Lochmere Serpent MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Serpent
Abilities Flash
Power 7
Toughness 7

Key Takeaways

  1. Provides card advantage by drawing when consuming islands from your graveyard, boosting hand resources.
  2. Resource acceleration through swamp sacrifice allows refreshed mana, pivotal for assertive plays or responses.
  3. Leverages instant speed flash for surprise factor, optimizing mana usage and in-game tactics.
Flash card art

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

Flash , Sacrifice an Island: Lochmere Serpent can't be blocked this turn. , Sacrifice a Swamp: You gain 1 life and draw a card. : Exile five target cards from an opponent's graveyard. Return Lochmere Serpent from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only as a sorcery.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Lochmere Serpent thrives on providing card advantage with its ability to draw a card each time it eats an island from your graveyard. This sustains your hand, giving you a leg up in long drawn-out battles.

Resource Acceleration: By sacrificing a swamp, Lochmere Serpent untaps all lands you control, effectively giving you a fresh slate of mana to work with. This can be critical for responding to your opponent’s moves or for making powerful plays on your own turn.

Instant Speed: The serpent’s ability to flash into play gives you the tactical advantage of surprise, allowing you to wait for the perfect moment before revealing this threat. It also provides you with the flexibility to decide the best use of your mana each turn.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Lochmere Serpent necessitates a discard action to trigger one of its abilities. This can be a setback, especially when you’re managing a limited hand size and every card counts toward your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: This serpent demands a complex mana setup—primarily blue and black—to fully utilize all its abilities. Decks not tailored to this specific two-color combination could find it challenging to harness the serpent’s full potential.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Lochmere Serpent’s six-mana cost might be a steep investment in a game where board presence and speed are crucial. While the serpent’s power level justifies the investment to an extent, there are other creatures and spells that could offer more immediate impact or versatility for the same or lower mana cost.


Reasons to Include Lochmere Serpent in Your Collection

Versatility: Lochmere Serpent offers a range of abilities making it a flexible addition to any blue-black control or midrange deck. Its ability to be instantly available from the graveyard ensures it is a persistent threat.

Combo Potential: This creature benefits from graveyard synergies and can seamlessly integrate into strategies that take advantage of sacrificing permanents or discarding cards for value, supporting various combo archetypes.

Meta-Relevance: With a shifting MTG landscape, Lochmere Serpent stands out in a meta where control decks prevail, capable of ending games quickly or grinding out value over time. Its presence can deter opponents from attacking and can close out games when the moment is right.


How to beat

The Lochmere Serpent is a powerhouse in the world of Magic: The Gathering, presenting a multi-faceted threat with its ability to control the battlefield and strike at opportune moments. To successfully navigate against this menacing leviathan, players should prioritize graveyard management. As the serpent thrives on a filled graveyard, incorporate cards that can exile cards from graveyards to dampen its powers. Counterplay options like Tormod’s Crypt are essential in hindering the serpent’s return capabilities and its potential for card draw.

Utilizing instant speed removals, such as Murderous Rider or Swift End, will also be helpful to manage the serpent before it can dominate with its multiple abilities. Furthermore, keep mana open for countering crucial spells or the creature itself. Dastainful Stroke shines as a direct response to its casting, providing a cost-effective preventative measure. Conserving blockers with reach or flying can deter Lochmere Serpent’s direct attacks, ensuring your life total remains at a healthy level as you stabilize the board and look for ways to turn the tide in your favor.

Ultimately, the key to beating Lochmere Serpent lies in strategic resource denial, graveyard disruption, and timely removal, setting yourself up to control the flow of the game and eventually outmaneuver this deep-sea terror.


BurnMana Recommendations

If you’re on the hunt for strategic depth and game-changing power in your MTG arsenal, Lochmere Serpent is a card to consider. With its card advantage, resource acceleration, and surprise factor at instant speed, this serpent can be the turning point in a grueling match. However, balance its potential with careful deck construction to mitigate downsides such as its specific mana requirements. Whether you’re enhancing your collection or refining your blue-black deck, understanding the ins and outs of Lochmere Serpent and its interaction with the meta is crucial. For more insights and strategies around this formidable creature, dive deeper with us and enrich your gameplay.


Cards like Lochmere Serpent

Lochmere Serpent is a multifaceted creature card in Magic: The Gathering that can make a splash in any blue-black control deck. This serpentine behemoth from the Throne of Eldraine set mirrors the adaptability and potential of cards like Dream Eater. With Dream Eater, you get a flying creature that can bounce an opponent’s nonland permanent to their hand. Despite this handy interaction, Lochmere Serpent takes it up a notch with its ability to sacrifice islands for an unblockable turn and swamps to gain life and draw a card.

When considering versatility, Thassa’s Intervention also earns a spot in the conversation. As an instant, it doubles as a powerful counter spell or a means to dig deep for answers in your library. While not a creature, its utility at any stage of the game is undeniably useful. Yet, it lacks the board presence and recurring life gain that Lochmere Serpent affords players.

Ultimately, Lochmere Serpent offers a unique combination of evasion, sustain, and removal assistance that is quite rare for such cards. Its ability to decisively impact the game warrants a closer look for deckbuilders aiming to capitalize on its synergies in UB strategies.

Dream Eater - MTG Card versions
Thassa's Intervention - MTG Card versions
Dream Eater - Guilds of Ravnica (GRN)
Thassa's Intervention - Theros Beyond Death (THB)

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Lochmere Serpent MTG card by a specific set like Throne of Eldraine and Throne of Eldraine, 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 Lochmere Serpent and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Lochmere Serpent Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2019-10-04 and 2019-10-04. Illustrated by Sam Burley.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12019-10-04Throne of EldraineELD 1952015normalblackSam Burley
22019-10-04Throne of EldraineELD 3812015normalblackSam Burley

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Lochmere Serpent has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2019-10-04 Activating Lochmere Serpent's first activated ability after it has become blocked won't cause it to become unblocked.
2019-10-04 An Island is a land with the subtype Island, not any land that could produce blue mana. For example, Mystic Sanctuary is an Island, but Castle Vantress isn't. Similarly, a Swamp is a land with the subtype Swamp, not any land that could produce black mana.
2019-10-04 If each target card is an illegal target by the time Lochmere Serpent's last ability resolves, the entire ability won't resolve. Lochmere Serpent won't be returned.
2019-10-04 If up to four of the target cards are illegal targets by the time Lochmere Serpent's last ability resolves, the remaining legal targets are exiled and Lochmere Serpent is returned to your hand.
2019-10-04 You can't activate Lochmere Serpent's last ability without targeting five cards in a single opponent's graveyard.

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