Skip to content
Moxonomy

Pale Recluse

Creature — Spider4 generic manaGreen manaWhite mana

A wall that refuses to rot in your hand: that is the design problem this 4/5 was built to solve. A six-mana reach blocker is exactly the card you do not want to draw on turn two, so the spell hands you an exit in both of its colors. Forestcycling and plainscycling each cost 2 generic mana, and each tutors for a card carrying the matching land type, which means it can fetch a basic or a nonbasic that shares the type (a shockland or a triome with Forest or Plains printed on it). The dual identity is the point of the build: the floor (a land tutor good in two directions) is always live, and the ceiling (a 4/5 with reach) is a real body that stonewalls the flying creatures green and white both struggle to answer on the ground. This belongs to a school of design interested in cards that bridge two colors at the deckbuilding layer rather than just at the casting-cost layer; the cycling cost is generic precisely so a stumbling mana base can still afford to activate it. Most fixing of this kind forces a choice between body and smoothing up front. This one defers that choice to the moment you draw it: early, it fixes color and curve; late, it walls the air. Which card you keep depends entirely on what the rest of your hand turned out to be.

Pale Recluse (arb)
ARB · #74common
Pricing
Normal: $0.13
Foil: $0.45
Oracle Text

Rules text

Reach (This creature can block creatures with flying.) Forestcycling 2 generic mana, plainscycling 2 generic mana (2 generic mana, Discard this card: Search your library for a Forest or Plains card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.)
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
Legal
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
Legal
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
N/A
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
Legal
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
Quick navigation
move selectesc close