Skinwing MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Skinwing offers a unique twist on card advantage. When used as living weapon, it immediately equips to a 0/0 Germ token, effectively giving you a creature with evasion in the form of a 2/2 flying artifact creature. Later, you can attach it to a bigger creature for game-changing effects, maintaining card presence on the board.

Resource Acceleration: Although not traditionally a resource accelerator, Skinwing can be considred a form of tempo acceleration. By equipping a creature with Skinwing, you potentially improve your battlefield position faster than normal summoning would allow, making your creatures more formidable threats.

Instant Speed: Although Skinwing is not an instant itself, it synergizes well with instant speed spells. It serves as a resilient threat that survives board wipes which are typically cast at instant speed, allowing you to quickly re-equip it to a new creature during your next turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Skinwing demands that a player discards another card to unleash its Living Weapon ability. While this can be advantageous in certain situations, it often means sacrificing valuable hand presence for a single artifact creature boost, a trade-off not always in your favor, especially in resource-tight scenarios.

Specific Mana Cost: Deploying Skinwing requires a specific combination of mana – two generic and two Phyrexian blue mana. This cost frame can be somewhat restrictive as it tends to mesh best within blue-centric decks or those with a heavy artifact theme, limiting its versatility across various deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of four mana, including two that can be paid with life, Skinwing’s equip cost also carries a considerable investment. Given the pace of current game meta, deploying a creature with modest stats through this mana expenditure might not always contend efficiently on the battlefield, where lower-cost equipment or creatures could provide similar or superior advantages.

Reasons to Include Skinwing in Your Collection

Versatility: Skinwing provides adaptability to your deck thanks to its dual nature as both an artifact and a creature. This 2/2 Living Weapon equips to give a creature +2/+2 and flying, making it a flexible addition to bolster your aerial offense or defense.

Combo Potential: As an artifact with a Living Weapon ability, Skinwing can seamlessly fit into strategies focused on synergies with equipment or artifact-centric decks. It can also work well in decks that manipulate or recur artifacts from the graveyard.

Meta-Relevance: In any MTG meta that values creature-based strategies, Skinwing can serve as an unexpected threat, attaching to enhance creatures that otherwise wouldn’t have evasion. Its inclusion can tilt the scales in combat, especially when flying is a crucial factor in the matchup.

How to beat

Skinwing is a unique artifact creature within the world of Magic: The Gathering, boasting the ability to not only serve as an equipment but also a creature. What sets Skinwing apart from other flying creatures is its Living Weapon ability, which creates a 0/0 black Germ creature token, then attaches itself to the token. This essentially provides you with a ready-to-use creature that can be a surprise blocker or an attacker from the moment it hits the battlefield.

To effectively combat Skinwing, consider removal spells that can target both creatures and artifacts, such as Abrade or a flexible option like Disenchant. Having these in your deck will enable you to take care of Skinwing, regardless of its current form. Additionally, cards that force your opponent to sacrifice a creature, like Diabolic Edict, bypass the need to target Skinwing directly and can disrupt your opponent’s strategy by removing the Germ token it’s attached to. By staying one step ahead and planning for multifaceted threats, you can neutralize the versatility that Skinwing brings to the table and maintain control of the game.