Cauldron Dance MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityUncommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Cauldron Dance allows simultaneous creature resurrection and deployment, altering the battlefield’s balance in your favor.
  2. By dodging mana costs, it acts as a resource accelerator, granting the luxury of putting formidable creatures into play.
  3. Utilizing instant speed, the card adds surprise and adaptability to your strategy, making it a game-changer.

Text of card

Play Cauldron Dance only during combat. Return target creature card from your graveyard to play. That creature gains haste. Return it to your hand at end of turn. Put a creature card from your hand into play. That creature gains haste. Put it into your graveyard at end of turn.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Cauldron Dance is structured to set up a potent one-two punch, allowing you to temporarily resurrect a creature from your graveyard while also putting a creature from your hand onto the battlefield. This dual-action can swing the game state in your favor by effectively generating a two-creature swing in board presence.

Resource Acceleration: While Cauldron Dance doesn’t directly generate additional mana, it bypasses mana costs for the creatures involved in the dance. This form of cost evasion can be likened to a form of acceleration, as it permits the deployment of potent threats without the typical mana investment, allowing you to utilize your resources elsewhere.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Cauldron Dance at the end of an opponent’s turn or during combat provides you with incredible flexibility. This flexibility ensures that you can adapt to the evolving game and make decisions with the maximum possible information, keeping your opponents constantly guessing and opening windows for impactful surprises.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Cauldron Dance demands that a player discards a card from their hand on top of its casting cost. This can be a significant drawback when your hand is already depleted, and you cannot afford to lose additional cards.

Specific Mana Cost: With a detailed mana cost including both black and red, Cauldron Dance limits its playability to decks that can generate both types of mana reliably. This requirement can exclude the card from various mono-colored or other deck strategies that don’t support these colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Cauldron Dance’s six mana investment can be steep for its potential impact. With numerous alternative spells in MTG that provide similar or better effects at a lower cost, it’s worth considering whether your deck has the resources to accommodate its relatively high casting cost and if the payoff matches your strategy.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Cauldron Dance offers a unique blend of both offensive and defensive options. It can be slotted into deck strategies that aim to capitalize on instant speed interactions, bringing creatures back from the graveyard during combat for surprise blocks or extra damage.

Combo Potential: With the ability to reanimate a creature and return one from hand to the battlefield, Cauldron Dance sets the stage for powerful combo plays. It’s especially potent in decks built around enter-the-battlefield or die triggers.

Meta-Relevance: In environments that lean towards longer games or where graveyard strategies are prevalent, Cauldron Dance shines by offering repeated value. It can catch opponents off guard and turn the tide in games where resources are closely contested.


How to beat

Cauldron Dance is an intriguing instant from Magic: The Gathering that can surprise players with a sudden swing in battlefield presence. It allows you to put a creature card from your graveyard and one from your hand onto the battlefield until end of turn, with an added caveat that they return to your hand and graveyard, respectively, at the beginning of the next end step. This dance, if executed correctly, creates a brief moment of advantage, making it a tricky card to counter.

To effectively counter this maneuver, graveyard disruption is key. Cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void prevent opponents from utilizing their graveyard as a resource, nullifying Cauldron Dance’s impact. Hand disruption like Thoughtseize can also preemptively remove threats before they’re deployed by Cauldron Dance. Moreover, instant-speed removal spells, such as Path to Exile or Fatal Push, allow you to deal with creatures as they enter, ensuring minimal impact from this unexpected summoning ritual.

Understanding the card’s strengths will guide you toward strategies to negate it. Whether you’re preventing graveyard shenanigans or removing threats swiftly, ensuring a keen awareness of your opponent’s potential plays with Cauldron Dance will keep you one step ahead.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering MTG involves not just knowing your cards, but understanding how they interact within the vast universe of gameplay. Cauldron Dance serves as a powerful example of strategic depth, offering both challenges and opportunities on the battlefield. By evaluating the card’s pros and cons, as well as comparable cards, you can refine your deck to exploit its combo potential or craft countermeasures against it. Navigating this dynamic necessitates a willingness to adapt and an eagerness to explore the many layers of play MTG has to offer. Embark with us on this journey through the complexities of the game, and let’s fine-tune your deck-building and strategic skills to heighten your gaming experience. Immerse yourself further and embrace the full potential of Cauldron Dance to elevate your MTG prowess.


Cards like Cauldron Dance

Cauldron Dance fills a unique role in the realm of combat tricks and graveyard interaction in Magic: The Gathering. It bears a resemblance to cards like Makeshift Mannequin, which also permits the temporary reanimation of creatures from the graveyard. However, Cauldron Dance permits the additional casting of a creature card from the hand, which is not an option with Makeshift Mannequin.

When looking at other comparisons, Footsteps of the Goryo is another spell that brings creatures back from the graveyard, albeit temporarily and with a sacrifice clause at the next end step. Unlike Cauldron Dance, Footsteps of the Goryo doesn’t have the flexibility of involving the hand, but it costs less, appealing to a strategy requiring less mana investment. On a broader scale, we encounter Whispering Madness, enabling a different approach to leveraging hand and graveyard resources. While it allows for a hand refresh and some graveyard interaction, it lacks the immediate battlefield impact that Cauldron Dance offers by introducing creatures directly into combat.

To sum it up, while there are spells that interact with the graveyard and the hand in various ways, Cauldron Dance distinguishes itself by blending both elements effectively, ideally suited for mid-game swings or late-game surprises in Magic: The Gathering.

Makeshift Mannequin - MTG Card versions
Footsteps of the Goryo - MTG Card versions
Whispering Madness - MTG Card versions
Makeshift Mannequin - Lorwyn (LRW)
Footsteps of the Goryo - Saviors of Kamigawa (SOK)
Whispering Madness - Gatecrash (GTC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Cauldron Dance MTG card by a specific set like Invasion and Magic Online Theme Decks, 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 Cauldron Dance and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Cauldron Dance Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 2000-10-02 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by Donato Giancola.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12000-10-02InvasionINV 2381997normalblackDonato Giancola
22010-11-08Magic Online Theme DecksTD0 A961997normalblackDonato Giancola
32017-08-25Commander 2017C17 1662015normalblackDonato Giancola
42019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 14072015normalblackDonato Giancola
52020-09-26The ListPLST C17-1662015normalblackDonato Giancola

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Cauldron Dance has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2004-10-04 If the targeted creature card in the graveyard is removed before resolution, this spell won’t resolve since its only target will be invalid.
2004-10-04 You can cast this spell when you have no creature card in your hand. If this happens, simply ignore that part of the spell. You still put the graveyard creature onto the battlefield and still return it to your hand at the beginning of the end step.
2004-10-04 You must have a creature in your graveyard to cast this spell since it requires a valid target.

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