Hedron-Field Purists MTG Card

Hedron-Field Purists - Rise of the Eldrazi

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Human Cleric
Abilities	Level Up
Released	2010-04-23
Set symbol
Set name	Rise of the Eldrazi
Set code	ROE
Power	0
Toughness	3
Number	25
Frame	2003
Layout	Leveler
Border	Black
Illustred by	Scott Chou

Key Takeaways

Can neutralize threats, maintaining board control and strategic card advantage for players.
Offers instant speed level up, enhancing mana efficiency and game adaptability.
Resource acceleration potential by safeguarding mana-producing creatures or synergistic elements.

Text of card

Level up (: Put a level counter on this. Level up only as a sorcery.) LEVEL 1-4 1/4 If a source would deal damage to you or a creature you control, prevent 1 of that damage. LEVEL 5+ 2/5 If a source would deal damage to you or a creature you control, prevent 2 of that damage.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Hedron-Field Purists can be a game-changer by potentially neutralizing a multitude of threats on the board. While it doesn’t draw you additional cards, the repeatable ability to nullify damage keeps your creatures on the field and maintains your board presence, which is a strategic form of card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly a source of mana acceleration, Hedron-Field Purists can indirectly lead to resource acceleration by protecting your key creatures that produce mana or have other abilities that improve your resource management.

Instant Speed: The level up ability of Hedron-Field Purists can be activated at instant speed, offering flexibility and surprise factor. This allows you to adapt to the flow of the game, using your mana efficiently and leveling up the Hedron-Field Purists when most advantageous, possibly even in response to an opponent’s actions.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Hedron-Field Purists’ level up ability comes with a constraint that can be steep. To elevate the card’s capabilities, you sacrifice hands-on options by discarding other potential plays. This aspect can occasionally put you at a disadvantage, especially if your hand is already straining for resources.

Specific Mana Cost: Activating this creature’s potent ability requires a precise blend of mana – one white and two other. This can be cumbersome, particularly for decks that thrive on a diverse manabase. Ensuring the precise mana constellation can sometimes hamper your plays, aligning poorly with multicolored or splashy strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that sits at three mana and additional investment to reach its full potential, Hedron-Field Purists may not always be the optimal choice. In scenarios where the board demands quick and efficient answers, the investment into leveling up this creature can turn into an expensive and delayed gratification, potentially outpaced by lower-cost alternatives with immediate impacts.

Reasons to Include Hedron-Field Purists in Your Collection

Versatility: Hedron-Field Purists is adaptable to various aspects of gameplay with its Level Up ability, providing incremental defensive improvements. This flexibility allows it to be a suitable choice for decks that emphasize protection and counter strategies.

Combo Potential: This card acts as a linchpin in setups looking to diminish damage from noncreature sources. Its interaction with counter plays and damage prevention can create a formidable defensive combo, especially in counter-heavy decks.

Meta-Relevance: As the game ebbs and flows, cards that offer consistent damage prevention like Hedron-Field Purists can gain significance, especially if the environment is dominated by burn or direct damage decks. Its presence can deter opponents from targeting you with damaging spells, ensuring your key creatures survive to maintain board control.

How to beat

Hedron-Field Purists is an intriguing card that offers a layer of protection to your gameplay in MTG. Its unique ability to prevent damage from a source of your opponent’s choice can pose a significant challenge. Nevertheless, there are strategies to mitigate its impact. One approach is to use cards that deal non-damage effects, such as those causing loss of life or decreasing loyalty counters. This bypasses the Purists’ ability since it’s not considered damage.

An alternative tactic involves removing the Hedron-Field Purists from the battlefield directly. Employing removal spells or abilities that exile or destroy creatures can effectively neutralize this threat. Targeted spells like Path to Exile or wide-reaching ones like Damnation are particularly useful here. Moreover, maximizing the number of instances you can damage your opponent ensures that the Purists’ ability is spread thin, reducing overall effectiveness. Utilizing cards with proliferate to add more -1/-1 counters can also work to your advantage as these also circumvent the Hedron-Field Purists damage prevention.

Combining these strategies will help in overcoming the protective barrier Hedron-Field Purists presents, allowing you to maintain pressure on your opponent and keep control of the game board.

Cards like Hedron-Field Purists

Hedron-Field Purists stands out in the realm of Magic: The Gathering for its unique ability to keep damage at bay. Sharing the same battlefield niche as cards like Light of Sanction, the Purists offer a specifically targeted approach by preventing damage from sources with a counter. Light of Sanction shields your creatures from all your spells and effects that would deal damage, not offering the counterplay potential Hedron-Field Purists possess.

When it comes to damage prevention, cards like Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant present a comparable strategy. Upon meeting its conditions, Rune-Tail flips into an enchantment that prevents all damage that would be dealt to creatures you control. While it offers a more blanket protection, it lacks the incremental control Hedron-Field Purists provide as their leveling up enhances their damage mitigation capabilities.

Considering these nuances, Hedron-Field Purists firmly secures a spot in defensive strategies within Magic: The Gathering. By pinpointing precise threats and scaling up defense with level counters, it provides players with a dynamic tool to adapt to the evolving battlefield, distinguishing it from its peers in damage-preventing card selections.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hedron-Field Purists MTG card by a specific set like Rise of the Eldrazi, 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 Hedron-Field Purists and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Hedron-Field Purists has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2010-06-15	A creature’s level is based on how many level counters it has on it, not how many times its level up ability has been activated or has resolved. If a leveler gets level counters due to some other effect (such as Clockspinning) or loses level counters for some reason (such as Vampire Hexmage), its level is changed accordingly.
2010-06-15	Effects that modify a leveler’s power or toughness, such as the effects of Giant Growth or Glorious Anthem, will apply to it no matter when they started to take effect. The same is true for counters that change the creature’s power or toughness (such as +1/+1 counters) and effects that switch its power and toughness.
2010-06-15	Effects that set a leveler’s power or toughness to a specific value, including the effects from a level symbol’s ability, apply in timestamp order. The timestamp of each level symbol’s ability is the same as the timestamp of the leveler itself, regardless of when the most recent level counter was put on it.
2010-06-15	If a source would deal damage to multiple applicable recipients, the prevention effects apply to each of those recipients separately. For example, if Hedron-Field Purists is level 1 and you cast Earthquake (“Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without flying and each player”) with X equal to 3, that Earthquake will deal 2 damage to you, 2 damage to each creature without flying you control, 3 damage to each other player, and 3 damage to each creature without flying other players control.
2010-06-15	If another creature becomes a copy of a leveler, all of the leveler’s printed abilities — including those represented by level symbols — are copied. The current characteristics of the leveler, and the number of level counters on it, are not. The abilities, power, and toughness of the copy will be determined based on how many level counters are on the copy.
2010-06-15	Remember that Hedron-Field Purists never has both of these prevention effects at the same time.
2010-06-15	The abilities a leveler grants to itself don’t overwrite any other abilities it may have. In particular, they don’t overwrite the creature’s level up ability; it always has that.
2010-06-15	The effects from multiple Hedron-Field Purists are cumulative.
2010-06-15	The prevention effects don’t affect damage dealt directly to a planeswalker you control.
2010-06-15	The prevention effects prevent 1 or 2 damage, as applicable, from each source (regardless of who controls it) each time that source would deal damage to you or a creature you control. They prevent damage of any kind, not just combat damage.