Tomb Blade MTG Card


Tomb Blade enables card filtering and potential hand improvement, crucial for strategic game planning. Instant speed plays provide adaptability, increasing turn efficiency while retaining complex strategy options. Despite its cost and specific demands, the card adds value to decks with graveyard synergies and creature removal.
Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeArtifact Creature — Necron
Abilities Flying,Unearth
Power 5
Toughness 4

Text of card

Flying Whenever Tomb Blade deals combat damage to a player, that player loses life equal to the number of creatures they control unless they sacrifice a creature. Unearth


Cards like Tomb Blade

Tomb Blade finds its peers within a special niche of removal spells in Magic: The Gathering. It’s often compared to other two-mana cost spells like Cast Down, which also serves the purpose of destroying a creature. However, Tomb Blade comes with a significant upside – the ability to draw a card if the creature it destroys had indestructible, granting not just removal but also card advantage.

Go for the Throat is another card that players might measure against Tomb Blade. It can eliminate non-artifact creatures at the same mana cost, but it doesn’t offer card draw, which limits its utility in comparison. Doom Blade also shares the two-mana spot, targeting non-black creatures. Like Go for the Throat, it lacks the added benefit of drawing a card, making Tomb Blade a potentially more attractive option for players who value versatility and deck cycling abilities.

By examining these choices, Tomb Blade can be highly regarded for its dual function. It handles threats on the battlefield and has the inherent potential to replenish the player’s hand, making it a compelling choice for removal in MTG decks that prioritize efficiency and resource sustainability.

Cast Down - MTG Card versions
Go for the Throat - MTG Card versions
Doom Blade - MTG Card versions
Cast Down - MTG Card versions
Go for the Throat - MTG Card versions
Doom Blade - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Tomb Blade by color, type and mana cost

Bolas's Citadel - MTG Card versions
Tribal Golem - MTG Card versions
Salvage Titan - MTG Card versions
Noxious Gearhulk - MTG Card versions
Bloodsoaked Altar - MTG Card versions
Trazyn the Infinite - MTG Card versions
Hexmark Destroyer - MTG Card versions
Blitzwing, Cruel Tormentor // Blitzwing, Adaptive Assailant - MTG Card versions
Goring Warplow - MTG Card versions
Bolas's Citadel - MTG Card versions
Tribal Golem - MTG Card versions
Salvage Titan - MTG Card versions
Noxious Gearhulk - MTG Card versions
Bloodsoaked Altar - MTG Card versions
Trazyn the Infinite - MTG Card versions
Hexmark Destroyer - MTG Card versions
Blitzwing, Cruel Tormentor // Blitzwing, Adaptive Assailant - MTG Card versions
Goring Warplow - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Tomb Blade offers consistent card filtering, presenting an opportunity to selectively improve your hand and strategize for upcoming plays or responses.

Resource Acceleration: Interactions enabled by Tomb Blade could potentially expedite your mana curve, structuring a path for a faster deployment of high-impact cards and solidifying your board presence.

Instant Speed: Its instant speed confers flexibility, permitting reactive play to adapt to the fluid dynamics of the game and maximizing turn efficiency without compromising strategic complexity.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of the main drawbacks of Tomb Blade is its discard requirement. To cast this card, you must discard another card from your hand, potentially depleting your valuable resources and disrupting your hand synergy.

Specific Mana Cost: Tomb Blade’s necessity for black mana in the casting cost may not align well with decks lacking substantial black mana sources, limiting the card’s versatility across various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost on the hefty side for its effects, players might find Tomb Blade less efficient compared to other options. Alternative cards might provide similar or better functionality at a lower mana investment, enhancing overall deck performance without such a significant cost.


Reasons to Include Tomb Blade in Your Collection

Versatility: Tomb Blade is a card that can seamlessly fit into various deck builds, particularly those that favor efficient creature removal. Its ability to target creatures ensures it is rarely a dead draw.

Combo Potential: This card can synergize well with strategies that capitalize on death triggers or graveyard manipulation, enabling intricate plays and tactical advantages over the course of a game.

Meta-Relevance: Considering the fluctuating MTG landscape, Tomb Blade holds its ground by being a potent answer to creature-heavy decks that often dominate the scene, thus securing its place as a mainstay in the current competitive metagame.


How to beat

Tomb Blade is a formidable force on the battlefield, often catching opponents off guard with its ability to cause disruption. To successfully counter this card, understanding its strengths and potential weaknesses is key. For starters, employing removal spells that can target Tomb Blade, even when it’s tapped, can be highly effective. This way you handle the threat before it yields significant value.

Strategic planning around card protection also plays a critical role. Ensuring you have countermeasures like hexproof or protection from black can nullify Tomb Blade’s impact, preserving your key creatures and game plan. Moreover, discard effects work exceptionally well in stripping this card from your opponent’s hand before it ever touches the play area. Deckbuilding with these tactics in mind will improve your resilience against threats like Tomb Blade and maintain a handle on the game’s progress.

In the larger scope of gameplay, realizing when to push your advantage versus when to hold back for defense against cards like Tomb Blade can turn the tide of the match. Assessing the battlefield and keeping a keen eye on your opponent’s mana can provide valuable insight into their capability of casting such threats. Since knowledge is power in the game of Magic: The Gathering, anticipation and preparedness will inevitably lead you to outmaneuver Tomb Blade’s disruptive influence.


Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Tomb Blade MTG card by a specific set like Warhammer 40,000 Commander and Warhammer 40,000 Commander, 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 Tomb Blade and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Tomb Blade Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2022-10-07 and 2022-10-07. Illustrated by Darren Tan.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12022-10-07Warhammer 40,000 Commander40K 642015NormalBlackDarren Tan
22022-10-07Warhammer 40,000 Commander40K 64★2015NormalBlackDarren Tan

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Tomb Blade has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2022-10-07 Activating a permanent card's unearth ability isn’t the same as casting it as a spell. The unearth ability is put on the stack, but the card is not. Spells and abilities that interact with activated abilities (such as Stifle) will interact with unearth, but spells and abilities that interact with spells (such as Cancel) will not.
2022-10-07 At the beginning of the end step, a permanent returned to the battlefield with unearth is exiled. This is a delayed triggered ability, and it can be countered by effects that counter triggered abilities. If the ability is countered, the permanent will stay on the battlefield and the delayed trigger won’t trigger again. However, the replacement effect will still exile it if it eventually leaves the battlefield.
2022-10-07 If a permanent returned to the battlefield by an unearth ability would leave it for any reason, it’s exiled instead—unless the spell or ability that's causing it to leave the battlefield is actually trying to exile it. In that case, the spell or ability succeeds at exiling the permanent. If the spell or ability later returns the card to the battlefield, it will return as a new object with no relation to its previous existence. The unearth effect will no longer apply to it.
2022-10-07 If you activate a card’s unearth ability but that card is removed from your graveyard before the ability resolves, that unearth ability will resolve and do nothing.
2022-10-07 Unearth grants haste to the permanent that’s returned to the battlefield. However, neither of the “exile” abilities is granted to that permanent. If that creature loses all its abilities, it will still be exiled at the beginning of the end step, and if it would leave the battlefield, it is still exiled instead.