Loam Larva MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Insect
Released	2016-01-22
Set symbol
Set name	Oath of the Gatewatch
Set code	OGW
Power	1
Toughness	3
Number	135
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Jason Kang

Key Takeaways

Loam Larva secures land drops and can be a resource accelerator, albeit indirectly.
With limited impact and specific mana cost, its deck inclusion should be strategic.
In decks with land synergy, Loam Larva can become a powerful utility creature.

Text of card

When Loam Larva enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.

The forest floor of Murasa is home to life as diverse and vibrant as that of the canopy above.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Loam Larva has the benefit of searching your deck for a basic land card and putting it on top, ensuring a land drop on your next turn. This thins your deck and slightly increases the likelihood of drawing into non-land cards, thereby giving you an advantage.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly producing additional mana, Loam Larva aids in resource acceleration by guaranteeing your next land play. This reliable land tutoring ensures that you can keep up the pace with land drops, potentially leading to more efficient plays in subsequent turns.

Instant Speed: While Loam Larva itself is cast at sorcery speed, it facilitates the setting up of your next draw at an earlier stage. This allows you to reserve mana for instant speed interactions on your opponent’s turn without worrying about missing a land drop, indirectly providing strategic flexibility.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: In the case of Loam Larva, while there’s no discard cost associated directly with this creature, its benefit could potentially lead to an indirect discard scenario. When you search your library for a basic land card to put on top of it, you’re essentially setting yourself up to draw a predictable—often less impactful—card next, which could be seen as a roundabout way of losing out on a potentially more useful draw.

Specific Mana Cost: Loam Larva has a specific mana cost that requires both green and generic mana, making it less flexible for decks that aren’t focused on green mana resources or are multicolored and may prioritize other synergies over including a basic land tutor on a creature.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For two mana, this insect might seem reasonably costed, but when you factor in the opportunity cost of the card draw and the larva’s lackluster stats (1/3), it’s plausible to argue that there are other cards within the same mana range that could offer more immediate board presence or card advantage without the setup cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Loam Larva is a chameleon in deck building, effortlessly fitting into various strategies. As a creature card, it offers more than just combat potential—its ability to shape your draws by fetching a land can smooth out your mana curve or ensure land drops in the coming turns.

Combo Potential: In decks that capitalize on land-based synergies, Loam Larva shines. It can set up the groundwork for landfall abilities or delve strategies by placing a land card on top of your library, ready to be played or used as fuel for other effects.

Meta-Relevance: As the game’s dynamic shifts, adaptable cards like Loam Larva become assets. In environments where land interactions are key, whether due to the prevalence of land destruction or the need for consistent land drops, Loam Larva ensures your deck keeps pace with the meta.

How to beat

Loam Larva is an intriguing creature card in MTG with a niche ability that allows players to fetch a land card and put it on top of their library when it enters the battlefield. Despite this assist in land consistency, it’s also a prime target for disruption. Tackling a Loam Larva often involves strategies that negate its enter-the-battlefield effect or remove it before it can bring the land advantage to fruition.

Effective counters include instant-speed removal spells that can eliminate Loam Larva in response to its ability, thus maintaining pressure and card advantage. Cards like Fatal Push or Path to Exile are excellent at this job. Furthermore, utilizing graveyard manipulation spells can disrupt strategies that rely on recurring Loam Larva’s ability for consistent land drops. Therefore, keeping a Loam Larva from impacting the game significantly involves timely removal and strategic graveyard intervention, ensuring that your opponent’s plans to stabilize their mana base are thwarted.

In a game where tempo and resource management are key, countering a Loam Larva can become a simple but crucial move. It’s about recognizing the right moment to act and having the necessary cards in hand to maintain control over the board. In doing so, you can efficiently outpace an opponent leaning on Loam Larva for land balance.

Cards like Loam Larva

Loam Larva fills a unique niche in deck manipulation and land retrieval within Magic: The Gathering. It shares common ground with cards such as Sylvan Ranger or Borderland Ranger, which also enable players to fetch lands from their decks. However, Loam Larva has the distinction of not putting the lands into your hand, but directly into the graveyard, setting up potential synergies with land-recursion strategies.

Where it truly shines is in its combination with mechanics like delirium or landfall, where it can queue up the next land drop for a potent trigger. A comparison could be made to Satyr Wayfinder, which provides a similar function but presents a wider array of options by revealing the top four cards and putting all land cards found this way into your hand. Though not a direct land fetcher, Elvish Reclaimer also interacts favorably with the graveyard, allowing for a tactical reshuffle of the battlefield resources while also acting as a formidable body on the board.

Evaluating Loam Larva against these peers, it stands out for decks that capitalize on having lands in the graveyard or as part of the casting cost mechanics. While not as directly impactful as other creature-based land tutors, Loam Larva provides distinct advantages in the right deck build and strategy.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Loam Larva MTG card by a specific set like Oath of the Gatewatch, 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 Loam Larva and other MTG cards: