When you remove the last, play it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)
Cards like Ivory Giant
Ivory Giant is a unique inclusion in the world of white creatures within Magic: The Gathering. If we look at other creatures within the same mana range, we find similarities and differences that define each card’s role. Stonehorn Dignitary, for example, might also cost four mana and shares the ability to disrupt opponents by skipping their combat phase, but lacks the suspend mechanic that makes Ivory Giant distinct. Without the flexibility of suspend, Stonehorn Dignitary’s effect is immediate but doesn’t offer the strategic pacing that Ivory Giant does.
Exploring further, we encounter Cloudgoat Ranger. While costing one additional mana than Ivory Giant, Cloudgoat Ranger brings immediate board presence with three 1/1 Kithkin Soldier tokens upon entering the battlefield. This clearly sets it apart from Ivory Giant, whose primary ability may affect all creatures but doesn’t provide additional bodies. On a related thread, Sunblast Angel also costs six mana but instead of affecting creatures upon entering the battlefield, it destroys all tapped creatures, potentially offering a more selective way to influence the game state compared to the all-encompassing impact of Ivory Giant.
Altogether, Ivory Giant fits into a strategic niche in MTG, providing temporary control over the battlefield with its widespread incapacitation effect – a feature that stands out among creatures of similar casting costs.
Cards similar to Ivory Giant by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: While Ivory Giant itself does not directly allow you to draw cards, its suspend ability lets you play it ahead of time, effectively freeing up future resources for card draw spells or other actions that increase your card advantage.
Resource Acceleration: As a relatively low-cost creature with suspend, Ivory Giant can be played earlier in the game for just one white mana. This allows you to accelerate your board presence without committing a lot of resources early on, enabling you to use mana for other spells and abilities in subsequent turns.
Instant Speed: Although not played at instant speed, the suspend mechanic provides a similar strategic advantage. You can set up future plays while keeping up the appearance of having instant speed responses. This can psychologically impact how your opponent plays their turns, potentially leading to misplays or overly cautious decisions.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: While there isn’t a direct discard requisite for playing Ivory Giant, its suspend mechanic essentially requires you to ‘discard’ time, waiting multiple turns for it to come into play, which could leave you vulnerable or delay your strategy.
Specific Mana Cost: Ivory Giant demands a precise mana arrangement of six white mana, which can be difficult to accumulate, especially early in the game or in multicolored decks where white may not be the primary color.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a sizeable cost of seven mana to cast it normally, Ivory Giant may be a hefty investment considering its capabilities. In an environment where game tempo is crucial, there may be alternatives that provide similar or greater impact at a lower cost, enhancing your board presence more efficiently.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Ivory Giant serves as a flexible card which can adapt to various game strategies. It can function as an early game suspension threat or as a late game mass tap-down tool. This capability allows it to slide into different deck archetypes with ease.
Combo Potential: With its mass tap ability upon entry, Ivory Giant can synergize with cards that capitalize on opponents’ creatures being tapped. This interaction can be exploited to gain the upper hand, making it a vital component in decks geared towards such tactics.
Meta-Relevance: In situations where creature-based strategies dominate, Ivory Giant gains prominence by disabling swathes of the opponent’s board. Its relevance is hinged on the current environment, enabling savvy players to disrupt opponents at crucial moments.
How to Beat Ivory Giant
Confronting an Ivory Giant on the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering can be a daunting task. This hefty white creature card arrives with the potential to immobilize your non-white creatures, disrupting your defensive line when it emerges from its suspend state. This white creature’s capability to dictate the tempo of combat phases gives any player fielding it a distinctive strategic advantage.
To effectively counter Ivory Giant, consider employing removal spells that can target it during the suspend phase before it even lands on the battlefield. Alternatively, ensuring that you have white or artifact creatures in your lineup can render the giant’s entrance less disruptive, as they remain unaffected by its ability. Deploying instant-speed removal spells or counterspells when Ivory Giant is cast or when it tries to affect the battlefield can also nullify its impact, allowing you to maintain control over your creatures and preserve your battle strategy.
