Night Market Lookout MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Human Rogue
Power 1
Toughness 1

Key Takeaways

  1. Provides advantage by draining life whenever tapped, enhancing aggressive and control deck strategies.
  2. Combines well with instant speed spells and abilities for surprise defensive utility and resource depletion.
  3. Despite mana considerations, it’s a versatile threat in early game with significant impact on life totals.

Text of card

Whenever Night Market Lookout becomes tapped, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

The Consulate rarely cracks the coded announcement of a night market's location before dawn, and enforcers are taken care of if they wander too close.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Night Market Lookout provides an incremental advantage every time it becomes tapped, not just when it attacks. This consistent ability can be paired with vehicles or other tapping mechanisms, subtly increasing your resources while diminishing your opponent’s life total.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly generating additional mana, the Lookout’s ability to drain life upon tapping complements strategies that seek to deploy threats ahead of the curve by wearing down the opposition. Each life point lost by the opponent can be considered a small step towards accelerating the game’s conclusion in your favor.

Instant Speed: Though the Lookout itself is not an instant, it synergizes well with cards that operate at instant speed. Activating abilities or casting spells that tap your creatures on your opponent’s turn can unexpectedly turn this low-cost creature into an offensive and defensive tool, timing the life drain to disrupt your opponent’s strategy.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For some MTG players, balancing the hand is key, and cards like Night Market Lookout that necessitate discarding can tip that balance. If your strategy relies on maintaining a variety of options, the discard trigger when it becomes tapped could be detrimental, especially when your hand is running low.

Specific Mana Cost: Night Market Lookout’s mana cost may seem negligible at first glance. However, requiring a black mana can restrict its utility, particularly in multi-colored decks where mana resources must be carefully allocated. This limitation may affect the fluidity of deck construction and reduce the card’s versatility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: In the current MTG meta, the mana cost for a 1/1 creature may not provide the value one hopes for. Although the ability to drain opponents’ life when it becomes tapped is advantageous, there are other cards with similar or lower mana costs that provide more impactful abilities or stats. This makes Night Market Lookout a less attractive option for decks that aim for efficient mana usage.


Reasons to Include Night Market Lookout in Your Collection

Versatility: Night Market Lookout is a versatile card that can be slotted into various deck types. Its ability to tap and deal damage to an opponent while gaining life makes it a solid choice for aggressive strategies as well as control decks looking for incremental advantages.

Combo Potential: This card has significant combo potential in decks that capitalize on tapping and untapping creatures. Pairing Night Market Lookout with vehicles or other tap/untap synergies can turn it into a consistent source of damage and life gain.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames where early aggression can set the tempo of the match, Night Market Lookout provides a low-cost threat that demands an answer. Its ability to affect life totals without needing to commit to combat is especially useful against decks that aim to stabilize and dominate the late game.


How to beat

Night Market Lookout proves to be a unique player in the MTG universe. With its ability to drain life from your opponent with each tap, it can be a subtle yet persistent threat in the early game. The card’s strength lies in its low cost and immediate impact on hitting the battlefield, suitable for an aggressive deck that focuses on utilizing creatures as soon as they come into play.

Overcoming Night Market Lookout requires an understanding of its weak defenses. To effectively neutralize this card, it is essential to manage your own life total while establishing board control. Removal spells like Shock and Fatal Push are efficient ways to dispatch of the Night Market Lookout before its effect becomes substantial. Also, consider employing creatures with higher toughness to render the Lookout’s attack negligible. Moreover, instant-speed interactions that can interrupt your opponent’s combat phase or tapping abilities will serve you well in keeping the Lookout at bay.

Strategically, it’s important to diminish its utility, either by ensuring it’s unable to tap or be tapped. Your goal is to deprive the Lookout of opportunities to trigger its ability, thereby turning what could be an advantage for your opponent into a non-issue on the field.


BurnMana Recommendations

Diving into the depths of Magic the Gathering, every card offers a gateway to a new strategy. Night Market Lookout stands as a beacon for ingenuity, allowing inventive players to tap into its potential for incremental advantage and subtle yet powerful influence on the game’s flow. Whether you aim to command the table with aggressive plays or seek out the subtleties of control, we encourage you to explore the Lookout’s possibilities in your collection. Refine your decks and hone your tactics as each match echoes the complex dance of strategy and anticipation intrinsic to MTG. We invite you to further uncover the tactics and synergy that can transform your gameplay into a consistently winning formula.


