Cabal Stronghold is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
: Add
.
,
for each basic Swamp you control.
Complete guide
Cabal Stronghold is a powerful utility land that serves as a modern homage to the classic Cabal Coffers. While it provides generic mana in the early game, it can eventually generate massive amounts of black mana to fuel your most expensive spells. Mastering this card requires careful management of your land types to ensure your mana production scales effectively.
Dual Mana Functions
Cabal Stronghold features two distinct activated abilities. The first is a simple mana ability that taps to add one colorless mana ({C}) to your mana pool. The second is a specialized filtering ability that costs three generic mana and tapping the land itself to produce one black mana ({B}) for every basic Swamp you currently control on the battlefield.
Calculating the Yield
When you activate the second ability, the game counts how many permanents you control with the 'Basic' supertype and the 'Swamp' subtype. It is important to note that nonbasic lands with the Swamp subtype, such as specialized dual lands, do not count toward this total. You must subtract the three mana investment from the total produced to determine your net mana gain; you need at least four basic Swamps for this ability to generate more mana than the land's first ability.
Strategic Implementation
This land is best utilized in mono-black or heavy-black decks that prioritize basic lands over nonbasic utility lands. Because the second ability is a mana ability, it does not use the stack and cannot be responded to. However, if an opponent destroys one of your basic Swamps in response to you tapping other lands to pay the {3} cost, the count will be lower when the ability actually resolves.
Interaction examples
If you control Cabal Stronghold and two basic Swamps, you can simply tap the Stronghold to add {C} to your mana pool. In this scenario, using the second ability would be inefficient, as you would spend three mana to only receive two back.
Command Tower
Exotic OrchardSuppose you control Cabal Stronghold, Command Tower, Exotic Orchard, and five basic Swamps. You tap Command Tower, Exotic Orchard, and one basic Swamp to pay the {3} cost of the Stronghold's second ability. Upon resolution, Cabal Stronghold adds five black mana ({B}{B}{B}{B}{B}) to your pool, because it only checks for the 'basic Swamp' status of your remaining lands.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Cabal Stronghold
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
No additional ruling has been published for this card.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Rings of Brighthearth + Deserted Temple + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate Cabal Stronghold by paying and tapping it, adding at least seven .
- 2Activate Deserted Temple's second ability by paying
and tapping it, targeting Cabal Stronghold. - 3Rings of Brighthearth triggers, causing you to pay
to copy Deserted Temple's ability, targeting Deserted Temple. - 4Resolve both Deserted Temple abilities, untapping Deserted Temple and Cabal Stronghold
- 5Repeat
The Enigma Jewel // Locus of Enlightenment + Deserted Temple + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate Cabal Stronghold's second ability by paying and tapping it, adding at least .
- 2Activate Deserted Temple's second ability by paying and tapping it, targeting itself.
- 3Locus of Enlightenment triggers, copying Deserted Temple's ability, targeting Cabal Stronghold.
- 4Resolve both Deserted Temple abilities, untapping it and Cabal Stronghold.
- 5Repeat.
Magus of the Candelabra + Maze of Ith + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Declare Magus of the Candelabra as an attacker.
- 2Activate Maze of Ith by tapping it, untapping Magus of the Candelabra.
- 3Activate Cabal Stronghold's second ability by paying and tapping it, adding for each basic Swamp you control.
- 4Activate Magus of the Candelabra by paying and tapping it, untapping Maze of Ith and Cabal Stronghold.
- 5Repeat from step 2.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician + Emiel the Blessed + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate Cabal Stronghold by paying and tapping it, adding at least six .
- 2Activate Emiel by paying , blinking Derevi.
- 3When Derevi enters the battlefield, it triggers, untapping Cabal Stronghold.
- 4Repeat.
Cadric, Soul Kindler + Aminatou, the Fateshifter + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Cast Aminatou by paying
. - 2When Aminatou enters the battlefield, Cadric triggers.
- 3Holding priority, activate Cabal Stronghold's second ability by paying and tapping it, adding at least .
- 4Resolve the Cadric trigger, causing you to pay to create a token copy of Aminatou.
- 5Activate Aminatou's second loyalty ability by removing a loyalty counter from it, blinking Cabal Stronghold.
- 6Activate the token Aminatou's second loyalty ability by removing a loyalty counter from it, blinking the nontoken Aminatou.
- 7Repeat from step 2.
Steward of the Harvest + Sword of the Paruns + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate the creature with Sword of the Paruns attached using Cabal Stronghold's ability by paying and tapping it, adding at least seven .
- 2Activate Sword of the Paruns by paying , untapping the creature.
- 3Repeat.
Steward of the Harvest + Umbral Mantle + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate the creature with Umbral Mantle attached using Cabal Stronghold's ability by paying and tapping it, adding at least six .
- 2Activate the creature by paying and untapping it, giving it +2/+2 until end of turn.
- 3Repeat.
Kitsa, Otterball Elite + Frantic Search + Minamo, School at Water's Edge + Cabal Stronghold
- 1Activate Cabal Stronghold by paying and tapping it, adding at least .
- 2Activate another land by tapping it, adding at least .
- 3Cast Frantic Search by paying .
- 4Kitsa's prowess ability triggers, giving it +1/+1 until end of turn.
- 5Holding priority, activate Kitsa's second ability by paying and tapping it, copying Frantic Search.
- 6Resolve the copy of Frantic Search, causing you to loot twice and untap Minamo, Cabal Stronghold and another land.
- 7Activate Cabal Stronghold by paying and tapping it, adding at least .
- 8Activate another land by tapping it, adding at least .
Legal formats
Commentaires
- Sois le premier à commenter cette carte.
Read next
Meta decks with Cabal Stronghold
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.