Mudhole MTG Card

Odyssey (ODY)
2001-10-01 - Number 208

Secret Lair Drop (SLD)
2019-12-02 - Number 62

Card sets	Released in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Instant

Key Takeaways

Mudhole provides targeted graveyard disruption, specifically against land recursion tactics.
Instant speed allows for reactive play, disrupting opponents during critical turns.
While niche, Mudhole can be a meta-dependent sideboard card adding strategic depth.

Text of card

Target player removes all land cards in his or her graveyard from the game.

"Doing okay back there, Tarv? Tarv?"

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Although not providing direct card draw, Mudhole can indirectly influence card advantage by disrupting the opponent’s land recursion strategies, possibly leading to a card resource gap in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: While Mudhole itself does not accelerate resources, it can impede an opponent’s ability to do so by targeting lands in their graveyard that they might recycle for a mana boost.

Instant Speed: Mudhole can be played at instant speed, allowing flexibility in gameplay. You can wait until the optimal moment, perhaps in response to an opponent’s attempt to retrieve a land from their graveyard, to maximize its impact.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One potential drawback of Mudhole is the necessity to discard it to trigger its land removal from the graveyard. This might be a negative trade-off for players whose strategies rely on hand advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Mudhole demands red mana to cast. This cost pigeonholes the card into red or multicolored mana decks, sometimes restricting its playability in a wider range of decks that might benefit from its graveyard disruption.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Standing at one red mana might seem low-cost at first glance. However, when considering its limited impact on the game – solely removing land cards from a graveyard – it could be deemed inefficient. Other cards with broader effects or more potent graveyard disruption could be played at a similar, or even lower, mana investment.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Mudhole’s unique ability to target land cards in an opponent’s graveyard makes it a flexible sideboard option, especially in formats where land recursion strategies are prevalent.

Combo Potential: Within decks focused on land disruption, Mudhole can synergize with effects that mill or force the opponent to discard, thereby helping to suppress their mana base and tactical plays.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where land-based strategies like “Life from the Loam” or graveyard synergies are commonplace, having Mudhole as a niche answer can give you an unexpected edge in the matchup.

How to beat

Mudhole is an intriguing card in the MTG universe, allowing players to remove lands from opponents’ graveyards. In playing environments where graveyard strategies are prevalent, handling a card like Mudhole can be crucial. A way to beat Mudhole hinges on minimizing the dependency on graveyard interactions, focusing on deck resilience. If your strategy is not reliant on lands in your graveyard, Mudhole loses much of its potency.

Improving the land count in your deck can mitigate the impact of Mudhole. By ensuring a steady land draw, you can keep playing lands from your hand rather than worrying about those in the graveyard. Additionally, employing cards that can retrieve lands from the graveyard to your hand before Mudhole is cast can help maintain your mana base and reduce the disruption caused by this card. Moreover, using spells that reshuffle your graveyard into your library can nullify Mudhole’s effect by removing the targets for its ability.

To summarize, countering Mudhole requires a focus on strategic deck building and the inclusion of cards that can either dodge or negate its graveyard clearing abilities. By understanding and anticipating this niche card, players can effectively neutralize its potential disruption and maintain control over their game.

Cards like Mudhole

Mudhole is a distinctive card within Magic: The Gathering, designed to target land cards in an opponent’s graveyard. This offers a niche utility that isn’t widely seen in most red spells. Cards like Tormod’s Crypt can sweep away entire graveyards, including lands, and doesn’t limit itself to a single graveyard. However, Mudhole allows players to precisely target and disrupt land-oriented strategies without affecting other graveyard resources.

Ground Seal is another card that interacts with graveyards by preventing cards from being targeted by spells or abilities, but it still allows land cards to be played from the graveyard—something Mudhole can directly hinder. Bojuka Bog offers a similar response to graveyard strategies by exiling all cards from a player’s graveyard when it enters the battlefield. Unlike Mudhole, it’s a land itself, which means it fits seamlessly into a deck’s mana base without taking up a spell slot.

While Mudhole might not be as versatile as broader graveyard hate cards, it has the potential to be highly effective in the right metagame, where land-based strategies are dominant. It stands out as a specialized yet potentially game-swinging tool for red decks that seek to shut down their opponents’ graveyard mechanics.

Cards similar to Mudhole by color, type and mana cost

Path of Anger's Flame - MTG Card versions

Flames of the Blood Hand - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Mudhole MTG card by a specific set like Odyssey and Secret Lair Drop, 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 Mudhole and other MTG cards: