Puppeteer Clique MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 6 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Faerie Wizard
Abilities Flying,Persist
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Puppeteer Clique enables stealing and using creatures from opponents’ graveyards, offering unique combat strategies.
  2. Access to instant-speed play allows for surprise tactics and flexible decision-making during critical turns.
  3. Though resource-intensive, its combo and persist abilities position Puppeteer Clique as a versatile, impactful card.

Text of card

Flying When Puppeteer Clique comes into play, put target creature card in an opponent's graveyard into play under your control. It has haste. At the end of your turn, remove it from the game. Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Puppeteer Clique offers the unique capability to temporarily steal creatures from opponents’ graveyards when it enters the battlefield. This gives you the potential to utilize additional abilities or achieve powerful combos, effectively tipping the scales in your favor by harnessing resources beyond your own deck.

Resource Acceleration: While Puppeteer Clique itself doesn’t produce mana, it accelerates your board state by giving you immediate access to an opponent’s creatures. By having an additional creature, even temporarily, you can make more impactful plays and put pressure on your opponents without spending extra mana from your pool.

Instant Speed: As a creature with flash, Puppeteer Clique can be summoned at instant speed, allowing you to wait until the most opportune moment within your opponent’s turn. This strategic flexibility makes it a powerful surprise blocker or an unexpected catalyst for turning the tables, especially during complex board states in a game where timing and resource manipulation are key.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Puppeteer Clique may not have a direct discard requirement, it’s important to recognize the importance of graveyard resources when playing this card. The clique’s ability depends heavily on the creatures available in your opponent’s graveyard, potentially putting it at a disadvantage if your adversary is running a low-creature deck or has graveyard hate in play.

Specific Mana Cost: Puppeteer Clique’s cost is fairly specific, demanding three mana including two black. This can be somewhat restrictive, as it requires you to have a solid base of black mana sources, potentially making it a less flexible choice for a multi-colored deck or those that run on a tight mana curve.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of five mana, Puppeteer Clique stands on the higher end of the mana spectrum for its abilities. When considering its temporary theft effect under the persist condition, it may seem less appealing compared to other creatures or spells in the same mana range, which can offer more permanent control options or have less conditional triggers.


Reasons to Include Puppeteer Clique in Your Collection

Versatility: Puppeteer Clique is not your typical creature card. Its ability to reanimate an opponent’s creature for a turn provides unique opportunities in both casual and competitive play. It has the flexibility to fit in various deck themes, particularly those revolving around graveyard manipulation and temporary theft of resources.

Combo Potential: With its persist ability, the card offers a myriad of combo possibilities. When paired with sacrifice outlets and cards that manipulate or remove counters, Puppeteer Clique can become an engine for recurring value or an integral part of an infinite combo setup.

Meta-Relevance: Considering the ever-changing landscape of the meta, Puppeteer Clique’s ability to exploit the best creatures from any given deck makes it a valuable card for adapting to and countering prevalent strategies. Whether the meta favors control decks with powerful finishers or combo decks with essential creatures, the Puppeteer Clique can turn those strengths against the opponent.


How to beat

Puppeteer Clique is a tricky creature to manage in MTG due to its ability to reanimate creatures from opponents’ graveyards. This makes it both a surprise attack and a strategy disruptor. To effectively neutralize Puppeteer Clique, one should consider grave-hate cards like Relic of Progenitus or Tormod’s Crypt which can exile cards from the graveyard before the Clique has the chance to utilize them. Additionally, instant-speed removal spells such as Path to Exile or Fatal Push can dispatch Puppeteer Clique before its persist ability triggers, ensuring it does not return to the battlefield for a second act.

It can also be beneficial to minimize the number of high-value targets in your graveyard that Puppeteer Clique can exploit. Running fewer creatures with potent enter-the-battlefield effects or implementing strategies that don’t heavily rely on the graveyard can make Puppeteer Clique a much less potent threat. Playing with proactive measures and keeping a sharp eye on graveyard interactions is key to overcoming the challenges posed by Puppeteer Clique in your MTG matches.


BurnMana Recommendations

Puppeteer Clique is a card that embodies disruption and opportunity, perfect for MTG enthusiasts craving unique interactions and strategic advantages. Its ability to commandeer opponents’ best creatures can turn the tide of any match, making it a smart inclusion in decks that thrive on resource manipulation. If you’re looking to refine your gameplay with intriguing combos or just wish to add a layer of surprise to your arsenal, consider the versatile applications of Puppeteer Clique. Dive deeper with us and discover how this card can elevate your MTG experience, refining your deck with its one-of-a-kind capabilities.


