Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar MTG Card

Rarity	Rare
Type	Vanguard
Released	2003-01-01
Set symbol
Set name	Magic Online Avatars
Set code	PMOA
Number	62
Frame	2015
Layout	Vanguard
Border	Black
Illustred by	UDON

Key Takeaways

Haakon enables a steady flow of knights from the graveyard, ensuring a continuous card advantage.
Resource acceleration is key, as Haakon allows for the casting of knights without depleting your hand.
Instant-speed knight spells increase versatility, providing tactical surprise maneuvers during gameplay.

Text of card

Pay 1 life: You may play target creature card in your graveyard this turn. Whenever you play a creature card from your graveyard, it becomes a black Zombie Knight. If a Zombie Knight would be put into your graveyard from the battlefield, exile it instead.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Haakon, Stromgald Scourge in play, players unlock a continuous flow of Knights from their graveyard. Repeatedly casting these Knights creates a formidable and persistent card advantage, ensuring resources are not depleted from your hand.

Resource Acceleration: Haakon’s unique ability to cast Knight spells from the graveyard is tantamount to resource acceleration. This opens up strategic avenues that would otherwise be unavailable, such as using your mana to deploy threats or leaving it untapped for responses while progressively building your board presence.

Instant Speed: While Haakon himself is not an instant, his inherent ability benefits from any Knight with an instant-speed capability. This synergizes perfectly with Knights that can be cast at instant speed, allowing for surprise blocks or end-of-turn plays that can swing the game in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Haakon necessitates the player to send him to the graveyard before casting from there, which can be challenging. Without a reliable method to discard or a way to manipulate the graveyard, it becomes a hurdle to even get this knight into play.

Specific Mana Cost: Haakon’s casting cost is specific to black mana. This requirement means that mono-black or decks heavily skewed towards black are the best fit. For decks that only splurge on black, the color commitment can be restrictive.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring three mana, all of which must be black, can make Haakon a late-game play. Given that black mana decks have several efficient creatures and spells available, the cost for getting Haakon into action may be seen as steep, considering the setup needed.

Reasons to Include Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar in Your Collection

Versatility: Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar, shines in its ability to be played from the graveyard, offering a consistent board presence and enhancing strategies centered around graveyard manipulation.

Combo Potential: This card can enable various combos, primarily in Knight-themed decks, by allowing you to cast Knight cards from your graveyard, turning your discard pile into a resource.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta heavy with creature-based strategies, Haakon can be recurrently used to apply pressure or block crucial attacks, making it an asset in stalling or overwhelming opponents.

How to beat

Haakon, Stromgald Scourge presents a unique challenge in Magic: The Gathering. As a commander capable of being cast from the graveyard, players face the tricky task of countering an opponent’s ability to repeatedly play this persistent knight and leverage its ability to play knight cards from the graveyard. Addressing Haakon’s threat involves disrupting graveyard strategies. Graveyard hate cards such as Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can be enormously effective. They remove the possibility of casting Haakon from the graveyard, nullifying its core strength.

In addition to specific cards that exile graveyards, strategic creature removal like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares can permanently deal with Haakon, avoiding the recursion issue altogether. The best strategy to beat Haakon involves a two-pronged approach: firstly, preventing Haakon from hitting the battlefield through graveyard disruption, and secondly, employing exile effects to preemptively handle this relentless avatar if it does manage to surface.

Overall, swift and decisive graveyard management can transform the matchup against Haakon, Stromgald Scourge into a manageable one, ensuring that this formidable avatar stays in the realm of the departed.

Cards like Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar

Within the intriguing world of Magic: The Gathering commander format, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge stands as a unique card due to its ability to play Knight cards from the graveyard. Comparable cards in MTG are scarce, as Haakon’s effect is quite peculiar, but one can look to Alesha, Who Smiles at Death for some resemblance. Alesha also allows players to cheat creatures onto the battlefield but is limited to those with power 2 or less.

Another card to consider in the same conversation is Karador, Ghost Chieftain, which facilitates casting one creature from the graveyard each turn. Though Karador offers a wider range than Haakon, the limitation to just one creature and the inclusion of all creature types as opposed to just Knights, marks a difference in strategic application. Additionally, Gisa and Geralf lets you cast a Zombie card from your graveyard each turn, echoing the graveyard utilitarian theme, yet it resonates most with Zombie-specific synergies.

These alternatives reflect the depth of Magic: The Gathering’s gameplay strategies as players seek to exploit their graveyards. Despite the differences in execution, Haakon, Stromgald Scourge remains a potent option for enthusiast players looking to craft a deck around Knight tribal themes and graveyard interaction.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death - MTG Card versions

Karador, Ghost Chieftain - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Avatars, 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 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge Avatar and other MTG cards: