Aerie Ouphes MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Ouphe
Abilities	Persist
Released	2008-07-25
Set symbol
Set name	Eventide
Set code	EVE
Power	3
Toughness	3
Number	65
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Jesper Ejsing

Key Takeaways

Gain indirect card advantage by repeatedly removing creatures with Aerie Ouphes’ persist ability.
Achieve resource acceleration in sacrifice decks, maximizing triggers from creatures dying.
Strategically exploit instant speed for surprise interactions and favorable game outcomes.

Text of card

Sacrifice Aerie Ouphes: Aerie Ouphes deals damage equal to its power to target creature with flying. 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: By utilizing Aerie Ouphes, players stand to gain indirect card advantage through repeated creature removal. This ongoing threat can force opponents to play around its presence, effectively dictating the pace of the game.

Resource Acceleration: Aerie Ouphes fits well with sacrifice-themed decks, particularly those that benefit from persist mechanics. It can act as a recurring source of activation for abilities that trigger upon creature dying, thus accelerating your resource engines.

Instant Speed: The key benefit of Aerie Ouphes lies in its ability to operate at instant speed. Sacrificing it to deal damage can be done in response to an opponent’s action, which allows for strategic plays and surprise interactions that can tip the game in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: To fully utilize Aerie Ouphes’ potential, you may need to part with valuable cards in your hand. This forces strategic decisions about resource management, especially in crucial moments of gameplay.

Specific Mana Cost: The Aerie Ouphes demands both green and red mana, which could complicate your mana base if your deck isn’t tailored to these colors, potentially limiting its adaptability across different deck types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Spending four mana to summon Aerie Ouphes can be steep, especially considering other options in your deck that might provide a greater impact on the game’s board state for the same, or lower, mana investment.

Reasons to Include Aerie Ouphes in Your Collection

Versatility: Aerie Ouphes fits well into various strategies, especially those revolving around sacrifice mechanics or needing creature control. Its ability to repeatedly deal damage as it persists from the graveyard offers multifaceted use across numerous deck themes.

Combo Potential: This flying creature offers synergies with cards that capitalize on creatures dying or entering the battlefield. Coupled with cards that remove -1/-1 counters, Aerie Ouphes has the potential to create devastating repeatable effects for a powerful board presence.

Meta-Relevance: In a game landscape where flying creatures are pivotal, Aerie Ouphes serves a dual purpose. It can apply pressure in the skies while standing as a formidable deterrent against swathes of opponents’ creatures, maintaining relevance regardless of the shifting meta.

How to beat

Aerie Ouphes presents a unique challenge in Magic: The Gathering due to its persist ability, often contributing to repeated removal of flying creatures or chipping away at an opponent’s life total. To effectively counter this card, having removal spells that exile or permanently decrease toughness like Path to Exile or Dismember is key. These removal spells circumvent the persist mechanic, ensuring that Aerie Ouphes doesn’t return to the battlefield.

Strategic allies such as Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void can also prove beneficial as they prevent cards from entering the graveyard, therefore negating the persist trigger altogether. Tactful timing is critical as well. Consider holding off on utilizing creature removal until the Ouphes have been committed to an attack or block, diminishing an opponent’s board presence with minimal impact on your strategy.

Ultimately, while Aerie Ouphes can be an annoyance if left unchecked, with the right strategy and card choices, it is possible to maneuver around its abilities and diminish its influence in the game, maintaining the upper hand in your MTG matches.

Cards like Aerie Ouphes

Aerie Ouphes is an intriguing creature in the Magic: The Gathering universe, closely related to other creatures that possess the persist mechanic. A creature that shares this ability is Kitchen Finks, which not only comes back with a -1/-1 counter after dying, much like Aerie Ouphes, but also offers a valuable 2 life gain each time it does. However, Kitchen Finks doesn’t provide the same targeted damage capability as Aerie Ouphes.

Murderous Redcap is another comparable card, which, similar to Aerie Ouphes, can deal damage upon entering the battlefield but it also carries the ability to target any creature or player. While Aerie Ouphes is restricted to flying creatures, making it more specialized, Redcap’s versatility might be more advantageous in games without a focus on aerial threats.

In evaluating these cards, it’s clear that Aerie Ouphes holds a niche role in controlling the skies by threatening flying creatures, while other cards with persist offer broader utilities or life gain bonuses. MTG players should consider their deck’s strategy and the likely opposition they’ll face when deciding whether Aerie Ouphes is the right fit for their deck.

Cards similar to Aerie Ouphes by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Aerie Ouphes MTG card by a specific set like Eventide, 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 Aerie Ouphes and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Aerie Ouphes has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2008-08-01	If Aerie Ouphes has no -1/-1 counters on it when you sacrifice it to activate its first ability, persist will return Aerie Ouphes to the battlefield with a -1/-1 counter on it before that ability resolves. The ability will check the power of Aerie Ouphes at the time you sacrificed it, not the power of the returned Aerie Ouphes (which is actually a new object with no relation to its previous existence).
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.