Rathi Trapper MTG Card

Rathi Trapper offers control, dictating combat flow and preserving your board to indirectly gain card advantage. With a low casting cost, this card accelerates your game plan, allowing for faster defensive or offensive setups. Its instant-speed ability disrupts opponents, tilting combat phases and offering unexpected strategic benefits.
Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeCreature — Human Rebel Rogue
Power 1
Toughness 2

Text of card

, : Tap target creature.

Tangling vines, fetid murk, paralyzing poisons, and crawling dead. The swamp is nature's trap waiting to be exploited by unnatural minds.

Cards like Rathi Trapper

Rathi Trapper stands as a nuanced choice in the roster of control cards within Magic: The Gathering. Shadowmoor’s Lawmage’s Binding could be a contemporary peer, offering a different flavor of restriction by preventing an activated ability of a target creature and rendering it unable to attack or block. Rathi Trapper’s edge is in its allowance for selective control, granted by its tap ability, without permanently committing to a single creature.

Expanding the comparison, Blinding Beam casts light on yet another method of control, freezing not one but potentially two creatures and denying them the opportunity to untap during their controller’s next untap step. Though it lacks the repeatability of Rathi Trapper, it compensates with a broader immediate impact. Tapping down creatures is also the domain of Gideon’s Lawkeeper. This spell operates similarly to Rathi Trapper, demanding a single mana to tap a creature, yet diverges with its white mana requirement as opposed to the black mana used by the Trapper.

Assessing these related cards, Rathi Trapper’s recurring and mana-efficient control is proficient at stalling key threats on the board, situating it as a tactical staple in many MTG deck archetypes that favour incremental advantage.

Lawmage's Binding - MTG Card versions
Blinding Beam - MTG Card versions
Gideon's Lawkeeper - MTG Card versions
Lawmage's Binding - MTG Card versions
Blinding Beam - MTG Card versions
Gideon's Lawkeeper - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Rathi Trapper’s ability to lock down opponents’ creatures gives you a tactical edge, allowing you to dictate the flow of combat and maintain board control. While it doesn’t directly draw cards, it effectively removes an attacker or blocker from consideration, which can indirectly lead to card advantage by preserving your creatures or forcing unfavorable trades for your opponent.

Resource Acceleration: While it doesn’t generate mana or treasure tokens, Rathi Trapper’s low mana cost of one black and one generic mana means it can hit the board early, setting up your defenses or preparing an assault without requiring a heavy investment. This allows you to allocate resources to other spells sooner, accelerating your game plan.

Instant Speed: Rathi Trapper’s ability can be used at instant speed, offering you the flexibility to respond to your opponent’s actions during their turn. This can be particularly disruptive during the combat phase, as you can tap an attacking or blocking creature unexpectedly, skewing the battle in your favor without warning.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Rathi Trapper card doesn’t necessarily require you to discard cards, so there’s no card disadvantage associated with playing it. However, players should be aware that there’s no direct card draw or discard feature that could potentially cycle through the deck or fill the graveyard for strategies that might rely on this.

Specific Mana Cost: While Rathi Trapper’s mana cost is not overly specific, it does require one black mana. This can slightly limit its inclusion to decks that run black mana or have a mana base that can support black mana sources effectively.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of two mana, one of which is black, Rathi Trapper’s cost isn’t excessively high. However, for its ability to tap an opponent’s creature, there may be times when this mana investment is seen as steep, especially when compared to other low-cost creatures or spells that can remove or tap multiple creatures for a similar or lower mana cost.

Reasons to Include Rathi Trapper in Your Collection

Versatility: Rathi Trapper serves a versatile role by providing consistent control over opposing creatures. It can be incorporated into a variety of black-based decks that need to stall or manage potential threats on the battlefield.

Combo Potential: As a piece that can repeatedly tap creatures, it pairs well with cards that capitalize on tapping mechanics or generate benefits each time a creature becomes tapped or untapped.

Meta-Relevance: Given a meta with creature-heavy decks, Rathi Trapper’s ability to neutralize key creatures can be incredibly impactful, shaping the flow of the game in your favor by limiting opponents’ options.

How to beat

Rathi Trapper stands as a tactical piece on the battlefield, offering a strategic edge by tapping down formidable creatures. In Magic: The Gathering, this disables opponents from charging with their most threatening forces, and can even interrupt synergies reliant on tapping. To outmaneuver this, focus on removal spells that can target and eliminate creatures irrespective of their state. Consider options like Fatal Push or Path to Exile, which can efficiently deal with the Trapper before it becomes an impediment.

Alternatively, look to spells that grant your creatures hexproof or shroud, such as Blossoming Defense or Lightning Greaves, as these will prevent the Trapper’s ability from targeting them. For a broader approach, board-clearing spells like Wrath of God can reset the field and sweep away the Trapper along with other potential roadblocks. Keep an eye on the mana your opponent leaves untapped—anticipating when they might utilize the Trapper’s ability can guide your decision-making, letting you play around this control-piece and maintain the upper hand in your matches.

Ultimately, by deploying the right countermeasures at the optimum moment, you can render the Rathi Trapper’s effect inconsequential and flatten the pathway to your victory.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Rathi Trapper MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Modern Masters, 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 Rathi Trapper and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Rathi Trapper Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Pete Venters.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12007-02-02Planar ChaosPLC 902003NormalBlackPete Venters
22013-06-07Modern MastersMMA 942003NormalBlackPete Venters
32021-03-19Time Spiral RemasteredTSR 1332015NormalBlackPete Venters

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Rathi Trapper has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal