Hyena Umbra MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 7 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant,Totem armor

Key Takeaways

  1. Hyena Umbra’s totem armor empowers creatures with extra resilience, granting a tactical edge on the battlefield.
  2. While it offers solid protection, its white mana specificity may limit versatility in multicolored decks.
  3. The card’s meta relevance and combo potential make it a strong contender for competitive MTG decks.

Text of card

Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has first strike. Totem armor (If enchanted creature would be destroyed, instead remove all damage from it and destroy this Aura.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Hyena Umbra adds significant durability to your creatures by preventing them from being destroyed in combat or by one-off destruction spells. This effectively maintains your cards on the battlefield and can result in card advantage as your opponents will need to use more resources to deal with your protected creatures.

Resource Acceleration: While Hyena Umbra itself does not directly accelerate resources, it protects key creatures that produce mana or have other ramp effects. By safeguarding these valuable creatures, Hyena Umbra indirectly contributes to resource acceleration, ensuring your mana engines remain active on the board.

Instant Speed: Hyena Umbra’s totem armor ability may not be castable at instant speed, but its resilience makes up for it. By attaching Hyena Umbra preemptively, you create a safeguard that effectively deters instant-speed removal from your opponents, allowing your strategy to remain robust against unexpected threats.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Hyena Umbra offers solid protection with its totem armor, it does not require a card to be discarded. This aspect is deceptive as discarding can sometimes be an implicit cost when you’re forced to choose between resources for its casting.

Specific Mana Cost: Hyena Umbra’s mana cost is restricted to a single white mana. This specificity means that it fits primarily into mono-white or white-inclusive decks, potentially limiting its application in a more diverse multicolored deck environment.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite its affordable cost, in the realm of enchantment auras, there are alternatives that might provide broader effects or versatility for the same or less mana investment. Players might find themselves weighing the cost-benefit ratio of including Hyena Umbra in decks where each mana point is crucial.


Reasons to Include Hyena Umbra in Your Collection

Versatility: Hyena Umbra is a multifaceted card that can protect creatures while also boosting their offense. Its ability to grant first strike and survivability makes it a valuable asset in a variety of deck builds, from aggressive White Weenies to more strategic enchantment-focused decks.

Combo Potential: With its totem armor ability, Hyena Umbra shines when combined with other auras or equipment, allowing creatures to dodge potentially game-ending removals. Integrating this card into aura synergistic strategies can amplify your board presence significantly.

Meta-Relevance: Given its protective qualities, Hyena Umbra can be critical in current metagames that are rife with spot removal and board wipes. Keeping a key creature on the battlefield can often be the difference between victory and defeat, making this card a strategic choice for competitive play.


How to beat

Hyena Umbra is a noteworthy card that offers players in Magic: The Gathering a potent way to protect their creatures. It’s akin to a suit of armor, thanks to its totem armor ability, which acts as a buffer against potential destruction. When facing Hyena Umbra, one must strategize around its primary feature – the totem armor. This protective layer can be bypassed by using spells that don’t destroy but rather exile, bounce, or reduce a creature’s toughness to zero. Instant exile spells like Path to Exile or board wipes like Merciless Eviction can efficiently handle creatures enchanted with Hyena Umbra.

Moreover, employing counterspells such as Negate or Dispel specifically targets Auras like Hyena Umbra before they ever hit the battlefield. Furthermore, challenging situations with Hyena Umbra can be mitigated by focusing on removing other supporting enchantments, reducing the overall power of the enchanted creature. Cards capable of targeting enchantments, like Nature’s Claim or Return to Nature, ensure that the buffs from Hyena Umbra don’t stack dangerously.

To summarize, while Hyena Umbra can create formidable obstacles, players can beat this card by carefully selecting spells and abilities that circumvent or directly remove the enchantment before it becomes a significant threat on the board.


BurnMana Recommendations

Diving into the depths of MTG strategy, cards like Hyena Umbra prove to be valuable assets in your deck-building arsenal. Whether you’re defending against removal spells or amplifying your offensive line-up, Hyena Umbra’s totem armor is a game-changer in both casual and competitive play. Ready to weave this card into your winning strategies? We encourage MTG enthusiasts to continue exploring its synergies and potential. Expand your collection, adapt to the ever-evolving meta, and fortify your deck’s resilience. Dive deeper with us and embrace the strategic complexities that make MTG so enthralling.


