Death's Approach MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant

Key Takeaways

  1. Offers battlefield control by leveraging opponent’s creature-heavy graveyard strategies in MTG.
  2. Enables resource allocation for other strategies by handling threats with a single mana.
  3. Scales in effectiveness instantaneously as creatures enter graveyards during gameplay.

Text of card

Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets -X/-X, where X is the number of creature cards in its controller's graveyard.

"It's cold in the grave, and the dead crave your warmth. Who are you to deny them?" —Strava, Dimir mage


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Death’s Approach can be a hidden gem for controlling the battlefield and chipping away at your opponent’s resources. By shrinking down a creature’s power and toughness for each creature card in its controller’s graveyard, it has the potential to turn the tide over time, either neutralizing threats or even eliminating them outright. In metas with lots of creature-heavy strategies, this enchantment offers incremental advantage with minimal investment.

Resource Acceleration: This card itself does not provide direct resource acceleration in the form of additional mana or cards. However, by handling potentially costly threats for a single black mana, it allows you to allocate your resources elsewhere — potentially accelerating your board presence or strategy while stunting your opponent’s development.

Instant Speed: While the enchantment operates at sorcery speed, it sets up a scenario where the value increases at instant speed as creatures are put into graveyards during either player’s turn. This interaction ensures that Death’s Approach scales in effectiveness throughout the game, especially in formats where the graveyard fills up rapidly, becoming a persistent threat that’s always on your opponent’s mind whenever creatures clash or spells fly.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: For playing Death’s Approach, although there is no need to discard a card as a cost, being able to leverage its full potential requires a certain setup where graveyard management is key.

Specific Mana Cost: Death’s Approach requires black mana for casting. This can be restrictive and makes it less versatile for decks that are not focused on black mana or are not able to generate it efficiently.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Death’s Approach might appear mana-efficient, its impact is often underwhelming when compared to other removal spells at similar mana costs. It also requires a build-up of creatures in an opponent’s graveyard to be truly effective, which can be difficult against decks that don’t rely heavily on creatures or have ways to shuffle their graveyard back into their library.


Reasons to Include Death’s Approach in Your Collection

Versatility: Death’s Approach offers a scalable removal option that can be slotted into various black decks in MTG. Its effectiveness increases as opponents’ graveyards fill up, allowing it to adapt to longer games.

Combo Potential: This enchantment synergizes well with strategies that require frequent creature deaths or benefit from graveyard manipulation, making it a formidable piece in sacrifice or mill decks.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where creature-based strategies are prevalent, Death’s Approach serves as a low-cost answer to keep looming threats in check. It’s particularly impactful against decks that utilize graveyard strategies to their advantage.


How to beat Death’s Approach

Death’s Approach is an enchantment card that can be a pesky nuisance if you’re running a creature-heavy deck in MTG. This card has the uncanny ability to cripple your creatures based on the number of creature cards in your graveyard. However, it does have its Achilles’ heel. Since Death’s Approach relies heavily on your graveyard content, keeping your graveyard clean becomes a powerful counter strategy. Cards such as Tormod’s Crypt or Relic of Progenitus can exile creature cards from your graveyard, nullifying the potency of Death’s Approach.

Moreover, employing creatures with hexproof or shroud provides a layer of protection, as enchantments like Death’s Approach cannot target them. You could also consider utilizing enchantment removal cards such as Disenchant or Naturalize, which are staples in most sideboards. They allow an immediate and affordable answer to threats like Death’s Approach. In essence, by managing your graveyard and utilizing strategic removals, you can diminish the impact of Death’s Approach and maintain a strong board presence.


Cards like Death's Approach

Death’s Approach is a distinctive card from Magic: The Gathering, ingrained in the strategy of exploiting graveyard mechanics. Like other enchantments in its lineage, such as Dead Weight, it applies a state of attrition to its targeted creature. However, Death’s Approach goes one step further, adjusting its potency based on the number of creature cards in an opponent’s graveyard. This dynamic characteristic elevates it beyond the static power reduction of Dead Weight and into a more situational, yet potentially more powerful, removal card.

Comparatively, we can look at Nihil Spellbomb, which does not directly weaken a creature but can swiftly clear an opponent’s graveyard, impacting Death’s Approach’s effectiveness and serving as an indirect counter. Another parallel can be drawn with Leyline of the Void, which prevents cards from even entering the graveyard, nullifying the condition upon which Death’s Approach’s strength depends. Yet, it does not interact with the creatures on the board directly.

In the domain of black enchantments affecting creature strength, Death’s Approach carves out its niche. It presents a unique scaling threat that thrives against decks heavy on creatures, setting it apart as a tactical choice for players keen on leveraging their opponents’ graveyard contents.

Dead Weight - MTG Card versions
Nihil Spellbomb - MTG Card versions
Leyline of the Void - MTG Card versions
Dead Weight - Innistrad (ISD)
Nihil Spellbomb - Scars of Mirrodin (SOM)
Leyline of the Void - Guildpact (GPT)

Cards similar to Death's Approach by color, type and mana cost

Paralyze - MTG Card versions
Unholy Strength - MTG Card versions
Evil Presence - MTG Card versions
Weakness - MTG Card versions
Imprison - MTG Card versions
Thrull Retainer - MTG Card versions
Torture - MTG Card versions
Death Watch - MTG Card versions
Leshrac's Rite - MTG Card versions
Sadistic Glee - MTG Card versions
Sarcomancy - MTG Card versions
Dread of Night - MTG Card versions
Tortured Existence - MTG Card versions
Volrath's Motion Sensor - MTG Card versions
Sicken - MTG Card versions
Darkest Hour - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Reclamation - MTG Card versions
Withering Hex - MTG Card versions
Genju of the Fens - MTG Card versions
Vampiric Link - MTG Card versions
Paralyze - Vintage Masters (VMA)
Unholy Strength - Duel Decks Anthology: Divine vs. Demonic (DVD)
Evil Presence - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Weakness - Masters Edition IV (ME4)
Imprison - Legends (LEG)
Thrull Retainer - Masters Edition (ME1)
Torture - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Death Watch - Visions (VIS)
Leshrac's Rite - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Sadistic Glee - Tempest (TMP)
Sarcomancy - Vintage Masters (VMA)
Dread of Night - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)
Tortured Existence - Stronghold (STH)
Volrath's Motion Sensor - Unglued (UGL)
Sicken - Urza's Saga (USG)
Darkest Hour - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Phyrexian Reclamation - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
Withering Hex - Onslaught (ONS)
Genju of the Fens - Mystery Booster (MB1)
Vampiric Link - Planar Chaos (PLC)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Death's Approach MTG card by a specific set like Gatecrash and Jumpstart, 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 Death's Approach and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Death's Approach Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-02-01 and 2020-07-17. Illustrated by Terese Nielsen.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12013-02-01GatecrashGTC 622003normalblackTerese Nielsen
22020-07-17JumpstartJMP 2222015normalblackTerese Nielsen

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Death's Approach has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Death's Approach card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2013-01-24 The value of X will change as the number of creature cards in the enchanted creature’s controller’s graveyard changes. Any time state-based actions are performed, if that creature’s toughness is 0 or less, or damage marked on it is equal to or greater than its toughness, the creature will be put into its owner’s graveyard.

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