Mortivore MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Mortivore’s power and toughness grow with each card in all graveyards, potentially giving you a large creature for a small mana investment. This ability can turn late-game graveyards into a resource, giving you a significant advantage on the board.

Resource Acceleration: While Mortivore itself doesn’t directly produce mana or ramp, its constant threat of increasing size can pressure opponents into committing more resources to handle it, indirectly accelerating your position by attrition. Plus, its value increases as the game progresses, without additional mana investment from you.

Instant Speed: Though Mortivore acts at sorcery speed, its formidable Lhurgoyf ability capitalizes on instant-speed interaction by becoming stronger each time an instant ends up in a graveyard. This incentivizes and rewards gameplay that includes instant-speed removal, counterspells, or end-of-turn effects, as each contributes to Mortivore’s growth.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Mortivore’s power is closely tied to the number of creature cards in all graveyards, making it dependent on discard-heavy strategies for optimal effectiveness. This can leave players at a disadvantage should their own graveyard not possess enough fuel to empower Mortivore.

Specific Mana Cost: Mortivore requires black mana for casting, potentially limiting its integration into multicolored decks that may not focus on a heavy black mana base or that use resources for a broader variety of spells and abilities.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While not excessively high, Mortivore’s mana cost can be an issue in faster-paced games where lower-cost creatures might provide more immediate benefits. Players might find themselves facing aggressive decks that can outpace the setup time required for Mortivore to become a significant threat.

Reasons to Include Mortivore in Your Collection

Versatility: Mortivore’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of creature cards in all graveyards, which means its size can increase significantly in longer games or in match-ups against decks that fill the graveyard. This flexibility allows it to be a formidable threat in a variety of match situations.

Combo Potential: This card works well with strategies that mill or self-mill, turning the act of sending cards to the graveyard into a direct advantage. In combination with cards that manipulate graveyards, Mortivore’s strength can be dynamically adjusted to overwhelm opponents.

Meta-Relevance: In a metagame filled with creature-based strategies, Mortivore shines by growing as the game progresses. Its relevance in certain matchups and the persistent threat it presents as graveyards fill with creatures make it a card worth considering for players facing graveyard-centric opponents.

How to beat

Mortivore presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. As a creature whose power and toughness correspond to the number of creature cards in all graveyards, it can quickly become a behemoth. To tackle this threat, focus on graveyard control. Deploy cards like Rest in Peace or Scavenging Ooze that can either exile all cards from graveyards or selectively remove creature cards, thus weakening Mortivore’s statistics. Cards boasting graveyard hate inherently limit Mortivore’s potential growth.

Another effective tactic is to employ exile removal spells like Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares that bypass Mortivore’s size by removing it from the game entirely rather than destroying it. This is particularly essential if Mortivore has accumulated a significant number of creature cards in all graveyards, making traditional destruction spells less effective. Preventative measures such as countermagic or discard spells can also hinder Mortivore’s impact, ensuring it never poses a threat on the board in the first place.

Handling Mortivore requires a strategic approach, targeting either the graveyard—a direct source of its power—or using exile effects to neutralize it regardless of its size. Consider these methods when crafting your game plan against a deck utilizing Mortivore to maintain control of the match.

BurnMana Recommendations

Understanding the strengths and limitations of Mortivore can greatly improve your MTG gameplay. As you build your decks, consider how this powerful creature can enhance your strategies, especially when paired with graveyard mechanics. Adapting to the metagame is key, and Mortivore provides a scalable threat that evolves with the game state. Whether you’re aiming to overpower opponents with a lethal creature or build a deck that capitalizes on the size and resilience of Mortivore, the knowledge you’ve gained here is a solid foundation for your next strategic move. Dive deeper into MTG card analysis and refine your deck-building skills with us for an edge over the competition.