Lorehold Apprentice MTG Card

Lorehold Apprentice - Strixhaven: School of Mages

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Human Cleric
Abilities	Magecraft
Released	2021-04-23
Set symbol
Set name	Strixhaven: School of Mages
Set code	STX
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	198
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Manuel Castañón

Key Takeaways

Improves card flow, allowing players to sift through decks for crucial spells during pivotal turns.
Generates spirits, bolstering your offensive and defensive capabilities with instant and sorcery spells.
Interacts well with instant-speed magic, fostering flexibility and surprise tactics in gameplay.

Text of card

Magecraft — Whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell, until end of turn, Spirit creatures you control gain ": This creature deals 1 damage to each opponent."

Ancient footfalls echo in her head, their timeless rhythm guiding the present.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: With Lorehold Apprentice on the battlefield, you tap into the potential for heightened card flow during each of your turns. Its ability to rummage, or draw then discard, means that you can effectively churn through your deck to find the spells that matter most when you need them. This selective sifting helps maintain a strategic upper hand.

Resource Acceleration: Lorehold Apprentice’s second ability is a nod to the hallmark of the Lorehold: creating a spirit when casting or copying an instant or sorcery. These spirits are not just spectral threats; they are also a form of resource acceleration, letting you chip away at your opponent’s life total or defend your life points while you set up for big plays.

Instant Speed: While Lorehold Apprentice itself isn’t an instant, it plays nicely with instant-speed magic. Its spirit-creating ability synergizes with instant spells, allowing you to play flexibly and opportunistically. Respond to your opponent’s actions by casting instants on their turn to create unexpected blockers or apply pressure at the end of their turn, making Lorehold Apprentice a tactical tool in any spell-slinger’s arsenal.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Lorehold Apprentice demands that you discard a card to unleash its potential, which can backfire when your hand is already dwindling and each card is invaluable.

Specific Mana Cost: Commanding both red and white mana for its casting cost, Lorehold Apprentice necessitates a commitment to these colors, potentially restricting deck diversity and flexibility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Needing a total of three mana, including both colored mana requirements, makes Lorehold Apprentice a potentially cumbersome play when faster options could progress your game plan more efficiently.

Reasons to Include Lorehold Apprentice in Your Collection

Versatility: Lorehold Apprentice offers a flexible role in any deck geared towards spellcasting or creature-based strategies, working well with instant and sorcery spells to create value on the battlefield.

Combo Potential: As part of the Lorehold college, this card has inherent synergy with cards that care about casting from the graveyard, and it can help create a loop of effects contributing to relentless pressure on opponents.

Meta-Relevance: Given the current emphasis on graveyard mechanics and spell casting, Lorehold Apprentice aligns well with many successful archetypes, potentially enhancing your deck’s performance in various matchups.

How to beat Lorehold Apprentice

Lorehold Apprentice is a unique creature card that has found its way into many MTG decks, offering both offensive and defensive utilities. This card shines in magecraft-centric decks, enabling players to turn spells into direct damage and therefore accelerate their win condition. When faced against this card, timing and strategy become crucial aspects of gameplay.

To effectively counter Lorehold Apprentice, removal spells are key. Instant-speed removal like Fatal Push or Shock can be particularly effective as they allow you to respond to your opponent’s actions and eliminate the Apprentice before its magecraft ability can be activated multiple times. Additionally, countering key spells that your opponent casts can also prevent the Apprentice from triggering. Strategic use of counterspells like Dovin’s Veto or Negate can disrupt your opponent’s gameplay rhythm and leave the Apprentice as just another creature on the board.

Moreover, be wary of your opponent’s mana availability. A Lorehold Apprentice on the field with ample mana could indicate that they are ready to cast multiple spells in one turn. Ensuring that you manage your resources to respond to this surge will be vital to keeping the Apprentice in check.

Cards like Lorehold Apprentice

In the realm of Magic: The Gathering, Lorehold Apprentice offers an exciting dynamic for players fond of casting instant or sorcery spells. This prowess resembles what cards like Kiln Fiend bring to the table, where casting noncreature spells grants a power boost. Lorehold Apprentice takes this a step further by providing a more strategic advantage, allowing for creature tapping each time an instant or sorcery is slung.

Gelectrode is another card that echoes this interactive playstyle. It also enables tapping of creatures, albeit with the added benefit of dealing damage to any target. While this adds direct damage, Gelectrode does not enhance your board by creating Spirit creature tokens like Lorehold Apprentice does upon engaging in combat. Comparatively, Young Pyromancer is a strong parallel that churns out Elemental creature tokens with every noncreature spell, offering a swarm strategy rather than a single-target control approach.

Ultimately, the Lorehold Apprentice finds its niche by encouraging a blend of offensive and defensive tactics, providing a unique versatility among its peers. Its ability to disrupt opponents while incrementally strengthening your own position subtly asserts its value within the spell-slinging segment of Magic: The Gathering.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lorehold Apprentice MTG card by a specific set like Strixhaven: School of Mages, 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 Lorehold Apprentice and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lorehold Apprentice has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2021-04-16	Each magecraft ability has a different effect, although they all have the same trigger condition, whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell.
2021-04-16	For example, if you control Archmage Emeritus and cast an instant or sorcery spell, Archmage Emeritus’s magecraft ability will trigger and you will draw a card.
2021-04-16	If an effect creates a copy of an instant or sorcery spell, this will also cause the magecraft ability to trigger.
2021-04-16	If an effect creates multiple copies of an instant or sorcery spell, magecraft abilities trigger once for each copy created by the effect.
2021-04-16	Lorehold Apprentice’s ability can give your Spirit creatures multiple instances of “: This creature deals 1 damage to each opponent.” However, each Spirit can only activate one of these abilities at a time, and each ability will still only deal 1 damage.
2021-04-16	Some effects instruct you to copy an instant or sorcery card in a zone other than the stack. These copies do not cause magecraft abilities to trigger. However, most effects that do this also allow you to cast the copy, and casting the copy will cause magecraft abilities to trigger.