Skulduggery MTG Card
2017-09-29 - Number 123
2024-04-19 - Number 107
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Instant |
Key Takeaways
- Skulduggery offers surprise combat advantages and resource-efficient plays with its low mana cost and instant speed.
- Its requirement for black mana and card discard can limit deck flexibility and hand resources in-game.
- This card’s utility in meta-relevant scenarios and its combo potential make it a worthwhile addition to collections.
Text of card
Until end of turn, target creature you control gets +1/+1 and target creature an opponent controls gets -1/-1.
"They're so much more willing to parley once they're hanging from a boom by the ankle!"
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Skulduggery shines when it comes to trading up in battles, giving you the potential to turn a losing situation into a surprise victory. By buffing your creature and weakening an opponent’s at a crucial moment, it often equates to a two-for-one scenario, preserving your creatures while dispatching theirs.
Resource Acceleration: While Skulduggery itself doesn’t directly generate additional resources, it’s low mana cost ensures that it leaves your reservoir mostly intact. This allows you to develop your board or hold up mana for other essential plays, keeping the pressure on your opponent without missing a beat.
Instant Speed: This spell’s instant speed is where it truly excels, giving you the flexibility to catch an adversary off-guard during combat. By waiting for the perfect moment to tweak the outcome of a fight, Skulduggery can decisively swing the game in your favor, often leaving opponents reeling from the unexpected shift in power.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: For Skulduggery to reach its full potential, it necessitates the discard of a card. In match situations where your hand is already dwindling, this requirement can put you at a severe disadvantage by further depleting your available options.
Specific Mana Cost: Skulduggery’s mana cost is constrained, including black mana that ties the card to a particular color. This can restrict deck-building flexibility as it becomes challenging to incorporate into multi-colored decks without a reliable mana base.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The investment for casting Skulduggery might not align with the benefits it provides. When you consider its utility against other cards with similar or lower mana requirements, it might not be the most mana-efficient choice, especially when game tempo is critical.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Skulduggery offers the flexible option of boosting one of your creatures while weakening an opponent’s during combat, making it a useful card across various deck builds that focus on combat tricks and board control.
Combo Potential: This card can be paired effectively with effects that care about +1/+1 counters or creatures dying, as it can sway the outcome of a battle in your favor, setting up advantageous scenarios for subsequent plays.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where small creature combat is prevalent, Skulduggery can be a game-changer by creating favorable trades and disrupting your opponent’s board presence, thus holding its place as a relevant choice in your arsenal.
How to beat
Overcoming the challenges presented by Skulduggery in Magic: The Gathering requires a strategic approach. This card excels in turning the tides during creature combat by simultaneously boosting one creature and weakening another. While its impact might seem marginal, this can prove pivotal in close matchups. To beat Skulduggery, timing is key. It’s crucial to anticipate when your opponent might cast this trick and leave mana open for instant-speed removal or counterspells.
Consider cards with abilities that can negate Skulduggery’s effect. Use creatures with Hexproof to deny targeting or opt for those that benefit from being targeted, as with Heroic abilities. Cards such as Blossoming Defense not only protect your creature but also provide a boost that could counteract the power reduction caused by Skulduggery. Additionally, employing spells that can exile or bounce opposing creatures before Skulduggery can be played minimizes their chances to exploit its full potential.
Ultimately, understanding the matchups and maintaining control over the board state will diminish Skulduggery’s effectiveness. Keep a watchful eye on your opponent’s untapped mana and graveyard, and prioritize card selection that can adapt or respond rapidly to unexpected plays, ensuring that Skulduggery won’t disrupt your path to victory.
Cards like Skulduggery
Exploring the depths of trickery and deception, Skulduggery stands as a unique combat trick in the arena of quick spells. It shares space with cards like Alchemist’s Greeting, which allows you to both alter combat outcomes and deal with threats. Skulduggery, however, claims its niche by offering a one-mana solution that can swing the power and toughness balance in your favor – a tiny investment for a potential game-changing effect.
Delving further into Skulduggery’s kin, we encounter Vampire’s Zeal, a spell that also provides a quick boost in power and toughness. Though similar, Vampire’s Zeal specializes in vampire synergies and buffs creatures of that type more significantly. In the realm of quick-paced play, these details can be the deciding factor of a match’s outcome. Then, there’s the classic Giant Growth, granting a substantial +3/+3 boost, dwarfing Skulduggery’s subtler alteration but at the cost of a less versatile buff distribution.
Indeed, assessing the arsenal of creature-augmenting spells in Magic: The Gathering, Skulduggery represents an efficient, underrated option for players flying under the radar and subtly tipping the scales in their favor during combat.
Cards similar to Skulduggery by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Skulduggery MTG card by a specific set like Ixalan and Outlaws of Thunder Junction, 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 Skulduggery 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
Printings
The Skulduggery Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2017-09-29 and 2024-04-19. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2017-09-29 | Ixalan | XLN | 123 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Deruchenko Alexander | |
| 2 | 2024-04-19 | Outlaws of Thunder Junction | OTJ | 107 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Miro Petrov |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Skulduggery has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Skulduggery card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2017-09-29 | If either target becomes illegal after you cast Skulduggery but before it resolves, the other is still affected as appropriate. |
| 2017-09-29 | You can’t cast Skulduggery unless you choose both a creature you control and a creature you don’t control as targets. |
