Thriving Bluff MTG Card
2020-07-17 - Number 33
2022-04-29 - Number 438
2022-12-02 - Number 822
2023-08-04 - Number 429
2023-10-13 - Number 915
2023-10-13 - Number 324
2023-11-17 - Number 361
2024-02-23 - Number 249
| Card sets | Released in 8 setsSee all |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Land |
Key Takeaways
- Boosts deck consistency with mana flexibility, enabling diversified casting options.
- Limited by a discard condition and specific mana utility, affecting versatility.
- Countered by land disruption strategies, challenging opponents’ resilience.
Text of card
Thriving Bluff enters the battlefield tapped. As Thriving Bluff enters the battlefield, choose a color other than red. : Add or one mana of the chosen color.
As eons passed, the rock wore away, revealing the rich colors at the mountain's heart.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Thriving Bluff makes your land drops more impactful. By ensuring land variety, it primes your deck operations, offering the potential for improved card quality and advantage as the game progresses.
Resource Acceleration: In multi-colored decks, Thriving Bluff serves as a pivotal resource accelerant. It contributes to your mana base’s flexibility, permitting quicker and more efficient deployment of spells by providing access to multiple colors of mana.
Instant Speed: While Thriving Bluff does not operate at instant speed itself, its presence enhances your ability to use other instant-speed capabilities. By ensuring mana availability of different colors, it supports split-second decisions, whether it’s for countering an opponent’s move or playing end-of-turn tactics.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Thriving Bluff demands that you pitch another card to play it, a critical setback when you’re already grappling with a depleted hand.
Specific Mana Cost: This land’s activation is tied strictly to one color of mana, making it a less than ideal fit for multi-colored mana bases in need of flexible sources.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring one to invest substantial mana to leverage its benefit, Thriving Bluff can lag behind other lands that provide immediate utility without such steep costs.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Thriving Bluff is highly adaptable to various strategies, seamlessly integrating into multicolored decks where mana fixing is crucial.
Combo Potential: The land’s ability to evolve and match your mana needs elevates synergies with spells demanding specific color combinations.
Meta-Relevance: In a game-state where a diverse mana base is key to casting influential spells across all phases, Thriving Bluff offers consistent utility.
How to beat
Thriving Bluff is a versatile land card in MTG that’s capable of bolstering a player’s mana base significantly. As part of the “Thriving” land cycle, it enters the battlefield tapped but allows you to choose a color of mana it will produce when tapped, in addition to red mana. This makes it an excellent choice for multicolored decks that need a stable mana foundation. However, as with any card, there are tactics to effectively counter it.
To undermine the advantages provided by Thriving Bluff, consider using land destruction cards that can remove Thriving Bluff from play, disrupting your opponent’s mana balance. Cards like Field of Ruin can force the exchange of Thriving Bluff for a basic land, potentially hampering the complexity of your opponent’s mana base. Another strategy involves employing cards that restrict the use of nonbasic lands. By using cards like Blood Moon, you turn Thriving Bluff into a basic Mountain, eliminating the strategic advantage gained from choosing a second mana color.
Focusing on these strategies can help nullify the benefits Thriving Bluff brings to the battlefield, maintaining pressure on your opponent’s resource management. By doing so, you can tilt the game in your favor, leveraging their potential setbacks to advance your position in the match.
Cards like Thriving Bluff
Thriving Bluff finds its niche in the pantheon of dual lands available to Magic: The Gathering players. While not as renowned as the shock lands, such as Steam Vents, which allows you to pay life to have it enter the battlefield untapped, Thriving Bluff enters the battlefield tapped but presents an opportunity to choose a color that it will produce along with red mana.
Likewise, Gain Lands such as Swiftwater Cliffs also enters the battlefield tapped, offering red and blue mana immediately but grants you 1 life as a small bonus. Another relative in this family, the Ravnica bouncelands — Izzet Boilerworks, provides an abundant solution in the form of two mana of specified colors but requires a land to be returned to your hand, slowing your tempo.
In a mana base evaluation, Thriving Bluff allows for strategic flexibility in deckbuilding, particularly for decks that can benefit from having access to variable mana colors, even if it means starting a step behind with a tap on entry. It’s a trade-off that can accommodate many strategies in MTG.
Cards similar to Thriving Bluff by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Thriving Bluff MTG card by a specific set like Jumpstart and New Capenna Commander, 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 Thriving Bluff 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 Thriving Bluff Magic the Gathering card was released in 7 different sets between 2020-07-17 and 2024-02-23. Illustrated by 2 different artists.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2020-07-17 | Jumpstart | JMP | 33 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss | |
| 2 | 2022-04-29 | New Capenna Commander | NCC | 438 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss | |
| 3 | 2022-12-02 | Jumpstart 2022 | J22 | 822 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss | |
| 4 | 2023-08-04 | Commander Masters | CMM | 429 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss | |
| 5 | 2023-10-13 | Doctor Who | WHO | 915 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Bruce Brenneise | |
| 6 | 2023-10-13 | Doctor Who | WHO | 324 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Bruce Brenneise | |
| 7 | 2023-11-17 | The Lost Caverns of Ixalan Commander | LCC | 361 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss | |
| 8 | 2024-02-23 | Ravnica: Clue Edition | CLU | 249 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Johannes Voss |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Thriving Bluff has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
