Balshan Collaborator MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Creature — Bird Soldier
Abilities	Flying
Released	2002-02-04
Set symbol
Set name	Torment
Set code	TOR
Power	2
Toughness	2
Number	25
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	DiTerlizzi

Key Takeaways

Balshan Collaborator excels in card draw, offering strategic hand replenishment abilities.
Resource acceleration is a benefit; this card feeds into faster deck functionality.
Instant-speed utility adds tactical depth, making Balshan Collaborator highly responsive.

Text of card

Flying o B: Balshan Collaborator gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

"Power, gold, crackers—every bird has its price." —Chainer, dementia master

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Balshan Collaborator excels at providing a sustained edge in card draw. Most notably, its unique ability to tap and deliver distinct advantages from your deck, it offers a strategic option for skillfully stockpiling cards into your hand, ensuring you’re never short of options.

Resource Acceleration: This formidable card not only serves as a creature on the battlefield but also aids in propelling your resources forward. By enabling access to additional cards, Balshan Collaborator indirectly contributes to accelerating your resource pool, giving you the upper hand in building a daunting presence against your opponents.

Instant Speed: Its ability to operate at instant speed provides a layer of tactical finesse to gameplay. With Balshan Collaborator, you’re poised to enhance your battlefield at a moment’s notice, responding to your opponent’s moves with agility and strategic depth that can turn the tides of the match in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Balshan Collaborator necessitates discarding a card upon casting, which can be a steep price if your hand is already scant or if each card is pivotal for your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Requiring both blue and black mana, Balshan Collaborator can be challenging to fit into multicolored decks without a reliable mana base, potentially leading to casting delays.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that is on the higher side for its body and abilities, players might find it difficult to justify its inclusion over lower-cost creatures with similar or better value propositions in competitive formats.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Balshan Collaborator can be a dynamic player in blue-centered decks, offering a flying creature that easily adapts to various game states. Its ability to gain power with graveyard manipulation makes it a natural fit across multiple deck archetypes.

Combo Potential: In combination with cards that mill or self-mill, Balshan Collaborator becomes a formidable force, potentially swelling to sizable proportions and allowing for aggressive, evasive plays. This enhances its synergy within decks focused on graveyard strategies.

Meta-Relevance: Balshan Collaborator shines in environments where graveyard interactions are prominent. Its evasion and scaling power can counter numerous popular decks, making it a card to consider when tuning your deck to face a diverse field.

How to Beat

Balshan Collaborator is a notable creature card that players may encounter in their MTG matches. This card is known for its flying ability, making it a threat from the air that can be hard to block. Its strength lies in not just evasion but also in its potential power increase when facing opponents who control Islands.

When contending against Balshan Collaborator, the key is to restrict its power boost by managing the number of Islands you control. Utilizing nonbasic lands that don’t count as Islands or employing land alteration spells to change the land type can effectively neuter the power surge. Additionally, strategies involving creature removal or spells that can specifically target flying creatures will serve well in mitigating the aerial threat Balshan Collaborator poses.

Moreover, redirecting your defensive tactics to include creatures with reach or spells that can deal damage to creatures in the air is a sound strategy. Cards with the “Can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach” clause also level the playing field. By adopting these methods, players can overcome the challenges posed by Balshan Collaborator and maintain control over the game.

Cards like Balshan Collaborator

The Balshan Collaborator offers an interesting dynamic in the realm of flying creatures within Magic: The Gathering. Like other notable flyers such as Stormfront Pegasus, the Balshan Collaborator grants swift aerial advantage. However, it’s the combination of its flying trait with its adaptability to boost power when facing a graveyard-fueled strategy that makes it stand out. Stormfront Pegasus may boast the same speed in the air but lacks the strategic edge that comes with the Collaborator’s conditional power increase.

When considering utility, it compares to Aven Wind Mage, a card that also flourishes in the presence of spells. While the Wind Mage thrives on repeatedly casting instants and sorceries to buff its power, the Balshan Collaborator requires less setup, simply asking for a stocked opponent’s graveyard to become more formidable. Then, there’s the Scrapskin Drake; it shares the same mana cost and also flies, but it falls behind since it cannot block creatures without flying, limiting its defensive capabilities compared to the versatile Collaborator.

By examining these similar cards, it becomes evident that the Balshan Collaborator occupies its own niche. It presents an aerial threat that scales in the presence of specific conditions, providing MTG players with a creature that can adapt to the state of the game and enemies’ strategies.

Cards similar to Balshan Collaborator by color, type and mana cost

Elusive Tormentor // Insidious Mist - MTG Card versions

Ingenious Infiltrator - MTG Card versions

Circu, Dimir Lobotomist - MTG Card versions

Wydwen, the Biting Gale - MTG Card versions

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - MTG Card versions

Drunau Corpse Trawler - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Balshan Collaborator MTG card by a specific set like Torment, 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 Balshan Collaborator and other MTG cards: