Ancient Ziggurat MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
RarityUncommon
TypeLand

Key Takeaways

  1. Enhances board presence by facilitating the casting of multicolored creatures efficiently.
  2. Offers mana flexibility, but its use is confined to casting creature spells only.
  3. Key card for decks with diverse creature spells, despite activation ability constraints.

Text of card

: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to play creature spells.

Built in honor of Alara's creatures, the ziggurat vanished long ago. When Progenitus awakened, the temple emerged again.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Ancient Ziggurat doesn’t allow for direct card drawing, it aids in casting multicolored creatures more efficiently. This can lead to improved board presence, indirectly contributing to card advantage over opponents who may struggle with mana fixing.

Resource Acceleration: Ancient Ziggurat provides a significant boost in resource acceleration by tapping for any color of mana. This is particularly beneficial in multicolored creature-heavy decks, ensuring a smoother and potentially faster deployment of threats to the battlefield.

Instant Speed: Although not an instant, the ability of Ancient Ziggurat to tap for mana of any color at any time adds a layer of unpredictability and flexibility. Players are able to cast creatures of any color combination at a moment’s notice, keeping opponents on their toes and allowing for reactionary plays during the course of the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Ancient Ziggurat provides a wide range of mana options for creature spells, it has a notable limitation. It cannot be used to cast noncreature spells, which could lead to critical strategy disruptions, especially if your hand is filled with key instants or sorceries that need casting.

Specific Mana Cost: Restricted solely to the casting of creature spells, the mana provided by Ancient Ziggurat cannot be utilized for activating abilities. This poses a constraint in decks that leverage activated abilities of creatures or other permanents as a focal point of their gameplay.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Even though there is no initial mana cost to play Ancient Ziggurat, its inability to contribute to the overall mana pool for anything other than creature spells could represent a higher opportunity cost when comparing deck space with other versatile land options that can be tapped for any purpose.


Reasons to Include Ancient Ziggurat in Your Collection

Versatility: Ancient Ziggurat is a nonbasic land that seamlessly slots into any deck running a high number of creatures. Its ability to generate mana of any color for creature spells makes it a highly adaptable card, ensuring your key creatures hit the board without mana hiccups.

Combo Potential: Decks that utilize a diverse cast of creature spells benefit greatly from Ancient Ziggurat. It can be the lynchpin in creature-based combo decks, or it can enable the casting of creatures with intensive and varied mana requirements, thus enhancing your overall strategy.

Meta-Relevance: With the ever-shifting landscape of competitive play, Ancient Ziggurat remains relevant. It supports decks that aim to curve out with creatures every turn, making it a staple in tribal decks and other creature-heavy archetypes that are consistently popular in the meta.


How to beat Ancient Ziggurat

Ancient Ziggurat can be a strategic powerhouse for creature-heavy decks in Magic: The Gathering. It provides mana generation specifically for casting creatures, making it a pivotal support for multicolor tribes such as Slivers or Elementals. Players aiming to prevent opponents from capitalizing on its advantage should focus on land disruption strategies. Cards like Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin can target and destroy Ancient Ziggurat, potentially stunting your opponent’s mana curve and slowing down their creature deployment. Additionally, cards such as Blood Moon can render Ancient Ziggurat ineffective by transforming it into a basic Mountain, thereby limiting its utility. By incorporating these counterspells and land destruction cards into your deck, you can mitigate Ancient Ziggurat’s impact and preserve control over the game’s tempo.


Cards like Ancient Ziggurat

Ancient Ziggurat stands out as a nonbasic land in Magic: The Gathering, with a special orientation towards creature-heavy decks. It gets often compared to cards like Exotic Orchard, which also provides multi-color mana without any cost other than tapping, but is dependent on the types of lands opponents control. Both prioritize mana fixing but in different gameplay scenarios.

Cavern of Souls is another land card that comes to mind, as it allows players to tap for colorless mana or a chosen color, useful when casting a creature. The substantial advantage of Cavern of Souls is its added ability to make creatures of the chosen type uncounterable, a valuable asset against control decks. In contrast, Ancient Ziggurat’s restriction to spending mana only on creature spells limits its versatility but still remains a cornerstone in multi-colored creature decks.

Concluding, when examining lands that assist with multi-colored strategies, Ancient Ziggurat has a niche role, especially in decks that are loaded with a variety of creature spells. While other similar cards provide broader utilities, Ancient Ziggurat streamlines mana specifically for creature casting, an advantage in the right deck archetype.

Exotic Orchard - MTG Card versions
Cavern of Souls - MTG Card versions
Exotic Orchard - Conflux (CON)
Cavern of Souls - Avacyn Restored (AVR)

Cards similar to Ancient Ziggurat by color, type and mana cost

Cathedral of Serra - MTG Card versions
Mishra's Factory - MTG Card versions
Bad River - MTG Card versions
Griffin Canyon - MTG Card versions
Ice Floe - MTG Card versions
Ghost Town - MTG Card versions
Urza's Mine - MTG Card versions
Hall of Tagsin - MTG Card versions
City of Brass - MTG Card versions
Bloodstained Mire - MTG Card versions
Zoetic Cavern - MTG Card versions
Grixis Panorama - MTG Card versions
Rupture Spire - MTG Card versions
Terramorphic Expanse - MTG Card versions
Tectonic Edge - MTG Card versions
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - MTG Card versions
Buried Ruin - MTG Card versions
Wasteland - MTG Card versions
Eldrazi Temple - MTG Card versions
Maze of Ith - MTG Card versions
Cathedral of Serra - Legends (LEG)
Mishra's Factory - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Bad River - Mirage (MIR)
Griffin Canyon - Visions (VIS)
Ice Floe - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Ghost Town - Tempest (TMP)
Urza's Mine - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Hall of Tagsin - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
City of Brass - World Championship Decks 2002 (WC02)
Bloodstained Mire - World Championship Decks 2003 (WC03)
Zoetic Cavern - Future Sight (FUT)
Grixis Panorama - Commander 2013 (C13)
Rupture Spire - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Terramorphic Expanse - Commander 2018 (C18)
Tectonic Edge - Zendikar Expeditions (EXP)
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx - Theros (THS)
Buried Ruin - Commander 2014 (C14)
Wasteland - Zendikar Rising Expeditions (ZNE)
Eldrazi Temple - Duel Decks: Zendikar vs. Eldrazi (DDP)
Maze of Ith - Eternal Masters (EMA)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ancient Ziggurat MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Conflux, 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 Ancient Ziggurat and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Ancient Ziggurat Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 2009-02-06 and 2019-11-07. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 435622003normalblackRandy Gallegos
22009-02-06ConfluxCON 1412003normalblackJohn Avon
32009-11-20Premium Deck Series: SliversH09 312003normalblackJohn Avon
42019-11-07Mystery BoosterMB1 16532003normalblackJohn Avon
52020-09-26The ListPLST CON-1412003normalblackJohn Avon

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ancient Ziggurat has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
GladiatorLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2009-02-01 Mana produced by Ancient Ziggurat can be spent on any part of a creature spell’s total cost. This includes additional costs (such as kicker) and alternative costs (such as evoke or Worldheart Phoenix’s alternative cost).
2009-02-01 Mana produced by Ancient Ziggurat can’t be spent on activated abilities that put a creature card directly onto the battlefield, such as unearth or ninjutsu.

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