Soul Swallower 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
Trample Delirium — At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, put three +1/+1 counters on this creature.
Complete guide
Soul Swallower is a massive Wurm that capitalizes on a well-stocked graveyard to dominate the battlefield. By meeting the Delirium requirement, this creature can grow exponentially every single turn, turning into a game-ending threat that is difficult to block.
Understanding Delirium
Soul Swallower features the Delirium keyword, which checks for four or more different card types in your graveyard. Eligible types include Land, Creature, Artifact, Enchantment, Sorcery, Instant, Planeswalker, Kindred, and Battle. It is important to remember that supertypes like Legendary and subtypes like Wurm or Equipment do not count toward this total.
The Upkeep Check
This ability uses an 'intervening if' clause. This means the game checks if you have four card types at the very start of your upkeep. If you do not have enough types at that moment, the ability does not even go on the stack. Furthermore, the condition is checked again upon resolution; if your graveyard is manipulated so that you no longer have four types, the ability will fail to add any counters.
Scaling Power with Trample
Unlike many creatures that get a one-time boost, Soul Swallower adds three +1/+1 counters every turn the Delirium condition is met. Because it has Trample, the additional power becomes increasingly difficult for opponents to manage, as they cannot simply chump-block with small creatures to prevent all damage.
Strategic Tips
To maximize Soul Swallower, use cards that occupy multiple types, such as artifact creatures, to reach the Delirium threshold faster. Be wary of 'exile graveyard' effects, as your opponent can respond to the upkeep trigger by removing cards from your graveyard to prevent the counters from being placed.
Interaction examples
Solemn SimulacrumIf Solemn Simulacrum is in your graveyard, it counts as two distinct types: Artifact and Creature. If you also have a Land and a Sorcery in your graveyard, Soul Swallower's Delirium will trigger at the start of your upkeep, placing three +1/+1 counters on it.
Eternal WitnessSuppose you have exactly four card types in your graveyard, including a Sorcery. At the start of your upkeep, Soul Swallower's ability triggers. If you somehow cast a spell like Eternal Witness in response to the trigger (via Flash) and use its ability to return that Sorcery to your hand, you now only have three card types. When Soul Swallower's trigger tries to resolve, it checks again, sees only three types, and fails to add any counters.
If you have a creature token and a spell copy in your graveyard briefly before they cease to exist, they do not count toward Delirium. Only actual cards count. To trigger Soul Swallower, you must ensure you have physical cards representing at least four types in your graveyard at the moment your upkeep begins.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Soul Swallower
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
The card types in Magic are artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, kindred, land, planeswalker, and sorcery. Supertypes (such as legendary and basic) and subtypes (such as Human and Equipment) are not counted.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
The number of card types matters, not the number of cards. For example, Wicker Witch (an artifact creature) along with Catalog (an instant) and Chaplain's Blessing (a sorcery) will enable delirium.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
Because you consider only the characteristics of a double-faced card's front face while it's not on the battlefield, the types of its back face won't be counted for delirium.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
In some rare cases, you can have a token or a copy of a spell in your graveyard at the moment that an object's delirium ability counts the card types among cards in your graveyard, before that token or copy ceases to exist. Because tokens and copies of spells are not cards, even if they are copies of cards, their types will never be counted.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
Most triggered delirium abilities use an intervening "if" clause. There must be four or more card types among cards in your graveyard in order for these abilities to trigger, otherwise they never trigger at all. There's no way to have the ability trigger if there aren't enough card types, even if you intend to raise that number in response to the triggered ability. The number of card types is checked again as the trigger resolves, and if it has become too low somehow, the ability does nothing. If which card types are in your graveyard changes but the quantity of card types stays the same (or increases), then the delirium triggered ability will still resolve.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
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Meta decks with Soul Swallower
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.