Shadewing Laureate MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Shadewing Laureate shines by providing persistent card advantage. Every time another creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, you draw a card. This can lead to significant gains over the course of a game, keeping your hand filled with options.

Resource Acceleration: While Shadewing Laureate doesn’t directly produce mana or tokens, its ability to consistently fill your hand with cards can indirectly accelerate your resources. More cards mean more land draws and more spells to cast, ensuring you’re always a step ahead.

Instant Speed: One of the key strengths of Shadewing Laureate is its synergy with instant speed spells. Since many flying creatures in MTG can be played at instant speed, you can maximize the card draw potential of Shadewing Laureate by playing these creatures during your opponent’s turn, leaving them unprepared for the aerial assault and the card advantage you garner.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Shadewing Laureate requires you to have another creature on the battlefield to exploit, potentially depleting your board presence and sacrificing growth opportunities.

Specific Mana Cost: Shadewing Laureate’s mana cost is locked into Dimir colors (blue and black), restricting its inclusion to only those decks or those that can accommodate such specific mana needs, limiting its overall flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a converted mana cost of four, Shadewing Laureate competes with other impactful four-drop cards. Considering the required additional cost of sacrificing another creature, some players may find it less appealing compared to lower-cost creatures that provide similar or greater value without such a drawback.

Reasons to Include Shadewing Laureate in Your Collection

Versatility: Shadewing Laureate stands out due to its flexibility in deck building. As a creature with flying, it can serve both offensive and defensive roles. Moreover, with its ability to generate graveyard synergy, it fits seamlessly into decks that capitalize on cycling or reanimation strategies.

Combo Potential: This card shines when combined with other creatures or spells that benefit from, or are activated by, the death of a creature. The power to generate a flying token when another creature dies not only bolsters board presence but also opens up avenues for intricate combos.

Meta-Relevance: Given the constant evolution of the meta-game, a card like Shadewing Laureate could prove to be invaluable. Its capability to replace itself in the form of a flying token upon death makes it a persistent threat that can adapt to a variety of meta scenarios, particularly where resilient creatures are crucial.

How to beat Shadewing Laureate

Shadewing Laureate is a card that presents an interesting challenge on the battleground of Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to give other Dragons you control ward is notably intriguing and can create a protective layer around your formidable creatures. To counteract the advantage Shadewing Laureate provides, players should concentrate on using removal spells that don’t target, such as board wipes. Cards like Doomskar or Blasphemous Act can effectively clear the field, bypassing the ward entirely and leveling the playing field.

Another approach is to utilize spells that force your opponent to sacrifice creatures, such as Liliana’s Triumph, since they circumvent targeted protection. Resource management is also key; ensure you have enough mana to cover the additional cost imposed by ward when targeting dragons. Lastly, maintaining a swift pace and applying pressure before your opponent can establish their board with a Shadewing Laureate in play can prevent them from leveraging its full potential, providing a strategic pathway to victory.