Serpentine MTG Card
Text of card
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Augment (, Reveal this card from your hand: Combine it with target host. Augment only as a sorcery.)
Cards like Serpentine
The Serpentine creature type is an intriguing presence in the creature lineup of Magic: The Gathering. When examining this card, we can see parallels to other snake-like creatures such as Winding Constrictor, which also enhances +1/+1 counters on other creatures. Unlike Serpentine, however, Winding Constrictor can directly impact the board the moment it enters the battlefield with its passive ability, whereas Serpentine often requires an additional action or setup to capitalize on its potential.
Looking further, we find Honored Hydra, another serpent that shares the theme of resilience and return. Honored Hydra can come back as an Embalm creature, ensuring its presence is felt even after being dealt with. In contrast, many Serpentine creatures require specific conditions to be met to exhibit their recurring abilities, making the Hydra a more straightforward option for a comeback.
In the landscape of MTG creatures, while Serpentine cards may vary in their abilities and impact, their unique traits make them an interesting comparison against the backdrop of other creature cards with similar thematic elements. Their potential in strategic decks shouldn’t be underestimated as they can be quite formidable in the right setting.
Cards similar to Serpentine by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Serpentine’s unique capability lies in its ability to provide significant value by potentially drawing multiple cards. This, in turn, offers a solid advantage as you can access more options and strategies during gameplay.
Resource Acceleration: Serpentine’s impact on the game extends to speeding up your ability to cast high-cost spells. As you play this card, the potential to access additional mana can pivot the game in your favor by enabling more formidable plays sooner than expected.
Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Serpentine at instant speed can’t be overstated. It offers the strategic advantage of surprise, allowing you to adapt to the evolving state of play, respond to your opponent’s actions, and maximize the effectiveness of your turns.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Certain Serpentine cards necessitate discarding another card as part of their casting cost. This additional requirement can be detrimental to your hand, particularly if you are already struggling to maintain card advantage.
Specific Mana Cost: Serpentine cards often demand a unique combination of mana colors to be played. Requiring precise mana types can limit the decks in which they’re effectively utilized, hampering their versatility.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The effectiveness of Serpentine offerings can be overshadowed by their higher than average mana costs. In a game where pace is crucial, these costs may slow you down, potentially losing you tempo against more agile opponents.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Serpentine’s ability to slither its way into various deck archetypes is a huge plus. Its nature allows it to be a staple in green-based decks that aim to scale up creatures or synergize with +1/+1 counters.
Combo Potential: Given the right conditions, this creature has the capacity to combo with other cards that proliferate or manipulate counters, potentially unlocking limitless growth and overwhelming your opponents swiftly.
Meta-Relevance: As the game’s environment frequently adapts, Serpentine maintains its relevance by fitting into decks meant to combat popular strategies, ensuring that it remains a timely addition to your arsenal.
How to Beat Serpentine
The Serpentine card presents a unique challenge in the landscape of MTG. With its ability to slither its way through defenses, understanding your opponent’s strategy becomes crucial. To counteract this formidable card, it’s imperative to disrupt the synergy it aims to create. Cards that force sacrifice or instant-speed removal spells can be highly effective tools in your arsenal.
Providing consistent pressure by maintaining a board presence ultimately hinders the impact of the Serpentine card. Similarly, using counterspells to prevent it from entering the battlefield or employing graveyard disruption to limit its recurring potential can prove instrumental. Since the Serpentine’s strength grows with the game, an aggressive early strategy may also be the key to limiting its influence on the match’s outcome.
Moreover, being aware of the Serpentine card’s potential interactions within the opposing deck structure is vital. Strategic sideboarding and adapting post-game one allows the player to anticipate the threat and respond accordingly. Thus, a tactical approach, combined with precision timing, can successfully neutralize the Serpentine card, ensuring control over the game’s flow and a path to victory.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Serpentine MTG card by a specific set like Unstable and The List (Unfinity Foil Edition), 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 Serpentine and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Printings
The Serpentine Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2017-12-08 and 2022-10-07. Illustrated by Kari Christensen.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2017-12-08 | Unstable | UST | 120 | 2015 | Augment | Silver | Kari Christensen | |
| 2 | 2022-10-07 | The List (Unfinity Foil Edition) | ULST | 41 | 2015 | Augment | Silver | Kari Christensen |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Serpentine card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2018-01-19 | Augment can (and usually does) change the name, card types, subtypes, rules text, and power/toughness. The combined creature will have (at least) two artists and may now have multiple colors. Anything covered up in the augment process doesn’t count, so ignore things to the left of the “metal bar” in the art of host creatures. |
| 2018-01-19 | Augment can’t target creatures that aren’t host creatures. |
| 2018-01-19 | Augment is an activated ability that you activate from your hand. To do so, reveal the card, choose a target host creature, and pay the augment cost. As this ability resolves, if the card with augment is still in your hand, put it onto the battlefield combined with the host creature. |
| 2018-01-19 | Creatures with augment don’t have a mana cost and can’t be cast. |
| 2018-01-19 | The creature card with augment isn’t put onto the battlefield until the ability resolves. This means if the host is destroyed, the creature with augment stays in your hand. You can’t choose a different host, but you can activate augment again if there’s another host available. |
| 2018-01-19 | You can’t activate augment unless there is a host creature on the battlefield. It doesn’t need to be yours. Note though that if you augment another player’s host creature, they control the combined creature. |
| 2018-01-19 | You can’t put more than one augment card on a single host creature. Once a host creature is augmented, the host part gets covered up and it’s no longer a host creature. |