Ultimately, by preparing for the appearance of an Ivory Giant and adapting your playstyle to mitigate its board-altering effect, you can retain the upper hand. Being proactive and reactive with your spell choices and creature composition will keep the giant’s potential lockdown at bay, maintaining equilibrium and momentum in your favor.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Ivory Giant MTG card by a specific set like Time Spiral and Modern Masters, 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 Ivory Giant 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
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Printings
The Ivory Giant Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2006-10-06 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2006-10-06 | Time Spiral | TSP | 24 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Jeff Miracola | |
| 2 | 2013-06-07 | Modern Masters | MMA | 19 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Zack Stella | |
| 3 | 2021-03-19 | Time Spiral Remastered | TSR | 20 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Jeff Miracola |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Ivory Giant has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Ivory Giant card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-06-18 | A creature cast using suspend will enter the battlefield with haste. It will have haste until another player gains control of it. (In some rare cases, another player may gain control of the creature spell itself. If this happens, the creature won’t enter the battlefield with haste.) |
| 2021-06-18 | As the second triggered ability resolves, you must cast the card if able. You must do so even if it requires targets and the only legal targets are ones that you really don’t want to target. Timing permissions based on the card’s type are ignored. |
| 2021-06-18 | Cards exiled with suspend are exiled face up. |
| 2021-06-18 | Exiling a card with suspend isn’t casting that card. This action doesn’t use the stack and can’t be responded to. |
| 2021-06-18 | If an effect refers to a “suspended card,” that means a card that (1) has suspend, (2) is in exile, and (3) has one or more time counters on it. |
| 2021-06-18 | If the card has in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost. |
| 2021-06-18 | If the first triggered ability of suspend (the one that removes time counters) is countered, no time counter is removed. The ability will trigger again at the beginning of the card’s owner’s next upkeep. |
| 2021-06-18 | If the second triggered ability is countered, the card can’t be cast. It remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended. |
| 2021-06-18 | If the spell requires any targets, those targets are chosen when the spell is finally cast, not when it’s exiled. |
| 2021-06-18 | If you can’t cast the card, perhaps because there are no legal targets available, it remains exiled with no time counters on it, and it’s no longer suspended. |
| 2021-06-18 | If you cast a card “without paying its mana cost,” such as with suspend, you can’t choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, you must pay those if you want to cast the card. |
| 2021-06-18 | Suspend is a keyword that represents three abilities. The first is a static ability that allows you to exile the card from your hand with the specified number of time counters (the number before the dash) on it by paying its suspend cost (listed after the dash). The second is a triggered ability that removes a time counter from the suspended card at the beginning of each of your upkeeps. The third is a triggered ability that causes you to cast the card when the last time counter is removed. If you cast a creature spell this way, it gains haste until you lose control of that creature (or, in rare cases, you lose control of the creature spell while it’s on the stack). |
| 2021-06-18 | The mana value of a spell cast without paying its mana cost is determined by its mana cost, even though that cost wasn’t paid. |
| 2021-06-18 | When the last time counter is removed, the second triggered ability of suspend (the one that lets you cast the card) triggers. It doesn’t matter why the last time counter was removed or what effect removed it. |
| 2021-06-18 | You are never forced to activate mana abilities to pay costs, so if there is a mandatory additional mana cost (such as from Thalia, Guardian of Thraben), you can decline to activate mana abilities to pay for it and hence fail to cast the suspended card, leaving it in exile. |
| 2021-06-18 | You can exile a card in your hand using suspend any time you could cast that card. Consider its card type, any effects that modify when you could cast it (such as flash) and any other effects that stop you from casting it (such as from Meddling Mage’s ability) to determine if and when you can do this. Whether you could actually complete all steps in casting the card is irrelevant. For example, you can exile a card with suspend that has no mana cost or that requires a target even if no legal targets are available at that time. |