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Card Pros

Card Advantage: Ashen Rider presents a powerful opportunity for card advantage through its exile ability, eliminating key threats from the opponent’s board without resorting to destruction — a boon in matches against indestructible or regenerating creatures. Notably, this advantage is repeated, as Ashen Rider exiles another target when it dies, frequently resulting in a two-for-one scenario in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: Although Ashen Rider itself doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, it fits remarkably well in decks that facilitate cheating it into play. Through reanimation strategies or other means to put it onto the battlefield without paying its high mana cost, Ashen Rider accelerates your resource impact by bringing a costly effect into play much earlier than normally possible. The result is a swift and powerful change in the balance of resources between players.

Instant Speed: Though Ashen Rider is not itself an instant, its enter-the-battlefield and leaves-the-battlefield triggers work much like an instant-speed removal effect, purging a target at a moment’s notice. This includes interacting favorably with instant-speed blink or reanimation effects that can be employed during an opponent’s turn, offering tactical flexibility and surprise value against your adversaries.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Ashen Rider does not require a discard upon casting, it demands a considerable commitment from your card pool when it leaves the battlefield or dies, due to its exile ability. This can potentially reduce your hand advantage over opponents, especially when repeatedly targeted for removal.

Specific Mana Cost: Ashen Rider comes with a very color-specific mana cost. Requiring two white and two black mana can be a significant challenge in decks lacking a stable mana base or those that operate on a multicolor scheme, potentially restricting its inclusion to only certain types of decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an eight mana cost, Ashen Rider is a late-game play. Its heavyweight mana requirement means that in faster-paced games or metas dominated by lower-cost creatures and spells, the card may remain stuck in your hand as action unfolds swiftly on the board.

Reasons to Include Ashen Rider in Your Collection

Versatility: Ashen Rider boasts a strong presence in formats like Commander, where its enter-the-battlefield and leave-the-battlefield effects can handle a wide array of permanent types. This makes it adaptable across various deck archetypes that value removal.

Combo Potential: Ashen Rider can be a linchpin in reanimation strategies, pairing well with effects that cheat it onto the battlefield early or repeatedly. When combined with sacrifice outlets, its exile abilities can be exploited multiple times, disrupting opponents significantly.

Meta-Relevance: Given that this card can unconditionally exile any target permanent, it remains relevant in metas crowded with indestructible or hexproof threats. It’s an effective answer to otherwise resilient threats, maintaining its utility in a variety of competitive environments.

How to beat

The Ashen Rider is a formidable presence in any MTG match, often leaving players scrambling for answers upon its arrival. With its exile effect upon entering and leaving the battlefield, it can disrupt strategies and remove key pieces from the game. To overcome this challenge, the focus should be on preventing the Rider from triggering its powerful abilities.

A well-timed counterspell can be your best line of defense, stopping the Ashen Rider before it can even hit the field. Consider cards like Negate or Dissolve, which not only counter but also give you additional benefits through card scrying. In cases where countering is not an option, aim to remove the Rider without sending it to the graveyard to avoid its leave-the-battlefield effect. Direct exile effects such as Path to Exile — which often find a place in control decks — help you sidestep the Ashen Rider’s menacing trigger.

Finally, if the Rider does make its way onto the battlefield, limiting its impact is key. This can be achieved through bounce spells, shuffling it back into the library, or transforming it into a less threatening form with cards like Imprisoned in the Moon. Strategic play is essential to outmaneuver the Ashen Rider’s daunting presence.

BurnMana Recommendations

With the Ashen Rider’s entry and exit exile abilities, it truly stands as a versatile titan capable of shaking up the battlefield in MTG. If you’re captivated by control tactics or looking to fine-tune a reanimator deck project, incorporating Ashen Rider might just be your strategic coup. Managing to deploy this power play without incurring its hefty mana cost can pivot the game in your favor. Seize the chance to deepen your understanding and integration of such a formidable card in your deck arsenal. We invite you to dive deeper into strategic deck building and optimal play methodologies. Discover more insights and tips just a click away, and transform your MTG experiences into consistent victories.