Mage il-Vec MTG Card

Exodus (EXO)
1998-06-15 - Number 86

Tempest Remastered (TPR)
2015-05-06 - Number 140

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Human Wizard
Power	2
Toughness	2

Key Takeaways

Mage il-Vec enhances graveyard-based strategies, offering tactical advantages through resource recycling.
Operates at instant speed, providing flexibility to disrupt opponents and optimize play on the fly.
Drawback includes a necessary discard, potentially weakening your hand during critical gameplay moments.

Text of card

oc T, Discard a card at random: Mage il-Vec deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Living below a flowstone foundry produces a disproportionate number of fire mages among the *il*.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Mage il-Vec provides a tactical edge by enabling graveyard recycling for spell mastery or threshold mechanics, replenishing your usable resources each turn.

Resource Acceleration: This card can expedite your gameplay by discarding a card with a higher mana cost, thereby accelerating your resource curve and enabling faster deployment of your strategy.

Instant Speed: Its ability to be used at instant speed offers the flexibility to make strategic moves during the opponent’s turn, disrupting their plans while optimizing your own board state.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of Mage il-Vec is the necessity to discard a card to utilize its full potential. This can deplete your hand quickly, especially in a tight match where every card counts.

Specific Mana Cost: Mage il-Vec demands a precise mana alignment to cast, which may not always align with your deck’s mana base. This can make it challenging to play on curve, particularly in multicolored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With other creatures and spells that have a lower casting cost and potentially more impactful abilities, Mage il-Vec’s mana investment may not always equate to sufficient value on the board, making it a less appealing choice in competitive play.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Mage il-Vec finds a cozy niche in numerous deck builds, catering especially to strategies that harness graveyard synergies and value recursion tactics.

Combo Potential: This card’s potential to self-exile makes it an unassuming but effective piece in combos, easily integrating with mechanics that capitalize on the exile zone or require casting from unusual places.

Meta-Relevance: Given its unique interaction with the exile zone, Mage il-Vec holds a particular significance in the current meta, disrupting opponents’ graveyard strategies or fueling your own in an environment where such tactics are prevalent.

How to beat

Mage il-Vec is a unique presence within Magic: The Gathering, offering its controller the ability to exile cards from an opponent’s graveyard every time it deals combat damage. Since this ability can frustrate strategies that rely on graveyard synergies, facing this card requires a different approach. To counter Mage il-Vec effectively, it’s crucial to prevent it from inflicting combat damage in the first place.

Armor your strategy by including creatures with higher toughness to blockade this nimble creature, or control the battlefield with removal spells ready to dispatch it before it can activate its power. Utilizing instant-speed removal allows you to respond to attacks, rendering the ability of Mage il-Vec redundant. Additionally, having creatures with ‘reach’ or ‘flash’ properties can serve as a surprise barrier during combat, ensuring Mage il-Vec meets an untimely end before it can disrupt your graveyard plans.

By adopting a vigilant defensive stance and proactively managing your battlefield presence, Mage il-Vec’s impact can be minimized, keeping your graveyard intact and your strategies unhampered. Implementing these tactics will help sustain your strategy against the disruption Mage il-Vec aims to introduce.

Cards like Mage il-Vec

If we delve into the realm of stealth and subterfuge in MTG, Mage il-Vec stands out as an intriguing asset. This card offers utility by fitting seamlessly into decks focusing on discard strategies, akin to other cards like Putrid Imp. However, Mage il-Vec offers a repeatable discard outlet, giving you sustained advantage throughout the game, opposed to the one-off use of Putrid Imp’s ability.

Moving in line with stealth, we find Draconian Cylix, another card that gives you the power to control your discard tactics while also dealing with opponents’ threats. Unlike Mage il-Vec, Draconian Cylix requires an extra mana investment to use its ability. There is also the comparison with Oona’s Prowler, a creature that encourages discard while posing a more formidable aerial threat. Nonetheless, Mage il-Vec compensates for its lower power with its shadow ability, making it less likely to be blocked and maintaining board presence.

With these comparisons in mind, Mage il-Vec finds its niche as a reliable and versatile tool for decks that thrive on discard mechanics, capable of slipping past defenses and proficiently thinning both your hand and your deck in MTG.

Cards similar to Mage il-Vec by color, type and mana cost

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Cunning Bandit // Azamuki, Treachery Incarnate - MTG Card versions

Balduvian Barbarians - MTG Card versions

Shinen of Fury's Fire - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Mage il-Vec MTG card by a specific set like Exodus and Tempest Remastered, 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 Mage il-Vec and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Mage il-Vec Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1998-06-15 and 2015-05-06. Illustrated by John Matson.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	1998-06-15	Exodus	EXO		86	1997	Normal	Black	John Matson
2	2015-05-06	Tempest Remastered	TPR		140	2015	Normal	Black	John Matson

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Mage il-Vec has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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