Melancholy MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant
Released	2007-02-02
Set symbol
Set name	Planar Chaos
Set code	PLC
Number	88
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Lars Grant-West

Key Takeaways

Melancholy enables card advantage and disrupts opponents, dictating game pace effectively.
Instant speed casting offers flexibility, making Melancholy a tactical asset in duels.
Despite benefits, it has cons like discard requirement and specific mana cost challenges.

Text of card

Enchant creature When Melancholy comes into play, tap enchanted creature. Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step. At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Melancholy unless you pay .

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Melancholy Mtg Card boasts an impressive ability to create card advantage. When played, it can potentially disrupt your opponent’s strategy while enhancing your own hand, enabling you to dictate the flow of the game.

Resource Acceleration: This spell often works its magic by granting you additional resources. Whether it’s through tuning the mana curve or optimizing resource usage, Melancholy ensures you’re a step ahead, paving the way to cast more impactful spells sooner.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Melancholy at instant speed adds a tactical layer to gameplay. It empowers you to react in real time to the evolving battlefield, saving the card for the perfect moment to maximize its effect and outmaneuver your opponent.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Melancholy requires discarding a card, which diminishes your hand, potentially putting you at a strategic disadvantage, especially when facing decks designed to deplete the player’s resources.

Specific Mana Cost: Deck building can be restrictive with Melancholy as it calls for a particular mana arrangement, needing both black and blue mana, making it less flexible for multi-color decks that may not focus on these hues.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost being on the higher side compared to other control cards, Melancholy may not be as cost-effective. There are alternatives in MTG that could disrupt opponents without as much mana investment, ensuring swifter gameplay progression.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Melancholy offers flexibility in deck construction, complementing strategies that require temporary removal of threats or timing disruption, fitting well in various control or tempo decks.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to temporarily exile an opponent’s creature can set up favorable board states for combos or to capitalize on a momentary advantage, syncing well with bounce effects or sacrifice mechanics.

Meta-Relevance: Considering that creature-based strategies often dominate the meta, Melancholy can be a key piece in controlling the battlefield and keeping pace in matchups, particularly against decks that rely heavily on specific creatures for synergy.

How to beat

The Melancholy card is a clever piece of design, bringing both flexibility and control to the table. Its ability to tie down an opponent’s creature makes it a silent workhorse in many decks. But like any piece of the complex puzzle that is Magic: The Gathering, it has its Achilles’ heel. Overcoming Melancholy’s control requires a strategy that either nullifies enchantments or overwhelms the player with a flurry of creature spells.

To dismantle this card’s grip, you may want to include enchantment removal in your deck. Options like Disenchant or naturalize provide a straightforward solution to the problem. Alternatively, you can utilize hexproof creatures, which are immune to such target-specific control spells. Furthermore, counterspells can nip the problem in the bud, preventing Melancholy from ever taking hold on your creatures. Lastly, playing creatures with the ability to sacrifice themselves can invalidate Melancholy’s effect, ensuring your strategy moves forward unimpeded.

When faced with the shroud of Melancholy, remember that your best bet lies in preparedness and versatility. Adaptation is key, and by incorporating these strategies, you can effectively neutralize its influence and maintain the upper hand in any duel.

Cards like Melancholy

Melancholy is a unique spell that occupies a distinct niche in Magic: The Gathering. It shares similarities with cards that disrupt an opponent’s strategy, like Pacifism, which effectively neutralizes a target creature without destroying it. Melancholy, however, presents a recurring cost, demanding its controller to pay during their upkeep to avoid sacrificing it. While Pacifism is a set-and-forget enchantment, Melancholy introduces a layer of resource management.

Another kin in this category is Claustrophobia, which taps the enchanted creature and doesn’t allow it to untap during its controller’s untap step. Claustrophobia and Melancholy both restrict opponent’s options, but Claustrophobia has no ongoing costs, differing in the strategic dynamic they create on the battlefield. It’s also akin to cards like Ice Cage, which has a similar tapping effect but can be removed if the enchanted creature becomes the target of a spell or ability. Melancholy’s strength, therefore, lies in its persistence, creating a dilemma for the opponent turn after turn.

Ultimately, Melancholy’s balance of a persistent disabling effect with its upkeep cost positions it in a tactical space within Magic: The Gathering, offering gamers a tool to impose continuous pressure on their adversaries.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Melancholy MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos, 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 Melancholy and other MTG cards: