Ethereal Forager MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	6
Rarity	Rare
Type	Creature — Elemental Whale
Abilities	Delve,Flying
Released	2020-04-17
Set symbol
Set name	Commander 2020
Set code	C20
Power	3
Toughness	3
Number	34
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Nicholas Gregory

Key Takeaways

Delve ability enables casting Ethereal Forager at a reduced cost, while continually reclaiming instants and sorceries.
Offers potent synergy with instant-speed spells, presenting opportunities for tempo advantage and replaying game-changing sorceries.
While powerful, the card requires thoughtful graveyard resource management and strategic deck-building to maximize its potential.

Text of card

Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for .) Flying Whenever Ethereal Forager attacks, you may return an instant or sorcery card exiled with Ethereal Forager to its owner's hand.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: The delve ability of Ethereal Forager permits you to exile cards from your graveyard to help cast it, potentially reducing its cost significantly. Once on the battlefield, whenever it attacks, you may return an instant or sorcery card exiled with Ethereal Forager to your hand, delivering a continuous stream of card advantage.

Resource Acceleration: Although Ethereal Forager doesn’t directly produce resources, effectively reducing its casting cost through the delve mechanic can free up mana. This accelerates your available resources, allowing you to play more spells sooner than you might be able to otherwise.

Instant Speed: While Ethereal Forager itself isn’t an instant, its synergy with instant-speed spells is notable. After attacking, the ability to retrieve and reuse valuable instants or sorceries from your graveyard can provide you with a strong tempo advantage and interaction options at instant speed on subsequent turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Ethereal Forager demands that you delve, effectively asking you to exile cards from your graveyard, which can deplete valuable resources too quickly and hinder long-term strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: The two blue mana in Ethereal Forager’s casting cost make it primarily suitable for mono-blue or blue-heavy decks, limiting its versatility in multi-colored or colorless deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing a total of six mana, this card can be considered expensive for its stats and abilities, as there are lower-cost cards providing similar or even greater value to a deck’s game plan.

Reasons to Include Ethereal Forager in Your Collection

Versatility: Ethereal Forager, a unique delve creature, provides strategic depth in decks that cycle through the graveyard. Its ability to return instants and sorceries from the graveyard to your hand offers continuous utility throughout the game.

Combo Potential: This card shines in synergy-based decks. By picking out key spells from your past plays, Ethereal Forager can set up powerful repeatable interactions or game-winning combos, especially in a spellslinger deck.

Meta-Relevance: With the contemporary trend of decks that fill their graveyard rapidly, Ethereal Forager slips into the meta with ease. It capitalizes on a filled graveyard, making it a substantial threat that can adjust its role based on the flow of the match.

How to Beat

Ethereal Forager, a delve card in Magic: The Gathering, emerges as a threat by allowing players to cast numerous spells throughout the game. It’s tailor-made for decks that rapidly fill their graveyard, making it highly efficient in terms of mana cost. Its ability to return instant and sorcery cards from exile to its owner’s hand after dealing combat damage can turn the tides by replaying powerful spells.

Combatting Ethereal Forager requires strategies to either remove it from play or neuter its effectiveness. Spot removal spells that can target any creature regardless of its flying ability, such as Path to Exile or Murderous Rider, offer clean answers to this airborne menace. Graveyard hate cards, like Scavenging Ooze or Leyline of the Void, can thwart the delve mechanic, starving the forager of essential resources. Including cards that grant hexproof to your creatures, like Swiftfoot Boots, can protect against the forager’s triggered ability. It’s also possible to block with creatures that have flying or reach to ensure Ethereal Forager doesn’t get a chance to reap its benefits.

Overall, understanding your opponent’s strategy and maintaining board control with removals or preventative measures keeps Ethereal Forager from dominating the skies and tilting the game in your opponent’s favor.

Cards like Ethereal Forager

Ethereal Forager stands out in the landscape of delve creatures in Magic: The Gathering. With similarities to cards such as Gurmag Angler, Ethereal Forager offers a unique twist on the delve mechanic. Gurmag Angler, a simple yet powerful card, allows for a sizable body at a potentially low cost, giving players a quick and weighty creature on the board. Ethereal Forager, however, provides a more nuanced advantage by allowing the retrieval of instant or sorcery cards from the graveyard whenever it attacks.

Another card with a resemblance is Tasigur, the Golden Fang which also takes advantage of the delve mechanic. Unlike Ethereal Forager, Tasigur can offer a continuous card advantage through its activation ability, albeit at a random selection given by the opponent. Tasigur presents a potent threat in the late game, while Ethereal Forager excels at swinging for aerial damage and recycling valuable spells for repeated use.

Considering these comparisons, Ethereal Forager carves a niche within Magic: The Gathering as a card that tactically garners value from the graveyard while serving as an evasive threat. It promises both a strategic depth and an aggressive presence, making it a spell-slinging player’s delight.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Ethereal Forager by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ethereal Forager MTG card by a specific set like Commander 2020, 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 Ethereal Forager and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ethereal Forager has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2020-04-17	After Ethereal Forager’s triggered ability resolves, players will have priority to cast spells (such as the card you returned to your hand, if it’s legal to do so) before blockers are declared.
2020-04-17	If Ethereal Forager leaves the battlefield while its triggered ability is on the stack, that ability can still find the cards exiled with Ethereal Forager’s delve ability.
2021-03-19	Because delve isn’t an alternative cost, it can be used in conjunction with alternative costs, such as flashback. It can also be used to pay for additional costs that include generic mana.
2021-03-19	Delve doesn’t change a spell’s mana cost or mana value. For example, Treasure Cruise’s mana value is 8 even if you exiled three cards to cast it.
2021-03-19	You can exile cards to pay only for generic mana, and you can’t exile more cards than the generic mana requirement of a spell with delve. For example, you can’t exile more than seven cards from your graveyard to cast Treasure Cruise unless an effect has increased its cost.