Malakir Soothsayer MTG Card

Malakir Soothsayer - Oath of the Gatewatch

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Vampire Shaman Ally
Abilities	Cohort
Released	2016-01-22
Set symbol
Set name	Oath of the Gatewatch
Set code	OGW
Power	4
Toughness	4
Number	87
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Greg Opalinski

Key Takeaways

Malakir Soothsayer acts as a card advantage engine with its unique cohort ability within allied decks.
While offering instant speed versatility, it requires a card discard which may impact your hand.
Despite a higher mana cost, it remains a resourceful ally in longer, strategic gameplay scenarios.

Text of card

Cohort — , Tap an untapped Ally you control: You draw a card and you lose 1 life.

"Your blood whispers secrets your mind could never comprehend."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Malakir Soothsayer ensures a steady flow of card advantage via its cohort ability. Triggering the ability can lead to drawing additional cards, which helps outstrip opponents over time, keeping your hand filled with options.

Resource Acceleration: While the Soothsayer doesn’t directly produce mana or tokens, it efficiently utilizes the board presence by turning ally creatures into a resource, essentially accelerating your access to more cards and therefore more plays.

Instant Speed: Its ability can be activated at instant speed, providing flexibility in gameplay. This allows players to wait until the most opportune moment during an opponent’s turn to activate and draw, while also bluffing potential responses, which keeps opponents guessing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Malakir Soothsayer necessitates the discard of a card as part of its cohort ability. For players who might be running low on hand resources, this could become a detrimental trade-off, particularly in decks where maintaining card advantage is critical.

Specific Mana Cost: This vampire ally comes with a specific mana requirement, demanding both black and generic mana. Without the right mana base, this can restrict its integration into multicolor decks that may struggle with mana consistency, especially in formats with faster gameplay.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value of five, the Soothsayer sits at a higher range on the curve. Even though the card draw ability is a potent one, the mana investment is significant, and the players could potentially find more cost-efficient alternatives for card advantage within the vast pool of available cards.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Malakir Soothsayer serves as a valuable tool in deck archetypes that thrive on creature synergy and card advantage. Its ability to draw a card when another Ally enters the battlefield makes it an excellent addition to Ally-themed decks or any strategy that demands consistent card flow.

Combo Potential: This card’s synergy with other Allies means it has significant combo potential. It can be an integral part of a chain reaction where summoning multiple allies in a turn translates to substantial card draw, providing you with more options and resources in a game.

Meta-Relevance: In metas where longer, grindier games are common, having access to continuous card draw can be a game-changer. The Soothsayer’s ability to bolster your hand size keeps you prepared to face various threats and maintain pressure on your opponents.

How to beat

Malakir Soothsayer is an intriguing creature card that presents a unique challenge on the battlefield. This card, found lurking within black decks, not only offers the advantage of card draw but also permits you to capitalize on having a high number of creatures. To strategically triumph over Malakir Soothsayer, consider limiting your opponent’s creature count. Tactics such as targeted removal spells or board wipes can prove to be effective. By reducing the number of allies under your opponent’s control, the advantage that Malakir Soothsayer provides diminishes significantly.

Furthermore, disrupting your opponent’s hand can thwart their plans, making them unable to fully utilize the card’s abilities. Employing hand disruption spells such as Thoughtseize or Duress early on can prevent your opponent from ever casting Malakir Soothsayer, significantly reducing their potential for card draw and maintaining an upper hand in the game. Finally, keeping the pressure with an aggressive strategy can also tilt the game in your favor, enforcing a pace that doesn’t allow your opponent to leverage their Malakir Soothsayer effectively.

In essence, by combining creature control with hand disruption and maintaining an assertive board presence, you can effectively navigate around the challenges posed by Malakir Soothsayer and secure your position in the game.

Cards like Malakir Soothsayer

Malakir Soothsayer stands out in the roster of creature cards within the vast MTG universe. It bears resemblance to cards like Grim Haruspex, both offering card advantage through creature death-triggered abilities. While Grim Haruspex cashes in on the deaths of non-token creatures, Malakir Soothsayer’s cohort ability slightly broadens the net, allowing draws when another ally enters the battlefield under your control, potentially triggering multiple times in ally-focused decks.

You may also find a kinship with Midnight Reaper, another card that presents a similar draw mechanic upon creature death, but the Soothsayer shines with its lack of life loss for each draw. While Midnight Reaper applies a more universal trigger, affecting all creatures you control, it also can be more punishing on your life total. Malakir Soothsayer’s impact, therefore, is more nuanced, tailored to ally synergies, and demands a more strategic deck-building approach.

Drawing parallels within the same subset of abilities, Malakir Soothsayer’s value in a dedicated ally deck can be instrumental, providing consistent card advantage with a potential for explosive turns, making it a notable contender in MTG’s array of black card advantage engines.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Malakir Soothsayer 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 Malakir Soothsayer and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Malakir Soothsayer has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2016-01-22	To activate a cohort ability, the Ally with that ability must have been under your control continuously since the beginning of your most recent turn. Informally, it can’t have “summoning sickness.” However, the other Ally you tap can be one that just came under your control. (Note that tapping the second Ally doesn’t use -he tap symbol].)