Rot Farm Skeleton MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 4 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Plant Skeleton |
| Abilities | Mill |
| Released | 2013-05-03 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Dragon's Maze |
| Set code | DGM |
| Power | 4 |
| Toughness | 1 |
| Number | 98 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Maciej Kuciara |
Key Takeaways
- Enhances graveyard strategies by resurrecting itself, ensuring a persistent threat on the battlefield.
- Demands precise mana, potentially limiting its integration into non-Golgari decks.
- Viable in long games for repeated value, justifying its inclusion in meta-relevant collections.
Text of card
Rot Farm Skeleton can't block. , Put the top four cards of your library into your graveyard: Return Rot Farm Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Rot Farm Skeleton has the built-in ability to regenerate itself from the graveyard. This presents a perpetual threat on the board, ensuring a consistent stream of card advantage as your opponents must continuously find answers.
Resource Acceleration: While the Rot Farm Skeleton doesn’t directly accelerate resources, it does synergize well with decks focused on utilizing their graveyard as an extended hand, effectively speeding up the potential to play impactful cards.
Instant Speed: Although the Rot Farm Skeleton’s ability is not at instant speed, its recursion capability can be activated at the end of your opponent’s turn. This timing allows for more efficient use of mana and keeps pressure on your opponents by bringing the Skeleton back repeatedly when it’s most inconvenient for them.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Rot Farm Skeleton mandates a card discard when dredged from your graveyard to your hand. For players without a consistent card advantage, this can hinder your hand size and leave you at a resource deficit.
Specific Mana Cost: This creature’s activation cost demands both black and green mana, which could be restrictive for multicolor decks not focused on a Golgari (black-green) combination.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana, including two that are color-specific, Rot Farm Skeleton can be a substantial investment, especially in decks that need to maintain tempo or are competing against decks that can deploy threats at a lower cost.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Rot Farm Skeleton can be a valuable addition to a variety of deck types, particularly those that capitalize on graveyard mechanics. Its ability to return to the battlefield from the graveyard can make it a persistent threat that’s hard to permanently remove.
Combo Potential: This creature synergizes well with self-mill strategies and cards that benefit from having creatures in the graveyard, potentially setting up powerful combinations with various graveyard-centric builds, especially in the Golgari color pair.
Meta-Relevance: With metas that favor long games and gradual value generation, Rot Farm Skeleton can shine. Its recursion makes it a recurring element in games that can wear down an opponent’s resources over time.
How to beat
Confronting the Rot Farm Skeleton on the battlefield requires a certain level of finesse due to its ability to return from the graveyard. It’s a formidable adversary that embodies resilience, making it a card to be reckoned with in any MTG match. Its regeneration is similar to the mechanics of Reassembling Skeleton, but with the added bonus of potentially being a larger threat due to its inherent card mechanic when it dredges from the graveyard.
To effectively counter this card, efficient exiling spells or graveyard interaction shutdowns are crucial. Cards like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void come to mind, permanently removing the Skeleton’s ability to recur. Exile-based removal, such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, can be effective tools as well, ensuring that Rot Farm Skeleton doesn’t get the opportunity to return and pressure the board once more.
Thus, while the Rot Farm Skeleton can be an intimidating presence, its weakness lies in the game’s comprehensive selection of graveyard hate strategies and exile effects, offering multiple ways for players to incapacitate this relentless creature.
Cards like Rot Farm Skeleton
Rot Farm Skeleton is an intriguing creature card in Magic: The Gathering, finding its niche within the Golgari graveyard synergy set. It bears resemblance to other cards that can resurrect from the graveyard like Gravecrawler, which lacks the self-mill ability but can be played from the graveyard as long as you control a Zombie. Rot Farm Skeleton’s advantage lies in its ability to dredge itself from the graveyard by putting the top four cards of your library into the graveyard, albeit at a higher mana cost for its return.
Another peer in this category is Baloth Null, which provides immediate value by retrieving two creature cards from the graveyard to your hand upon entry to the battlefield. However, this effect is a one-time use compared with the repeatable graveyard interactions offered by Rot Farm Skeleton. Gutterbones also enters the comparison, a creature that can be returned to the hand and played again, granted an opponent has lost life this turn, providing a different angle of recurring actions.
Each of these alternatives offers unique benefits and requirements for resurrection strategies. The self-mill and recurring board presence from Rot Farm Skeleton have their own appeal, especially in long, grinding matches where its consistent presence can be a game changer.
Cards similar to Rot Farm Skeleton by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Rot Farm Skeleton MTG card by a specific set like Dragon's Maze, 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 Rot Farm Skeleton 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 Rot Farm Skeleton has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Rot Farm Skeleton card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2013-04-15 | If you have three or fewer cards in your library, you can’t activate Rot Farm Skeleton’s last ability. |
| 2013-04-15 | Putting four cards from your library into your graveyard is part of the activation cost of Rot Farm Skeleton’s ability. The four cards will be in the graveyard before any player can respond. |
| 2013-04-15 | You can activate the last ability only if Rot Farm Skeleton is in your graveyard. |
