Animate Library MTG Card
Key Takeaways
- Provides card advantage by making every card in your library a looming threat.
- Offers resource acceleration and psychological advantage with its surprise attack potential.
- However, it comes with significant mana and hand size drawbacks to consider.
Text of card
Enchant your library Enchanted library is an artifact creature on the battlefield with power and toughness each equal to the number of cards in it. It's still a library. If enchanted library would leave the battlefield, exile Animate Library instead.
Sometimes the books hit back.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Animate Library turns your library into a creature, effectively making every card in it a potential threat. This can overwhelm your opponent with the sheer number of attacks you’re able to generate.
Resource Acceleration: As a unique enchantment, Animate Library can capitalize on enhancements and buffs that can be used to bolster your library-turned-creature. This offers a significant uptick in your offensive capabilities as your entire library can become an immense power on the battlefield.
Instant Speed: While Animate Library itself isn’t an instant, its ability to turn your library into a creature at a moment’s notice means that your opponent must always account for a potential heavy-hitter appearing on the board. This can lead to a psychological advantage as your opponent may hesitate to commit to strategies that leave them open to a massive library attack.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One of the drawbacks of the Animate Library card is the necessity to discard another card. This requirement can pose a strategic disadvantage, especially when your hand is already sparse, compelling you to forfeit potentially beneficial cards to summon the library creature.
Specific Mana Cost: Animate Library demands a specific combination of mana, including both blue and green, to cast. This requirement can be restrictive as it fits primarily into Simic decks, potentially limiting its playability across various deck archetypes that don’t focus on these colors.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that is on the higher end of the spectrum, Animate Library’s hefty mana requirement might be considered inefficient when compared to other cards that can provide a potent board presence or card advantage for the same, if not lower, investment.
Reasons to Include Animate Library in Your Collection
Versatility: Animate Library offers a unique approach to creature-based strategies. It allows your library to literally enter the battlefield, making it suitable for decks that manipulate the size of the library or enjoy a surprise factor.
Combo Potential: As a card that can turn your library into a creature, Animate Library has considerable synergy with effects that protect, enhance, or even sacrifice creatures for benefit. This opens up avenues for inventive combos and unexpected plays.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where enchantments are not the focus of removal, Animate Library could thrive. Its ability to become a significant threat on the board may catch opponents off guard, making it a potentially powerful addition in the right circumstances.
How to beat
Animate Library is a unique and tricky card in Magic: The Gathering, bringing a player’s library into the battlefield as a formidable creature. To effectively counter this card, prepare removal spells in your deck to address the creature as soon as it animates and becomes vulnerable to creature-targeting removal. Board wipes are especially effective as they can reset the playing field and remove the animated library alongside any other threats. It’s also wise to incorporate instant speed interaction, allowing you to respond to your opponent’s move at a time that disrupts their strategy the most.
Moreover, countering the initial enchantment spell before it resolves is a straightforward way to prevent the library from ever becoming a creature. If Animate Library is already in play, look for ways to reduce the card count in the animated library, decreasing its power and toughness, making it easier to deal with. Playing around with enchantment removals like Disenchant can also directly target and eliminate Animate Library, reverting the library back to its original non-creature state.
Managing your resources and keeping removal or counter spells at the ready when facing off against decks that might run Animate Library will keep you one step ahead. Mastering anticipation and response is key when up against such unconventional strategies that aim to turn the tides of a game with a single spell.
Cards like Animate Library
Animate Library from MTG brings a unique twist to the battlefield by turning your library itself into a creature. This novelty shines largely when compared to other cards with a similar transformative ability, such as Living Lands, which animates all forests into 1/1 creatures. While Living Lands impacts multiple permanents, Animate Library targets only one but with a potentially higher power and toughness.
Another card worth mentioning in this context is Opalescence, which turns all enchantments into creatures. Although not directly transforming the library, it affects a broad range of permanents and can dramatically change the game’s dynamics. However, Animate Library sets itself apart by directly attacking opponents with your knowledge (your deck), an angle that Opalescence doesn’t offer.
Ensuring your MTG decks have versatile and powerful cards to alter the playing field is crucial, and Animate Library definitely leaves a memorable impact for gamers who want to animate something more unconventional than lands or enchantments.
Cards similar to Animate Library by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Animate Library MTG card by a specific set like Unstable and The List (Unfinity Foil Edition), 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 Animate Library and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- 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
Printings
The Animate Library Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2017-12-08 and 2022-10-07. Illustrated by Raymond Swanland.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2017-12-08 | Unstable | UST | 26 | 2015 | Normal | Silver | Raymond Swanland | |
| 2 | 2022-10-07 | The List (Unfinity Foil Edition) | ULST | 11 | 2015 | Normal | Silver | Raymond Swanland |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Animate Library card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2018-01-19 | Animate Library can’t enchant your Contraption deck. |
| 2018-01-19 | If Animate Library leaves the battlefield, your library goes back to being a normal library. |
| 2018-01-19 | If your animated library becomes four libraries because of Split Screen, Animate Library stays attached to one of them of your choice. Only that one is a creature. |
| 2018-01-19 | While your library is a creature, it can become enchanted or equipped, it can be tapped and untapped, and it can attack and block like other creatures. |
