Salvage Drone MTG Card

Salvage Drone’s ingest ability offers a form of opponent deck disruption when it deals combat damage. Its death-trigger ability to draw and discard helps players refine their hand and fuel strategies. Despite its advantages, the need to discard upon activation can sometimes be a strategic disadvantage.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Eldrazi Drone
Abilities	Devoid,Ingest
Released	2015-10-02
Set symbol
Set name	Battle for Zendikar
Set code	BFZ
Power	1
Toughness	1
Number	65
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Slawomir Maniak

Text of card

Devoid (This card has no color.) Ingest (Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of his or her library.) When Salvage Drone dies, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.

Cards like Salvage Drone

Salvage Drone offers a unique twist within the array of blue creatures in Magic: The Gathering. Its comparison might start with creatures like Hedron Crab, also capable of interacting with the graveyard by milling cards. However, the Salvage Drone steps up with its ingest ability, potentially exiling a card from an opponent’s library upon dealing combat damage.

Mist Intruder cuts a close parallel, sharing the ingest ability and flying, but lacks Salvage Drone’s added death-triggered card advantage. In the event of demise, the Salvage Drone offers a draw and discard event, enabling strategical hand sculpting. This contrasts with other creatures such as Blisterpod that provides ramp through the creation of a mana token upon death.

Assessing the subtle nuances and utilities these creatures offer, the Salvage Drone positions itself as a strategic component in decks that capitalize on both graveyard interactions and hand management. It’s these dual functionalities that make it stand out and offer deck-builders an intriguing tool in their MTG arsenal.

Cards similar to Salvage Drone by color, type and mana cost

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Salvage Drone comes with an ingest ability, which exiles the top card of an opponent’s library when it deals combat damage to a player, subtly disrupting their game plan. Upon death, its unique ability lets you draw then discard a card, potentially sifting through your deck for better options and maintaining card flow.

Resource Acceleration: Although Salvage Drone doesn’t directly accelerate resources in terms of mana, it aids in filtering your draws when it leaves the battlefield. This selective process can indirectly accelerate your resource availability by ensuring you draw into more impactful cards faster.

Instant Speed: While Salvage Drone itself isn’t an instant, its low casting cost and the aftermath of its death-triggered ability can create openings for instant speed interactions with other cards in your deck. This allows you to keep mana open for other spells and leverage the draw/discard to your advantage at strategic moments.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: When Salvage Drone leaves the battlefield, its ability necessitates discarding a card to achieve the draw. This can backfire if your hand is already sparse or the discarded card is of more strategic value than the potential new draw.

Specific Mana Cost: Being a blue creature, Salvage Drone has a color-specific mana requirement, which could be less than ideal for decks that are not optimized to consistently produce blue mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although costing only one blue mana, its ability is contingent on its exit from the playfield. In situations where resources are tight, other creatures or spells might offer more immediate or impactful board presence or card advantages without such a cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Salvage Drone is a flexible inclusion in decks that leverage graveyard strategies or require early game defense. As an Eldrazi Drone with Ingest, it can subtly disrupt your opponent’s library, which can be a linchpin in a more extensive process of exiling key cards.

Combo Potential: Upon death, Salvage Drone permits you to draw a card and then discard a card, which can be tactically significant. This looting effect can help sculpt your hand and feed synergistic strategies, such as reanimation or delve techniques.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where small creatures are prevalent, the Drone’s ability to trade with opposing threats and still provide card selection can be a crucial advantage, ensuring you maintain card parity or quality while disrupting your opponent’s plays.

How to beat

Understanding the mechanics behind Salvage Drone is key when looking to counter this card in MTG. As an Eldrazi Drone with ingest and a death trigger that allows the owner to draw a card, Salvage Drone can subtly shift the tide of the game. The key to beating this card lies in minimizing its ingest ability’s impact and negating the card advantage it provides upon death.

One strategy is to employ removal spells that exile rather than destroy, bypassing its death trigger. You might consider options like Path to Exile or Silent Gravestone to curb graveyard strategies that capitalize on Salvage Drone’s leave-the-battlefield effect. Moreover, prioritize controlling the combat phase; blocking Salvage Drone carefully to avoid unnecessary trades or employing flying creatures can keep it from connecting and triggering ingest.

In essence, mitigating Salvage Drone’s advantages through strategic removal and combat decisions is crucial. Employing the right measures at the right time not only neutralizes Salvage Drone’s influence but also helps maintain your hold on the game.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Salvage Drone MTG card by a specific set like Battle for Zendikar, 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 Salvage Drone and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Salvage Drone has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2015-08-25	A card with devoid is just colorless. It’s not colorless and the colors of mana in its mana cost.
2015-08-25	Cards with devoid use frames that are variations of the transparent frame traditionally used for Eldrazi. The top part of the card features some color over a background based on the texture of the hedrons that once imprisoned the Eldrazi. This coloration is intended to aid deckbuilding and game play.
2015-08-25	Devoid works in all zones, not just on the battlefield.
2015-08-25	If a card loses devoid, it will still be colorless. This is because effects that change an object’s color (like the one created by devoid) are considered before the object loses devoid.
2015-08-25	If the player has no cards in their library when the ingest ability resolves, nothing happens. That player won’t lose the game (until they have to draw a card from an empty library).
2015-08-25	Other cards and abilities can give a card with devoid color. If that happens, it’s just the new color, not that color and colorless.
2015-08-25	The card exiled by the ingest ability is exiled face up.