Roil Elemental MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Elemental
Abilities Flying,Landfall
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Roil Elemental excels at generating card advantage by seizing opponents’ creatures with its landfall ability.
  2. Indirect resource acceleration can be achieved as it conserves mana for other gameplay aspects.
  3. Landfall triggers at instant speed offer surprise tactics, disrupting opponents’ strategies unexpectedly.

Text of card

Flying Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain control of target creature for as long as you control Roil Elemental.

A vortex that devours everything—even the souls of the living.


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.


Cards like Roil Elemental

Roil Elemental stands out amongst various creatures in Magic: The Gathering with the power to seize control over opposing creatures. Like the Roil Elemental, Sower of Temptation offers a similar control dynamic, enabling the takeover of an opponent’s creature upon its arrival on the battlefield. However, Roil Elemental’s ability is based on landfall, which activates every time a land enters under your control, whereas Sower of Temptation’s effect is a one-time deal upon casting.

Looking at another comparable card, Control Magic offers an enchantment-based approach to commandeer creatures, providing ongoing control without needing additional triggers. Unlike Roil Elemental, Control Magic doesn’t rely on land drops to maintain hold over the board, making it a more consistent but less explosive option. Then there’s Ray of Command, a card providing instant and temporary creature control. It enables surprise plays during combat but lacks the sustained board presence that Roil Elemental can provide through multiple landfall triggers.

Overall, while there are varied approaches to taking control of the opponent’s creatures in the game, Roil Elemental’s strength in repeatedly leveraging land plays for control makes it especially formidable in decks built to harness the landfall mechanic, thereby providing a unique advantage in the right build.

Sower of Temptation - MTG Card versions
Control Magic - MTG Card versions
Ray of Command - MTG Card versions
Sower of Temptation - Lorwyn (LRW)
Control Magic - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Ray of Command - Ice Age (ICE)

Cards similar to Roil Elemental by color, type and mana cost

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Arcanis the Omnipotent - MTG Card versions
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Frost Titan - MTG Card versions
Deadeye Navigator - MTG Card versions
Sea Serpent - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Sibilant Spirit - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Drifting Djinn - Urza's Saga (USG)
King Crab - Urza's Legacy (ULG)
Sea Monster - Tenth Edition (10E)
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu - Portal Three Kingdoms (PTK)
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Zanam Djinn - Invasion (INV)
Mahamoti Djinn - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Deepfathom Skulker - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Sakashima's Protege - Commander Legends (CMR)
Shoreline Ranger - Scourge (SCG)
Vedalken Dismisser - Modern Masters (MMA)
Novijen Sages - Dissension (DIS)
Storm Elemental - Coldsnap Theme Decks (CST)
Draining Whelk - Time Spiral (TSP)
Arcanis the Omnipotent - Commander 2017 (C17)
Quicksilver Dragon - Duel Decks: Jace vs. Chandra (DD2)
Frost Titan - Magic 2012 (M12)
Deadeye Navigator - Avacyn Restored (AVR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Roil Elemental MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar and Secret Lair Drop, 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 Roil Elemental and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Roil Elemental Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2009-10-02 and 2019-12-02. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12009-10-02ZendikarZEN 622003normalblackRaymond Swanland
22019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 1552015normalblackBastien Grivet

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Roil Elemental has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2009-10-01 If Roil Elemental ceases to be under your control before its ability resolves, you won’t gain control of the targeted creature at all.
2009-10-01 If Roil Elemental leaves the battlefield, you no longer control it, so all of its control-change effects end.
2009-10-01 The landfall ability triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability (such as Rampant Growth) causes you to put a land onto the battlefield under your control. It will even trigger when a spell or ability causes another player to put a land onto the battlefield under your control (as can happen with Yavimaya Dryad’s ability, for example).
2009-10-01 When a land enters the battlefield under your control, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one that resolves.
2009-10-01 You may target a creature you already control with Roil Elemental’s ability. This will usually have no visible effect, but it will overwrite any previous control-change effects. For example, if you gain control of Roil Elemental until the end of the turn (with Mark of Mutiny, perhaps), then its landfall ability triggers and you target Roil Elemental itself, you’ll gain control of it indefinitely (since its control-change effect will last for as long as you control it).

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