Moon-Eating Dog MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Dog
Power 3
Toughness 3

Key Takeaways

  1. Leveraging Moon-Eating Dog can swiftly boost your land count and amplify your mana resources.
  2. Instant speed of the card allows players to unexpectedly shape their strategy and maintain advantage.
  3. Mindful usage is key, as its casting cost might affect deck tempo and resource allocation.

Text of card

As long as you control a Yanling planeswalker, Moon-Eating Dog has flying. (It can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.)

The most nimble of creatures, it chases the most sacred luminence.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Moon-Eating Dog provides a unique method to sift through your deck by exiling cards from the top until you hit a desired land. This can significantly enhance your ability to access the right resources at the right time, ensuring that you always have a favorable hand.

Resource Acceleration: Leveraging Moon-Eating Dog’s maneuverability in play can lead to a significant ramp up in your mana resources. By retrieving that crucial land from exile, you efficiently increase the lands at your disposal, thereby accelerating your game plan and prowess on the battlefield.

Instant Speed: With its ability to act at instant speed, Moon-Eating Dog allows for considerable flexibility in your strategy. You can wait until the tail-end of your opponent’s turn to utilize its effect, keeping up the guise of a full hand ready to respond and thus maintaining a strong, strategic position.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Moon-Eating Dog’s ability necessitates discarding another card, which might deplete your hand and reduce strategic options, especially if your deck doesn’t capitalize on graveyard synergy or card recycling mechanics.

Specific Mana Cost: Its casting cost requires specific mana, making it less flexible in multicolored decks that might struggle with mana consistency. Devoting resources to a single colored source can sometimes backfire, leading to delays or inability to play the card when needed.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While its ability can be quite impactful, the mana investment is significant. This can affect tempo, as allocating four mana in one turn could prevent you from deploying other spells or developing your board presence. Additionally, in the fast-paced games where efficiency is key, the high cost might hinge the card’s playability against lower-costing alternatives.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Moon-Eating Dog offers the flexibility to adapt in various deck builds. Its ability to control the graveyard makes it useful in disrupting opponent strategies while strengthening your board presence.

Combo Potential: This card acts as an enabler for graveyard-based combos, seamlessly integrating into strategies that capitalize on creature deaths or graveyard manipulation to turn the tide of the game.

Meta-Relevance: Given its unique skillset, Moon-Eating Dog is positioned well within a meta where graveyard play is abundant, providing a counter to prevalent decks and gaining an edge in the competitive scene.


How to beat

Moon-Eating Dog presents players with an interesting tactical quandary in Magic: The Gathering. For those unfamiliar, this card can become quite the obstacle, especially considering its ability to convert night into day or day into night each time it enters the battlefield or attacks. Wisely maneuvering around this comes down to understanding this transformational dynamic and utilizing strategies to minimize its impact. One effective approach is to limit the number of times it can toggle between day and night. This could mean avoiding sacrificing creatures when Moon-Eating Dog’s ability is on the stack or by using removal spells in response.

Maintaining control over the battlefield is key. Consider employing instant-speed removal or counter spells when the opposing player attempts to bring Moon-Eating Dog into play. It’s also beneficial to have an array of creatures with power and toughness greater than what Moon-Eating Dog could potentially have. Another strategy is managing your turns to prevent it from increasing its size due to the changing of day and night. Keep these strategies in mind, and your encounters with Moon-Eating Dog will be much less daunting as you navigate the game’s celestial cycles.


Cards like Moon-Eating Dog

Moon-Eating Dog exhibits unique characteristics when viewed against the backdrop of creature cards in Magic: The Gathering. It aligns with cards such as Nightpack Ambusher in terms of being a creature that can impact the board simply by its presence. While Nightpack Ambusher rewards players for not casting spells by creating additional Wolf creature tokens, Moon-Eating Dog offers a different kind of utility with its graveyard interaction.

Looking further, Erebos’s Intervention stands out with its graveyard hate and life gain potential. Similarly, Moon-Eating Dog also presents graveyard disruption by exiling cards; however, it forgoes the life gain for a potentially steadier board presence. Another parallel can be drawn with Scavenging Ooze, which provides both gradual graveyard clearance and creature growth, yet it doesn’t bring the raw power that Moon-Eating Dog could muster in a single turn.

In scrutinizing these comparisons, it becomes evident that Moon-Eating Dog can establish and affect games in ways that are distinct within the MTG landscape. Its combination of power and graveyard hate solidifies its position as a card worth considering for players looking to disrupt opponent strategies while developing their board state.

Nightpack Ambusher - MTG Card versions
Erebos's Intervention - MTG Card versions
Scavenging Ooze - MTG Card versions
Nightpack Ambusher - Core Set 2020 Promos (PM20)
Erebos's Intervention - Theros Beyond Death Promos (PTHB)
Scavenging Ooze - Commander 2011 (CMD)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Moon-Eating Dog MTG card by a specific set like Treasure Chest and Global Series Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling, 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 Moon-Eating Dog and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Moon-Eating Dog Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2016-11-16 and 2018-06-22. Illustrated by Tingting Yeh.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12016-11-16Treasure ChestPZ2 708232015normalblackTingting Yeh
22018-06-22Global Series Jiang Yanggu & Mu YanlingGS1 102015normalblackTingting Yeh
32020-09-26The ListPLST GS1-102015normalblackTingting Yeh

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Moon-Eating Dog has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderRestricted
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

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