Pyramids MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	6
Rarity	Rare
Type	Artifact
Released	1993-12-17
Set symbol
Set name	Arabian Nights
Set code	ARN
Number	67
Frame	1993
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Amy Weber

Key Takeaways

Pyramids safeguards your lands, maintaining an edge by deterring land destruction strategies.
Keeper of vital mana resources, Pyramids indirectly supports your deck’s resource acceleration.
Although not cast at instant speed, its continuous effect compensates with round-the-clock land protection.

Text of card

: Prevents a land from being destroyed, or removes an enchantment from any land.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Pyramids’ capability to prevent the destruction of your key land cards can sustain your board state advantage, ensuring vital resources remain at your disposal throughout the game.

Resource Acceleration: While not a direct accelerator, preserving your lands especially those that tap for multiple mana with the protection Pyramids offers, indirectly maintains the pace of resource acceleration critical to your strategy’s success.

Instant Speed: Though Pyramids does not function at instant speed, its static ability compensates by providing an omnipresent defensive layer, ready to shield your lands from threats at any moment during the game.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Pyramids card necessitates a notable investment from your hand. The act of discarding a card is a cost that players need to weigh carefully, especially when hand size is crucial to maintain game advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: For a card like Pyramids, the precise mana alignment required can be restrictive. Tailoring a mana base to accommodate such a specific demand can complicate deck building, sometimes forcing players to revise their strategy solely to integrate this card seamlessly.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an activation fee set above the curve, Pyramids might not be the most mana-efficient option available. Players must deliberate whether the utility offered justifies the higher mana output, especially when other cards could serve similar functions without such a steep cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Pyramids is a card with unique capabilities. It provides protection for all of your lands, a feature not commonly found in other cards. Its ability can safeguard your mana base from common destruction effects, making it a useful asset in many deck builds.

Combo Potential: With the right synergy, Pyramids can escalate the power of land-based combos. By ensuring your lands remain on the battlefield, it can consistently contribute to landfall strategies or other abilities that trigger off of lands entering or leaving play.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where land destruction is prevalent, Pyramids gains significance. Its functionality can be pivotal in keeping your strategies unhampered by opponents focused on crippling your land resources. This card secures a stable platform for executing your game plan, even in the face of aggressive land disruption tactics.

How to Beat Pyramids

Pyramids is a unique card from the Arabian Nights expansion in Magic: The Gathering, notorious for its ability to protect lands from destruction. This might seem formidable, especially in games where land destruction could sway the outcome. However, to tackle this card, consider focusing on more versatile answers in your deck. Versatility is key.

For example, running counter spells can prevent Pyramids from ever hitting the board. Direct enchantment removal spells like Disenchant or Naturalize can also dispatch Pyramids efficiently, ensuring that your land destruction strategies remain viable. Another method is to employ indirect strategies such as aggressive creature attacks or combo finishes that bypass the need to interact with lands at all.

Ultimately, while Pyramids can shield lands, it’s not insurmountable. A balanced strategy that includes a mix of destruction, direct answers, and alternative win conditions can effectively nullify its advantages. Preparing for a diverse array of scenarios will always put you a step ahead, not just against Pyramids but across the diverse landscape of Magic: The Gathering.

Cards like Pyramids

In the realm of Magic: The Gathering, the Pyramids card bears a unique position among its brethren. With abilities that are not widely replicated, Pyramids can potentially shield your lands from effects that would otherwise destroy them. This protection is akin to the safeguard provided by cards like Sacred Ground, which also reacts defensively to threats against your land base. However, Pyramids demands direct activation with a mana cost, contrasting Sacred Ground’s trigger mechanism.

Another parallel could be drawn with Terra Eternal, a card that outright grants indestructibility to all lands you control. While Terra Eternal provides a passive, blanket shield, the Pyramids’ activation requirement for individual land protection makes it a more selective, albeit mana-intensive, option. Additionally, cards such as Darksteel Garrison fortify a single land at a time, much like Pyramids, but also imbue the land with potential for increased offensive capabilities.

Examining the distinct ways these cards interact with land protection, Pyramids reveals its rare, yet situationally-specific utility. It is a card that shows the diversity of strategies in Magic: The Gathering, skillfully meshing preservation with an aspect of calculated resource management.

Cards similar to Pyramids by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Pyramids MTG card by a specific set like Arabian Nights, 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 Pyramids and other MTG cards: