Moorland Drifter MTG Card

Moorland Drifter - Shadows over Innistrad

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Spirit
Abilities	Delirium
Released	2016-04-08
Set symbol
Set name	Shadows over Innistrad
Set code	SOI
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	27
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Ryan Yee

Key Takeaways

Moorland Drifter offers card advantage and synergy with graveyard strategies when delirium is achieved.
Its utility is limited to white or multicolored decks due to specific mana requirements.
Delirium’s setup cost and timing may challenge its efficacy compared to similar-cost cards.

Text of card

Delirium — Moorland Drifter has flying as long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.

It has no apparent purpose or direction. It simply drifts, buoyed by breezes both tangible and otherworldly.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Integrated with the delirium ability, Moorland Drifter can effectively turn into a threat that must be answered, potentially causing your opponent to expend resources to deal with it, putting you ahead in card economy.

Resource Acceleration: Although Moorland Drifter itself doesn’t directly contribute to resource acceleration, its relatively low casting cost can help maintain a smooth and efficient mana curve in your early game.

Instant Speed: While Moorland Drifter doesn’t have abilities that operate at instant speed, its value in the game can increase when combined with other instant-speed spells that enable or benefit from the delirium mechanic. Such synergy can catch opponents off-guard and pave the way for strategic advantages during your turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Moorland Drifter comes with a condition to achieve its potential. Without delirium, it’s merely a 2/2 creature for two mana. Having to manage your graveyard to enable delirium can sometimes force you to discard valuable cards, which may not align with your game strategy or the pace at which your deck operates.

Specific Mana Cost: The cost to play Moorland Drifter includes white mana, which narrows its applicability primarily to white-based decks or multicolored decks that can afford the mana consistency to cast it. This might restrict its inclusion in various other decks that can’t meet the white mana requirement conveniently.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For two mana, a player expects to introduce impactful creatures or spells into the battlefield. While Moorland Drifter has the potential to become evasive with delirium, the setup needed and the potential activation later in the game might not justify the initial investment, especially when there are creatures with innate evasion available for a similar cost.

Reasons to Include Moorland Drifter in Your Collection

Versatility: Moorland Drifter stands out as a card that can find a home in a variety of decks. Its spirit typing and synergy with Delirium makes it a flexible option for decks looking to capitalize on graveyard strategies.

Combo Potential: When Delirium is active — which requires having four or more card types among cards in your graveyard — Moorland Drifter gains flying. This enables it to be a strategic piece in combos that revolve around creatures with evasion.

Meta-Relevance: Given the ever-evolving nature of the MTG metagame, Moorland Drifter can be particularly effective in environments where flying creatures are key to outmaneuvering opponents, and where graveyard mechanics are viable.

How to beat

Moorland Drifter is a modest but potentially elusive creature in the world of MTG. Known for its delirium ability, which grants it flying if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, it can be a slippery foe. Nevertheless, conquering this card requires strategic play. Keeping your graveyard tidy and limiting the types of cards that end up there is a proactive approach to prevent the Drifter from taking flight. Graveyard-hate cards like Rest in Peace or Relic of Progenitus efficiently eradicate the delirium condition by keeping graveyards empty.

Another effective strategy involves deploying cheap removal spells such as Fatal Push or Path to Exile. These spells can remove the Moorland Drifter before the delirium condition is satisfied, or even after, without significant resource investment. Moreover, creature blockers with reach, such as Silklash Spider, or those that can be flashed in, like Brineborn Cutthroat, serve as excellent deterrents to creatures like the Drifter that rely on soaring over ground-based defenses.

Overall, careful graveyard management and the right combination of removal or defensive creatures can nullify the advantages that Moorland Drifter brings to the battlefield, keeping it firmly grounded and manageable within your game strategy.

Cards like Moorland Drifter

Moorland Drifter is a unique creature card in Magic the Gathering that brings subtle strength to the battlefield. When paralleled with other creatures such as Thraben Inspector, one notices that both stand at the same mana value, but the Inspector brings an added benefit of clue token generation, providing card advantage. Moorland Drifter, however, has the potential to become evasive thanks to delirium, thereby bypassing many common blockers.

Duskwatch Recruiter is another creature that carries the same mana value as Moorland Drifter. The Recruiter has an ability that influences the game by reducing creature spell costs and transforming into a more powerful creature under the right conditions. In contrast, Moorland Drifter offers consistent stats with the potential of gaining evasion, which can be crucial in specific gameplay strategies focusing on attacking unimpeded.

Viewing the broad spectrum, Moorland Drifter can be a strong component in decks that leverage the graveyard to activate delirium, making it an efficient creature able to connect with opponents when less defended. While it may not provide card advantage or cost reduction like its counterparts, its straightforward role can be essential in the right build.

Cards similar to Moorland Drifter by color, type and mana cost

Voice of the Blessed - MTG Card versions

Silverflame Squire // On Alert - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Moorland Drifter MTG card by a specific set like Shadows over Innistrad, 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 Moorland Drifter and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Moorland Drifter has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2016-04-08	Because you consider only the characteristics of a double-faced card’s front face while it’s not on the battlefield, the types of its back face won’t be counted for delirium.
2016-04-08	Flying only matters as blockers are chosen. Causing Moorland Drifter to gain flying after blockers are chosen won’t cause it to become unblocked.
2016-04-08	In some rare cases, you can have a token or a copy of a spell in your graveyard at the moment that an object’s delirium ability counts the card types among cards in your graveyard, before that token or copy ceases to exist. Because tokens and copies of spells are not cards, even if they are copies of cards, their types will never be counted.
2016-04-08	The card types in Magic are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal (a card type that appears on some older cards). Supertypes (such as legendary and basic) and subtypes (such as Human and Equipment) are not counted.
2016-04-08	The number of card types matters, not the number of cards. For example, Wicker Witch (an artifact creature) along with Catalog (an instant) and Chaplain’s Blessing (a sorcery) will enable delirium.