Grouping Similar MTG Cards with Embeddings for Vodalian Hexcatcher

Vodalian Hexcatcher — MTG card art from Dominaria United

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Embedding-Driven Card Clustering: A Merfolk Case Study

In the oceans of Magic: The Gathering, players often swim in seas of similar cards that feel different only in shade and flavor. Modern techniques in embedding and vector similarity give us a way to map those waters more intelligently. By turning card features into dense, comparable coordinates, you can cluster cards that share strategic DNA—pumping power, tribal synergies, or counterplay motifs—basterds of the blue-green chorus. 🧙‍♂️🔥 This dive centers on a blue Merfolk from Dominaria United, Vodalian Hexcatcher, to illustrate how a single card can anchor a broader grouping strategy without losing sight of the card’s unique personality. 💎

Vodalian Hexcatcher is a compact but thorny piece in any Merfolk toolbox. For a cost of {1}{U}, you get a 1/1 creature with Flash, a rarity-worthy wrinkle that makes tempo-oriented decks sing. The card’s static aura—“Other Merfolk you control get +1/+1.”—amplifies the tribe’s native vibe: the more Merfolk you sway onto the battlefield, the more each one evolves. And the kicker—the activated sacrifice clause, “Sacrifice a Merfolk: Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {1}”—gives you a flexible tax that can swing a stalled game in your favor. This trio of features is precisely the flavor that embeddings love to capture: color identity (blue), tribe (Merfolk), and a dynamic ability that scales with board presence. 🧙‍♂️

“You’re just one more pollutant to be removed from the sea.”

When building an embedding model for MTG cards, we map both the explicit and the latent signals. Explicit signals include mana cost, color identity, card type, rarity, and mechanical keywords (Flash, in Hexcatcher’s case). Latent signals come from text, synergy potential, and flavor cues—the lore of a Merfolk who champions a policy of strategic denial. Vodalian Hexcatcher stands at the nexus of tempo (Flash), tribal support (Other Merfolk it buffs), and control (the spell-counter tax). That trio makes Hexcatcher a natural anchor for clustering blue Merfolk and for surfacing allied cards with similar goals, such as other Merfolk Wizards or low-cost flash threats that scale with board presence. ⚔️

What makes a good embedding target in MTG?

Effective embeddings balance structure and nuance. For MTG, that means encoding a card’s mana cost (lower-cost spells often cluster with other efficient plays), color identity (U), creature type and subtypes (Merfolk Wizard), and the text box’s keywords (Flash, tribal buff, sacrifice-to-counter). The model then learns to associate a spell like Hexcatcher with a family of small, disruptive blue creatures and with counterplay lines that reward timely deployment. Visual features—illustrations, borders, and frame era—can also hint at design intent, though the gameplay signals tend to carry more predictive weight for clustering tasks. 🧠🎨

From a practical standpoint, you can use Embeddings to answer questions like: Which cards form a “Merfolk tempo cluster” with Hexcatcher? Which non-Merfolk spells are most likely to be countered or taxed by a Merfolk-heavy deck? How do we balance power level across a cluster to avoid overfitting to a single deck archetype? The aim is not to replace how players think about a card, but to provide a navigational map that reveals relationships you might otherwise miss in a long card list. 🧭🎲

Card at a glance: Vodalian Hexcatcher

Name: Vodalian Hexcatcher
Mana cost: {1}{U}
Type: Creature — Merfolk Wizard
Rarity: Rare
Power/Toughness: 1/1
Set: Dominaria United (DMU)
Abilities: Flash; Other Merfolk you control get +1/+1; Sacrifice a Merfolk: Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays {1}.
Flavor text: "You’re just one more pollutant to be removed from the sea."
Illustrator: Dmitry Burmak
EDHREC rank: 4525

All of these data points—color, creature type, and the precise text on the card—translate into feature vectors that help the embedding model group Hexcatcher with its kin. The result isn't just a better deck-building assistant; it's a window into the evolving design language of modern MTG where small creatures carry big strategic payloads. The blue tribe, especially Merfolk, has long leaned on tempo and synergies; Hexcatcher embodies that ethos in a single, elegant package. 🔷🧭

From a game-design perspective, Hexcatcher also serves as a case study in how a card’s rarity, art, and mechanical identity echo the broader clustering narrative. The Dominaria United era is remembered for its return to classic archetypes with modern twists, and Hexcatcher’s ability to buff fellow Merfolk while offering a tax-triggered counterspell line is a microcosm of that philosophy. The rarity—Rare—feels earned given its potential to influence multiple sub-strategies in a Merfolk-heavy shell. In the marketplace, price points around a few dollars keep it accessible to casual players and collectors alike, a nice balance that makes embeddings useful for discovering under-the-radar synergies. 💎

For those curious about practical workflows, you can anchor a cluster around Hexcatcher by starting with its core features—blue color identity, Flash, Merfolk tribe, and the two-part buff/counter ability. Then expand outward to other Merfolk Wizards with similar cost curves and buffing dynamics, or to cards that pressure noncreature spells in a similar fashion. The result is a compact, navigable neighborhood that can lift deck-building decisions beyond memory alone. And yes, you’ll likely discover unexpected pairings that feel clever but not contrived, the kind of aha moment MTG fans live for. 🎨⚔️

As you explore embeddings in your own collection, you’ll notice that the best clusters aren’t just about raw power—they’re about coherence of strategy. Vodalian Hexcatcher is a perfect ambassador for this approach: it’s small, but it reverberates through the board in meaningful ways, tying tempo, tribal synergy, and control into a single, elegant thread. 🧙‍♂️

Feeling inspired to put a tactile twist on your desk while you brainstorm deck ideas? A handy companion item is the Neon Rectangle Mouse Pad Ultra-Thin 1.58mm Rubber Base—shine your desk with a dash of neon while you map out your next Merfolk lineup. Neon Rectangle Mouse Pad Ultra-Thin 1.58mm Rubber Base 🧙‍♂️🎨

Embedding-Driven Card Clustering: A Merfolk Case Study

What makes a good embedding target in MTG?

Card at a glance: Vodalian Hexcatcher

More from our network