Sylvan Hierophant MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Human Cleric
Released	1997-06-09
Set symbol
Set name	Weatherlight
Set code	WTH
Power	1
Toughness	2
Number	141
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Brian Durfee

Key Takeaways

Sylvan Hierophant offers card advantage by reclaiming resources from the graveyard, vital for maintaining momentum.
Its instant speed ability adds depth, allowing for end-of-turn plays and strategic unpredictability.
Despite its benefits, the card requires a discard and specific mana, which may limit its utility.

Text of card

If Sylvan Hierophant is put into any graveyard from play, remove Sylvan Hierophant from the game, then return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Sylvan Hierophant offers a unique way to generate card advantage. By recycling cards from the graveyard to your hand, it ensures you have an ongoing stream of resources, which is crucial for outpacing your opponent over the course of the game.

Resource Acceleration: This card shines by facilitating resource acceleration. Its ability to return land cards from the graveyard to your hand can be particularly advantageous, permitting an additional land drop per turn and smoothing out your mana curve for a more efficient play sequence.

Instant Speed: One of the Hierophant’s strong suits is operating at instant speed. This allows for flexibility and tactical depth, as you can wait until the end of your opponent’s turn before deciding whether to utilize its ability, maintaining the element of surprise and forcing your opponent to play around unknown variables.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Sylvan Hierophant’s ability necessitates discarding a card, which might deplete your hand and reduce your options during the game.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s green and white mana cost can be restrictive, making it less versatile and potentially difficult to play in multicolored decks not focused on these colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that includes both green and white mana plus additional resources to activate its abilities, it may be seen as less mana-efficient when compared to other options in the same mana range.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Sylvan Hierophant’s ability to function as graveyard manipulation can help in multiple deck types, most notably in strategies that leverage graveyard resources. It’s a flexible tool in green decks, capable of adapting to various in-game situations.

Combo Potential: When it comes to assembling powerful interactions, the Hierophant shines by working with cards that benefit from creature cards entering the graveyard. This can unlock new levels of synergy within combo-oriented decks.

Meta-Relevance: Given the prevalence of graveyard-based strategies in many MTG formats, having a card like Sylvan Hierophant can provide an edge by either fueling your own tactics or disrupting your opponents’ deck mechanics.

How to beat

Sylvan Hierophant offers its controller a unique strategic advantage by providing graveyard manipulation through its creature-return ability. In the highly strategic environment of Magic: The Gathering, overpowering a card like this involves disrupting the synergies that it enables. Tactics such as graveyard hate, with cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, can nullify the value generated by Sylvan Hierophant, as it hinges on the creatures in the graveyard. Additionally, enchantment destruction or direct creature removal spells, like Naturalize or Doom Blade, can prevent or undo the set-up that Sylvan Hierophant creates. It is essential to anticipate and cut off the strategic avenues that it can open up for an opponent, ensuring that their planned recursion does not come to fruition.

Another strategy is to deny your opponent’s creature targets. With sweepers like Wrath of God or Supreme Verdict, you can clear the board, ensuring that there are no beneficiary creatures for Sylvan Hierophant’s ability to target. Quick responses with counterspells such as Negate when Sylvan Hierophant is cast or when its ability is activated can also effectively counteract the potential threats it represents.

Understanding and strategically planning against the strengths of Sylvan Hierophant allows players to maintain control of the game, pushing them closer to victory in the complex battlefield of Magic: The Gathering.

Cards like Sylvan Hierophant

Diving into the world of flexible Mana dorks in MTG, Sylvan Hierophant provides a unique approach to mana acceleration and versatility on the battlefield. With the ability to sacrifice itself for a burst of mana, this card stands in line with other Mana-producing creatures such as Birds of Paradise. However, unlike its winged counterpart, which provides a continuous source of any color mana, Sylvan Hierophant offers a singular, albeit potentially game-changing, burst of mana upon its exit.

Exploring further, Llanowar Elves also presents itself as a comparable mana-generating creature, valued for its steadfastness in committing to just one color. The Hierophant nudges ahead with the benefit of selecting from two color choices, but it’s a one-time deal. Elvish Mystic falls into the same category but mirrors Llanowar Elves in both cost and function, highlighting the Hierophant’s distinctive sacrifice mechanic as a novel though finite alternative.

In evaluating mana acceleration options in MTG, Sylvan Hierophant may not offer the long-term mana stability as some of its counterparts but hones in on flexible, immediate mana bursts that can propel critical plays and potentially tilt the scales in pivotal game moments.

Cards similar to Sylvan Hierophant by color, type and mana cost

Eladamri, Lord of Leaves - MTG Card versions

Silverglade Pathfinder - MTG Card versions

Llanowar Loamspeaker - MTG Card versions

Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse - MTG Card versions

Mayor of Avabruck // Howlpack Alpha - MTG Card versions

Wren's Run Vanquisher - MTG Card versions

Ayula, Queen Among Bears - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Sylvan Hierophant MTG card by a specific set like Weatherlight, 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 Sylvan Hierophant and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Sylvan Hierophant has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Restricted
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2007-05-01	It targets a creature card in the graveyard. This target is selected when putting the triggered ability on the stack. The wording specifies it has to be a card other than the Hierophant.
2008-04-01	If Sylvan Hierophant is removed from the graveyard before the ability resolves, you still return the targeted creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
2008-04-01	If you control Sylvan Hierophant when it goes to the graveyard, you exile the Hierophant and return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand. It doesn’t matter whose graveyard the Hierophant goes to.