Cards like Hyena Umbra

Hyena Umbra stands out in the realm of totem armor auras in Magic: The Gathering. The card provides a creature with not only a power boost but also a vital layer of protection against destruction. In comparison, Spider Umbra also offers the totem armor safeguard but focuses more on fortifying a creature’s defensive capabilities with reach rather than with additional attack power.

Bears Umbra takes this concept further by bestowing a strong power and toughness increase and the Totem Armor ability, along with the added benefit of untapping lands with its triggered ability. Although it comes at a higher casting cost, the potential for ramping up makes it a worthy consideration. Eel Umbra, while it’s cheaper, it only grants a modest boost and flash but doesn’t contribute to the board’s presence as significantly as Hyena Umbra.

Assessing these options, Hyena Umbra remains a highly efficient choice for players looking to enhance their creature’s offensive power while providing a safety net against removal, striking a balance between cost and utility on the battlefield.

Spider Umbra - MTG Card versions
Eel Umbra - MTG Card versions
Spider Umbra - Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)
Eel Umbra - Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hyena Umbra MTG card by a specific set like Rise of the Eldrazi and Planechase 2012, 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 Hyena Umbra and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Hyena Umbra Magic the Gathering card was released in 7 different sets between 2010-04-23 and 2022-07-08. Illustrated by Howard Lyon.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12010-04-23Rise of the EldraziROE 262003normalblackHoward Lyon
22012-06-01Planechase 2012PC2 82003normalblackHoward Lyon
32016-11-25Planechase AnthologyPCA 82015normalblackHoward Lyon
42018-12-07Ultimate MastersUMA 212015normalblackHoward Lyon
52019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 1372015normalblackHoward Lyon
62020-09-26The ListPLST UMA-212015normalblackHoward Lyon
72022-07-08Double Masters 20222X2 132015normalblackHoward Lyon

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Hyena Umbra has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2010-06-15 If a creature enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor would be destroyed by multiple state-based actions at the same time the totem armor’s effect will replace all of them and save the creature.
2010-06-15 If a permanent you control is enchanted with multiple Auras that have totem armor, and the enchanted permanent would be destroyed, one of those Auras is destroyed instead — but only one of them. You choose which one because you control the enchanted permanent.
2010-06-15 If a spell or ability (such as Planar Cleansing) would destroy both an Aura with totem armor and the permanent it’s enchanting at the same time, totem armor’s effect will save the enchanted permanent from being destroyed. Instead, the spell or ability will destroy the Aura in two different ways at the same time, but the result is the same as destroying it once.
2010-06-15 If a spell or ability says that it would “destroy” a permanent enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor, that spell or ability causes the Aura to be destroyed instead. (This matters for cards such as Karmic Justice.) Totem armor doesn’t destroy the Aura; rather, it changes the effects of the spell or ability. On the other hand, if a spell or ability deals lethal damage to a creature enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor, the game rules regarding lethal damage cause the Aura to be destroyed, not that spell or ability.
2010-06-15 Say you control a permanent enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor, and the enchanted permanent has gained a regeneration shield. The next time it would be destroyed, you choose whether to apply the regeneration effect or the totem armor effect. The other effect is unused and remains, in case the permanent would be destroyed again.
2010-06-15 Totem armor’s effect is applied no matter why the enchanted permanent would be destroyed: because it’s been dealt lethal damage, or because it’s being affected by an effect that says to “destroy” it (such as Doom Blade). In either case, all damage is removed from the permanent and the Aura is destroyed instead.
2010-06-15 Totem armor’s effect is mandatory. If the enchanted permanent would be destroyed, you must remove all damage from it and destroy the Aura that has totem armor instead.
2010-06-15 Totem armor’s effect is not regeneration. Specifically, if totem armor’s effect is applied, the enchanted permanent does not become tapped and is not removed from combat as a result. Effects that say the enchanted permanent can’t be regenerated (as Vendetta does) won’t prevent totem armor’s effect from being applied.
2013-07-01 If a creature enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor has indestructible, lethal damage and effects that try to destroy it simply have no effect. Totem armor won’t do anything because it won’t have to.
2013-07-01 Say you control a permanent enchanted with an Aura that has totem armor, and that Aura has gained a regeneration shield. The next time the enchanted permanent would be destroyed, the Aura would be destroyed instead — but it regenerates, so nothing is destroyed at all. Alternately, if that Aura somehow gains indestructible, the enchanted permanent is effectively indestructible as well.
2013-07-01 Totem armor has no effect if the enchanted permanent is put into a graveyard for any other reason, such as if it’s sacrificed, if it’s legendary and another legendary permanent with the same name is controlled by the same player, or if its toughness is 0 or less.

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