Prowling Nightstalker MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Prowling Nightstalker can be a subtle yet effective way to exert pressure on your opponent. By requiring an opponent to control an untapped creature to block it, you limit their options and can potentially cause them to fall behind in board presence, adding to your strategic advantage.

Resource Acceleration: While Prowling Nightstalker itself doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, it can be a complement to decks that thrive on having unblocked creatures. Pairing it with cards that grant benefits when you deal combat damage to a player can lead to an accumulation of resources, indirectly contributing to your resource acceleration strategy.

Instant Speed: Although Prowling Nightstalker operates at sorcery speed, it pairs well with instant-speed spells and abilities. Its inherent evasion encourages opponents to leave creatures untapped, making them less likely to commit all their resources during their own turn. This leaves them vulnerable to your instant-speed interactions and can tip the gameplay in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Involves discarding a card as part of its playing cost, which can backfire if you’re already facing hand depletion.

Specific Mana Cost: Demands black mana, thus tying your deck’s strategy and potentially affecting its versatility in multi-colored formats.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a relatively steep cost for its abilities, Prowling Nightstalker might not always provide the optimal efficiency for its casting price.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Prowling Nightstalker offers a solid creature presence for any deck focusing on evasion tactics. Its ability to be unblockable by white creatures means it slips past many common defensive setups with ease.

Combo Potential: This card works well in synergizing with effects that benefit from dealing combat damage to a player. In a black-centric deck, it can effectively carry equipment or auras designed to capitalize on its stealthy nature.

Meta-Relevance: In games where white decks are prevalent, Prowling Nightstalker can serve as a consistent threat. Its relevance in the meta can fluctuate, but having access to a creature that can bypass certain defenses is a tactical advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked.

How to beat

Prowling Nightstalker is a creature that brings an element of surprise and evasion to the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. Its key feature lies in its ability to be unblockable as long as it’s attacking alone, which can catch an unprepared opponent off guard and steadily chip away their life total. To address this stealthy menace, the ideal strategy pivots on removal spells. Since it can easily slip past creatures, direct removal options such as Fatal Push, Path to Exile, or even a simple Shock can effectively deal with it before the Nightstalker deals any substantial damage.

Control decks often possess a suite of such answers, hence they’re well-equipped to neutralize the Nightstalker’s threat. Additionally, players can utilize board wipes like Wrath of God or Damnation to clear the field, including the elusive Nightstalker, without the need for targeting. Another tactic involves adjusting your playstyle by setting up a robust defense that doesn’t rely on blocking. Artifacts and enchantments that hamper creature abilities or deal damage to creatures as they attack can also stay one step ahead of this prowling adversary. By considering the range of responses within your deck, Prowling Nightstalker poses less of a problem and becomes another creature in the long list of conquerable challenges within the game.