Access Tunnel MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Access Tunnel itself does not directly allow you to draw cards, its utility can keep key creatures unblocked, making sure they connect and potentially activate card-draw or other valuable abilities.

Resource Acceleration: Access Tunnel does not produce additional mana or treasures. However, it can be a crucial play for enabling quicker damage to opponents, which can be indirectly advantageous for decks focusing on speed and efficiency.

Instant Speed: Access Tunnel is a land, not an instant or sorcery, but it offers flexibility similar to instant speed action. You can choose to activate its ability during your own turn or wait to use it at a moment when your opponent might not expect it, bypassing potential blockers during the combat phase.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While a strategy involving Access Tunnel might not explicitly demand discarding cards, it’s significant to note that in decks where this land is used, there might be a necessity to manage resources differently. This requirement can force a player to choose between holding onto cards that synergize with other strategies or maximizing the potential of Access Tunnel.

Specific Mana Cost: Access Tunnel demands a specific mana cost to activate its ability—three generic mana and one colorless. This can be restrictive in multi-colored decks that might struggle with colorless mana availability, thus limiting the card’s utility in various strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an activation cost of four mana to grant a creature unblockable, the cost of this ability is quite steep compared to the ability’s straightforward effect. When considering other lands or cards that provide similar or additional benefits for a lower or comparably priced cost, Access Tunnel may not always be the most efficient option for deck construction.

Reasons to Include Access Tunnel in Your Collection

Versatility: Access Tunnel fits into a multitude of decks, serving as a game-changer especially for strategies revolving around creatures that might otherwise struggle to deal combat damage. Its ability to grant unblockable ensures your key creatures can push through the final points of damage, undeterred by your opponent’s defenses.

Combo Potential: This card slides effortlessly into synergistic interactions with abilities that trigger upon dealing combat damage. With Access Tunnel, your equipped or prowess-filled creature can assure its hit connects, facilitating combos and ability resolutions that could pivot the game’s tide to your favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a game state that leans heavily on creature interactions, Access Tunnel becomes an indispensable tool. It gives smaller, potent creatures a reliable pathway to impact the board, bypassing bulky blockers that dominate the current meta, and securing its place in creature-centric strategies that aim for direct player engagement.

How to beat

Access Tunnel, like many utility lands in Magic: The Gathering, offers a strategic advantage that can sometimes tip the balance of a game. By allowing a creature with power 3 or less to become unblockable, this land has the potential to execute critical plays, or even secure a win in certain decks that capitalize on small, evasive creatures. To effectively counter Access Tunnel, one effective strategy is to neutralize its key function through cards that can control or alter creature power levels. Spells like Dismember or Sorcerous Spyglass can prevent creatures from benefiting from the Tunnel’s ability.

Another tactic involves using instant-speed removals such as Swords to Plowshares or Fatal Push to eliminate the targeted creature in response to Access Tunnel’s ability activation. Board wipes also serve as a comprehensive answer, clearing out creatures regardless of individual utility lands. For those who anticipate facing decks that rely on cards like Access Tunnel, incorporating such control elements in your strategy can prove to be an invaluable pivot, potentially disrupting your opponent’s plan and paving the way to your victory.