Tidal Visionary MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Merfolk Wizard |
| Released | 2000-10-02 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Invasion |
| Set code | INV |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 80 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Glen Angus |
Text of card
oc T: Target creature becomes the color of your choice until end of turn.
Beneath the waves, things appear the way merfolk want them to.
Cards like Tidal Visionary
Within the realm of creature-based utility in Magic: The Gathering, the Tidal Visionary card offers a unique form of influence over the battlefield. It draws parallels with the Apprentice Wizard for its mana generation ability, albeit through a different lens. While Apprentice Wizard ramps up mana production, Tidal Visionary does not produce mana but instead, allows the player to change the color of a creature until end of turn.
This aspect of altering creature colors can be strategically important, much like the effect of Artificial Evolution, which permanently changes creature types within the text of a card. Tidal Visionary’s ability is temporary, yet it can be crucial in certain matchups. Comparably, Imagecrafter provides similar functionality but with a focus on creature types rather than color, enabling significant interactions and potential board advantages.
Ultimately, Tidal Visionary’s value lies in its versatile and repeatedly usable color-changing ability, acting as a key player in decks that capitalize on color-specific spells and abilities. Its strategic use adds a layer of tactical depth not commonly found in other creatures of its cost tier in Magic: The Gathering.
Cards similar to Tidal Visionary by color, type and mana cost
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Tidal Visionary can be incredibly strategic for setting up plays and ensuring you have the right tools at your disposal. By modifying creature types, you may enable synergies with other cards or disrupt your opponent’s combinations, potentially creating card advantage through enhanced interactions.
Resource Acceleration: While Tidal Visionary itself does not generate additional mana, its low-cost nature helps in accelerating your resource development. Its mere presence allows you to deploy more impactful cards sooner, as it does not heavily tax your mana pool.
Instant Speed: The ability of Tidal Visionary to change a creature’s type at instant speed grants you tremendous flexibility. You can adapt to the ever-changing battlefield, making surprise blocks or enabling instant speed interactions with other cards that require specific creature types—all this without needing to commit until the most opportune moment.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Tidal Visionary’s abilities don’t come without a cost. Players must be ready to discard cards, possibly depleting valuable hand resources. This can be significantly disadvantageous when card advantage is crucial to your strategy or if you are unable to generate sufficient card draw.
Specific Mana Cost: Tidal Visionary requires a precise mana arrangement to cast, necessitating blue mana in your pool. This condition can pose a constraint, primarily if your deck is not centered around blue or if you’re facing mana color shortages during gameplay. Such specificity can sometimes lead to the card being a dead draw at critical moments.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Tidal Visionary is not exorbitantly expensive to cast, its cost efficiency is a subject of debate. There are cards with less restrictive mana requirements or more impactful abilities at a similar or lower cost threshold. In a game where tempo and resource management are key, Tidal Visionary might not make the cut in highly competitive environments.
Reasons to Include Tidal Visionary in Your Collection
Versatility: Tidal Visionary offers the unique ability to change the color of a creature, which can be crucial for activating certain abilities or bypassing color-based defenses. It’s a card that fits smoothly into decks that need to manipulate creature colors on the fly.
Combo Potential: This card can slot into combos that depend on color-changing mechanics, setting up unexpected synergies that can catch opponents off guard. It’s particularly effective in decks designed to exploit color-specific triggers and interactions.
Meta-Relevance: As the meta fluctuates, having a card that can adjust to color-centric strategies ensures a degree of adaptability. In a meta where color matters, Tidal Visionary could prove to be a tactical asset, allowing for flexible responses to a variety of threats and situations.
How to Beat Tidal Visionary
Tidal Visionary is a card that can be quite an unexpected game-changer in Magic: The Gathering, specifically in formats where creature type matters greatly. With the ability to change the creature type of one’s own creatures at will, it can cleverly disrupt an opponent’s tribal synergies or enhance your own. However, this merfolk wizard becomes less effective when facing non-tribal decks or those that don’t necessarily rely on creature types for their strategy.
Spell removal is one straightforward tactic to counter Tidal Visionary. Cards like Doom Blade or Path to Exile offer a clean and efficient way to remove this nuisance from the battlefield before it can impact the board significantly. Further, with its modest toughness, it easily falls prey to most damage-based removal such as Lightning Bolt or Shock.
Moreover, a player can maneuver around Tidal Visionary’s ability by not allowing it to become a deciding factor in gameplay. Instead of focusing on tribal themes, they can shift to strategies that emphasize individual card strength or non-creature-based tactics. Through these means, Tidal Visionary’s potential can be notably diminished, rendering the card less of a threat during the match.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Tidal Visionary MTG card by a specific set like Invasion, 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 Tidal Visionary 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
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Tidal Visionary has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |