Skeletal Snake MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Common
Type	Creature — Snake Skeleton
Released	1997-05-01
Set symbol
Set name	Portal
Set code	POR
Power	2
Toughness	1
Number	111
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	John Matson

Key Takeaways

Offers card return upon demise, aiding in maintaining hand presence and resource management.
Its low casting cost hastens battlefield presence, complementing instant-speed plays adeptly.
Requires precise mana, potentially limiting deck integration yet upholds a unique tactical edge.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Skeletal Snake underscores its value by enabling you to retrieve a card from your graveyard upon death. This recyclability ensures you’re not losing resources over the course of the match, giving you an edge in maintaining hand presence.

Resource Acceleration: Its low casting cost aids in swift deployment to the battlefield. This efficiency can be a form of acceleration, as it allows you to establish board presence while holding resources for other strategic plays.

Instant Speed: Although it’s not an instant itself, Skeletal Snake complements instant-speed strategies well. It can serve as a blocker that potentially deters attacks, knowing it can replace itself in your hand. This interaction can be leveraged at optimum times, making it flexible within various game scenarios.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The skeletal snake requires discarding another card to utilize particular abilities. This can detrimentally affect your hand, leaving you at a disadvantage, especially in game situations where card advantage is crucial.

Specific Mana Cost: Its casting cost demands a precise combination of mana types, which can pose a challenge for decks that operate on a flexible mana base. This restricts the snake’s inclusion to decks well-tuned to accommodate its mana needs.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Despite its unique abilities, the skeletal snake comes with a mana cost that’s on the higher side when contrasted with other creatures of similar power and toughness. This can slow down your gameplay, making it less competitive against decks that deploy threats more efficiently.

Reasons to Include Skeletal Snake Mtg Card in Your Collection

Versatility: The Skeletal Snake card brings a flexible approach to deck building. It can adapt to various strategies, making it a considerable asset for those looking to disrupt common play patterns or to cater to specific tactics within their decks.

Combo Potential: Combining the mechanics of the Skeletal Snake with graveyard play or reanimation strategies amplifies its value within a game. Its synergistic nature can enhance combos that capitalize on creature-type or graveyard-based interactions.

Meta-Relevance: As the meta shifts to accommodate the latest releases, having the Skeletal Snake in your arsenal ensures you can navigate through creature-heavy landscapes or exploit vulnerabilities in decks that struggle against recursive creature threats.

How to beat

The Skeletal Snake card introduces a unique challenge to players within the Magic: The Gathering universe. True to its creature type, the Snake provides resilience through its regeneration ability. This makes it a formidable opponent in battle, as it can easily shrug off lethal damage that would normally destroy a creature.

Defeating a Skeletal Snake requires strategic planning. Using spells that exile or cause a player to sacrifice a creature can efficiently circumvent its regeneration. Cards like Path to Exile or Diabolic Edict are perfect counters, as they remove the Snake without triggering its regeneration capability. Creature abilities that prevent regeneration, such as those found on cards like Incinerate, provide another effective solution, cutting off the Snake’s survivability and ensuring it won’t return to the battlefield.

It’s clear that while the Skeletal Snake can be a recurring nuisance when relying on straightforward damage or destruction spells, there are various ways to strategically ensure it’s permanently removed from play. Understanding and utilizing these removal techniques will guarantee your victory against this resilient creature.

Cards like Skeletal Snake

Skeletal Snake offers a haunting presence on the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering, bringing an interesting twist to creature cards with its undead reptilian theme. It can be compared to cards like Boneknitter, which also operates within the realm of reanimation but instead of the creature itself coming back from the graveyard, it strengthens others by regenerating them. Boneknitter serves a support role, while Skeletal Snake stands on its own.

Looking at Drudge Skeletons, another skeleton card from MTG’s expansive history, it shares the regenerative ability with Skeletal Snake, offering players a durable defensive option. However, while Drudge Skeletons requires mana investment to regenerate, Skeletal Snake’s potential lies in its automatic return to the battlefield upon death—assuming conditions are met. This self-reanimating capability makes it a persistent nuisance that can repeatedly pressure opponents.

Ultimately, within the scope of undead-themed MTG cards, Skeletal Snake carves out its niche by exemplifying the resilient and relentless nature of skeletal creatures. Its ability to return after destruction without requiring additional resources from the player apart from its initial casting cost positions it as a valuable piece in decks focusing on endurance and creature revival strategies.

Cards similar to Skeletal Snake by color, type and mana cost

Order of the Ebon Hand - MTG Card versions

Nezumi Graverobber // Nighteyes the Desecrator - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Skeletal Snake MTG card by a specific set like Portal, 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 Skeletal Snake and other MTG cards: