Lara Croft, Tomb Raider MTG Card

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider - Secret Lair Drop

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Mythic
Type	Legendary Creature — Human Ranger
Abilities	First strike,Raid,Reach,Treasure
Released	2019-12-02
Set symbol
Set name	Secret Lair Drop
Set code	SLD
Power	3
Toughness	4
Number	1501
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Borderless
Illustred by	Greg Staples

Key Takeaways

Lara Croft card offers card advantage, echoing her treasure-hunting skills within the game’s dynamic.
Provides resource acceleration and instant-speed reactions, ideal for fast-paced strategies and maneuvers.
Despite its high mana cost and specific requirements, it remains a versatile and potent addition.

Text of card

First strike, reach Whenever Lara Croft attacks, exile up to one target legendary artifact card or legendary land card from a graveyard and put a discovery counter on it. You may play a card from exile with a discovery counter on it this turn. Raid — At end of combat on your turn, if you attacked this turn, create a Treasure token.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Grants the ability to excavate the top cards of your library, emulating Lara Croft’s treasure-hunting prowess, and ensuring that you find the resources you need when you need them. This effect not only simulates the iconic exploration found in Tomb Raider but also provides you with options and flexibility, letting you stay ahead in the race for supremacy on the board.

Resource Acceleration: Lara Croft’s inherent skill at uncovering hidden relics translates into the game as a means of quickening your resource pool. This ability to ramp up mana embodies the character’s efficiency and agility, allowing you to deploy threats faster or respond to your opponent’s actions with greater speed.

Instant Speed: Reflecting Lara’s quick reflexes and readiness, the card’s instant-speed capability enables you to strategically outmaneuver your opponent. Use it to react swiftly to the unfolding game, keeping your adversaries guessing and providing you with the upper hand in the midst of the most heated exchanges.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For those who manage to add the famed adventurer into their decks, one downside is that you might be faced with the tough decision of discarding another card to unleash her abilities. This can be a harsh trade-off, especially when your hand is already running thin on valuable cards, hindering your strategic options.

Specific Mana Cost: Deckbuilding around this card might be slightly tricky as it demands a particular mana combination. Such a requirement could restrict its integration solely within decks tailored around those precise colors, consequently not fitting as seamlessly into a wider range of deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Summoning such an iconic character to the field isn’t without its costs – both thematically and in terms of mana. The mana investment needed to play this card is considerable when juxtaposed with other cards with similar effects or impact, which might offer a more cost-effective solution or greater versatility in gameplay situations.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: The Lara Croft, Tomb Raider card brings a level of adaptability to your deck you wouldn’t want to miss. It aligns seamlessly with various playstyles, whether you’re delving into an adventure-themed deck or one that capitalizes on exploration and discovery mechanics.

Combo Potential: Known for her knack for discovering hidden treasures and ancient artifacts, integrating Lara Croft into your combo lineup could unlock unseen synergies. This card has the potential to interact powerfully with abilities that revolve around uncovering or recycling cards from your graveyard, echoing her in-game archaeology exploits.

Meta-Relevance: With the shifting landscape of competitive play, staying relevant is key. Lara Croft’s unique abilities can offer a strategic advantage in a meta full of graveyard and library manipulation, ensuring that your collection isn’t just a static library of cards but a flexible arsenal ready for the most contemporary challenges.

How to beat

Lara Croft, Tomb Raider card brings a unique blend of agility and resourcefulness to Magic: The Gathering, making her a versatile opponent on the battlefield. Overcoming this card is about disruption and control. Since Lara excels in artifact manipulation, prioritizing the removal of key artifacts can decrease her effectiveness.

Counter spells are particularly useful against Lara Croft, as they prevent her from executing her powerful search and recovery abilities. Consider including versatile removal spells in your deck, such as Abrade or Assassin’s Trophy, to handle both artifacts and creatures. In addition, graveyard disruption can be an effective strategy to thwart any attempts by Lara to recapture value from the graveyard, ensuring that once her resources are depleted, they stay that way.

Never underestimate the importance of applying pressure. Maintaining a strong board presence forces a Lara Croft player to address your threats rather than build their own game plan. It’s about making them react to you, keeping them on the back foot and away from their comfort zone. Staying one step ahead is key to defeating the Tomb Raider.

Cards like Lara Croft, Tomb Raider

The Lara Croft, Tomb Raider card carves out a niche in Magic: The Gathering with its unique blend of abilities. Its parallels with renowned explorer cards such as Squee, Goblin Nabob suggest a shared resilience, both featuring a way to return from the graveyard to your hand. However, Lara Croft’s additional capacity to unearth artifacts gives her an upper hand in deck themes focused on artifact manipulation.

Comparable to Lara is the card, Daretti, Scrap Savant. While Daretti excels in recurring artifacts from the graveyard and has a pivotal role in more controlling decks, Lara Croft offers greater flexibility as a creature card with direct combat abilities. Another card that shares some similarities is Tamiyo’s Journal. Both cards have the power to tutor for artifacts, but Lara Croft, Tomb Raider’s potential to fetch any artifact by meeting its trigger condition outpaces Tamiyo’s Journal’s more steady but slower search mechanic.

Considering these comparisons, Lara Croft stands out as a versatile option, tying in nicely with artifact-centric decks and offering both aggressive strategies and long-term value plays, affirming her place in MTG as an inventive spin on the explorer archetype.

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lara Croft, Tomb Raider MTG card by a specific set like Secret Lair Drop, 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 Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lara Croft, Tomb Raider has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal