Exquisite Blood MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost5
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment

Key Takeaways

  1. Exquisite Blood transforms opponents’ life loss into your life gain, crucial for card advantage and game longevity.
  2. The card’s five mana cost demands careful deck building, ensuring mana availability without compromising other plays.
  3. Despite its potency, enchantment removal strategies or fast-paced attacks can effectively neutralize Exquisite Blood’s impact.

Text of card

Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.

Even as humans regained the upper hand, some still willingly traded their lives for a chance at immortality.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Exquisite Blood offers a distinct advantage due to its continuous vampire-like bleeding effect. This allows you to potentially turn every life point lost by your opponent into a card draw. This not only maintains but may very well inflate your card advantage in a game.

Resource Acceleration: With Exquisite Blood in play, every life point lost by an opponent gives you a chance to increase your life total which strengthens your hold on the game. This unique, continuous sapping effect manifests a resource acceleration strategy central to your game plan.

Instant Speed: Even though Exquisite Blood is an enchantment, its activation is at instant speed. The draining effect is immediate once triggered during any phase of the game. It won’t miss even an instance of life loss by your opponent, making it difficult for them to strategize against. Furthermore, Exquisite Blood combines incredibly with other cards, creating potential game-winning combos.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Exquisite Blood card takes a toll on you by necessitating the discard of another card from your hand, which can be a setback if you’re running low on cards.

Specific Mana Cost: This card requires five mana including a specific black, exerting constraints on its use to deck types incorporating black mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value of five, there could be other cards in your deck providing aggressive effects or swift board advantage, making Exquisite Blood relatively expensive to cast.


Reasons to Include Exquisite Blood in Your Collection

Versatility: Exquisite Blood is a unique card that provides a wide game reach as it fits into multiple types of decks. As a powerful enchantment, it complements life-gain, drain, and control strategies adding layers of versatility.

Combo Potential: Exquisite Blood is known for its powerful combos, specifically with Sanguine Bond. This pairing initiates a life draining loop that can instantly defeat your opponent, proving its worth as a combo piece.

Meta-Relevance: In the current MTG landscape, cards that provide consistent, passive advantages like Exquisite Blood are increasing in relevance. With the rise of decks that can deal damage or gain life incrementally, such enchantments can give the edge needed to outlast and defeat opponents.


How to beat

Exquisite Blood is a potent lifelink enchantment in Magic: The Gathering. The card shines in providing a continuous stream of life points every time an opponent loses life, creating a formidable defense line. Though it has a relatively high mana cost of five, the sustainability it adds to your gameplay can be difficult to offset.

However, it’s not unbeatable. One strategy to counter Exquisite Blood is using enchantment removal cards, particularly those that can target enchantments. An example is Naturalize, a commonly used instant spell that destroys artifacts or enchantments. Similarly, cards like Disenchant and Revoke Existence can discard Exquisite Blood.

Another approach is to employ a rush strategy, dealing as much damage as possible before the user can establish their life gain cycle. Quick attackers or direct damage spells could do the trick. Most importantly, understanding the timing and management of your resources is the key to turning the tide of the game against an Exquisite Blood user.

To sum up, as formidable as Exquisite Blood can be, with the right strategies and cards, you can unravel its enchantment and take control of the gameplay in Magic: The Gathering.


BurnMana Recommendations

MTG enthusiasts understand that knowledge equals power. Exquisite Blood exemplifies a card that can tip the scales in your favor, transforming every opponent’s setback into your advantage. Its synergy with key cards can forge combos that lead to spectacular victories. While its five mana cost may seem steep, the potential benefits for your gameplay are undisputed. If you’re aiming to refine your tactics and leverage the strategic depth offered by Exquisite Blood, immerse yourself in our content. We’re here to share insights and techniques that will elevate your MTG experience. Let’s unlock the full potential of your deck together.


