Moldgraf Scavenger MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Creature — Fungus |
| Abilities | Delirium |
| Released | 2016-04-08 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Shadows over Innistrad |
| Set code | SOI |
| Power | 0 |
| Toughness | 4 |
| Number | 218 |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Tomasz Jedruszek |
Key Takeaways
- Excels in graveyard-centric decks, often resulting in significant board advantage and strategic depth.
- Can be a strategic asset in instant-speed strategies by contributing to graveyard buildup.
- Different strategies, both aggressive and controlling, can effectively counteract Moldgraf Scavenger.
Text of card
Delirium — Moldgraf Scavenger gets +3/+0 as long as there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.
"When I was a child, we worried about picking the wrong mushrooms for the cook pot. Now we must worry about being picked ourselves." —Halana, Kessig ranger
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Moldgraf Scavenger has a pivotal role in graveyard-centric decks, often enabling you to benefit from a stocked graveyard. With its ability to be a consistent, durable blocker in the early to mid-game, it helps maintain board presence, which indirectly contributes to card advantage by deterring opponent’s attacks.
Resource Acceleration: While the Scavenger itself may not ramp in the traditional sense, its synergy with self-mill and delirium strategies can act as a resource acceleration by quickly populating your graveyard. This, in turn, can enable and enhance other spells that benefit from a high card count in the graveyard, speeding up your overall strategy.
Instant Speed: While Moldgraf Scavenger is not an instant, it benefits from being played in a deck that operates at instant speed. It can be a strategic piece in a game plan that utilizes flash creatures and spells, adding a strategic layer to your play as you fill your graveyard and advance your board state while keeping mana open for other instant-speed interactions.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Moldgraf Scavenger doesn’t require an actual discard, but its dependence on having creature cards in your graveyard to be effective means that without a steady stream of creatures going to the graveyard, it’s just a 0/4 for two mana.
Specific Mana Cost: Moldgraf Scavenger’s casting cost demands one green and one generic mana, restricting it to green-inclusive decks and potentially complicating your mana base against fast-paced opponents.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: For a card that provides value only if you have four or more creature cards in your graveyard, a two-mana investment could be considered high. Other cards could potentially offer more immediate board presence or utility at a similar cost.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Moldgraf Scavenger can be a useful addition to decks that are heavily based on using the graveyard. With its ability to grow in power as more cards make their way into the graveyard, it adapts well in varying game situations, especially in formats like Commander or Pauper.
Combo Potential: This creature thrives in synergy with strategies that fill the graveyard quickly. Pairing it with self-mill cards or dredge mechanics can turn it into a substantial threat that opponents can’t ignore.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta populated by graveyard-centric decks, Moldgraf Scavenger can be an efficient blocker and a resilient threat. Its reliance on having four or more creature cards in your graveyard to become stronger makes it particularly relevant in matchups where both players are filling their graveyards.
How to beat
Moldgraf Scavenger is a creature card that poses a unique challenge on the battlefield. This card, with its delirium ability, can swiftly become a powerful adversary if your graveyard is stocked with a variety of card types. To effectively counteract this card, one strategy is to limit the types of cards that go into your graveyard. Graveyard management tools or cards that exile rather than destroy can prevent the scavenger from reaching its full potential. Another approach is to remove it before delirium takes effect – spells that bounce creatures back to the hand or tuck them into the library can be particularly effective.
Playing around Moldgraf Scavenger also means being mindful when casting spells that contribute to the graveyard population. Certain deck archetypes that operate on graveyard synergy might consider using cards like Rest in Peace or Scavenging Ooze to inhibit the scavenger. Aggressive strategies can also employ early pressure to outpace the delirium activation, forcing the opponent to use the scavenger as a blocker and potentially sacrificing it in the process.
Ultimately, Moldgraf Scavenger’s strength is contingent on a graveyard-rich environment. So, keeping its habitat inhospitable will give you the upper hand, making it much simpler to navigate around this deceptively troublesome creature.
Cards like Moldgraf Scavenger
Moldgraf Scavenger brings its own unique flair to the dais of graveyard-utilizing creatures in MTG. It shares a kinship with Tarmogoyf, perhaps one of the most iconic creatures that grows in power with the number of card types in graveyards. Unlike Tarmogoyf’s variable power and toughness, Moldgraf Scavenger maintains a steady 0/4 base that can rise to a respectable 3/4, provided you have at least four card types in your own graveyard.
Delving into a more direct comparison, Satyr Wayfinder presents itself as another creature that influences the graveyard. Although it doesn’t scale in power, the Wayfinder actively stocks the graveyard, ensuring cards like Moldgraf Scavenger can be maximized in their potential. Nyx Weaver also weaves its way into this discussion, offering repeatable graveyard fueling and a built-in recovery mechanic for key cards, while still being a valuable blocker.
To encapsulate, Moldgraf Scavenger may not be the powerhouse that Tarmogoyf is, but with strategic deck building to stockpile a varied graveyard, it can serve as a cost-effective and resilient creature, vital for any self-milling or graveyard synergy strategy within the realms of MTG.
Cards similar to Moldgraf Scavenger by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Moldgraf Scavenger MTG card by a specific set like Shadows over Innistrad, 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 Moldgraf Scavenger and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Moldgraf Scavenger has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Moldgraf Scavenger card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2016-04-08 | Because you consider only the characteristics of a double-faced card’s front face while it’s not on the battlefield, the types of its back face won’t be counted for delirium. |
| 2016-04-08 | In some rare cases, you can have a token or a copy of a spell in your graveyard at the moment that an object’s delirium ability counts the card types among cards in your graveyard, before that token or copy ceases to exist. Because tokens and copies of spells are not cards, even if they are copies of cards, their types will never be counted. |
| 2016-04-08 | The card types in Magic are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal (a card type that appears on some older cards). Supertypes (such as legendary and basic) and subtypes (such as Human and Equipment) are not counted. |
| 2016-04-08 | The number of card types matters, not the number of cards. For example, Wicker Witch (an artifact creature) along with Catalog (an instant) and Chaplain’s Blessing (a sorcery) will enable delirium. |
