Proven Combatant MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Proven Combatant offers strategic depth in deckbuilding, particularly in formats that leverage graveyard mechanics. When it dies, it can embalm itself and re-enter the battlefield as a token, essentially countering its initial removal and providing you with an additional creature.

Resource Acceleration: While this card doesn’t directly produce mana or treasure, it indirectly accelerates your resources by offering two creatures for the cost of one card. This means more fodder for sacrifice mechanics, chump blocking, or synergistic interactions with other cards that benefit from the number of creatures you control or death triggers.

Instant Speed: The real strength of Proven Combatant lies in its flexibility. The embalm ability can be activated at instant speed, allowing players to wait until the end of their opponent’s turn to bring back the creature, effectively utilizing their mana and maintaining the element of surprise.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Proven Combatant is its condition for achieving eternalize. This ability demands that you discard the card, which can severely deplete your hand, leaving you at a disadvantage, especially if you are already short on cards.

Specific Mana Cost: Proven Combatant’s casting cost requires one blue mana. This can be restrictive since it necessitates the inclusion of blue mana sources in your deck to play it efficiently, potentially limiting the card’s versatility across different deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an eternalize cost of six mana, Proven Combatant’s reanimation ability is quite expensive. Considering that there are other creatures and reanimation options available at a lower cost, the mana investment to bring this creature back could be seen as inefficient for competitive play.

Reasons to Include Proven Combatant in Your Collection

Versatility: Proven Combatant offers flexibility in deck construction and can serve multiple roles. Early on, it’s a cost-effective creature that can be a reliable blocker or an early aggressor. Later in the game, it becomes a larger threat with its eternalize ability, fitting well into decks that leverage graveyard strategies.

Combo Potential: Its ability to come back from the graveyard with eternalize can synergize with other cards that care about the number of creatures you have or those that benefit from creature death and reanimation, potentially enabling powerful combos and interactions.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta that favors graveyard interaction or decks that require consistent board presence, Proven Combatant can be an essential piece. Its eternalize ensures that it remains relevant even in the longer, grindy matches often seen in such environments.

How to beat

Proven Combatant is an intriguing creature in the realm of MTG, offering players a unique advantage when it hits the graveyard. Facing this card across the battlefield might seem daunting at first, as it comes with the potential to return as a 4/4 creature. However, it’s not without its vulnerabilities. One effective strategy to overcoming Proven Combatant is to employ graveyard disruption tools. By using cards that exile creatures from the graveyard, you can prevent your opponent from utilizing the creature’s Eternalize ability and thus block its return to the battlefield.

Cards such as Tormod’s Crypt can be instrumental against Proven Combatant by eliminating it from the game entirely before the opportunity to Eternalize arises. Alternatively, control strategies that focus on persistent board wipes can keep the battlefield clear, ensuring that Proven Combatant is dealt with promptly upon its first appearance. Another tactic is to employ counterspells when the opponent attempts to Eternalize, stopping the process before it starts. Overall, while Proven Combatant can be a nuisance, a well-planned response can neutralize its threat efficiently.