Shimmerdrift Vale MTG Card

Enhances draw quality with access to any mana color, eliminating color restriction issues, enabling consistency. Enters tapped but provides vital mana stability; critical for executing multicolor deck strategies efficiently. Flexible mana choice allows players to react at instant speed, keeping strategic options open.

Kaldheim (KHM)
2021-02-05 - Number 267

Shimmerdrift Vale - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)

Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
2022-12-02 - Number 821

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Rarity	Common
Type	Snow Land

Text of card

Shimmerdrift Vale enters the battlefield tapped. As Shimmerdrift Vale enters the battlefield, choose a color. : Add one mana of the chosen color.

Reflections from the wind-sculpted snow gleam with every color of the rainbow.

Cards like Shimmerdrift Vale

Shimmerdrift Vale is a unique land card in Magic: The Gathering that stands out for its flexibility in mana production. Like Command Tower, it’s a valuable asset in multicolored decks, providing mana of any color. However, unlike Command Tower, Shimmerdrift Vale enters the battlefield tapped, which requires a bit more planning for when to play it.

Exotic Orchard is another comparable land card, as it also provides mana of any color that a land an opponent controls could produce. While Exotic Orchard’s utility depends on opponents’ lands, Shimmerdrift Vale gives you control of your mana needs regardless of the board state. Still, Exotic Orchard has the advantage of not entering the battlefield tapped.

Within the realm of versatile mana-producing lands, Shimmerdrift Vale has its niche. It can be more predictable compared to cards like Exotic Orchard and can fit seamlessly into a variety of deck builds that need consistent access to all colors of mana without relying on opponents. This makes Shimmerdrift Vale a solid choice when constructing a deck with heavy color requirements.

Cards similar to Shimmerdrift Vale by color, type and mana cost

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Decks using this card

MTG decks using Shimmerdrift Vale. Dig deeper into the strategy of decks, sideboard cards, list ideas and export to play in ARENA or MOL.

#	Name	Format	Archetype	Event
	Five-color Burn	Modern	Calibrated Blast	$10K RCQ - Modern - SCG CON Philadelphia - Saturday - 9:00 am

Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Shimmerdrift Vale may not directly allow you to draw additional cards, it does contribute to card quality by ensuring your draws are more consistent. With the ability to tap for any color of mana, it lets you play cards in your hand without being constrained by color restrictions, effectively optimizing the usefulness of each draw.

Resource Acceleration: Shimmerdrift Vale enters the battlefield tapped, but it’s a versatile land that acts as a source of any color, which can be crucial for multicolored decks needing mana stability early on. This accelerates your resource flexibility, allowing for a smoother execution of your game plan.

Instant Speed: While Shimmerdrift Vale itself doesn’t operate at instant speed, having a land that can adapt to any mana requirement means you are better equipped to cast spells at instant speed, thus reacting to opponents’ moves without delay. You can keep your options open until you need to commit to a particular color of mana.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Shimmerdrift Vale doesn’t directly require discarding cards, it nonetheless enters the battlefield tapped, potentially causing you to lose momentum or fall behind your opponents.

Specific Mana Cost: Though flexible, Shimmerdrift Vale can only generate one type of mana at a time, limiting its utility compared to other lands that produce multiple types of mana simultaneously or don’t require a choice upon entering the battlefield.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although Shimmerdrift Vale does not have a mana cost, its entrance as a tapped land effectively delays access to the mana it provides. This can be especially hindering in fast-paced games where tempo plays a crucial role.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Shimmerdrift Vale offers an unparallel level of adaptability to your mana base without demanding a spot in your colored mana slots, serving as an excellent addition for multicolored decks in need of reliable mana fixing.

Combo Potential: As a land card that touches upon all five colors, it can seamlessly integrate into strategies that benefit from varying mana requirements or synergize with cards that favor control over diverse mana types.

Meta-Relevance: In games where the landscape continuously shifts, having a card like Shimmerdrift Vale can be crucial. Its ability to adapt to various opponents and strategies simply by altering the mana it provides keeps your deck competitive and responsive.

How to beat

Shimmerdrift Vale presents itself as a versatile land within the realms of Magic: The Gathering. This snow land offers players the ability to choose a color as it enters the battlefield, making it a valuable asset in multicolored decks. Its diversity in mana generation can set the stage for a wide range of strategic plays.

To navigate against the advantage Shimmerdrift Vale provides, focus on land disruption techniques. Employing cards that restrict land usage like Blood Moon can neutralize its ability to produce any color, effectively transforming it into a basic mountain without its snow properties. Similarly, by utilizing land destruction cards such as Field of Ruin, players can target and swap out their opponent’s Shimmerdrift Vale with a basic land, thus limiting their color-fixing capabilities.

In essence, countering Shimmerdrift Vale effectively shrinks the versatility of an opponent’s mana base, which may be central to their strategy. By successfully implementing these tactics, players can cut through the flexibility that Shimmerdrift Vale offers and pave the way for victory against decks that rely heavily on its dynamic nature.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Shimmerdrift Vale MTG card by a specific set like Kaldheim and Jumpstart 2022, 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 Shimmerdrift Vale and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Shimmerdrift Vale Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-02-05 and 2022-12-02. Illustrated by Titus Lunter.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2021-02-05	Kaldheim	KHM		267	2015	Normal	Black	Titus Lunter
2	2022-12-02	Jumpstart 2022	J22		821	2015	Normal	Black	Titus Lunter

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Shimmerdrift Vale has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Brawl	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2021-02-05	Snow is a supertype, not a card type. It has no rules meaning or function by itself, but spells and abilities may refer to it.
2021-02-05	Snow isn’t a type of mana. If an effect says you may spend mana as though it were any type, you can’t pay for {S} using mana that wasn’t produced by a snow source.
2021-02-05	Some cards have additional effects for each {S} spent to cast them. You can cast these spells even if you don’t spend any snow mana to cast them; their additional effects simply won’t do anything.
2021-02-05	The Kaldheim set doesn’t have any cards with mana costs that include {S}, but some previous sets do. If an effect says such a spell costs less to cast, that reduction doesn’t apply to any {S} costs. This is also true for activated abilities that include {S} in their activation costs and effects that reduce those costs.
2021-02-05	The {S} symbol is a generic mana symbol. It represents a cost that can be paid by one mana that was produced by a snow source. That mana can be any color or colorless.