Kitesail Corsair MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Kitesail Corsair might not directly offer card draw, its interaction with other pirate cards can lead to significant card advantage through tribal synergies and shared mechaniCs, enhancing your hand and battlefield presence.

Resource Acceleration: Kitesail Corsair itself doesn’t accelerate resources in the traditional sense of providing additional mana. However, its low casting cost makes it an efficient play that maintains your momentum, allowing you to save your resources for larger threats or responses later in the game.

Instant Speed: Kitesail Corsair’s benefits at instant speed are indirect. As it’s a creature card, it doesn’t have flash itself but can be leveraged with cards giving it flash. This can surprise opponents with a ‘blocker out of nowhere’ or an abrupt addition to your board state when they least expect it.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Kitesail Corsair doesn’t have a discard requirement itself, integrating it with synergy focused on hand manipulation might lead to a situation where you have to discard precious cards to enable certain interactions, limiting its utility in decks not tuned to maximize such strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: Kitesail Corsair comes with a blue mana requirement in its casting cost, potentially restricting its seamless inclusion in multicolored decks or those that don’t favor blue mana resources, making it less versatile for certain strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For a creature that offers a 2/1 body and conditional flying, the two mana investment might be considered steep, especially since there are numerous alternatives in the MTG universe that could provide more board presence or additional benefits for the same or lower mana value.

Reasons to Include Kitesail Corsair in Your Collection

Versatility: Kitesail Corsair is a flexible fit in a variety of blue-based decks. As a two-mana cost creature with favorable evasion characteristics, it meshes well with aggro strategies and flying themes.

Combo Potential: Its ability to gain flying on your turn can be expertly combined with cards that capitalize on flying creatures. Additionally, it can contribute to decks that focus on temporary buffs or combat tricks, turning it into a surprising aerial threat.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where low-cost creatures are essential for early board presence, Kitesail Corsair holds its own. It’s particularly adept at slipping past grounded defenses, making it a consistent source of damage and a valuable asset in specific tempo playstyles.

How to beat

Kitesail Corsair is a nimble creature card that can be quite troublesome on the battlefield, especially considering its ability to gain flying until the end of the turn whenever it attacks. Dealing with it requires a keen understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. To begin with, it’s crucial to keep control of the board and maintain creatures or spells that can intercept or deal with flying creatures. Instant speed removal spells that target creatures, regardless of their position, are essential tools to disrupt your opponent’s strategy involving Kitesail Corsair.

Additionally, cards that restrict your opponent’s ability to attack or that punish them for attacking, such as Ghostly Prison or Propaganda, can significantly reduce the impact of this card. Ensnaring creatures in battle or employing reach and flying creatures yourself levels the playing field. It’s also worth noting that Kitesail Corsair’s flying capability is only activated during attacks, leaving it vulnerable to ground blockers on your turn. Strategic planning and a careful selection of spells and creatures to counteract its abilities can effectively neutralize this pesky corsair.