Sunscourge Champion MTG Card
2017-07-14 - Number 26
2017-07-14 - Number 9
2020-08-13 - Number 38
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Human Wizard |
| Abilities | Eternalize |
| Power | 2 |
| Toughness | 3 |
Text of card
When Sunscourge Champion enters the battlefield, you gain life equal to its power. Eternalize—, Discard a card. (, Discard a card, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a 4/4 black Zombie Human Wizard with no mana cost. Eternalize only as a sorcery.)
Cards like Sunscourge Champion
Exploring the array of creature spells within Magic: The Gathering, Sunscourge Champion shines with its unique ability to both support life gain strategies and provide durability through its Eternalize ability. This card echoes other life-gain themed creatures like Lone Missionary, which provides an immediate life boost upon entering the battlefield. However, unlike Lone Missionary, Sunscourge Champion can return from the graveyard as a 4/4 token with its Eternalize cost, adding not just life but also late-game staying power.
Another card with comparable mechanics is Kitchen Finks. The Finks similarly provides a burst of life upon entrance and comes with a persist ability, granting it resilience and recurring value. However, while Kitchen Finks automatically comes back with a -1/-1 counter after dying, Sunscourge Champion allows for strategic timing due to the control over its Eternalize activation.
Ultimately, Sunscourge Champion offers a multifaceted package for decks hungry for life gain and board presence resilience. Its dual nature allows players to adjust their strategies dynamically, making it a competent choice in the creature spell arena within Magic: The Gathering.
Cards similar to Sunscourge Champion by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Sunscourge Champion provides an edge when it comes to gaining card advantage. Once it hits the battlefield, it can be eternalized from the graveyard which essentially doubles its impact, granting you another creature card without drawing from your deck.
Resource Acceleration: Its eternalize ability offers a unique form of resource acceleration. By discarding a card and paying its eternalize cost, you get a 4/4 version of the champion. This process turns a potentially unusable card in your hand into a formidable creature on the board, thus utilizing your resources efficiently.
Instant Speed: While the Sunscourge Champion itself does not operate at instant speed, its eternalize ability can be activated at any time you could cast a sorcery. This strategic flexibility allows you to best decide the timing to capitalize on the champion’s return based on the flow of the game, ensuring you can adapt to various situations for optimal play.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Sunscourge Champion requires the player to discard a card in order to utilize its Eternalize ability. This can be a strategic setback, particularly in game situations where hand size is already diminished and each card’s value is significant. Strategizing which card to discard is crucial as it could inadvertently benefit your opponent or weaken your own position on the battlefield.
Specific Mana Cost: To make use of Sunscourge Champion’s full potential, you must meet its color-specific mana requirement. The champion demands white mana, which could potentially restrict its integration into multi-colored decks that are tight on color mana resources or those that are balanced differently for other strategic purposes.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: To activate its Eternalize ability, Sunscourge Champion comes at a substantial cost of four mana, two of which must be white. There are alternative creatures and spells which provide life gain or similar benefits at a lower cost. This makes Sunscourge Champion a potentially less attractive option for players looking to optimize their mana efficiency and curve during deck building and in the midst of gameplay.
Reasons to Include Sunscourge Champion in Your Collection
Versatility: Sunscourge Champion is not only a solid creature card but its ability to gain life upon entering the battlefield makes it a useful addition in a range of decks, particularly those seeking resilience against aggressive strategies.
Combo Potential: With its Eternalize feature, Sunscourge Champion promises a return to the battlefield, potentially synergizing with strategies that exploit creature tokens or graveyard mechanics, giving rise to various combo avenues.
Meta-Relevance: In environments where the battlefield is cluttered with threats and life totals are under constant pressure, Sunscourge Champion offers a foothold by restoring life and presenting a recurring threat that can adapt to various meta shifts.
How to beat Sunscourge Champion
Sunscourge Champion has found a niche in Magic: The Gathering as a resilient creature that can return from the graveyard while also offering a life gain advantage. This ability to persist makes it tricky to deal with permanently through regular damage and destruction effects. However, one effective strategy to counter Sunscourge Champion is to use exile effects. Cards like Path to Exile or Scavenging Ooze provide the means to remove Sunscourge Champion from the game entirely, bypassing its recurrence mechanism.
Moreover, leveraging graveyard disruption can prove effective. With tools at your disposal such as Leyline of the Void or Relic of Progenitus, you can stop Sunscourge Champion from utilizing its eternalize ability by preventing it from reaching the graveyard in the first place, thereby neutralizing this persistent threat. These types of strategic plays require foresight and can dictate the pace and outcome of the game, pushing players to find the right balance between attack and meticulously timed defense to overcome Sunscourge Champion’s capabilities.
Understanding these tactics is key for players looking to mitigate the impact of a Sunscourge Champion on the battlefield. While the champion boasts a solid set of traits, thoughtful strategy and the right cards can ensure your deck remains unaffected by its resilience and lifegain abilities.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sunscourge Champion MTG card by a specific set like Hour of Devastation and Hour of Devastation, 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 Sunscourge Champion and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
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Printings
The Sunscourge Champion Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2017-07-14 and 2020-08-13. Illustrated by Josu Hernaiz.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2017-07-14 | Hour of Devastation | HOU | 26 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Josu Hernaiz | |
| 2 | 2017-07-14 | Hour of Devastation | HOU | 9 | 2015 | Token | Black | Josu Hernaiz | |
| 3 | 2020-08-13 | Amonkhet Remastered | AKR | 38 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Josu Hernaiz |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Sunscourge Champion 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 Sunscourge Champion card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2017-07-14 | For each card with eternalize, a corresponding game play supplement token can be found in some Hour of Devastation booster packs. These supplements are not required to play with cards with eternalize; you can use the same items to represent an eternalized token as you would any other token. |
| 2017-07-14 | If Sunscourge Champion leaves the battlefield before its triggered ability resolves, use its power as it last existed on the battlefield to determine how much life to gain. If that number is negative, you don’t gain any life and you don’t lose any life. |
| 2017-07-14 | If a creature card with eternalize is put into your graveyard during your main phase, you’ll have priority immediately afterward. You can activate its eternalize ability before any player can try to exile it, such as with Crook of Condemnation, if it’s legal for you to do so. |
| 2017-07-14 | If the card copied by the token had any “when -his permanent] enters the battlefield” abilities, then the token also has those abilities and will trigger them when it’s created. Similarly, any “as -his permanent] enters the battlefield” or “ -his permanent] enters the battlefield with” abilities that the token has copied will also work. |
| 2017-07-14 | Once you’ve activated an eternalize ability, the card is immediately exiled. Opponents can’t try to stop the ability by exiling the card with an effect such as that of Crook of Condemnation. |
| 2017-07-14 | Several cards have an eternalize cost that includes “Discard a card.” You can’t discard the card with eternalize to pay its own cost because the card has to be in your graveyard to begin activating its eternalize ability. |
| 2017-07-14 | The amount of life you gain is determined as Sunscourge Champion’s triggered ability resolves. Players may respond to the ability by attempting to change its power. |
| 2017-07-14 | The token copies exactly what was printed on the original card and nothing else, except the characteristics specifically modified by eternalize. It doesn’t copy any information about the object the card was before it was put into your graveyard. |
| 2017-07-14 | The token is a Zombie in addition to its other types and is black instead of its other colors. Its base power and toughness are 4/4. It has no mana cost, and thus its converted mana cost is 0. These are copiable values of the token that other effects may copy. |