Skittish Valesk MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	7
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Beast
Abilities	Morph
Released	2002-10-07
Set symbol
Set name	Onslaught
Set code	ONS
Power	5
Toughness	5
Number	231
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Alan Pollack

Key Takeaways

Skittish Valesk can grant card draws during combat for a crucial advantage.
Ability to untap lands during opponents’ turns boosts resource availability.
Its instant speed functionality affords strategic flexibility and surprise.

Text of card

At the beginning of your upkeep, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, turn Skittish Valesk face down. Morph o5o R (You may play this face down as a 2/2 creature for o3. Turn it face up any time for its morph cost.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Skittish Valesk offers a unique mechanic that can potentially bypass your opponent’s defenses. Depending on the board state, this creature can allow you to draw cards through combat damage to a player, which can be a significant advantage.

Resource Acceleration: With its ability to untap all lands you control at the beginning of each opponent’s untap step, Skittish Valesk can act as a resource acceleration tool, granting you the ability to utilize more mana and therefore play more spells in each game cycle.

Instant Speed: The key ability of Skittish Valesk to untap your lands during another player’s untap step can be leveraged at instant speed, offering you flexibility and the element of surprise. This enables strategic planning and can lead to powerful plays by capitalizing on unspent mana for instant spells or abilities.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Skittish Valesk asks you to toss another card from your hand into the graveyard to unleash its potential. For players trying to maintain card advantage, this demand can backfire, especially when your hand is already running on empty.

Specific Mana Cost: Crafting a strategy around Skittish Valesk means you’re committing to red mana. This can pose a hurdle in multicolor decks where mana flexibility is key, possibly sidelining powerful plays in the face of color constraints.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a demanding mana investment, Skittish Valesk competes with other four-mana creatures and spells. Players must weigh if its abilities justify the steep price in games where tempo and efficiency often dictate the victor.

Reasons to Include Skittish Valesk in Your Collection

Versatility: Skittish Valesk can adapt to various playstyles, fitting seamlessly into creature-based strategies while offering a reliable source of damage with its haste capability.

Combo Potential: This creature’s ability to support and strengthen red deck combos, especially those that capitalize on attack triggers or require swift, aggressive plays, makes it a valuable asset.

Meta-Relevance: Skittish Valesk’s speed and pressure suit the pace of several current metagames, where quick and resilient threats can shift the balance in a player’s favor.

How to beat

Skittish Valesk presents an interesting dynamic in the battlefield of Magic: The Gathering. At its core, it is a creature card that can quickly adapt to the ever-changing landscape of the game. Its inherent ability to evade and protect itself from spells makes overcoming it a tactical challenge. Understanding your deck’s strengths and the right timing can turn the tables on your opponent’s Skittish Valesk.

To effectively counter Skittish Valesk, focus on using removal spells that do not target it directly such as board wipes or cards that change the rules of combat, such as those that prevent creatures from attacking. Another approach is to outpace the Skittish Valesk by ramping up your own offensive strategy. Apply pressure with a fast-paced aggro deck that can overwhelm your opponent before Skittish Valesk becomes a significant threat. Lastly, employing cards that can bypass its abilities, like those that deal damage to each creature or player, can mitigate the advantages Skittish Valesk offers to your opponent.

Ultimately, beating Skittish Valesk comes down to the smart deployment of your deck’s resources, anticipating your opponent’s moves, and maintaining control of the game tempo. With practice and knowledge of your cards, Skittish Valesk can be rendered less daunting and more manageable on the battlefield.

Cards like Skittish Valesk

In the realm of creature cards in MTG, Skittish Valesk makes for an intriguing comparison with its peers. At first glance, its playstyle resonates with that of Rumbling Baloth, a creature known for being a solid body on the board. Both creatures bring substantial power to a match, with Skittish Valesk offering the potential for haste, making it a force that can impact the board immediately.

Looking further, we see resemblances with Ember Beast, as both require other creatures to attack. However, Skittish Valesk has the added advantage of haste, assuming you control at least two other creatures. This can be a tactical boon in matches where speed and aggression are key. What truly sets Skittish Valesk apart, emanates from its potential for unexpected bursts of damage, somewhat akin to the implication behind cards like Rampaging Ferocidon, albeit without the direct penalty aspect.

In summing up these comparisons, Skittish Valesk holds a distinct place within the creature-based strategies in MTG because of its haste potential and conditional attack clause, crafting a niche that can be exploited in the right deck setup and against the proper adversary.

Cards similar to Skittish Valesk by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Skittish Valesk MTG card by a specific set like Onslaught, 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 Skittish Valesk and other MTG cards: