Assembly Hall MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact
Released	1999-10-04
Set symbol
Set name	Mercadian Masques
Set code	MMQ
Number	286
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Val Mayerik

Key Takeaways

Assembly Hall searches your deck for creatures, giving you strategic control and adaptability.
Activating on your opponent’s turn, it preserves surprise and maximizes information for better plays.
Despite its mana demands, it provides niche value to creature-centric and synergistic decks.

Text of card

o4, oc T: Reveal a creature card in your hand, search your library for a copy of that card, and put the card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Assembly Hall provides a strategic edge by allowing you to sift through your deck and find the ideal creature card that can turn the tide in your favor. It’s like having a customizable toolbox at your disposal every turn, thereby ensuring that you are never out of options and increasing your chances to maintain or expand your grip on the game.

Resource Acceleration: This card enables a form of tutoring that accelerates your resource allocation by helping you directly access the creatures crucial to your game plan. It streamlines your strategy by letting you bypass the natural draw step and go straight for the resources you need when you need them. This can translate to a significant advantage as the game progresses and as the need for specific answers increases.

Instant Speed: While not an instant itself, Assembly Hall’s activation can be used at the end of your opponent’s turn or in response to actions taken during their turn. This lets you maintain the element of surprise and make decisions with as much information as possible, keeping your mana untapped and options open until you need to commit to a line of play.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For players leveraging Assembly Hall’s ability, there’s the hurdle of needing to discard a card. This process can deplete a player’s hand, especially detrimental during late-game scenarios where every card counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Assembly Hall comes with a specific mana requirement that includes generic mana. For players running a multicolored deck, it could present challenges when trying to optimize mana usage efficiently in the early stages of the game.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an operating cost of five mana and additional activations each turn, it might be a steep investment. Players could find themselves falling behind opponents who utilize lower-cost cards that provide immediate board presence or tempo advantages.

Reasons to Include Assembly Hall in Your Collection

Versatility: Assembly Hall offers a level of consistency to your deck by allowing you to sift through and select creatures that match your strategic needs. This trait can be instrumental in both creature-based and control decks alike.

Combo Potential: With its ability to search for creatures of a chosen type, Assembly Hall works wonders in tribal decks or those that rely on certain creature synergies, setting up powerful combinations that can swing the game in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: As metagames shift, having a tool that offers both selection and fetch capabilities means Assembly Hall adapts with the meta, ensuring that your deck can consistently access its key components, keeping up with, or even defining, current strategies.

How to beat

Assembly Hall presents a unique challenge in Magic: The Gathering as it offers players a way to continually tutor for creature cards with a particular commonality. While this ability may seem daunting, the key to overcoming Assembly Hall lies in disruption and speed. Land destruction effects, such as those from Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin, can remove Assembly Hall from the battlefield before it becomes a substantial threat. Similarly, quick aggro decks can apply pressure early on, outpacing the setup that Assembly Hall requires.

Artifact removal cards like Naturalize or Disenchant are also effective tools against Assembly Hall. By keeping these answers in hand, you can respond to your opponent’s attempt to utilize the card to their advantage. Keeping a diverse sideboard to combat this and similar slow-building strategies ensures you aren’t caught off guard. Additionally, counterspells also serve as a prevention method, denying the initial casting of Assembly Hall and maintaining your board control.

In conclusion, while Assembly Hall can seem like an insurmountable engine, a combination of targeted removal, land disruption, and swift aggression can dismantle this card’s influence over the game, securing victory against an opponent relying on its synergy.

Cards like Assembly Hall

Assembly Hall presents a unique mechanism for fetching creature cards in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to rummage through the library for a creature card sharer shares similarities with cards like Planar Portal and Ring of Three Wishes. While Planar Portal requires more mana for its activation, it offers the flexibility to search for any card, unlike Assembly Hall’s creature-only restriction.

Conversely, Ring of Three Wishes has a lump sum mana activation cost and only three uses but grants you carte blanche on what to fetch. Similarly, Inventors’ Fair accentuates your artifacts strategy while providing a search option, albeit conditional to having a critical mass of artifacts. The life gain is a bonus, unlike the flat ability of Assembly Hall.

When evaluating the strategic applications, Assembly Hall specializes in creature-based decks, filling a niche that its counterparts do not, making it a tailored choice for those specific deck architectures in Magic: The Gathering. Meanwhile, the broader utility of fetching any card type from Planar Portal or Ring of Three Wishes caters to a different deck-building philosophy.

Ring of Three Wishes - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Assembly Hall by color, type and mana cost

The Deck of Many Things - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Assembly Hall MTG card by a specific set like Mercadian Masques, 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 Assembly Hall and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Assembly Hall has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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