The Dining Car MTG Card
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Plane — Spacecraft |
| Abilities | Food,Investigate,Sixty-Six Seconds |
| Released | 2023-10-13 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Doctor Who |
| Set code | WHO |
| Number | 578 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Planar |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Pablo Mendoza |
Text of card
When you planeswalk to The Dining Car, each player creates a Food token. Sixty-Six Seconds — At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature with the least toughness among creatures you control. Then investigate. Whenever chaos ensues, activated abilities of artifact tokens you control cost less to activate this turn.
Cards like The Dining Car
The Dining Car finds its place in the realm of unique utility artifacts in Magic: The Gathering. It shares similarities with cards like Alchemist’s Refuge, which provides a different type of utility by allowing you to play nonland cards as though they had flash. The Dining Car, conversely, offers a form of resource sustenance by gradually increasing your life total. As far as utility artifacts go, both have their special benefits.
Gaining life is a strategy that can be paralleled with Pristine Talisman – another artifact that offers incremental life gain and the added advantage of mana production. Yet, The Dining Car distinguishes itself with the potential for greater life increases over time. Also, in comparison to Elixir of Immortality, which gains you a chunk of life and reshuffles your graveyard into your library, the gradual gain provided by The Dining Car could be considered more consistent, albeit less impactful in a single activation.
Assessing these options reveals that The Dining Car provides a reliable incremental advantage, situating itself as a noteworthy choice for decks focused on durability and consistent life gain.
Cards similar to The Dining Car by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Dining Car enhances your game by smoothing out your card draw, ensuring a steady flow of options to outmaneuver your opponent.
Resource Acceleration: This card can propel your mana resources forward by providing additional assets that can be the turning point for a pivotal play, giving you the upper hand in resource management.
Instant Speed: Its capability to be played at instant speed allows for strategic depth and surprise factor, keeping adversaries on their toes and enabling you to react in real time to the evolving battlefield.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The need to remove a card from your hand when you cast The Dining Car can catch you off balance, especially when you’re playing a tight game with limited options.
Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a very particular mix of mana types, which can hamper its integration into a variety of decks outside those tailored to these specific mana requirements.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: When put side by side with other options in the game, The Dining Car’s mana expense is on the higher end, which might make it a less attractive option when building a mana-efficient strategy.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: The Dining Car offers a range of uses across multiple deck types, from providing creature buffs in aggressive builds to enabling improvisational plays in more control-oriented strategies.
Combo Potential: This card serves as a linchpin in artifact-centric decks, seamlessly integrating with cards that capitalize on artifact synergies for powerful and unexpected combination plays.
Meta-Relevance: Given the fluctuating nature of the MTG metagame, The Dining Car holds its ground as a resilient and adaptable card that can confront various popular deck styles effectively.
How to Beat The Dining Car
The Dining Car presents a unique strategy in Magic: The Gathering for players utilizing food tokens. It can be a persistent thorn in one’s side if not handled promptly. To conquer this peculiar card, consider adjusting your deck to include artifact removal spells, which are commonly found in red or green decks. Cards like Abrade or Naturalize offer straightforward solutions to dismantle The Dining Car before it can gain too much momentum.
Another effective strategy is preemptive action with counter spells if you’re leaning towards a blue deck. Having spells like Negate or Dovin’s Veto ready can ensure The Dining Car never hits the table. Moreover, if the card is already in play, utilizing bounce spells to return it to the owner’s hand can disrupt your opponent’s strategy long enough for you to secure an advantage.
Lastly, leveraging exile effects can be key in eliminating The Dining Car for good, avoiding any recursion tactics the opponent might have. Cards such as Path to Exile provide an elegant solution while also handling any creatures that might have benefited from the card’s presence on the board. Tailoring your strategy to include these counters can help you maintain control against such utility artifacts.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase The Dining Car MTG card by a specific set like Doctor Who, 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 The Dining Car and other MTG cards:
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- eBay
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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