Roil Elemental MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Roil Elemental excels in creating card advantage by taking control of your opponents’ creatures each time you landfall. This mechanism can quickly shift the balance of power on the board in your favor, as you not only amass a multitude of creatures but also deprive your opponent of their assets.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly acting as a resource acceleration tool, the Roil Elemental can indirectly aid in acceleration. Gaining control of your opponents’ creatures can save the resources you would have allocated for casting your own. This ability lets you use your mana for further development of your board or countering threats, effectively accelerating your game plan.

Instant Speed: Roil Elemental itself might not be an instant, but it synergizes well with instant-speed land cards or effects that can trigger landfall on your opponent’s turn. This interaction allows you to surprise an opponent by seizing their creatures during their own turn, disrupting their strategy and forcing them to adapt to a changing board state unexpectedly.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Roil Elemental’s landfall ability is powerful, it mandates a certain board state to be fully effective. If you fall behind on having lands in hand to play, or the lands on your battlefield are removed or disrupted, the Elemental’s capacity to control the board is significantly hindered.

Specific Mana Cost: Roil Elemental demands a dedicated mana base with a heavy blue influence. Requirement of three blue mana in its cost can be restrictive, particularly in multicolored decks or in formats where mana fixing is less accessible. This can make it less flexible compared to cards with more forgiving mana requirements.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Weighing in at six mana, Roil Elemental is quite the investment in the early to mid-game. By the time you have enough mana to summon this creature, other players might have already developed a formidable presence on the board, or might be holding removal spells to quickly deal with high-threat cards like Roil Elemental. This makes the Elemental somewhat of a gamble, as your investment may not always pay off if it is swiftly mitigated by your opponent.

Reasons to Include Roil Elemental in Your Collection

Versatility: Roil Elemental is a flexible pick for blue-based control or tempo decks. Its ability to gain control of your opponent’s creatures upon landfall allows for dynamic play, adjusting easily to various in-game situations. This makes it a valuable asset in decks that manipulate the top of the deck or utilize ramp strategies to trigger multiple land drops.

Combo Potential: In combinations with cards that enable multiple land plays, such as ‘Exploration’ or ‘Azusa, Lost but Seeking’, Roil Elemental’s control-stealing ability can be capitalized on. This synergy not only disrupts your opponent’s board but also strengthens your side, setting up potential winning conditions.

Meta-Relevance: As the game landscape routinely welcomes new sets, landfall mechanics remain a consistent feature, ensuring Roil Elemental’s relevance. Its power to turn the tides by leveraging opposing threats makes it a worthy consideration in an environment where creature-based strategies are prevalent.

How to beat Roil Elemental

Roil Elemental, with its ability to gain control of your creatures, can be a formidable presence in any Magic: The Gathering match. To effectively counter it, removal spells are your best defense. Direct removal options, such as Path to Exile or Doom Blade, can swiftly deal with this threat, bypassing its control-changing effect. Additionally, countering it upon casting with spells like Cancel or Disallow can prevent it from hitting the battlefield entirely.

Another tactic involves utilizing sacrifice effects to your advantage. Forcing the Roil Elemental controller to sacrifice it through cards like Diabolic Edict can circumvent protective measures they might have in place. Red players might reach for damage-based solutions, employing burn spells such as Lightning Bolt or similar effects that can take out the Roil Elemental quickly before it takes over the game. Thus, maintaining a strategy that includes preemptive control or swift removal will help ensure that this powerful creature doesn’t disrupt your play.

Remaining vigilant and prepared to disrupt the opponent’s mana base can also inhibit their ability to activate Roil Elemental’s ability. Land destruction or counters preventing landfall triggers can severely hamper the effectiveness of Roil Elemental, keeping your creatures safe and maintaining your board presence.

BurnMana Recommendations

Mastery of the MTG battlefield hinges on deck synergy and strategic insight. Roil Elemental, with its potential for board control through landfall triggers, is an asset for blue-focused strategies demanding thoughtful play. If you’re captivated by the prospect of harnessing your opponents’ creatures and leveraging the land you play, evolving your collection to include Roil Elemental could be your next smart move. Compliment it with cards that facilitate land drops and prepare for disruption to maximize its impact. Discover more deck-building tips and ways to optimize your game plan with us. Your journey toward dominance in Magic the Gathering starts here. Join the adventure.