Exotic Disease MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Sorcery
Abilities	Domain
Released	2001-02-05
Set symbol
Set name	Planeshift
Set code	PLS
Number	43
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Kev Walker

Key Takeaways

Exotic Disease provides card advantage and can disrupt opponents with its -X/-X effect and resource impact.
Instant speed play and versatility make it valuable, but specific mana requirements can limit its usage.
Despite a higher mana cost and discard requirement, it remains a powerful tool for board control.

Text of card

Target player loses X life and you gain X life, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control.

"Do not fear death. I shall release you from the eternal bonds and bring you glory." —Lord Dralnu

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Exotic Disease excels in providing card advantage by potentially removing an opponent’s threat while simultaneously allowing you to delve into your library, replacing the card with another from your deck. This effectively keeps your hand full while depleting the opponent’s resources.

Resource Acceleration: This card leverages the game’s tempo by setting back your opponent’s board development. By disrupting the opponent’s strategy, Exotic Disease indirectly accelerates your access to your own resources and puts you in a better position to dictate the flow of the game.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of Exotic Disease being an instant cannot be overstated. Having the ability to act during your opponent’s turn offers a significant strategic advantage. Whether it’s to surprise an attacker, disrupt a combo or simply to act based on your opponent’s latest move, instant speed plays a pivotal role in the utility of this card.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Exotic Disease often comes at the cost of letting go of a card from your hand. This discard requirement can put you at a disadvantage, especially when your hand is nearly depleted and each card’s value is at a premium.

Specific Mana Cost: To cast Exotic Disease, you need access to a particular combination of mana colors. For some players, meeting this specific mana requirement can be challenging, restricting the card’s playability to decks tailored around those colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana cost associated with Exotic Disease might be considered steep by some. When you factor in the potential for using those mana resources on alternative plays that could influence the board immediately, the card’s higher cost may be seen as a drawback in fast-paced games.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Exotic Disease offers flexibility in black color decks, capable of disrupting various opponent strategies. This card can remove key creatures from the board, irrespective of their size, due to its -X/-X effect.

Combo Potential: It pairs well with cards that manipulate counters or benefit from having creatures die, thus opening up avenues for intricate combo plays that can swing the game in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: Given that creature-heavy decks are prevalent, Exotic Disease can serve as a crucial inclusion to manage such threats effectively and maintain board control in competitive play.

How to beat

Exotic Disease is a unique card that can pose a real challenge to opponents when encountered in a game of Magic: The Gathering. This card is designed to weaken your opponent’s resources by inflicting incremental damage or imposing other detrimental effects on them over several turns. To effectively combat Exotic Disease, players need to adopt strategies that can quickly neutralize or circumvent its long-term consequences.

The key to overcoming the effects of Exotic Disease lies in the ability to manage or remove it from the game swiftly. Utilizing cards with counter spells can prevent Exotic Disease from hitting the battlefield in the first place. In case Exotic Disease does resolve, having enchantment removal or bounce spells in your deck will be crucial, as they will allow you to dispose of the card before it can deal too much damage. Moreover, incorporating life gain strategies can help offset the damage caused by Exotic Disease, ensuring your survival while you work towards a win condition.

Remember that flexibility and the inclusion of various interactive elements in your deck are your best bets in maintaining the upper hand against tricky cards like Exotic Disease. With the right strategies in place, you can keep your playfield clear of such adverse effects and continue to push for victory.

Cards like Exotic Disease

Exotic Disease rises as an intriguing spell in the realm of targeted removal in Magic: The Gathering. It shares thematic space with cards like Doom Blade, which is well-known for its straightforward approach to creature destruction. Yet Exotic Disease offers a complex twist – it includes detrimental aspects to your opponents’ resources. Contrastingly, Doom Blade is simply a fast answer to creature threats, without Exotic Disease’s broader impact on the opponent’s mana or hand.

Comparable to Exotic Disease, we find Cruel Edict, which forces opponents to sacrifice a creature. This maneuver can be particularly useful against indestructible threats that are otherwise immune to Exotic Disease’s removal. However, Exotic Disease brings the added dimension of impacting an opponent’s lands or cards in hand, which Cruel Edict cannot match. Then there’s the card Death Wind, allowing for scalable removal based on mana investment. While Death Wind offers precision and the potential for a massive scale, the card can’t replicate the resource disruption that makes Exotic Disease a multifaceted tool.

Consequently, in evaluating similar effects within the game, Exotic Disease is distinguished by its combined ability to deal with creatures and disrupt the opposing player’s resources, positioning it notably in the roster of MTG’s removal cards.

Cards similar to Exotic Disease by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Exotic Disease MTG card by a specific set like Planeshift, 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 Exotic Disease and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Exotic Disease has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2009-02-01	A number of nonbasic lands have basic land types. Domain abilities don’t count the number of lands you control — they count the number of basic land types among lands you control, even if that means checking the same land twice. For example, if you control a Tundra, an Overgrown Tomb, and a Madblind Mountain, you’ll have a Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest among the lands you control. Your domain abilities will be maxed out.
2009-02-01	How many lands you control of a particular basic land type is irrelevant to a domain ability, as long as that number is greater than zero. As far as domain is concerned, ten Forests is the same as one Forest.
2009-02-01	To determine the number of basic land types among lands you control, look at the lands you have on the battlefield and ask yourself whether the subtypes Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest appear within that group. The number of times you say yes (topping out at five) tells you how powerful your domain abilities will be.