Cultist's Staff MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact — Equipment
Abilities	Equip
Released	2016-07-22
Set symbol
Set name	Eldritch Moon
Set code	EMN
Number	194
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Adam Paquette

Key Takeaways

Cultist’s Staff enhances creatures, shaping gameplay by requiring your opponent’s attention and resources.
Its low equip cost aids resource management, allowing more flexibility during crucial turns.
While the staff imposes a discard cost, it defines decks around black mana and resource commitment.

Text of card

Equipped creature gets +2/+2. Equip (: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)

The head of the staff doubles as a brand to anoint the newly inducted.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Equipping Cultist’s Staff can subtly tip the scales of card advantage by transforming an ordinary creature into a significant threat, demanding a response from your opponent. Each turn that your bolstered creature remains unchecked may force your opponent to expend more resources to deal with it.

Resource Acceleration: Although Cultist’s Staff doesn’t directly produce mana or tokens, its low casting and equip costs allow for efficient use of resources. This means that remaining mana can be allocated to further advance your board state or respond to threats dynamically at crucial moments.

Instant Speed: While Cultist’s Staff itself may not be an instant, it synergizes well with them. By improving your creature during your main phase, you free up mana to cast any instant-speed spells in hand, keeping your opponent guessing and hesitant to commit on their own turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Cultist’s Staff prompts a player to part with another card upon activation. This can significantly hinder your hand, especially if running low on key cards or facing hand disruption tactics from opponents.

Specific Mana Cost: Decks seeking to incorporate Cultist’s Staff need to plan for its black mana cost. This requirement can restrict the card’s inclusion to decks that work within that particular color’s mana base, possibly impacting the deck’s versatility in multicolor formats.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Cultist’s Staff comes at the expense of a relatively steep mana investment. When considering its utility and benefits, the card’s cost efficiency may not measure up to other artifacts or spells within the same mana range, potentially making it a less advantageous pick for deck construction.

Reasons to Include Cultist’s Staff in Your Collection

Versatility: Cultist’s Staff is a flexible addition to your arsenal, suitable for a wide array of deck types. Its ability to boost creature stats means it can turn even the most insignificant creature into a formidable threat.

Combo Potential: Equipped creatures getting a significant power buff opens up possibilities for synergies with myriad creature-based strategies, complementing mechanics that trigger on creature strength or combat damage.

Meta-Relevance: Considering the current landscape of game dynamics, this artifact can be incredibly impactful. It supports strategies looking to overpower opponents with enhanced creatures and can adjust to various meta shifts, ensuring its longevity in your collection.

How to beat

Cultist’s Staff, which enriches creature capability in Magic: The Gathering, poses challenges when faced on the battleground. Strengthening creatures, it turns even the most insignificant threats into formidable adversaries. Subverting this power, however, requires strategic play and card choices. A primary approach is keeping removal spells at the ready. Instant-speed spells such as Fatal Push or Path to Exile guarantee that you can respond to the enhanced threat immediately, minimizing the staff’s impact.

Artifact destruction also plays a crucial role. As Cultist’s Staff itself is vulnerable when not attached, cards like Naturalize or Shatterstorm can dismantle strategic setups, leaving opponent creatures in a weakened state. Additionally, countering it upon cast with spells like Negate ensures the staff never influences the battlefield. It’s important to consider the tempo of your play. Being proactive with threats and keeping your opponent on the backfoot limits their opportunities to leverage Cultist’s Staff effectively. Outpacing the enchantment synergy and maintaining board control are key to diminishing its potential.

Ultimately, understanding the meta and equipping your deck with the right mix of responses allows you to nullify the advantage Cultist’s Staff might bring to your opponent’s forces in MTG, making it a manageable obstacle in your path to victory.

Cards like Cultist's Staff

The intrigue that Cultist’s Staff brings to the realm of artifact equipment in Magic: The Gathering is worthy of note. It shares its fundamental purpose with other equipment cards, such as boosting creature stats. Comparable to the likes of Vorrac Battlehorns, the Cultist’s Staff increases a creature’s power and toughness, providing a similar edge in combat scenarios. However, the staff forges its unique path with the additional mana investment for equipping, demanding more resources for its use.

Examining the likes of Squire’s Devotion, we notice a twist in the enhancement approach. While offering a life-linked creature boost, this enchantment lacks the reusability that comes with equipment like Cultist’s Staff. On the mana curve, Bone Saw comes into comparison, as it’s a more affordable alternative with an equip cost of one, yet it only boosts power by a smaller margin. Then there’s the renowned Darksteel Axe, indisputable for its indestructibility, yet it offers a power increase without the toughness boost that Cultist’s Staff provides.

When taking inventory of attributes and considering the trade-offs of versatility versus resource expenditure, Cultist’s Staff demonstrates a distinctive place in the pantheon of Magic: The Gathering equipment cards. Its adaptability in a variety of deck types and strategies cannot be overlooked.

Cards similar to Cultist's Staff by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Cultist's Staff MTG card by a specific set like Eldritch Moon, 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 Cultist's Staff and other MTG cards: