Isleback Spawn MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 7 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Creature — Kraken |
| Abilities | Shroud |
| Released | 2008-05-02 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Shadowmoor |
| Set code | SHM |
| Power | 4 |
| Toughness | 8 |
| Number | 40 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Mark Tedin |
Key Takeaways
- Its size advantage makes Isleback Spawn a threat, dominating as a blocker or attacker with a full graveyard.
- Can lead to indirect resource acceleration by forcing opponents into costly plays or demanding specific counters.
- Enhances decks focused on instant speed interaction, complementing strategies that fill the graveyard quickly.
Text of card
Shroud Isleback Spawn gets +4/+8 as long as a library has twenty or fewer cards in it.
The more deadly the lake monster, the shorter the tale.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: At its core, Isleback Spawn provides a substantial creature presence that can influence the board state significantly. When the conditions are met, namely having seven or more cards in your graveyard, Isleback Spawn grows larger due to its kindred creature, the Shapeshifter Kraken. This quality primes you for gaining card advantage as it becomes a formidable blocker or attacker, effectively outclassing many creatures your opponents may have on the battleground.
Resource Acceleration: As part of the blue color pie, Isleback Spawn doesn’t directly provide traditional mana acceleration. However, its sheer power when boosted can decelerate your opponent’s resources by forcing unfavorable trades or by demanding specific answers to its presence. This indirect resource acceleration can tip the scales in your favor, especially in matchups that hinge on key creatures or are attrition-based.
Instant Speed: While Isleback Spawn itself must be summoned at sorcery speed, its synergy within a deck that values instant speed interaction cannot be understated. The card’s utility grows when played in a strategic manner, alongside instants that fill your graveyard, paving the way for its powered-up state. This synchrony with instant-speed play can surprise opponents and shift the momentum of the game as you rapidly reach the threshold for its transformation into a towering threat.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For Isleback Spawn to truly shine, certain deck conditions must be limned – primarily, a graveyard brimming with creature cards. This can lead to a drawback where valuable hand cards must be discarded to meet the threshold, thereby depleting your arsenal.
Specific Mana Cost: Islback Spawn demands a particular mana alignment – two blue and five others – for summoning from the depths. This locks the card into decks heavily favoring blue mana resources, potentially limiting the decks it can sway within.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost tallying seven mana in total, Isleback Spawn’s emergence on the board is a slow roll, especially when matched against the swift currents of today’s game pace where less costly creatures can provide more immediate impact.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Isleback Spawn boasts a flexible nature due to its scaling power, growing more formidable as your graveyard fills with cards. This trait allows it to fit seamlessly into decks geared toward self-mill strategies or those utilizing a high volume of spells that naturally fill up the graveyard.
Combo Potential: With an ability that triggers on having seven or more cards in your graveyard, Isleback Spawn works well in synergy with mechanics like Threshold or Delve, tapping into a well of untapped potential in graveyard-centric combos.
Meta-Relevance: In metagames where slower, control-based or grindy decks prevail, Isleback Spawn can emerge as a significant threat. Its constantly increasing threat level requires opponents to find a quick solution, or it will dominate the late game with its growing power, making it a relevant choice in certain meta environments.
How to beat
Isleback Spawn is not just another creature in the dense landscape of MTG cards. It hails from the cold waters of Shadowmoor, and its sheer size makes it a formidable presence on the battlefield. However, every leviathan has its weaknesses, and Isleback Spawn is no exception. This creature’s strength scales with the graveyard, becoming more powerful as more blue cards find their resting place there. Consequently, graveyard management is a solid strategy against it, employing cards that can exile graveyards, like Relic of Progenitus, or graveyard shuffle effects like Elixir of Immortality.
Another angle of attack is to prevent Isleback Spawn from entering the field in the first place. Counter spells remain a credible threat to any high-cost creature. A well-timed Counterspell or Mana Leak can save a player from facing down this behemoth. If it does make its way onto the board, enchantments such as Pacifism or powerful exile effects like Swords to Plowshares can neutralize the threat without inflating the graveyard.
Hence, overcoming the challenge of Isleback Spawn relies on anticipatory play, a careful management of the graveyard, and readying those ever-reliable control spells. A deck well-prepared can turn this sea monster into nothing more than a brief ripple in the vast ocean of MTG gameplay.
Cards like Isleback Spawn
Isleback Spawn is a unique creature card in Magic: The Gathering with a niche effect, making it a stand-out card in any deck emphasizing big creatures and graveyard strategies. Comparable to some degree is Lhurgoyf, a creature whose power and toughness are determined by the number of creature cards in all graveyards. While both cards gain strength from graveyard contents, Isleback Spawn’s threshold ability which could boost its power if there are seven or more cards in your graveyard, leads to a potentially more defensive play.
Another card worth mentioning in the same conversation is Tarmogoyf, famous for its capacity to grow with the number of card types in all graveyards, not just creatures. Though it can be more aggressive due to its lower casting cost compared to Isleback Spawn, it doesn’t share the kinship with the graveyard’s creature card number specifically. Nemesis of Mortals is another creature that thrives from a populous graveyard by offering a cheaper monstrous cost, yet it lacks the innate ability to be a threat in normal play as Isleback Spawn can be once the threshold is met.
Overall, while Isleback Spawn might not be the first pick in a vacuum, its potential in a graveyard-centric deck offers a robust late-game threat that can outclass many similar creatures in MTG, when conditions are right.
Cards similar to Isleback Spawn by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Isleback Spawn MTG card by a specific set like Shadowmoor, 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 Isleback Spawn and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- 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
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Isleback Spawn has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Isleback Spawn card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2008-05-01 | It doesn’t matter which library has twenty or fewer cards in it, and you don’t have to specify a library. If multiple libraries have twenty or fewer cards in them, Isleback Spawn will still get its bonus only once. |
