Skyshroud War Beast MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Creature — Beast |
| Abilities | Trample |
| Released | 1998-06-15 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Exodus |
| Set code | EXO |
| Power | * |
| Toughness | * |
| Number | 124 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Jim Nelson |
Key Takeaways
- Leveraging opponent’s land count can massively escalate War Beast’s impact, granting users an edge in army strength.
- Its low casting cost and rapid growth ramp up early game pressures, posing significant threats quickly.
- Instant speed interplay complements War Beast, expanding combat strategies with its size alterations.
Text of card
Trample Skyshroud War Beast has power and toughness each equal to the number of nonbasic lands target opponent controls.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Skyshroud War Beast thrives on the opponent’s land count, often growing to a size well beyond its casting cost. As your opponent’s lands increase, so does the potential of your War Beast, offering you a form of card advantage through board presence without expending additional cards from your hand.
Resource Acceleration: This card’s low casting cost can significantly accelerate your board state in the early game. Being able to deploy a sizable creature quickly means you have more resources available for other spells sooner, hence speeding up your overall gameplay and pressure on the opponent.
Instant Speed: While Skyshroud War Beast itself is not an instant, it benefits from instant speed interaction. You can play instants and other fast effects to respond to your opponent’s land plays, potentially growing your War Beast without warning right before damage calculation, which makes for strategically dynamic and flexible combat scenarios.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Unlike other creatures, the Skyshroud War Beast requires a consistent presence of lands on the battlefield to be effective. Lack of lands can make it nothing more than a negligible presence on the board.
Specific Mana Cost: The Beast demands a particular blend of mana, including at least one green. This necessity restricts its adaptability and makes it a less-than-ideal choice for multi-colored decks that don’t focus on green.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: For its cost, the creature may not always represent the best value, as it depends on the number of nonbasic lands the opponent controls for its power and toughness. There are alternatives available that offer guaranteed stats and abilities, providing more certainty and potentially a higher impact from the moment they enter the battlefield.
Reasons to Include Skyshroud War Beast in Your Collection
Versatility: Skyshroud War Beast is an adaptable creature card, its power and toughness scaling with the number of nonbasic lands your opponents control. This makes it a potentially powerful asset in formats where such lands are prevalent.
Combo Potential: This beast excels when combined with land disruption strategies, encouraging a tactical playstyle that limits opponent resources while bolstering your own creature’s strength on the battlefield.
Meta-Relevance: In environments where diverse mana bases are the norm, the Skyshroud War Beast can be an unexpectedly formidable foe. Its effectiveness grows as opponents expand their land varieties, making it a potent tool against multicolor decks.
How to beat
The Skyshroud War Beast emerges as a unique threat on the battlefield, with its power and toughness directly linked to the number of nonbasic lands your opponents control. To overcome this creature, a strategic approach focusing on basic land play is key. By minimizing the number of your own nonbasic lands, you reduce the beast’s combat capabilities, dampening its impact on the game.
Furthermore, adjusting your removal suite to include spells that don’t rely on power and toughness can offer a direct solution. Direct damage or ‘exile’ effects sidestep the War Beast’s variable stats, providing you with dependable methods to control the board regardless of its potential growth. Cards that force opponents to sacrifice creatures can also circumvent the War Beast’s power, as they don’t target creatures based on their attributes.
Ultimately, adjusting your strategy to focus on basic lands and versatile removal options can efficiently neutralize the Skyshroud War Beast. Understanding and adapting to its distinctive mechanic allows for calculated responses, ensuring you maintain control even when faced with such an adaptive threat.
Cards like Skyshroud War Beast
The Skyshroud War Beast stands out in the realm of Magic the Gathering for its unique power and toughness determining mechanics. Quite similar to Nightmare, whose strength and constitution are tied to the number of Swamps you control, the War Beast’s stats are dependent on the number of nonbasic lands your opponents have. Both cards offer dynamic power levels that can adapt over the course of a game.
Indeed, Lhurgoyf is another creature whose might grows with the number of creature cards in all graveyards, also reflecting an adapting strength. While the Lhurgoyf’s power can potentially be vast, it’s reliant on a populated graveyard, unlike the War Beast’s condition which can be fulfilled early if facing a deck with numerous nonbasic lands.
Last but not least, the Terravore echoes a similar attribute to the other two, except it feeds off of land cards in graveyards. It’s an excellent pick in a metagame filled with land destruction or self-milling strategies. When evaluating these creatures, Skyshroud War Beast possibly presents more immediate pressure in specific matchups, especially in formats where nonbasic lands are prolific.
Cards similar to Skyshroud War Beast by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Skyshroud War Beast MTG card by a specific set like Exodus, 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 Skyshroud War Beast and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Skyshroud War Beast has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Skyshroud War Beast card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | The power and toughness are continuously recalculated. |
