Windrider Wizard MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Human Wizard
Abilities Flying
Power 2
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. A strategic asset, Windrider Wizard ensures consistent draw quality with scrying abilities.
  2. Despite its utility, the card demands careful hand management due to discard.
  3. The mana specificity and cost may limit its inclusion in diverse deck strategies.

Text of card

Flying Whenever you cast an instant, sorcery, or Wizard spell, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.

"It's an ideal method for exploring sky ruins. The drakes sniff me briefly but then lose interest."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: The Windrider Wizard provides strategic depth as it offers the ability to scry each turn, ensuring you draw into more useful cards and maintain card flow throughout the match.

Resource Acceleration: Aiding with resource acceleration, this wizard can synergize with spells or abilities that benefit from casting multiple spells in a single turn, or from having a high volume of actions within a game.

Instant Speed: With the capability to use its ability at instant speed, the Windrider Wizard can provide utility and flexibility, allowing players to adjust their strategy reactively to the fluid dynamics of the game.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Engaging with Windrider Wizard often involves a painful choice. To fully utilize its ability, you’re compelled to part with another card in your hand. This transaction can lead to a precarious situation, particularly when you’re attempting to maintain card advantage or when every card you hold is a key piece of your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: To summon Windrider Wizard to the battlefield, you need a precise blend of mana, including at least one blue. This necessity restricts its deployment to decks that can reliably generate blue mana early enough to make the most out of Windrider Wizard’s capabilities.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value that competes with other game-altering four-cost cards, Windrider Wizard can sometimes feel ponderous. Experienced players might find that other cards at the same mana threshold offer more immediate impact or versatility, potentially relegating the wizard to a secondary choice for the coveted four-mana slot in a deck.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Windrider Wizard offers flexibility in deck-building, as it can serve both as an early blocker in the air and a source of card filtering, ensuring you draw into your deck’s key spells more consistently.

Combo Potential: With its ability to loot (draw a card, then discard a card), it pairs well with strategies that benefit from having specific cards in the graveyard, or from casting spells with ‘draw a card’ triggers.

Meta-Relevance: Given its ability to improve card quality in hand and its utility as a flying creature, Windrider Wizard remains relevant, particularly in metagames where longer games are prevalent, making the value of card selection more impactful over time.


How to beat

Windrider Wizard presents MTG players with a unique challenge to tackle on the battlefield. Its prowess lies in its ability to finesse card quality through its scrying ability, activated upon drawing a card. To effectively neutralize the advantage presented by the Windrider Wizard, it is essential to employ removal spells that can target creatures before their card advantage becomes significant. Spot removal like Fatal Push or Path to Exile can swiftly handle the Wizard, preventing the scrying ability from sculpting the opponent’s next draws.

Another strategy is to utilize counterspells whenever the Wizard attempts to enter the field. Spells such as Mana Leak or Essence Scatter ensure that your opponent’s investment in the Windrider Wizard is nullified, preserving the balance of card advantage. Additionally, hindering their card draw directly with Narset, Parter of Veils or Notion Thief can spoil the scrying benefits. In essence, prioritizing early interaction and disruption of draw mechanics is essential in maintaining control against the Windrider Wizard, averting the incremental advantage it seeks to provide.

Ultimately, understanding Windrider Wizard’s strengths and timing your responses will secure your dominance over this nuanced card, allowing you to maintain an upper hand throughout the match.


BurnMana Recommendations

As we delve into our collective strategic knapsack, we encounter the Windrider Wizard, a card that challenges and empowers MTG enthusiasts with its dynamic play options. Recognizing its potential to shape your game with smart scrying and looting, consider the Windrider Wizard as a worthy addition to decks that thrive on card flow and graveyard strategy. The battlefield is ever-changing, and so should your techniques. Master the skies and fine-tune your deck’s efficiency by reflecting on the versatility the Windrider Wizard offers. Discover more gameplay strategies and elevate your experience with each duel. Embrace the challenge and enhance your MTG journey with us.


