Feed the Serpent MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Feed the Serpent offers an efficient way to eliminate a creature or planeswalker, essentially removing an opponent’s threat and gaining you an edge on the battlefield. While it doesn’t draw you cards directly, it can decisively tip the scales in your favor by dealing with key pieces of your opponent’s strategy.

Resource Acceleration: Although Feed the Serpent doesn’t accelerate your resources in the traditional sense, it uses your mana efficiently. For four mana, you can address significant threats permanently. By removing creatures or planeswalkers with converted mana costs that are often higher than the cost of Feed the Serpent itself, you’re effectively hampering your opponent’s resource investment while conserving yours.

Instant Speed: The capability to cast Feed the Serpent at instant speed grants you the flexibility to respond to threats on your opponent’s turn or end step. This allows for strategic plays where you can hold back mana and only commit to casting it if no immediate action is required, keeping your opponent guessing and retaining the element of surprise.

Card Cons

Specific Mana Cost: Feed the Serpent necessitates two black mana in its casting cost, which can restrict its inclusion to decks heavily invested in black mana sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value of four, this instant may compete with other removal spells that are cheaper, allowing for greater flexibility in a player’s turn.

Resistance Against the Exile: While exiling a creature or planeswalker is powerful, some decks may utilize cards that benefit from being exiled, or that can’t be targeted by such spells due to protections.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Feed the Serpent offers a straightforward and effective removal option, being capable of exiling any creature or planeswalker regardless of size. This flexibility makes it a useful addition to any black deck that needs to deal with problematic permanents on the board.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to exile cleanly aligns with strategies capitalizing on graveyard manipulation, preventing recurrences of threatening cards and disrupting your opponent’s long-term plans. It fits particularly well within decks that leverage death triggers or require a clear path for their win conditions.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames dominated by indestructible creatures or those frequently using the graveyard, Feed the Serpent provides a tenable solution. This card’s relevance grows in environments where these characteristics are commonplace, making it an indispensable tool for those wishing to keep pace with current competitive trends.

How to beat

Feed the Serpent is a potent removal spell in Magic: The Gathering, skillfully exiling target creature or planeswalker that’s too troublesome to merely send to the graveyard. This black instant spell requires four mana, two of which must be black, making it a choice primarily for decks entrenched in black mana. Its advantage over other removal spells lies in its capability to permanently eliminate threats, bypassing graveyard-based strategies that many opponents might employ.

Defeating a card like Feed the Serpent involves a mix of clever deck building and smart play. Avoid over-committing key creatures or planeswalkers to the board without protection. Spells like Duress allow you to peek at the opponent’s hand and extract removals preemptively. Utilize counterspells such as Negate or creatures with hexproof to shield your most vital pieces from being targeted. Moreover, diversify your threats so that a single exile isn’t devastating. The instant nature of Feed the Serpent means it can disrupt your moves mid-combat, so be cautious about when and how you engage in battles. Being aware of your opponent’s open mana and potential spells is crucial in outmaneuvering them.