Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns MTG Card


Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns - Zendikar Rising
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeSorcery
Released2020-09-25
Set symbol
Set nameZendikar Rising
Set codeZNR
Number120
Frame2015
LayoutModal DFC
BorderBlack
Illustred byJokubas Uogintas

Key Takeaways

  1. Provides card advantage by revealing and potentially removing key opponents’ creatures, influencing the game’s outcome.
  2. Offers flexibility as a land thereby ensuring you’re never at a disadvantage with a dead card.
  3. It can simulate instant-speed benefits by disrupting opponents’ plans at critical moments.

Text of card

Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a card from it with mana value 3 or greater. That player discards that card.

"I knew we shouldn't have come this way." —Sneeflebrix, expedition rogue


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Pelakka Predation enables you to peek into an opponent’s hand and potentially remove a powerful creature card. This strategic move not only diminishes your opponent’s resources but also gives you insight into their potential plans, tipping the scales in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: On the flip side, Pelakka Predation can be played as Pelakka Caverns, the land, thereby contributing to your mana base. This versatility ensures you’re never left with a dead card in hand, as it can always be used to accelerate your resources.

Instant Speed: While Pelakka Predation is a sorcery, its ability to disrupt an opponent’s hand at a crucial moment can be just as impactful as an instant-speed interaction. By timing the cast right before your opponent’s key turn, you can effectively set them back, simulating the snap decision advantage that instant-speed spells offer.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Pelakka Predation allows you to peer into an opponent’s hand and possibly disrupt their strategy by forcing them to discard, this card does not offer such a mechanic. Instead, it’s focused on revealing noncreature, nonland cards, possibly leaving you with no targets in creature-heavy decks.

Specific Mana Cost: This sorcery comes with a devoted black mana cost, which can be challenging to manage in a multicolored deck. Having a cost of 2B means that it could be difficult to play this on curve if your mana base isn’t tailored to produce black mana consistently.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sporting a three mana cost for its effect, Pelakka Predation may be less appealing compared to lower-cost disruption spells. It competes with other powerful three-mana plays in the format, which might offer immediate impact on the board state or more versatile answers to threats.


Reasons to Include Pelakka Predation in Your Collection

Versatility: Pelakka Predation serves a dual role, operating as both a land and a disruptive spell. This flexibility allows it to fit into various deck types, providing utility in different phases of the game.

Combo Potential: As a card that siphons key pieces from your opponent’s hand, it can disrupt combos before they execute, or be utilized in strategies that capitalize on depleted enemy resources.

Meta-Relevance: In a game dominated by carefully crafted hands, Pelakka Predation can tip the scales by preemptively dealing with significant threats, making it a strategic addition against control and combo-heavy decks.


How to beat

Pelakka Predation, as a unique sorcery from the Zendikar Rising set, presents a tactical challenge on the battlefield. Players familiar with disruptive strategies know the impact of revealing an opponent’s hand and forcing them to discard, but this card goes a step further by targeting specifically cards with high mana value. In addition to being a spell, Pelakka Predation doubles as a land, giving it versatility in deck building.

Defeating this dual nature card involves clever hand management. Playing low mana value cards can keep crucial spells safe from its predation. Additionally, waiting for the right moment to capitalize on spells that replenish your hand, such as Agonizing Remorse or Duress, can mitigate the disadvantage. Cards with flash also provide a way to deploy threats during your opponent’s turn, thus reducing the impact of Pelakka Predation.

Ultimately, overcoming this card requires strategic planning and an understanding of timing. By anticipating its play and adjusting your game plan, you maintain control over your hand and diminish the efficacy of Pelakka Predation in your opponent’s arsenal.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering the art of Magic: The Gathering is about understanding the subtle interplay of cards and timing. Pelakka Predation offers a fine balance between disrupting the opponent and ensuring land drops. It’s not just about the immediate play but also about the long-term strategy and how a single card can offer diverse pathways to victory. For players looking to enhance their decks, considering the facets of Pelakka Predation becomes a strategic move. Dive deeper with us to explore the nuances of deck synergy and maximize the potential of every card you draw.


Cards like Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns

Pelakka Predation serves as a unique piece in the puzzle of hand disruption spells in the world of Magic: The Gathering. This card has the duality of being both a land and a spell, similar to the modal double-faced card Agonizing Remorse. Agonizing Remorse allows you to peer into an opponent’s hand and exile a card, but it doesn’t offer the flexibility of a land on its other side. Pelakka Predation, on the other hand, presents this advantageous versatility.

When considering other comparisons, Duress is a frequently used card due to its low cost, which can disrupt an opponent’s strategy by forcing them to discard a noncreature, nonland card. While it doesn’t target creatures, which Pelakka Predation can, Duress complements any deck aiming at noncreature spells. In addition, there’s Thoughtseize, which, despite its life loss upon casting, gives the freedom to choose and exile any nonland card, offering broader control over the opponent’s hand than Pelakka Predation.

In essence, Pelakka Predation stands out in the realm of MTG due to its dual utility, providing both strategic hand disruption and land stability, a combination that is quite rare and valuable in gameplay.

Agonizing Remorse - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Thoughtseize - MTG Card versions
Agonizing Remorse - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Thoughtseize - MTG Card versions

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar Rising, 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 Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Pelakka Predation // Pelakka Caverns has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2020-09-25 A modal double-faced card can’t be transformed or be put onto the battlefield transformed. Ignore any instruction to transform a modal double-faced card or to put one onto the battlefield transformed.
2020-09-25 If a card in a player’s hand has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2020-09-25 If an effect allows you to play a land or cast a spell from among a group of cards, you may play or cast a modal double-faced card with any face that fits the criteria of that effect.
2020-09-25 If an effect allows you to play a specific modal double-faced card, you may cast it as a spell or play it as a land, as determined by which face you choose to play. If an effect allows you to cast (rather than “play”) a specific modal double-faced card, you can’t play it as a land.
2020-09-25 If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name, the name of either face may be chosen. If that effect or a linked ability refers to a spell with the chosen name being cast and/or a land with the chosen name being played, it considers only the chosen name, not the other face’s name.
2020-09-25 If an effect puts a double-faced card onto the battlefield, it enters with its front face up. If that front face can’t be put onto the battlefield, it doesn’t enter the battlefield.
2020-09-25 In the Commander variant, a double-faced card’s color identity is determined by the mana costs and mana symbols in the rules text of both faces combined. If either face has a color indicator or basic land type, those are also considered.
2020-09-25 The converted mana cost of a modal double-faced card is based on the characteristics of the face that’s being considered. On the stack and battlefield, consider whichever face is up. In all other zones, consider only the front face. This is different than how the converted mana cost of a transforming double-faced card is determined.
2020-09-25 There is a single triangle icon in the top left corner of the front face. There is a double triangle icon in the top left corner of the back face.
2020-09-25 To determine whether it is legal to play a modal double-faced card, consider only the characteristics of the face you’re playing and ignore the other face’s characteristics.