Topography Tracker MTG Card
Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
Mana cost | |
Converted mana cost | 3 |
Rarity | Rare |
Type | Creature — Merfolk Scout |
Abilities | Explore |
Power | 2 |
Toughness | 2 |
Text of card
When Topography Tracker enters the battlefield, create a Map token. If a creature you control would explore, instead it explores, then it explores again.
"Good thing I'm not afraid of heights."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Topography Tracker card offers an edge by enabling you to potentially draw additional cards each time a land enters the battlefield under your control. This essentially turns each land drop into an opportunity to gain an advantage over your opponent by increasing the number of options available to you.
Resource Acceleration: As you continue to play lands, Topography Tracker can significantly enhance your resource acceleration. This ongoing effect ensures that you’re not just developing your board position but also building toward a more powerful game state with each land you play.
Instant Speed: While the Topography Tracker itself is not an instant, it allows you to capitalize on the lands played at instant speed through various game mechanics. It interacts favorably with effects that put lands onto the battlefield during either player’s turn, ensuring you get the most out of your lands no matter when they’re played.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Topography Tracker’s need to discard a card could pressure your hand, especially in a tight game where every card counts. This demand could backfire, turning potential advantages into a burdensome necessity to fulfill its conditions.
Specific Mana Cost: The Tracker’s reliance on green mana restricts its use predominantly to green or multicolored decks. This requirement can pose a challenge in integrating it into various strategies that do not align with green’s natural themes or mechanics.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although Topography Tracker brings certain value to the table, its mana cost can be a stumbling block. For a game where tempo is critical, there are alternative exploration or creature cards that offer similar or even better effects without the heftier mana investment.
Reasons to Include Topography Tracker in Your Collection
Versatility: Topography Tracker has a flexible role in various deck builds, capable of acting as an early-game threat in aggro setups or a value-generating creature in landfall decks.
Combo Potential: This card synergizes well with land ramp strategies, boosting its power each turn and enabling potent combos with cards that put multiple lands into play.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where land-based strategies prevail, Topography Tracker emerges as a key player, providing consistent board presence and pressure on your opponents.
How to beat
Topography Tracker can be a challenging card to confront on the battlefield. It offers players a unique advantage by allowing them to draw a card whenever land enters the battlefield under their control. This creates a sustainable draw engine that can feed an opponent’s hand, giving them a significant resource edge as the game progresses.
Counteracting Topography Tracker’s advantage often requires a strategy that limits or disrupts land-play abilities. Cards that restrict land drops or exile lands from play can stifle the Tracker’s effectiveness. Targeted removal spells can also be a quick solution to take the Tracker off the board before its benefits can be reaped. Similarly, taking control of the opponent’s turn with cards that affect turn sequence can prevent land drops, effectively rendering the Tracker’s ability mute for a rotation.
By evaluating and selecting correct answers for your deck, you can effectively neutralize Topography Tracker’s strengths. Efficient removal, turn disruption, and land-drop limitation can offer a strategic upper hand. Incorporating such elements into your game plan will help ensure that cards like Topography Tracker do not dominate the play and tip the scales too far in favor of your opposition.
BurnMana Recommendations
MTG enthusiasts always seek the upper hand in their deck-building tactics. If you’re keen on leveraging land-based strategies, Topography Tracker merits consideration for its potential to provide card advantage and sustain your game’s momentum. While it’s not without its challenges, such as its specific mana requirements and comparative mana cost, its benefits can be immense in the right setup. We encourage you to weave this card into your strategy where it fits and experience the rewarding gameplay it can offer. For more insights on optimizing your deck and taking your MTG skills to the next level, join our community of passionate players.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Topography Tracker MTG card by a specific set like The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan 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 Topography Tracker 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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Printings
The Topography Tracker Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2023-11-17 and 2023-11-17. Illustrated by Lindsey Look.
# | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2023-11-17 | The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander | LCC | 63 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Lindsey Look | |
2 | 2023-11-17 | The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander | LCC | 95 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Lindsey Look |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Topography Tracker has restrictions
Format | Legality |
---|---|
Commander | Legal |
Legacy | Legal |
Oathbreaker | Legal |
Vintage | Legal |
Duel | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Topography Tracker card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
Date | Text |
---|---|
2023-11-10 | If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature explores" trigger as appropriate. |
2023-11-10 | If an ability instructs a creature to explore, its controller reveals the top card of their library. If it's a land card, they'll put it into their hand. Otherwise, they'll put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then choose to either leave that card on top of their library or put it into their graveyard. |
2023-11-10 | If no card is revealed, most likely because that player's library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter. |
2023-11-10 | In some unusual cases, noncreature permanents may explore. For example, if the creature card returned by Defossilize is somehow not a creature once it's on the battlefield, it can still explore. You'll take all the same actions, and you may end up putting a +1/+1 counter on the permanent. (Note that some effects target a creature, and those effects would still require a legal target to have it explore.) |
2023-11-10 | Map tokens are a kind of predefined token. Each one is a colorless artifact with the artifact subtype Map and the ability ", , Sacrifice this artifact: Target creature you control explores. Activate only as a sorcery." |
2023-11-10 | Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter. |
2023-11-10 | Some spells or abilities might cause a creature to explore multiple times in a row. If you reveal a nonland card when a creature explores and leave it on top of your library, then the creature explores again immediately afterwards, you'll reveal the same card again. |