Cards like Night Market Lookout

Night Market Lookout is a unique fixture in the Magic: The Gathering lineup, especially for decks that favor aggressive strategies and life drain mechanisms. When we look at cards with comparable functions, Dhund Operative stands out. Both creatures cost a single black mana, but the Operative requires another artifact to be truly effective, gaining deathtouch, whereas Night Market Lookout doesn’t have such dependencies for its ability to trigger.

Another card worth mentioning is Pulse Tracker, which shares the low mana cost and the imposing nature of its attack-triggered ability, impacting the opponent’s life total directly. However, Night Market Lookout edges out with the added utility of tapping to activate its life-draining ability, offering flexibility beyond combat scenarios. In addition, when evaluating the utility in vehicle-centric decks, Night Market Lookout can consistently tap to become a pilot, thereby activating its ability without entering combat.

When stacking up against its counterparts, Night Market Lookout holds a strong position in decks that aim to whittle down an opponent’s life total while staying mana-efficient and offering strategic adaptability in gameplay.

Dhund Operative - MTG Card versions
Pulse Tracker - MTG Card versions
Dhund Operative - Kaladesh (KLD)
Pulse Tracker - Worldwake (WWK)

Cards similar to Night Market Lookout by color, type and mana cost

Stone-Throwing Devils - MTG Card versions
Will-o'-the-Wisp - MTG Card versions
Vampire Bats - MTG Card versions
Bog Rats - MTG Card versions
Sewer Rats - MTG Card versions
Muck Rats - MTG Card versions
Vebulid - MTG Card versions
Zodiac Rat - MTG Card versions
Urborg Skeleton - MTG Card versions
Carrion Rats - MTG Card versions
Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight - MTG Card versions
Dark Supplicant - MTG Card versions
Bile Urchin - MTG Card versions
Rimebound Dead - MTG Card versions
Plague Beetle - MTG Card versions
Festering Goblin - MTG Card versions
Sleeper Agent - MTG Card versions
Knucklebone Witch - MTG Card versions
Nightshade Stinger - MTG Card versions
Smolder Initiate - MTG Card versions
Stone-Throwing Devils - Arabian Nights (ARN)
Will-o'-the-Wisp - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
Vampire Bats - Renaissance (REN)
Bog Rats - Chronicles (CHR)
Sewer Rats - Mirage (MIR)
Muck Rats - Portal Second Age (P02)
Vebulid - Urza's Saga (USG)
Zodiac Rat - Portal Three Kingdoms (PTK)
Urborg Skeleton - Invasion (INV)
Carrion Rats - Torment (TOR)
Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Dark Supplicant - Legions (LGN)
Bile Urchin - Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)
Rimebound Dead - Coldsnap (CSP)
Plague Beetle - Salvat 2011 (PS11)
Festering Goblin - Modern Masters (MMA)
Sleeper Agent - Tenth Edition (10E)
Knucklebone Witch - Lorwyn (LRW)
Nightshade Stinger - Lorwyn (LRW)
Smolder Initiate - Shadowmoor (SHM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Night Market Lookout MTG card by a specific set like Kaladesh and Kaladesh Remastered, 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 Night Market Lookout and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Night Market Lookout Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2016-09-30 and 2020-11-12. Illustrated by Nils Hamm.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12016-09-30KaladeshKLD 952015normalblackNils Hamm
22020-11-12Kaladesh RemasteredKLR 1032015normalblackNils Hamm

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Night Market Lookout 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 Night Market Lookout card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2016-09-20 For the ability to trigger, Night Market Lookout has to actually change from untapped to tapped. If an effect attempts to tap it, but it was already tapped at the time, this ability won't trigger.
2016-09-20 In a Two-Headed Giant game, Night Market Lookout's ability causes the opposing team to lose a total of 2 life.
2016-09-20 This is a triggered ability, not an activated ability. It doesn't allow you to tap Night Market Lookout whenever you want; rather, you need some other way of tapping it, such as by attacking.

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