Mystic Crusader MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Human Nomad Mystic
Abilities	Protection,Threshold
Released	2001-10-01
Set symbol
Set name	Odyssey
Set code	ODY
Power	2
Toughness	1
Number	33
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Kev Walker

Key Takeaways

Generates card advantage with activated threshold, crucial for maintaining a strong hand throughout the game.
Flash ability grants tactical flexibility, enabling play on opponents’ turns and better resource management.
Synergizes with graveyard strategies, enhancing its power and influence on the battlefield significantly.

Text of card

Protection from black and from red Threshold Mystic Crusader gets +1/+1 and has flying. (You have threshold as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Mystic Crusader has the valuable ability to generate card advantage over opponents. With its threshold ability activated, drawing an additional card each time you deal combat damage can decisively tilt the game in your favor, keeping your hand filled with options.

Resource Acceleration: Though Mystic Crusader does not directly produce mana or tokens, its synergy with land fetch spells can act as a form of resource acceleration. By potentially increasing your land drops each turn, it offers an indirect route to ramping your mana and deploying threats faster.

Instant Speed: This card’s flash ability allows you to deploy it during your opponent’s turn, keeping your mana available for counterspells or tricks. This utility provides significant tactical leverage, ensuring you’re always optimally positioned in the evolving game state.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Mystic Crusader necessitates that you discard a card to benefit from its threshold ability. During gameplay, such a requirement can put you in a bind, especially when your hand is scarce and each card holds significant value.

Specific Mana Cost: With a casting cost that demands both white and other colored mana, Mystic Crusader can’t always find a home in multicolored decks that may struggle to meet its color-intensive needs without the right mana base or fixing tools.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Bearing a mana value that’s on the higher side for its starting stats and abilities, Mystic Crusader might lag behind in the early to mid-game tempo, where players could opt for more impactful creatures or spells for the same or lower cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Mystic Crusader offers a flexible role in your decks, adapting to various strategies. Whether it’s providing protection from black and red spells in a defensive strategy or pressing the advantage in a tempo deck, this card thrives across multiple game plans.

Combo Potential: Threshold abilities enhance Mystic Crusader, making it a prime candidate for graveyard-centric decks. Once powered up, it becomes an efficient creature, able to slip past defenses and turn the tide of battle in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where reactive plays often dominate, Mystic Crusader remains potent against popular removal spells. Its evasion and protection make it a resilient threat, capable of presenting a challenge to many common strategies found in the current competitive scene.

How to beat

The Mystic Crusader is a unique card that can create daunting situations for players unfamiliar with its strengths and weaknesses. To outwit this card, understanding the key mechanics it operates on is crucial. Players facing the Mystic Crusader will find that graveyard control is an effective strategy. By limiting the cards it can target for its threshold ability, you reduce its impact significantly. Cards with exile effects work wonders here.

An alternate approach is diminishing its utility by controlling the battlefield. Deploying creatures with protection from white can neutralize the Crusader’s effectiveness, as it will be unable to execute its prime function of destroying those creatures. Access to instant-speed removal spells, preferably those not restricted by color, will also prepare you to challenge the Mystic Crusader before its threshold ability can be a nuisance.

Ultimately, while the Mystic Crusader may initially seem to have the upper hand with its threshold advantage, strategic use of graveyard management and clever creature placement can tip the scales in your favor, showcasing deep understanding of your deck and the mechanics within the world of Magic: The Gathering.

Cards like Mystic Crusader

Mystic Crusader has carved its niche among creature cards in the game. Its unique offering allows a player to draw two cards if they have threshold – seven or more cards in the graveyard. As opposed to cards like Squadron Hawk, which allows you to search for up to three copies from your deck, Mystic Crusader gives the card advantage directly from the deck without specific prerequisite cards.

Shadowmage Infiltrator is another card that allows for card draw, but through combat damage to a player. While Shadowmage Infiltrator has the potential for continuous draw, Mystic Crusader proffers a more immediate and possibly massive draw, conditionally. Knight of the White Orchid, albeit not directly tied to card draw, presents a different kind of advantage by allowing you to search for a Plains card and put it onto the battlefield, thus advancing your mana resources.

When assessing similar creature cards that offer strategic benefits, Mystic Crusader can be a game changer in the right deck, especially for those focused on filling the graveyard quickly and leveraging threshold abilities for card advantage.

Shadowmage Infiltrator - MTG Card versions

Knight of the White Orchid - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Mystic Crusader by color, type and mana cost

Pianna, Nomad Captain - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Mystic Crusader MTG card by a specific set like Odyssey, 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 Mystic Crusader and other MTG cards: