Unholy Hunger MTG Card

Unholy Hunger excels in creature removal and tactical flexibility with its instant speed. The card can be mana-intensive and specific, limiting its use in diverse decks. Despite cost, it’s a strategic choice for decks that consistently reach spell mastery.

Magic Origins (ORI)
2015-07-17 - Number 125

Ultimate Masters (UMA)
2018-12-07 - Number 120

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant
Abilities	Spell mastery

Text of card

Destroy target creature. Spell mastery — If there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, you gain 2 life.

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Cards like Unholy Hunger

Unholy Hunger stands out in Magic: The Gathering as a prominent removal spell, aligning closely with others such as Murder. Both cards hold the fundamental ability to destroy target creature, ensuring you can tackle major threats on the board. Where Unholy Hunger differentiates itself is in its ability to gain life with spell mastery, a vital advantage in stabilizing your health total during a game. Murder, while efficient and straightforward, doesn’t offer that same potential lifeline.

Analyzing further, we can draw parallels to Hero’s Downfall, which shares the instant speed and creature removal qualities but extends its reach to planeswalkers. The broader scope of Hero’s Downfall can justify its higher mana cost in a diverse meta-game. Conversely, Unholy Hunger remains more narrowly focused on creatures but compensates with its life-gain upside under the right conditions.

Considering these aspects, Unholy Hunger finds its niche in MTG as a reliable piece of creature control, a bit more specialized than some of its kindred spells. Its unique edge in recovering life underlines its value in decks that can regularly achieve spell mastery, making it a nuanced and strategic choice in player arsenals.

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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Unholy Hunger provides the distinct advantage of eliminating a creature threat from the game, effectively diminishing your opponent’s resources while preserving your own. This can be paramount in swinging the game state to your favor and setting you up for a more advantageous position.

Resource Acceleration: While Unholy Hunger doesn’t directly produce mana or ramp, the very act of removing a key creature can be seen as a form of resource acceleration. By clearing the path of blockers or potential threats, it allows your own creatures to attack more freely, potentially speeding up your victory and preserving your mana for other spells.

Instant Speed: One of Unholy Hunger’s strengths is its instant speed, allowing flexible gameplay. This enables you to wait until the most opportune moment during your opponent’s turn to remove a troublesome creature, after they’ve committed mana to it or in response to an attack. The ability to act during your opponent’s turn adds a layer of surprise and strategic depth to your gameplay.

Card Cons

Specific Mana Cost: Unholy Hunger requires both black mana and generic mana to cast—specifically three generic and two black. This specificity can be a limiting factor, potentially restricting it to mono-black or two-color decks where black is a primary color, thereby limiting its versatility in a broader range of deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a total casting cost of five mana, Unholy Hunger is expensive compared to other removal spells in the game. While it does offer creature removal and a potential life gain with spell mastery, players may find that other, less costly removal spells could fit more efficiently into their game plan or allow for better use of mana throughout the game.

Discard Requirement: Although Unholy Hunger does not have a discard requirement, the need to potentially hold onto it until a crucial moment due to its high mana cost means it could be a dead card in hand during the early game as players race to establish their board presence with creatures and other spells. This delay could lead to missed opportunities or a disadvantageous position as players cannot utilize their mana as efficiently in the early stages of the game.

Reasons to Include Unholy Hunger in Your Collection

Versatility: Unholy Hunger offers valuable spot removal, allowing you to deal with major threats across a wide variety of matchups. It’s highly adaptable to different deck strategies, from control to mid-range builds craving reliable creature elimination.

Combo Potential: This card’s spell mastery ability enhances your in-game arsenal when there’s a need to maintain board control while gaining life, making it a synergistic option for decks that aim to leverage their graveyard for added effects.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creatures dominate and threats must be answered swiftly, Unholy Hunger holds its ground as an essential disruptor. Its capacity to remove threats and potentially stabilize your life total gives it a distinct relevance, especially in games that stretch into longer battles.

How to beat

Unholy Hunger is an intriguing removal card in Magic: The Gathering. It stands out with its ability to destroy any creature, regardless of its toughness. However, this power comes at the cost of five mana, which can be considered expensive in fast-paced games. Unlike other spells with lower mana costs, such as Doom Blade or Go for the Throat, which target nonblack creatures for less, Unholy Hunger competes with its universal removal ability at the expense of speed and efficiency.

Furthermore, Unholy Hunger’s spell mastery bonus, where you gain two life if there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, can be seen as a conditional benefit. Cards like Murderous Cut can be cast for a single mana using delve, and while they lack the life gain, they offer a similar universal removal effect for greatly reduced costs. This comparison shows how a keen understanding of the board state and careful management of resources can play a vital role in outpacing Unholy Hunger’s hefty mana investment.

Ultimately, while Unholy Hunger provides a certain level of security by being able to destroy any creature, adept players will recognize the need to weigh its cost against other efficient removal spells that could better align with their deck’s strategy and pace.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Unholy Hunger MTG card by a specific set like Magic Origins and Ultimate Masters, 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 Unholy Hunger and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Unholy Hunger Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2015-07-17 and 2018-12-07. Illustrated by Lius Lasahido.

#	Released	Name	Code	Symbol	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2015-07-17	Magic Origins	ORI		125	2015	Normal	Black	Lius Lasahido
2	2018-12-07	Ultimate Masters	UMA		120	2015	Normal	Black	Lius Lasahido

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Unholy Hunger has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2015-06-22	Check to see if there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard as the spell resolves to determine whether the spell mastery ability applies. The spell itself won’t count because it’s still on the stack as you make this check.