Cards like Windrider Wizard

Windrider Wizard is a unique creature within the realm of Magic: The Gathering, offering a valuable blend of abilities that appeal to players keen on controlling the board and optimizing their draws. When considering cards alike in effect, Merfolk Looter is an immediate parallel, allowing players to draw a card, then discard a card during each of their turns. However, the Windrider Wizard edges ahead with flying, providing a strategic aerial threat along with its looting capability.

Next, we draw attention to Faerie Seer, which also possesses flying and impacts game flow by letting players scry two cards upon its arrival on the battlefield. While Seer acts immediately after casting, it doesn’t boast the ongoing draw manipulation that Windrider Wizard provides through its looting ability. Another comparable card is Exclusion Mage, a creature with a similar mana cost that bounces an opponent’s creature upon entrance. Though it creates a one-time tempo gain rather than a sustained draw advantage.

Ultimately, among the assortment of blue spellcaster creatures aimed at enhancing card quality for players, Windrider Wizard stands out. It offers the unique combination of sustained draw control with the defensive and offensive flexibility brought on by its flying ability, marking its place in the strategies of discerning deck builders.

Merfolk Looter - MTG Card versions
Faerie Seer - MTG Card versions
Exclusion Mage - MTG Card versions
Merfolk Looter - Exodus (EXO)
Faerie Seer - Modern Horizons (MH1)
Exclusion Mage - Core Set 2019 (M19)

Cards similar to Windrider Wizard by color, type and mana cost

Wall of Water - MTG Card versions
Prodigal Sorcerer - MTG Card versions
Apprentice Wizard - MTG Card versions
Homarid - MTG Card versions
Wall of Air - MTG Card versions
Daring Apprentice - MTG Card versions
Cloud Elemental - MTG Card versions
Time Elemental - MTG Card versions
Reef Pirates - MTG Card versions
Rootwater Shaman - MTG Card versions
Wind Drake - MTG Card versions
Volrath's Shapeshifter - MTG Card versions
Clam Session - MTG Card versions
Stronghold Biologist - MTG Card versions
Quicksilver Wall - MTG Card versions
Phantom Warrior - MTG Card versions
Glacial Wall - MTG Card versions
Wormfang Drake - MTG Card versions
Animating Faerie // Bring to Life - MTG Card versions
Ghost of Ramirez DePietro - MTG Card versions
Wall of Water - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Prodigal Sorcerer - Unlimited Edition (2ED)
Apprentice Wizard - The Dark (DRK)
Homarid - Fallen Empires (FEM)
Wall of Air - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Daring Apprentice - Mirage (MIR)
Cloud Elemental - Visions (VIS)
Time Elemental - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Reef Pirates - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Rootwater Shaman - Tempest (TMP)
Wind Drake - Magic 2010 (M10)
Volrath's Shapeshifter - Stronghold (STH)
Clam Session - Unglued (UGL)
Stronghold Biologist - Nemesis (NEM)
Quicksilver Wall - Prophecy (PCY)
Phantom Warrior - Duels of the Planeswalkers (DPA)
Glacial Wall - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Wormfang Drake - Judgment (JUD)
Animating Faerie // Bring to Life - Throne of Eldraine (ELD)
Ghost of Ramirez DePietro - Commander Legends (CMR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Windrider Wizard MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar Rising and Commander Masters, 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 Windrider Wizard and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Windrider Wizard Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2020-09-25 and 2023-08-04. Illustrated by Slawomir Maniak.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12020-09-25Zendikar RisingZNR 872015normalblackSlawomir Maniak
22023-08-04Commander MastersCMM 1342015normalblackSlawomir Maniak

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Windrider Wizard has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-09-25 A Wizard spell is one with the creature type Wizard. Spells that are Wizard-themed (such as Relic Amulet) aren’t Wizard spells.
2020-09-25 An ability that triggers when a player casts a spell resolves before the spell that caused it to trigger, but after targets have been chosen for that spell (if it has any targets). The ability resolves even if that spell is countered.
2020-09-25 You draw a card and discard a card while Windrider Wizard’s last ability is resolving. No player may take actions between those events, and nothing can happen.

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