Cards like Exquisite Blood

Exquisite Blood is a unique card in Magic: The Gathering with a distinctive ability to alter the flow of a game. This enchantment, similar to other life-stealing cards such as Sanguine Bond and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose. Vito has a similar ability to Exquisite Blood, using your opponents’ life loss for your gain. However, Exquisite Blood takes this concept to the next level since it triggers upon any life loss, whereas Vito is constrained by combat damage only.

Sanguine Bond shares a similar pulse with Exquisite Blood where each point of life gained by you causes an equal loss to your opponent. Despite this powerful ability, unlike Exquisite Blood it doesn’t react to opponents losing life outside of its activation. Therefore, Exquisite Blood might be favored by players for its broader scope of utility.

A more indirect comparison can be drawn with Gray Merchant of Asphodel, which indirectly drains life from opponents. Although it lacks the continuous effect of Exquisite Blood, it offers flexibility of use, particularly in devotion-oriented decks.

In conclusion, while these cards offer captivating abilities in their own right, Exquisite Blood stands distinct in the realm of MTG with its universal and continuous life drain mechanic.

Sanguine Bond - MTG Card versions
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose - MTG Card versions
Gray Merchant of Asphodel - MTG Card versions
Sanguine Bond - Magic 2010 (M10)
Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose - Resale Promos (PRES)
Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Theros (THS)

Cards similar to Exquisite Blood by color, type and mana cost

Horror of Horrors - MTG Card versions
Worms of the Earth - MTG Card versions
Forbidden Crypt - MTG Card versions
Death Pits of Rath - MTG Card versions
Handcuffs - MTG Card versions
Discordant Dirge - MTG Card versions
Subversion - MTG Card versions
Larceny - MTG Card versions
Conspiracy - MTG Card versions
Putrefaction - MTG Card versions
Unnatural Hunger - MTG Card versions
Spreading Plague - MTG Card versions
Traveling Plague - MTG Card versions
Dawn of the Dead - MTG Card versions
Gravebreaker Lamia - MTG Card versions
Doomwake Giant - MTG Card versions
Clutch of Undeath - MTG Card versions
Sanguine Bond - MTG Card versions
Call to the Grave - MTG Card versions
Curse of Death's Hold - MTG Card versions
Horror of Horrors - Ninth Edition (9ED)
Worms of the Earth - The Dark (DRK)
Forbidden Crypt - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)
Death Pits of Rath - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Handcuffs - Unglued (UGL)
Discordant Dirge - Urza's Saga (USG)
Subversion - Urza's Legacy (ULG)
Larceny - Hachette UK (PHUK)
Conspiracy - The List (PLST)
Putrefaction - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Unnatural Hunger - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Spreading Plague - Invasion (INV)
Traveling Plague - Odyssey (ODY)
Dawn of the Dead - Torment (TOR)
Gravebreaker Lamia - Theros Beyond Death (THB)
Doomwake Giant - The List (PLST)
Clutch of Undeath - Scourge (SCG)
Sanguine Bond - Commander 2021 (C21)
Call to the Grave - Magic 2012 (M12)
Curse of Death's Hold - Innistrad (ISD)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Exquisite Blood MTG card by a specific set like Avacyn Restored 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 Exquisite Blood and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Exquisite Blood Magic the Gathering card was released in 5 different sets between 2012-05-04 and 2023-11-17. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12012-05-04Avacyn RestoredAVR 1022003normalblackCynthia Sheppard
22019-12-02Secret Lair DropSLD 2062015normalborderlessNils Hamm
32020-07-17JumpstartJMP 2312015normalblackCynthia Sheppard
42020-09-26The ListPLST JMP-2312015normalblackCynthia Sheppard
52023-11-17The Lost Caverns of Ixalan CommanderLCC 1952015normalblackCynthia Sheppard

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Exquisite Blood has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
GladiatorLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2012-05-01 Damage dealt to an opponent usually causes that opponent to lose life. An opponent paying life also causes loss of life.
2012-05-01 If you and an opponent both lose life simultaneously, and this causes your life total to become 0 or less, you'll lose the game before Exquisite Blood's triggered ability can resolve.

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