Molting Skin MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Enchantment
Released	2005-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Saviors of Kamigawa
Set code	SOK
Number	138
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Jeremy Jarvis

Key Takeaways

Molting Skin allows drawing cards, offering a clear card advantage and potentially swaying the match in your favor.
Enables mana acceleration, transforming creature survival into potent offensive capabilities for dynamic gameplay.
Instant speed casting ensures strategic flexibility and the ability to counteract opponents’ moves effectively.

Text of card

Return Molting Skin to its owner's hand: Regenerate target creature.

"We have learned much from the orochi."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Molting Skin offers a significant boost in hand resources as it allows you to replenish your grip by drawing cards every time the enchanted creature sheds its skin, namely, when you fold the card. This can easily tilt the scales in your favor during prolonged matches.

Resource Acceleration: By leveraging the repeated cycling of Molting Skin, you can efficiently convert your creatures’ survival maneuvers into a treasure trove of mana. This acceleration empowers you to deploy more spells each turn or summon larger creatures far ahead of the usual curve. It’s a strategy that transforms resilience into a dynamic offense.

Instant Speed: The instant-speed nature of Molting Skin provides the flexibility to respond swiftly to threats or opportunities. With the freedom to cast it whenever it suits your strategy, you can effectively navigate around your opponent’s actions and maintain a pacing that’s advantageous to you, transforming reactive plays into a springboard for your own offensive maneuvers.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Molting Skin is its discard condition. This card demands you to put another card from your hand into the graveyard, which could be a serious setback when you’re struggling with card availability, potentially depriving you of critical plays.

Specific Mana Cost: Molting Skin’s mana cost is not only specific, but also somewhat restrictive. The card requires a particular combination of mana to cast, which can be challenging to come up with in a deck that isn’t heavily focused on its color identity, potentially hampering its versatility in multicolored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When assessing its overall cost-effectiveness, Molting Skin’s mana requirements are on the higher side. There are alternative cards available that may provide similar or better effects for less mana, making it less appealing to cost-conscious deck builders aiming for high efficiency.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Molting Skin provides an essential enchantment that can be easily integrated into a multitude of deck styles. It shines in strategies keen on protecting valuable creatures or those that harness the power of aura synergies.

Combo Potential: This card offers a unique interaction with sacrifice and graveyard retrieval mechanics, enabling players to craft ingenious combinations that could catch opponents off guard or recover from their removals efficiently.

Meta-Relevance: Considering the ever-changing landscape of the game, Molting Skin can offer flexibility in decks facing removal-heavy opponents. Its ability to return to its owner’s hand ensures that your creatures will often have the protection they need to survive in a diverse and competitive environment.

How to beat

Molting Skin enters the field of Magic: The Gathering as a unique enchantment, providing creatures a reliable form of protection against targeted spells or abilities. It attaches to a creature, gifting it the advantage that if it becomes the target of a spell or ability, the enchantment is returned to the owner’s hand. This ability is an intriguing take on defense, essentially allowing players to evade potentially harmful targeted interactions from their opponents.

Consequently, overcoming a creature enhanced by Molting Skin requires a calculated approach. The key is to employ spells that don’t target, such as board wipes or global effects, bypassing Molting Skin’s protective measure altogether. Board-clearing spells like Wrath of God or Damnation become pivotal, removing all creatures without the need to target individual threats. Additionally, utilizing counterspells on the Molting Skin itself as it is cast can prevent the protective cycle from beginning.

In short, strategizing around non-targeted removal or countering Molting Skin during the casting phase remains the most effective tactics. Adapting your strategy to include these elements will enable you to handle the resilience granted by Molting Skin, maintaining the upper hand in your MTG matches.

Cards like Molting Skin

Molting Skin joins the ranks of enchantment auras in Magic: The Gathering that enhance creature abilities. It draws close parallels with cards like Spider Umbra, which also offers the practical Totem Armor ability, although Spider Umbra provides an additional boost with a +1/+1 effect. Despite this, Molting Skin has a unique edge with its return to hand ability when cast, allowing it to be played multiple times.

Comparatively, we can look at something like Alpha Authority. This aura grants a creature Hexproof and can’t be blocked by more than one creature, yet it lacks the resilience offered by Molting Skin’s return mechanism. Lastly, Rancor brings a significant power-up with its +2/+0 and trample bonuses, along with a similar return to hand ability upon hitting the graveyard, though it doesn’t directly protect the creature like Molting Skin.

In evaluating these options, Molting Skin provides MTG players with a strategic choice for creature protection while offering potential for reuse, making it a solid choice for decks that capitalize on enchantment synergies or those seeking to repeatedly safeguard key creatures.

Cards similar to Molting Skin by color, type and mana cost

The Dragon-Kami Reborn // Dragon-Kami's Egg - MTG Card versions

Rites of Flourishing - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Molting Skin MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, 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 Molting Skin and other MTG cards: