Sighted-Caste Sorcerer MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Human Wizard |
| Abilities | Exalted |
| Released | 2008-10-03 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Shards of Alara |
| Set code | ALA |
| Power | 1 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 26 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Chris Rahn |
Key Takeaways
- Provides card advantage and strategic insight by revealing top deck cards when casting blue spells.
- Promotes mana flexibility by untapping lands, aiding in quick adaptation and spell chaining.
- Demands careful hand management due to its discard requirement and specific mana costs.
Text of card
Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) : Sighted-Caste Sorcerer gains shroud until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Sighted-Caste Sorcerer is designed to provide a significant edge by letting you glimpse the top card of your deck any time you’ve cast another blue spell. This can enhance your strategic planning and ensure you’re drawing the cards you need to maintain dominance over your opponent.
Resource Acceleration: With this card in play, it offers the potential to untap a land whenever you cast a blue spell. This subtle form of resource acceleration ensures you have mana available more readily, either for defensive measures or to further chain spell casts within a single turn.
Instant Speed: The true power of Sighted-Caste Sorcerer lies in its prowess at instant speed, allowing you to respond to opponents’ moves on their turn. It serves dual purposes as both a reactive threat and as a setup during your own turn, readying your game state for upcoming plays.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Playing Sighted-Caste Sorcerer requires discarding a card. This can be a setback, especially when your hand is already depleted, directly impacting your ability to maintain card advantage in the game.
Specific Mana Cost: The sorcerer’s mana cost, which includes white mana, can restrict its integration into multi-colored decks. Players may find it challenging to consistently meet the casting requirements in a diverse mana-base deck.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With its mana cost on the upper end for its effects, it may not be the most mana-efficient choice for your deck, particularly when other options could provide similar benefits at a lower cost, making it a less attractive option in competitive play.
Reasons to Include Sighted-Caste Sorcerer in Your Collection
Versatility: Sighted-Caste Sorcerer is designed to slot into a variety of deck archetypes. With its flexible abilities, it can serve as both an early game threat and a late-game advantage, adjusting to the changing tempo of play.
Combo Potential: This card can synergize with strategies that capitalize on spellcasting or wizard tribal themes. Its ability to potentially untap each turn opens the door to numerous combo applications, especially in formats that value instant-speed interactions.
Meta-Relevance: Given the right environment, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer can shine against decks that rely heavily on noncreature spells. In formats where control decks are prevalent, having an on-board option to thwart or deter opponent strategies can give players a critical edge.
How to beat
Confronting a Sighted-Caste Sorcerer on the battlefield can be a nuanced challenge. This particular card, notable for its prowess in bolstering fellow creatures, demands strategic consideration. To triumph over its abilities, it is essential to prioritize the removal of creatures that might benefit from its effect, thus curtailing the synergistic advantages it could confer. Moreover, it is advised to employ instant speed removal before the sorcerer’s ability has the opportunity to be utilized, effectively neutralizing its potential impact on the game.
Direct damage spells, control elements like counterspells, or even board clears are sound strategies to consider when Sighted-Caste Sorcerer is in play. It’s also worth bearing in mind the sorcerer’s limitations – as with any creature, its efficacy is contingent upon its presence on the battlefield. Without support, its inability to shield itself makes it vulnerable, and exploiting that vulnerability swiftly can swing the game in your favor.
In essence, an effective way to go head to head with a Sighted-Caste Sorcerer is to dismantle the network it aims to reinforce. By interfering with creature-based combos and acting promptly to remove key pieces, the sorcerer’s impact is considerably mitigated, paving the way to securing victory.
Cards like Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
The Sighted-Caste Sorcerer offers a unique dynamic to any deck with its creature buffing abilities. When you examine its characteristics alongside peers in Magic: The Gathering, you notice similarities to other cards like Aven Squire—a creature that also provides an exalted bonus. Unlike Aven Squire, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer brings additional versatility with its ability to make a creature unblockable until the end of a turn, offering strategic advantages over the purely exalted-focused Aven Squire.
Moreover, there’s also comparison to be made with cards like Akrasan Squire. Both cards hail from the realm of Bant in the MTG multiverse and endorse the exalted mechanic that increases creature potency during attacks when alone. However, Akrasan Squire stands as a low-cost creature buff, while Sighted-Caste Sorcerer demands a higher mana investment but compensates for it with the boon of unblockability.
In essence, while Sighted-Caste Sorcerer might not be the most inexpensive option within its category, its dual utility in boosting attack and ensuring a creature can avoid blockers altogether makes it a powerful card to consider when building a deck that values precision strikes over overwhelming force.
Cards similar to Sighted-Caste Sorcerer by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sighted-Caste Sorcerer MTG card by a specific set like Shards of Alara, 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 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer 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 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer 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 Sighted-Caste Sorcerer 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 | Exalted abilities will resolve before blockers are declared. |
| 2008-10-01 | Exalted bonuses last until end of turn. If an effect creates an additional combat phase during your turn, a creature that attacked alone during the first combat phase will still have its exalted bonuses in that new phase. If a creature attacks alone during the second combat phase, all your exalted abilities will trigger again. |
| 2008-10-01 | If you attack with multiple creatures, but then all but one are removed from combat, your exalted abilities won’t trigger. |
| 2008-10-01 | If you declare exactly one creature as an attacker, each exalted ability on each permanent you control (including, perhaps, the attacking creature itself) will trigger. The bonuses are given to the attacking creature, not to the permanent with exalted. Ultimately, the attacking creature will wind up with +1/+1 for each of your exalted abilities. |
| 2008-10-01 | In a Two-Headed Giant game, a creature “attacks alone” if it’s the only creature declared as an attacker by your entire team. If you control that attacking creature, your exalted abilities will trigger but your teammate’s exalted abilities won’t. |
| 2008-10-01 | Some effects put creatures onto the battlefield attacking. Since those creatures were never declared as attackers, they’re ignored by exalted abilities. They won’t cause exalted abilities to trigger. If any exalted abilities have already triggered (because exactly one creature was declared as an attacker), those abilities will resolve as normal even though there may now be multiple attackers. |
