Floodwater Dam MTG Card

Alliances (ALL)
1996-06-10 - Number 119

Floodwater Dam - Masters Edition IV (ME4)

Masters Edition IV (ME4)
2011-01-10 - Number 200

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact

Key Takeaways

Bouncing multiple threats, Floodwater Dam provides significant card advantage and can be a game-saving play.
Instant speed allows for surprise plays and control over game tempo, essential for MTG strategic depth.
While powerful, the higher mana cost and discard requirement highlight the need for strategic deck integration.

Text of card

o Xo Xo1, oc T: Tap X target lands.

Viscerid dams may be of living creatures as well as bones and mud.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Floodwater Dam card offers the capability to bounce multiple threats or intensive board states back to the opponent’s hand, generating significant card advantage and potentially saving you from losing the game.

Resource Acceleration: By resetting the board, this card indirectly accelerates your resources by allowing you more time to develop your land drops and potentially keeping your opponent from executing their strategy, giving you the upper hand.

Instant Speed: The strength of Floodwater Dam being an instant cannot be overstated. It gives you the flexibility to respond to your opponent’s moves during their turn or end step, ensuring you maintain the element of surprise and control the pace of the game.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The card requires you to discard, potentially stripping your hand of critical resources. This can be especially detrimental if the card you’re letting go of is integral to your strategy or if your hand size is already compromised.

Specific Mana Cost: With Floodwater Dam demanding a precise combination of mana, it might not be an ideal fit for every deck. Decks lacking the necessary color diversity might struggle to cast it efficiently, potentially causing disruptions in your game plan.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When assessing its cost-effectiveness, Floodwater Dam’s mana requirement is on the higher end for its offered abilities. Players might find that in competitive settings, where speed and efficiency are key, alternatives that provide similar or better effects at a lower cost could be more viable choices.

Reasons to Include Floodwater Dam in Your Collection

Versatility: Floodwater Dam offers flexibility in controlling the board state. It can be used to slow down opponents by untapping only during your turn, which makes it useful in decks that prioritize timing and resource management.

Combo Potential: With the right setup, this card’s ability to manage multiple lands simultaneously creates opportunities for synergies with cards that benefit from lands entering the battlefield or becoming untapped. This can lead to powerful plays that can shift the game in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment that’s heavy on aggro decks, Floodwater Dam serves as a strategic piece to disrupt the pace of your opponent’s attacks, making it a valuable tool in more control-oriented decks that need time to establish their winning conditions.

How to beat

Floodwater Dam presents a unique challenge in the strategic landscape of Magic: The Gathering. This card can be a game-changer by repeatedly bouncing or returning creatures to a player’s hand, disrupting their battlefield presence. It essentially pauses opponents’ momentum and gives the controller a breather, especially when faced with an overwhelming board state.

To outmaneuver this card, focus on cards that counteract or bypass the Dam’s abilities. Playing instant-speed removal enables you to deal with the Dam before it becomes operational. Alternatively, including cards in your deck that grant your creatures hexproof protects them from becoming targets. Another effective strategy involves cards that quickly rebuild your board presence. Floodwater Dam’s ability requires a mana investment to activate, so using low-cost creatures lets you redeploy threats without significant loss of tempo.

It is critical to recognize that while Floodwater Dam can control the board, its effect is tempo-based rather than final. It delays but doesn’t remove threats permanently. A mindful, aggressive strategy and a deck designed to cope with setbacks will keep you a step ahead of the watery defenses that Floodwater Dam represents.

Cards like Floodwater Dam

Floodwater Dam is an interesting card among the lineup of control tools available to Magic: The Gathering players. It holds a certain kinship with cards like Boomerang, which allows players to return target permanents to their owner’s hand. However, Floodwater Dam offers a more expansive reach by potentially returning up to two target creatures to the hand, albeit at a higher activation cost and being limited to controlling creatures only.

Analogous to Floodwater Dam is something like Unsummon. Unsummon is a more straightforward and mana-efficient spell that targets a single creature. Although it doesn’t have the repetitive utility of Floodwater Dam, it compensates with its lower cost and ability to disrupt the opponent’s board early in the game. Then there’s Cyclonic Rift, a versatile card with the potential to upend an entire board state late in the game, bypassing the limitation of targeting only creatures and affecting each opponent.

In weighing the strategic versatility and potential impact on a game, Floodwater Dam presents a unique place in control strategies within Magic: The Gathering. It may not be as immediately impactful as other spells, but it offers a persistent threat to creatures that can sway the course of a match over time.

Cards similar to Floodwater Dam by color, type and mana cost

Scale of Chiss-Goria - MTG Card versions

Sword of Feast and Famine - MTG Card versions

Guardians of Meletis - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Floodwater Dam MTG card by a specific set like Alliances and Masters Edition IV, 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 Floodwater Dam and other MTG cards: