Lethe Lake MTG Card
2009-09-04 - Number 21
2018-12-25 - Number 47
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Plane — Arkhos |
| Abilities | Mill |
Key Takeaways
- Sifting through your deck, Lethe Lake allows strategic planning by selecting high-impact cards for future turns.
- Despite a discard cost, the instant nature of Lethe Lake adapts to game dynamics, providing tactical surprises.
- Moderate mana costs could limit usage, but the utility and resource manipulation make Lethe Lake a valuable asset.
Text of card
At the beginning of your upkeep, put the top ten cards of your library into your graveyard. Whenever you roll chaos, target player puts the top ten cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Lethe Lake ensures a steady flow of options for players, as this card permits the controller to peruse the top segment of their library, effectively setting the stage for strategic moves and pivotal decisions in upcoming turns. It’s an advantage that can significantly tip the scales in one’s favor.
Resource Acceleration: With its unique mechanic, Lethe Lake can offer a ramp in resources without traditional token generation. This is achieved by allowing the player to effectively skip drawing low-impact cards, ensuring only the most useful resources are drawn, propelling you ahead of opponents in the resource race.
Instant Speed: The versatility of Lethe Lake is further compounded by its instant speed nature. This attribute allows savvy players to adapt to the fluid dynamics of the game, using the card reactively to surprise opponents or to preemptively arrange the top cards of their library for maximum impact on their turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Lethe Lake is its incumbent discard requirement. To activate its ability, a player must discard a card which could be a strategic disadvantage, particularly in situations where hand size is crucial.
Specific Mana Cost: Lethe Lake necessitates a particular color combination to play, making it less flexible. It requires blue mana, which may not align with the mana base of all deck types, thus restricting its playability across diverse deck strategies.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: When considering efficiency, Lethe Lake’s mana cost is on the higher end for its provided benefits. There are alternative cards within the MTG universe that enable players to draw cards or manipulate the battlefield at a lesser mana investment, potentially overshadowing Lethe Lake’s inclusion in a deck.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Lethe Lake offers flexibility to players by providing both a land option and a spell ability. This can help ensure you have the resources you need, whether that’s mana or the strategic advantage of setting your opponent back by removing cards from their graveyard.
Combo Potential: This card can seamlessly integrate into graveyard-centric decks, enhancing strategies that rely on inhibiting opponent graveyard abilities. Its potential to disrupt opponents’ game plans adds depth to your strategy and can often tip the scales in your favor. Moreover, it’s a useful tool for decks that capitalize on the opponent having few solutions.
Meta-Relevance: In environments where graveyard manipulation is key, such as reanimator or flashback strategies, Lethe Lake holds value as a versatile counter. It’s also worth noting in formats where land choices are critical, having the dual utility of land and spell makes it a particularly useful asset in various competitive scenes.
How to beat Lethe Lake
As a player seeking mastery in Magic: The Gathering, encountering Lethe Lake on the battlefield can present a unique challenge. This intriguing card has the capacity to alter the flow of the game by allowing players to manipulate their opponent’s draws, potentially disrupting their strategy. The key to overcoming this card lies in minimizing its impact on your gameplay while maximizing your board presence.
One effective method to beat Lethe Lake is incorporating cards that allow you to draw additional cards or scry, ensuring that the top card of your library is one you can afford to lose. Also, employing graveyard retrieval mechanics can help negate the card’s milling effect, allowing you to reclaim what has been discarded. Moreover, applying pressure through aggressive plays can force your opponent to choose between utilizing Lethe Lake or defending against your threats. Bear in mind, maintaining a diverse range of strategies within your deck to address various scenarios can often secure your path to victory.
Ultimately, staying ahead requires adapting one’s tactics and responding actively to the dynamic environment of the game. Recognizing the power of Lethe Lake and implementing a direct counter-strategy will transform this potential obstacle into a manageable aspect of your broader game plan.
Cards like Lethe Lake
Lethe Lake enters the vibrant scene of land cards in Magic: The Gathering with a distinctive twist. Its nearest equivalent could be Evolving Wilds, as both allow a player to search their library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Yet, Lethe Lake diverges by exiling a card from an opponent’s graveyard, giving a subtle nod to tactics involving graveyard manipulation.
Bojuka Bog is another land with a graveyard interaction. It exiles all cards from a target player’s graveyard upon entering the battlefield. While Bojuka Bog has a broader effect, it doesn’t offer the land search ability of Lethe Lake, illustrating a trade-off between the two. Tormod’s Crypt, though not a land, plays in a similar graveyard-hate theme, offering instant-speed grave-emptying without the land utility, showcasing the spectrum of graveyard strategies available.
Through these comparisons, Lethe Lake demonstrates its niche versatility. It’s an optimal choice for deck builders seeking mild graveyard disruption coupled with mana fixing, a rare find among MTG’s vast array of cards. This synergy of utility and control is what makes Lethe Lake a noteworthy commodity for players who enjoy strategic depth in their land base.
Cards similar to Lethe Lake by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Lethe Lake MTG card by a specific set like Planechase Planes and Planechase Anthology Planes, 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 Lethe Lake and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Lethe Lake Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2009-09-04 and 2018-12-25. Illustrated by Chris J. Anderson.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2009-09-04 | Planechase Planes | OHOP | 21 | 2003 | Planar | Black | Chris J. Anderson | |
| 2 | 2018-12-25 | Planechase Anthology Planes | OPCA | 47 | 2015 | Planar | Black | Chris J. Anderson |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Lethe Lake card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2009-10-01 | A face-up plane card that’s turned face down becomes a new object with no relation to its previous existence. In particular, it loses all counters it may have had. |
| 2009-10-01 | A plane card is treated as if its text box included “When you roll {PW}, put this card on the bottom of its owner’s planar deck face down, then move the top card of your planar deck off that planar deck and turn it face up.” This is called the “planeswalking ability.” |
| 2009-10-01 | If an ability of a plane refers to “you,” it’s referring to whoever the plane’s controller is at the time, not to the player that started the game with that plane card in their deck. Many abilities of plane cards affect all players, while many others affect only the planar controller, so read each ability carefully. |
| 2009-10-01 | If you don’t have ten cards in your library, you’ll put all the cards in your library into your graveyard. The same is true if the targeted player doesn’t have ten cards in their library. |
| 2009-10-01 | The controller of a face-up plane card is the player designated as the “planar controller.” Normally, the planar controller is whoever the active player is. However, if the current planar controller would leave the game, instead the next player in turn order that wouldn’t leave the game becomes the planar controller, then the old planar controller leaves the game. The new planar controller retains that designation until they leave the game or a different player becomes the active player, whichever comes first. |