Cards like Puppeteer Clique

Puppeteer Clique stands out as a key player in the realm of creature reanimation in Magic: The Gathering. Parallel to it are cards like Phyrexian Delver which brings creatures back from the graveyard directly to the battlefield. What separates Puppeteer Clique is its evasive flying ability and the fact that it has persist, meaning it returns for another act even after a fatal blow. Phyrexian Delver lacks this comeback mechanism, making Puppeteer Clique a more resilient option.

Moving onto the tactical Grave Digger, this creature also allows players to retrieve a fallen comrade from the graveyard to their hand. Grave Digger, however, lacks both the immediate board impact and versatility of Puppeteer Clique as it doesn’t allow you to temporarily control an opponent’s creature and it isn’t equipped with persist.

Puppeteer Clique’s true competition may lie in the card Geth, Lord of the Vault. Both cards disturb the rest of creatures in opposing graveyards, but Geth’s ability is repeatable and offers the additional upside of possibly bringing back artifacts, adding another layer of utility. Despite Geth’s strong presence, Puppeteer Clique’s immediate impact and the combo potential put it in a class of its own.

Comparing these cards showcases Puppeteer Clique’s distinctive ability to swing games by utilizing opponents’ graveyards, ensuring its noteworthy spot amongst MTG’s creature reanimation spells.

Phyrexian Delver - MTG Card versions
Geth, Lord of the Vault - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Delver - Invasion (INV)
Geth, Lord of the Vault - Scars of Mirrodin (SOM)

Cards similar to Puppeteer Clique by color, type and mana cost

Skyshroud Vampire - MTG Card versions
Predatory Nightstalker - MTG Card versions
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Skyshroud Vampire - Tempest (TMP)
Predatory Nightstalker - Vintage Masters (VMA)
Fallen Angel - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Stone Catapult - Portal Three Kingdoms (PTK)
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Earwig Squad - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Indulgent Tormentor - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Sootfeather Flock - Legions (LGN)
Zombie Cutthroat - Scourge (SCG)
Gluttonous Zombie - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Vermiculos - Mirrodin (MRD)
Woebearer - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Wei Elite Companions - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Halo Hunter - Zendikar (ZEN)
Malakir Bloodwitch - Zendikar (ZEN)
Caustic Crawler - Worldwake (WWK)
Shriekmaw - Magic Online Theme Decks (TD0)
Reaper of Sheoldred - New Phyrexia (NPH)
Dementia Bat - New Phyrexia (NPH)
Phyrexian Plaguelord - Duel Decks: Mirrodin Pure vs. New Phyrexia (TD2)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Puppeteer Clique MTG card by a specific set like Shadowmoor and Modern Masters 2015, 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 Puppeteer Clique and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Puppeteer Clique Magic the Gathering card was released in 6 different sets between 2008-05-02 and 2023-09-08. Illustrated by Daren Bader.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12008-05-02ShadowmoorSHM 752003normalblackDaren Bader
22015-05-22Modern Masters 2015MM2 912015normalblackDaren Bader
32017-08-25Commander 2017C17 1212015normalblackDaren Bader
42022-04-29New Capenna CommanderNCC 2572015normalblackDaren Bader
52022-06-10Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's GateCLB 7692015normalblackDaren Bader
62023-09-08Wilds of Eldraine CommanderWOC 1152015normalblackDaren Bader

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Puppeteer Clique has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2013-06-07 If a creature with persist stops being a creature, persist will still work.
2013-06-07 If a creature with persist that has +1/+1 counters on it receives enough -1/-1 counters to cause it to be destroyed by lethal damage or put into its owner's graveyard for having 0 or less toughness, persist won't trigger and the card won't return to the battlefield. That's because persist checks the creature's existence just before it leaves the battlefield, and it still has all those counters on it at that point.
2013-06-07 If a permanent has multiple instances of persist, they'll each trigger separately, but the redundant instances will have no effect. If one instance returns the card to the battlefield, the next to resolve will do nothing.
2013-06-07 If a token with no -1/-1 counters on it has persist, the ability will trigger when the token is put into the graveyard. However, the token will cease to exist and can't return to the battlefield.
2013-06-07 If multiple creatures with persist are put into the graveyard at the same time (due to combat damage or a spell that destroys all creatures, for example), the active player (the player whose turn it is) puts all of their persist triggers on the stack in any order, then each other player in turn order does the same. The last trigger put on the stack is the first one that resolves. That means that in a two-player game, the nonactive player's persist creatures will return to the battlefield first, then the active player's persist creatures do the same. The creatures return to the battlefield one at a time.
2013-06-07 The persist ability triggers when the permanent is put into a graveyard. Its last known information (that is, how the creature last existed on the battlefield) is used to determine whether it had a -1/-1 counter on it.
2013-06-07 When a permanent with persist returns to the battlefield, it's a new object with no memory of or connection to its previous existence.

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