Death's Oasis MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment
Abilities Mill

Key Takeaways

  1. Boosts card advantage by reshuffling creatures from the graveyard into your hand, perpetuating gameplay momentum.
  2. Enables fast reutilization of creatures, bolstering your ability to maintain pressure on the battlefield.
  3. Death’s Oasis triggers can operate in tandem with instant-speed spells, augmenting its utility in various situations.

Text of card

Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, mill two cards. Then return a creature card with lesser mana value than the creature that died from your graveyard to your hand. , Sacrifice Death's Oasis: You gain life equal to the highest mana value among creatures you control.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Death’s Oasis is designed to churn through your deck by turning creature deaths into opportunities. When one of your non-token creatures bids farewell, this enchantment gives you a chance to dig deeper into your library and find fresh tools to maintain your momentum on the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: By facilitating the return of smaller creatures from your graveyard to your hand, Death’s Oasis effectively accelerates your resources. It allows you to redeploy assets and maintain a steady stream of threats that opponents must constantly answer.

Instant Speed: While Death’s Oasis itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, it synergizes with cards that do. This enchantment immediately triggers each time one of your creatures meets its demise, even if that occurs on your opponent’s turn. This continuous cycle of death and rebirth can keep your hand replenished and provide a distinct battlefield presence that’s hard to match.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Death’s Oasis necessitates careful graveyard management, as it can be a double-edged sword. The mandatory discard when it leaves the field could inadvertently deplete critical spells or creatures you may need for late-game strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: Death’s Oasis has a specific mana cost that includes white, black, and green. This restriction requires a dedicated deck build to reliably cast it, potentially limiting its incorporation into various strategies that don’t operate within these colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, including one of each of its colors, Death’s Oasis might compete for a slot with other key three-drops in your deck. Considering the investment, it may not always provide the immediate board presence or impact that other cards at the same cost can offer.


Reasons to Include Death’s Oasis in Your Collection

Versatility: Death’s Oasis is a multifaceted card that can seamlessly integrate into various deck archetypes, especially those capitalizing on graveyard mechanics. Its ability to return creatures to your hand from the graveyard can be advantageous in both aggressive and long-game strategies, catering to diverse playstyles.

Combo Potential: The synergies that Death’s Oasis offers are numerous, as it facilitates combos with self-mill and sacrifice strategies, possibly setting up powerful recursive plays. It’s a card that works well with creatures that have enter-the-battlefield or die triggers, potentially unlocking new levels of deckbuilding creativity.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creature-based strategies are prominent, Death’s Oasis shines by providing continuous value. Its ability to recycle creatures ensures a steady stream of threats and can disrupt opponent’s plans by constantly presenting new challenges that require answers.


How to Beat

Death’s Oasis is a sophisticated card that transforms creature deaths into a resource within Magic: The Gathering. It’s a powerful enchantment that can quickly turn the tide of a game by recycling creatures for an advantage. To effectively tackle an opponent’s Death’s Oasis, players should prioritize enchantment removal spells. Options such as Disenchant or Naturalize are effective choices that provide a straightforward solution to eliminate the problematic card from the battlefield.

Graveyard hate also plays a pivotal role in countering Death’s Oasis. Cards like Scavenging Ooze not only remove creatures from the graveyard but also offer a potential tempo swing by increasing the power of your own creatures in the process. Exiling cards from the graveyard before they can be used by Death’s Oasis significantly reduces its effectiveness.

In that vein, Bojuka Bog is another excellent card to consider, as it guarantees the removal of an opponent’s entire graveyard upon entering the battlefield, rendering their Death’s Oasis significantly less threatening. By incorporating these tools into your strategy, you can comfortably keep Death’s Oasis and its recursive threats at bay.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering MTG means understanding every card’s strengths and opportunities for synergy, like with Death’s Oasis. Its potential in graveyard-centric strategies is undeniable, giving savvy players the chance to weave a tapestry of tactical plays. Whether you’re looking to refine your deck or explore new combo potentials, incorporating Death’s Oasis could be a pivotal decision. It’s essential, however, to weigh its impact against its specific mana requirements and potential for resource depletion. For those eager to delve into the depths of deck-building and dominate the battlefield, harnessing Death’s Oasis might herald your next series of victories. Dive into our detailed insights to harness this enchantment’s full power.


Cards like Death's Oasis

Death’s Oasis is a unique multicolored enchantment that provides a recurring source of creature recursion and life gain. When compared to similar cards in MTG, its closest relatives feature the mechanic of returning creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield or hand. One card that comes to mind is Gruesome Menagerie which, for a one-time cost, brings back creatures of different converted mana costs all at once. Unlike Death’s Oasis, which is triggered upon the death of a non-token creature, Gruesome Menagerie does not provide incremental life gain.

Another card worth mentioning is Phyrexian Reclamation, which allows targeted recursion of creatures at the cost of life and mana. This provides more control over which creature to return compared to Death’s Oasis’s automatic process guided by the creature’s converted mana cost. Sovereign’s Realm, while not directly involved in creature recursion, allows its owner to exchange creatures in hand for those in the graveyard, offering a different kind of flexibility in managing creature assets.

What sets Death’s Oasis apart in gameplay is its ability to affect board presence continuously and provide incremental advantages, making it a card that can shape game strategies effectively when used in MTG decks that can maximize its potential.

Gruesome Menagerie - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Reclamation - MTG Card versions
Sovereign's Realm - MTG Card versions
Gruesome Menagerie - Guilds of Ravnica (GRN)
Phyrexian Reclamation - Urza's Legacy (ULG)
Sovereign's Realm - Conspiracy: Take the Crown (CN2)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Death's Oasis MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, 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 Death's Oasis and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Death's Oasis Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2020-04-24 and 2020-04-24. Illustrated by Grzegorz Rutkowski.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 808352015normalblackGrzegorz Rutkowski
22020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 1822015normalblackGrzegorz Rutkowski
32020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 182s2015normalblackGrzegorz Rutkowski
42020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 182p2015normalblackGrzegorz Rutkowski
52020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 3312015normalblackGrzegorz Rutkowski

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Death's Oasis has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Death's Oasis card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2020-04-17 Because the triggered ability doesn’t target the creature card in your graveyard, you may choose one of the two cards you put there from your library.
2020-04-17 If Death’s Oasis becomes a creature, activating its last ability will cause its first ability to trigger.
2020-04-17 If a creature on the battlefield or a card in your graveyard has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2020-04-17 Use the converted mana cost of the creature as it last existed on the battlefield and the converted mana cost of the creature card as it exists in your graveyard to determine which cards may be returned to your hand. This may result in a creature’s death bringing itself back to your hand; perhaps it was one card of a merged creature, or it had become a copy of a more expensive creature.

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