Icatian Skirmishers MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Creature — Human Soldier |
| Abilities | Banding,First strike |
| Released | 1994-11-01 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Fallen Empires |
| Set code | FEM |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 14 |
| Frame | 1993 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Heather Hudson |
Key Takeaways
- Icatian Skirmishers offer sustained card advantage by returning from the graveyard to the battlefield.
- They boost your board’s power without increasing the number of creatures, optimizing resource use.
- Countering them involves instant-speed removal or board wipes to negate their banding benefits.
Text of card
Bands, first strike All creatures that band with Skirmishers to attack gain first strike until end of turn.
Skirmishers engaged raiders before they could reach the towns. Although these units typically suffered huge losses, they never lacked volunteers.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Icatian Skirmishers grant a unique kind of card advantage in the realm of MTG tactics. By resurrecting them from the graveyard to the battlefield with their cumulative upkeep, they offer the ability to repeatedly benefit from their presence without spending additional cards from your hand, thus indirectly contributing to card advantage.
Resource Acceleration: While not directly impacting mana production, the skirmishers can accelerate your board presence. As they can band with other creatures, you can amass a more resilient attacking or blocking force without committing more creatures to the board, which indirectly accelerates resource utilization.
Instant Speed: Though Icatian Skirmishers don’t operate at instant speed themselves, they pair excellently with spells of this speed. They can quickly change the dynamics on the battlefield by leveraging their banding ability, enabling you to utilize instant-speed spells with greater strategic depth during combat on either player’s turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Icatian Skirmishers demand players to discard a card, which can seriously impact game strategy, particularly when working with a tight grip. This cost, beyond the mana spent, can be a detriment during crucial turns where every card in hand counts.
Specific Mana Cost: These Skirmishers come with a mana requirement rooted in white color identity. This restricts deck-building flexibility and means you need to have white mana sources reliably in play to cast it, potentially clashing with multicolor deck aspirations.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its casting and activation costs combined, Icatian Skirmishers asks for a significant mana investment. In the fast-paced environment of modern play, there are alternatives that might bring more immediate board presence or effects for less, making it a hard sell in competitive formats.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Icatian Skirmishers offers a unique advantage in its ability to consistently bolster your forces, fitting seamlessly into decks that thrive on augmenting creatures and coordinating attacks.
Combo Potential: This card’s flanking ability can be a cornerstone for complex combos, working well with cards intended to control or manipulate combat phases, ensuring its usefulness in a variety of tactical situations.
Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where combat-centric decks are prevalent, the Skirmishers can serve as a tactical equalizer, potentially providing the edge needed to prevail in creature-heavy matchups.
How to beat
Icatian Skirmishers is a unique creature card that can potentially cause headaches for unprepared players. These soldiers have the ability to grant all other attacking creatures banding until end of turn every time they attack. Banding is an older ability that allows you to decide how combat damage is assigned to the creatures you control in a band, making your attacker’s combat outcomes more favorable and difficult for opponents to predict.
So, what’s the strategy for overcoming this tactical twist in a game? Removal spells are a player’s best friend against the Icatian Skirmishers. Cards that can disrupt the battlefield at instant speed like Fatal Push or Lightning Bolt remove the Skirmishers before they can leverage banding in combat. Alternatively, board wipes such as Wrath of God eliminate multiple threats, including the Skirmishers, negating the banding advantage altogether. It’s also wise to stop them from attacking with cards like Pacifism or tapping them down with something like Frost Lynx, thus avoiding the banding situation before it unfolds.
Employing these strategies can help you maintain control over the battlefield and ensure that Icatian Skirmishers don’t turn the tide of battle against you.
Cards like Icatian Skirmishers
Icatian Skirmishers, while not often spotlighted in discussions around impactful creatures, shares a unique space with cards that enhance fellow teammates. Its banding ability, which allows any number of creatures with banding and up to one without it to attack in a band, is mirrored by cards such as Benalish Hero. This creature also offers the banding mechanic, creating opportunities for strategic combat similar to Icatian Skirmishers, albeit with a smaller body.
Exploring further, we encounter the likes of Formation, an enchantment that extends banding to all your creatures and grants an additional toughness boost during your turn. While it doesn’t directly contribute to the battlefield like the Skirmishers, Formation impacts a wider range of creatures. Then there’s the often-overlooked Baton of Morale, which allows you to pay mana to bestow banding on a chosen creature, granting significant tactical flexibility that Icatian Skirmishers provides inherently.
The ability to maneuver in combat with banding puts Icatian Skirmishers in line with these cards. It’s a niche role, but one that carries a certain appeal for players who appreciate old-school mechanics and the opportunity to manipulate the tide of battle with calculated teamwork and synergy.
Cards similar to Icatian Skirmishers by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Icatian Skirmishers MTG card by a specific set like Fallen Empires, 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 Icatian Skirmishers 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 Icatian Skirmishers has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Oldschool | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Icatian Skirmishers card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2008-10-01 | A maximum of one nonbanding creature can join an attacking band no matter how many creatures with banding are in it. |
| 2008-10-01 | Creatures in the same band must all attack the same player or planeswalker. |
| 2008-10-01 | If a creature with banding attacks, it can team up with any number of other attacking creatures with banding (and up to one nonbanding creature) and attack as a unit called a “band.” The band can be blocked by any creature that could block a single creature in the band. Blocking any creature in a band blocks the entire band. If a creature with banding is blocked, the attacking player chooses how the blockers’ damage is assigned. |
| 2009-10-01 | If a creature in combat has banding, its controller assigns damage for creatures blocking or blocked by it. That player can ignore the damage assignment order when making this assignment. |
