Katabatic Winds MTG Card


Katabatic Winds - Visions
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeEnchantment
Abilities Phasing
Released1997-02-03
Set symbol
Set nameVisions
Set codeVIS
Number109
Frame1997
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byGary Gianni

Key Takeaways

  1. Enables indirect card advantage by constraining opponent’s draw capabilities and strategies.
  2. Disrupts flying-centric playstyles, making it a specialized defensive tool in the game.
  3. Demanding specific mana and discard requirements, it’s a strategic, yet costly, investment.

Text of card

Phasing Creatures with flying cannot attack, block, or use any ability that includes oc T in the activation cost.

Wind will win, whatever we wish.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Katabatic Winds stands out by limiting card draw per turn, granting a form of indirect card advantage by hamstringing opponents who may rely on drawing multiple cards to maintain their strategy.

Resource Acceleration: This card is excellent for decks that want to slow the game down. While it doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, it disrupts others’ plans effectively, enabling you to leverage your resources better as the game progresses.

Instant Speed: Although Katabatic Winds is not an instant, its static ability affects the game continuously once on the battlefield, offering a persistent control over the flow of the game that can compare favorably with the flexibility of instant-speed interactions.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Katabatic Winds demands the discard of a card as part of its activation, which can strain your hand, especially when you’re running low on cards.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s cost includes the white mana symbol, which necessitates a particular color commitment that may not easily slot into multicolored decks or those with a stringent mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, Katabatic Winds can be considered quite costly when aligned with other options in the game that hinder creature abilities or combat strategies for a lower investment.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Katabatic Winds stands out with its unique ability to restrict all flying creatures. This card can seamlessly integrate into decks that aim to ground opponents’ strategies, making it a valuable asset in any collection that needs a robust defensive option.

Combo Potential: With this enchantment, you unlock the possibility to combine with cards that penalize or restrict tapped creatures. Katabatic Winds can effectively turn off many creature abilities, setting the stage for combo plays that capitalize on your opponents’ disabled flyers.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment where creature-based strategies with a heavy emphasis on flying units are prevalent, Katabatic Winds can provide a significant edge. Its presence can be a meta call, neutralizing airborne threats and tipping the scales in matches where flying creatures dominate.


How to beat

Katabatic Winds is a unique card in Magic: The Gathering that can seriously thwart decks reliant on creatures for victory. This card prevents creatures with flying from attacking, which could be a huge obstacle if your strategy is airborne dominance. The key to overcoming this challenge lies in flexibility and adaptation. Consider incorporating a diverse range of threats into your deck, including those that don’t rely on flying to pack a punch. Cards that offer removal abilities or can alter creature types temporarily could swing the game in your favor. Adaptation is crucial; spells or creatures that can destroy enchantments should find a place in your deck to directly counter Katabatic Winds.

Moreover, employing alternative strategies such as card drawing, direct damage, or even passive abilities that work around combat can mitigate the impact of Katabatic Winds on your game plan. Cards that can bypass traditional combat methods, or those that include activated abilities rather than combat abilities, will render Katabatic Winds less effective. Strategically, it’s about having a plan B, ensuring that not all your eggs are in one basket, and being ready to pivot when you see Katabatic Winds hit the battlefield.


Cards like Katabatic Winds

Katabatic Winds stands as a unique player in the static ability arena of MTG. Sharing the space with cards like Frozen Aether, Katabatic Winds adds a layer of control over creatures with flying, preventing them from untapping as is customary. Unlike Frozen Aether, which applies a more general slowdown effect to all of an opponent’s permanents, Katabatic Winds specifically targets those with flying, making it highly situational.

Exploring further, we encounter Raking Canopy, another card offering a defensive stance against flying creatures by dealing damage to them when they attack. While Raking Canopy can deter opponents’ aerial assaults directly, Katabatic Winds takes a subtler path by constraining the attackers’ ability to reset each turn. Gravity Well also springs to mind as it robs flying creatures of their airborne advantage entirely, forcing them to remain grounded during the confrontation.

In essence, Katabatic Winds represents a tactical choice for decks that aim to lockdown specific threats. It successfully carves out a niche within the subset of airborne control, offering strategic variety and complementarity to other cards with allied functions, perfectly illustrating the depth and complexity found in MTG’s vast card pool.

Frozen Aether - MTG Card versions
Raking Canopy - MTG Card versions
Gravity Well - MTG Card versions
Frozen Aether - Planar Chaos (PLC)
Raking Canopy - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Gravity Well - Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Katabatic Winds MTG card by a specific set like Visions, 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 Katabatic Winds and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Katabatic Winds has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2016-06-08 Activated abilities contain a colon. They’re generally written “
-ost:
-ffect].” Some keywords are activated abilities and will have colons in their reminder text.

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