Sap Sucker MTG Card

Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact — Contraption
Released	2017-12-08
Set symbol
Set name	Unstable
Set code	UST
Number	203
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Borderless
Illustred by	Chuck Lukacs
Un-set :-)	This card is part of an Un-set

Key Takeaways

Sap Sucker’s ability to draw cards with land plays ensures resource consistency.
Instant speed action allows flexibility and opportunistic play in matches.
Despite high mana costs, its utility and combo potential can be game-changing.

Text of card

Whenever you crank Sap Sucker, add to your mana pool. Until end of turn, this mana doesn't empty from your mana pool as steps and phases end.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Sap Sucker offers valuable card advantage as it lets players consistently draw cards whenever a land is put into play under their control, ensuring a steady flow of resources throughout the game.

Resource Acceleration: This card opens up strategies for resource acceleration by giving players an additional land drop on their turns, which can lead to a significant lead in board presence when managed correctly.

Instant Speed: The ability to operate at instant speed gives Sap Sucker flexibility, allowing play on an opponent’s turn or in response to actions, making it a versatile tool for both defense and seizing opportunity windows.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Sap Sucker card demands a card to be discarded upon usage. This can be particularly taxing for your hand, especially when maintaining card advantage is crucial during the late game stages.

Specific Mana Cost: Catering exclusively to decks that can generate green mana, Sap Sucker’s mana requirements might restrict its inclusion in a diverse array of deck strategies that focus beyond mono-green builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Given its high mana cost relative to the specific advantage it offers, players might find the card to be a less efficient choice compared to lower-cost cards that provide similar or more impactful effects on the game.

Reasons to Include Sap Sucker in Your Collection

Versatility: Sap Sucker can seamlessly integrate into various deck builds, offering both offensive and defensive utilities with its mana-generating ability.

Combo Potential: Its ability to untap lands can kickstart a number of intricate combos, making it an excellent piece for decks centered around land-focused synergies.

Meta-Relevance: With its low casting cost and utility in ramping up mana, Sap Sucker can be a strategic addition against decks that aim to win through quick accumulation of resources.

How to beat

Sap Sucker has carved out its niche within the vast array of creatures in Magic: The Gathering. Notable for its capacity to manipulate both energy counters and the battlefield, it requires a strategic approach to overcome. When facing this card, prioritizing removal spells that can target Sap Sucker before it accrues value is crucial. Cards like Fatal Push or Path to Exile offer quick and efficient solutions. Moreover, controlling the board through sweepers such as Damnation or Wrath of God can negate the advantages Sap Sucker provides to an opponent.

An alternative strategy involves limiting its activation. This can be done with cards that restrict counter placements like Solemnity, or by applying pressure with aggressive creatures to force a defensive position, diminishing Sap Sucker’s impact on the game. Lastly, it’s also effective to employ enchantments like Pacifism to neutralize Sap Sucker, preventing it from becoming a persistent threat on the board.

Ultimately, understanding the dynamics of Sap Sucker and utilizing proactive control can decisively turn the tides in your favor, ensuring that this unique creature doesn’t sap the strength from your game plan. Playing smart, staying ahead, and knowing when to strike are keys to mastering the encounter.

Cards like Sap Sucker

Sap Sucker marks its own niche within the mana dork family in Magic: The Gathering. It bears resemblance to mana-producing creatures like Llanowar Elves, as both tap to add green mana to your pool, critically empowering early game plays. However, Sap Sucker has the distinctive ability to place +1/+1 counters on itself rather than having a static power and toughness, potentially growing into a larger threat over time.

Then there’s Elvish Mystic, mirroring the functional simplicity of Llanowar Elves with identical mana production. Unlike Sap Sucker, it maintains a fixed presence on the battlefield without the option to scale up its impact. Another related card is Gyre Sage, which evolves, gaining +1/+1 counters as you cast spells with higher costs, indirectly increasing mana output. Although Gyre Sage can become more powerful, it relies on additional spell casting, whereas Sap Sucker can independently become stronger with each activation.

Assessing these cards side by side, Sap Sucker offers a unique approach to mana acceleration. It’s not just a resource-provider but also a creature that can evolve into a formidable force, setting it apart from its counterparts and potentially changing the dynamics of creature-based green decks in Magic: The Gathering.

Cards similar to Sap Sucker by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Sap Sucker MTG card by a specific set like Unstable, 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 Sap Sucker and other MTG cards:

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Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2018-01-19	Any Contraption that’s on the battlefield and wasn’t assembled immediately heads to the scrapyard. However, if it’s a not an actual Contraption card (like Copy Artifact isn’t), it goes to your graveyard as normal. Non-Contraption cards can’t be in the scrapyard.
2018-01-19	At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control any Contraptions, move the CRANK! counter to the next sprocket. You may then crank any number of Contraptions on that sprocket, causing their abilities to trigger. Cranking a Contraption is always optional.
2018-01-19	Contraptions are artifacts. Anything that interacts with artifacts will interact with Contraptions.
2018-01-19	Contraptions aren’t put into your main deck. They go into a separate deck called the Contraption deck.
2018-01-19	If a Contraption would leave the battlefield and go to any zone other than exile, it instead goes to the scrapyard, the Contraption deck’s version of the graveyard. Things that affect the graveyard do not affect the scrapyard. You can exile Contraptions just fine.
2018-01-19	If you crank multiple Contraptions, their abilities can be put onto the stack in any order. The ability put onto the stack will resolve first.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control are instructed to assemble a Contraption, reveal the top card of your Contraption deck. Put it onto the battlefield on one of the three sprockets.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control assembles a Contraption and your Contraption deck is empty, nothing happens. You don’t lose the game.
2018-01-19	In Constructed formats, a Contraption deck must have at least fifteen different Contraption cards and no more than one of each.
2018-01-19	In Limited formats, a Contraption deck may include any number of Contraption cards in your card pool. You don’t have to include every Contraption card you draft or open in sealed deck. In those formats, your Contraption deck may include duplicates.
2018-01-19	In silver-bordered games using Contraptions, you have three sprockets, illustrated on the back of Contraption cards. At the start of the game, put a CRANK! counter on sprocket 3.
2018-01-19	While Contraptions you control are on the battlefield, the Contraption deck is not, even if you are using it to signify the three sprockets.