Queen's Agent MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Vampire Scout
Abilities Explore,Lifelink
Power 3
Toughness 3

Key Takeaways

  1. Explorer mechanic provides card draw or a creature boost, enhancing hand and battlefield position.
  2. High mana cost and color specificity limit the Agent’s versatility across different deck types.
  3. Lifelink and potential combo synergies make Queen’s Agent a valuable addition for certain strategies.

Text of card

Lifelink When Queen's Agent enters the battlefield, it explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Queen’s Agent bolsters your hand by potentially drawing you an additional card when it explores upon entering the battlefield. This aptly fits into strategies centered around maintaining a plentiful hand, ensuring you’re well-equipped for the unfolding match.

Resource Acceleration: By revealing a land card from the explore mechanic, you effectively filter and accelerate your resources. Doing so enhances your mana curve efficiency, allowing you to deploy bigger threats or multiple spells in the subsequent turns. It’s a subtle yet impactful way to stay ahead of your opponent.

Instant Speed: Though Queen’s Agent itself doesn’t perform at instant speed, it aligns well with decks that operate on reactive gameplay. With its Lifelink ability, the presence of Queen’s Agent can instantly shift the dynamics of a race situation, harnessing the advantage at the most opportune moment.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: When deploying Queen’s Agent, it asks for a steep price in the form of discard which can be quite taxing especially if your hand is already running thin.

Specific Mana Cost: This card comes with a precise mana requirement including black mana, potentially making it less flexible for multicolored deck strategies or limiting its inclusion to specific deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a demand of six mana to summon Queen’s Agent, this card comes at a substantial cost. Considering its abilities, some players might find other creatures or spells that provide a better cost-to-benefit ratio, hence creating more value for their mana investment.


Reasons to Include Queen’s Agent in Your Collection

Versatility: Queen’s Agent is a flexible card that can adapt to various deck styles, particularly those focusing on life gain and producing +1/+1 counters to strengthen creatures on the battlefield.

Combo Potential: With its explore ability, it not only allows you to potentially draw a card but also synergizes well with other cards that benefit from +1/+1 counters or card manipulation, providing combo opportunities in your deck construction.

Meta-Relevance: Given that the meta often shifts to include creatures and combat strategies, having Queen’s Agent in your collection offers a valuable asset that can interact favorably in such an environment with its potential for size increase and built-in card advantage.


How to Beat Queen’s Agent

Queen’s Agent is a card that tests the preparedness of players in Magic: The Gathering, especially when facing its lifelink and explore abilities. When tackling this card, it’s critical to disrupt its mechanism for maximizing value. This means utilizing instant speed removal before the explore ability resolves, thereby preventing the additional card advantage or potential +1/+1 counter.

Control strategies shine against Queen’s Agent with counterspells like Essence Scatter, which can negate the threat before it even lands on the battlefield. Additionally, graveyard manipulation cards can shuffle Queen’s Agent back into the library, nerfing its explore mechanic. When playing against this card, prioritize maintaining open mana for responses and setting up a strong board presence to mitigate the lifelink’s impact should it become active. With careful timing and the right strategy, Queen’s Agent can be effectively neutralized, keeping you on the path to victory.


Cards like Queen's Agent

Queen’s Agent stands as a unique card in MTG, featuring both lifelink and explore abilities. This black creature card finds its parallels in the MTG realm with akin characteristics. Cards like Vampire Nighthawk also boast lifelink, flying, and deathtouch, establishing it as a formidable presence on the battlefield with a lower casting cost than Queen’s Agent. Yet, Queen’s Agent’s explore ability gives it a distinctive edge, potentially bolstering your hand or strengthening the creature itself.

Exploration fans might also look at cards like Seekers’ Squire. Though it doesn’t have lifelink, it shares the explore trait with Queen’s Agent, potentially offering card advantage or a power boost at a lower mana value. Then there’s Wildgrowth Walker, which synergizes well with explore cards by gaining life and growing stronger whenever a creature explores. While it lacks the immediate impact of lifelink, it can become increasingly threatening over time.

In essence, while Queen’s Agent may not be the most cost-efficient creature card with lifelink or explore capabilities individually, its combination of the two provides a versatile role in decks that benefit from life gain and potential card or power advantages from the explore mechanic.

Vampire Nighthawk - MTG Card versions
Seekers' Squire - MTG Card versions
Wildgrowth Walker - MTG Card versions
Vampire Nighthawk - MTG Card versions
Seekers' Squire - MTG Card versions
Wildgrowth Walker - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Queen's Agent by color, type and mana cost

Nightmare - MTG Card versions
Demonic Hordes - MTG Card versions
Ihsan's Shade - MTG Card versions
Necrosavant - MTG Card versions
Commander Greven il-Vec - MTG Card versions
Cateran Slaver - MTG Card versions
Dakmor Lancer - MTG Card versions
Face of Fear - MTG Card versions
Wire Surgeons - MTG Card versions
Grave Titan - MTG Card versions
Chittering Harvester - MTG Card versions
Crossway Troublemakers - MTG Card versions
Rakshasa Debaser - MTG Card versions
Anurid Murkdiver - MTG Card versions
Gempalm Polluter - MTG Card versions
Nefashu - MTG Card versions
Twisted Abomination - MTG Card versions
Visara the Dreadful - MTG Card versions
Iname, Death Aspect - MTG Card versions
Deathcurse Ogre - MTG Card versions
Nightmare - MTG Card versions
Demonic Hordes - MTG Card versions
Ihsan's Shade - MTG Card versions
Necrosavant - MTG Card versions
Commander Greven il-Vec - MTG Card versions
Cateran Slaver - MTG Card versions
Dakmor Lancer - MTG Card versions
Face of Fear - MTG Card versions
Wire Surgeons - MTG Card versions
Grave Titan - MTG Card versions
Chittering Harvester - MTG Card versions
Crossway Troublemakers - MTG Card versions
Rakshasa Debaser - MTG Card versions
Anurid Murkdiver - MTG Card versions
Gempalm Polluter - MTG Card versions
Nefashu - MTG Card versions
Twisted Abomination - MTG Card versions
Visara the Dreadful - MTG Card versions
Iname, Death Aspect - MTG Card versions
Deathcurse Ogre - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Queen's Agent MTG card by a specific set like Ixalan and Mystery Booster, 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 Queen's Agent and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See MTG Products

Printings

The Queen's Agent Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2017-09-29 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Winona Nelson.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12017-09-29IxalanXLN 1142015NormalBlackWinona Nelson
22019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 7402015NormalBlackWinona Nelson
32020-09-26The ListPLST XLN-1142015NormalBlackWinona Nelson

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Queen's Agent has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2018-01-19 If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won’t put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger “whenever a creature you control explores” trigger if appropriate.
2018-01-19 If no card is revealed, most likely because that player’s library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter.
2018-01-19 Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it’s done. Notably, opponents can’t try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
See more decks