Hostage Taker
Creature — Human Pirate
When Hostage Taker enters the battlefield, exile another target creature or artifact until Hostage Taker leaves the battlefield. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell.
Trade
| Have (1) | DarkMagician |
| Want (1) | Reivax17 |
Combos Browse all
Legality
| Format | Legality |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Unformat | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| 2019-10-04 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
Hostage Taker occurrence in decks from the last year
Latest Decks as Commander
Latest Decks
Hostage Taker Discussion
LeaPlath on
-Deleting-
4 months ago
So I linked Birthing Pod as an example of a good toolbox deck to give you an idea of what makes a toolbox deck works. The elements are a solid gameplan without the engine card. An engine that generates a lot of advantage in cards or mana. And having cards to attack hand, board and graveyard tied to other useful effects.
As someone who plays a lot of Eldrazi in Modern and Legacy TKS is a great but in Piomeer you have to consider the cost to it. It requires you to either play suboptimal lands of which there are only enemy versions (Pain Duals), the Amonkhet Sac a Desert lands which also ping you to use coloured, wastes which is basically adding an extra colour. The cost is a lot for a single card. You cant even use a mana dork for it. And I didnt say anything about Sylvan. You need to develop your mana and its an OK card for that. The other cards mentioned pull your deck in a very diffrent direction away from tutor. Playing stuff to turn off counter spells isn't so hot when you are playing the role of the control deck. The others are low impact or also pull you aggro not control when your engine uses 5+ mana to get started. Rites wants you to flood the board with creatures etc.
So if you wanna play Vannifer you actually have hit upon some very good cards for the deck. Knight, Prince, etc. Mirror Image is OK but a bit more situational.
Bounding Krasis and Hippo let you turn any 2 drop into a 5 drop in a single turn. Siege Rhino pushes you from bant to 4c so your manabase needs to be red hot but is powerful beater and has a decent etb.
This is the sort of deck where your snakey friend can work as a 1 of. As can Tithe Taker as a useful effect that leaves a body behind.
You run 1 drop mana dorks and maybe some sylvans to help make turn 3 Vannifar.
For 5 drops Angel of Invention can help you go wide or be a big body. Whisperwood Elemental provides VCA and protection from board wipes.
Other cards to consider Scavenging Ooze. Hostage Taker, Sin Collector if you go black. Voice of Resurgence is a 2 cost who punishes counterspells and leaves a body behind. Felidar Guardian flickers creatures and land for mana. Renegade Rallier pods in off a 2 drop and revives any 2 drop in gy. Eldritch Evolution or Chord of Calling adds an extra form of toolbox and Collected Company gives advantage if built around a little more. If you diversify your card base to run useful enchantment creatures/artifact creatures and run fetches etc Traverse the Ulvenwald can also be useful and it then gives you access to non pod cards like Walking Ballista.
For Mardu toolbox I dont see a solid engine unless you are talking Wishclaw + Skybind. It would be neat to see a Lurrus of the Dream-Den / Open the Armory type toolbox with access to stuff like Mire's Grasp and the associated draw engines. But that suffers from some power issues.
Quodan on
CMDZ - Jimmy's Marchesa (rebuild)
5 months ago
In the Extra Turns match against Jesper, Ashlen, and Josh I saw a few cards that weren’t on this list such as Hostage Taker , Phyrexian Tower , Mystic Remora and Dimir Aqueduct I was wondering if you could update this deck with those additions since I am a big fan of Marchesa, the black rose.
ghostmode on
Historic Party Bus
5 months ago
I had a lot of fun with Bant Party Bus lol, but this brings up some cool ideas! Hostage Taker seems interesting if you could squeeze the use out of him, and Blood for Bones seems great. I wonder if there's a Scholar of the Ages brew with Blood for Bones.. that combo is awesome lol.
The Battlement is awesome. I was using lots of Elvish Visionarys and Llanowar Visionarys (ramps a bit too!) and the main idea of the deck was Leyline of Anticipation. It's hilarious flashing in Battlement to scoop up blockers and then instant-speed Shatter the Sky to draw a card, sweep the board, and get my entire board back drawing 5 more cards lol. Elite Guardmage seems pretty good here, maybe I'll have to try that!
Yorion, Sky Nomad and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are really great inclusions that both fit into your Esper colors as well. And Cloudshift can do some stuff! I found less use in Long Road Home but it exists and can also target the opponents creatures last resort if you need to eliminate a certain effect temporarily.. I've had that happen.
Kelvin-escesare on
Claw Prison **Primer**
7 months ago
Skybind is just a value engine so I don't think its particularly worth running more copies that are typically dead.
It could be worth it only if your up against lots of midrange/control opponents playing lots of enchantment hate.
Teferi also works well with Wishclaw. In other lists, I'm testing a copy of Hostage Taker, which can also reuse Wishclaw repeatedly in a pinch (especially combined with Yorion, Fires, and Teferi), and give alternative lines of play.
Tylord2894 on Does the owner or controller …
7 months ago
The owner of the Sol Ring would get it back. When something changes zones, it has no "memory" of its previous existence.
Let's examine what would happen in a simpler example. You cast Hostage Taker and exile my Sol Ring. Hostage Taker then leaves the battlefield somehow. The Sol Ring then enters the battlefield under my control. It has no memory of its previous controller only its owner.
The same idea applies here. Even though you controlled your opponent's Sol Ring when it was exiled, the exiled Sol Ring doesn't "remember" who controlled it last. All it "knows" is who its owner is. When you blink Hostage Taker with Aminatou
, they get their Sol Ring back immediately (during the resolution of the blink effect). Luckily, this means that you can target it with the Hostage Taker ETB trigger.
Hope this helps!!
Chomp16 on Does the owner or controller …
7 months ago
The other night, I played Hostage Taker and stole an opponents Sol Ring, and then cast it the same turn. Then, my opponent stole Hostage Taker and blinked it with his own Conjurer's Closet targetting the sol ring that I stole, but was unable to cast it at that time. I then blinked the Hostage Taker with Aminatou, the Fateshifter. Who gains control of the sol ring? Me because I controlled it when it was exiled, or my opponent, who "owns" it?