Thoughtseize

Sorcery

Target player reveals his or her hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.

Discussion (51)

hungry000 on B/W Gideon, Brisela

1 hour ago

Heres one: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/format-staples/modern

This list and the other lists that are linked on the page are pretty good. Although, you should note that they use data from decks entered in the website, so some cards listed aren't necessarily staples for the format in general (like Lightning Bolt ) but are played in every deck of a popular archetype; for example, Nature's Claim is in the top 10 most played cards but is only up there since it's a 4-of in every Tron sideboard, not every green deck like how Bolt is played in almost every red deck. Basically there's some mix-up with the general staples and the specific archetype staples, but it's accurate enough.

Path to Exile , Fatal Push , Thoughtseize , Inquisition of Kozilek , and Lingering Souls are the staples you need to know of, the first 4 being the most necessary includes in your deck. Wrath of God / Damnation / Day of Judgment are control staples that could be useful for you as well. If you want any more specific advice just ask.

PurePwnage on UB Shadow

1 day ago

May I recommend adding Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize to your deck.

SMASHER101 on The End is Nigh For ...

5 days ago

Any interaction really will work. Instant speed removal, Thoughtseize or any counterspell.

ArchonBlue on Esper Control

5 days ago

Yea, captainamerica if you'll notice I'm now running 2 copies of Thoughtseize in the side. Also considering testing out Collective Brutality . Thoughts?

hungry000 on B/W Gideon, Brisela

6 days ago

What types of decks do you usually play against? Knowing that will help people give advice. For some general tips, I would cut all of the "standard" cards that you're playing right now because most all of them are too slow, not powerful enough for modern, or have better versions of the card available: 1 Dusk / Dawn , 2 Fumigate , 1 Ironwright's Cleansing , 2 Never / Return , 1 Decommission , 2 Gideon's Reproach . I would also cut the 4 Authority of the Consuls , but they could be reasonable depending on what you play against. In their place, you should play some of the Modern "Staples" as they'll help increase the competitivity of your deck (look up modern staples if you don't know what I'm talking about). In your colors, Path to Exile is the most important considering the current meta. 1-mana discard spells such as Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize are played in virtually every deck that plays black; they'll give you an edge against control and combo and are still very useful vs aggro and midrange. The downside of those staples is that they cost a lot of money. If that's a trouble for you, I can suggest some other cards that are at least semi-competitive, though again it would help to know what you play against.

If you really like gaining life, take a look at a Martyr Proc deck (example: Martyr Proc). Martyr of Sands can gain you huge amounts of life starting turn 2, and it works quite well with Squadron Hawk . It's easy enough to slot in a few Gideon of the Trials and Brisela/Bruna in place of some other cards, and it gains a heck ton more life than the deck you're playing now does.

Another way you could take the deck is a B Devotion deck to make use of Gray Merchant of Asphodel . That deck has cards like Vampire Nighthawk , Gifted Aetherborn (which you already have), and Gatekeeper of Malakir . It could make casting Gideons and Brisela/Bruna harder though.

Kogarashi on Thoughtseize and misdirection

6 days ago

Misdirection merely changes the target of a spell. It doesn't change the controller. It would function the same as if you cast Thoughtseize on yourself.

"Fail to find" only works if you're searching a hidden zone for a card with a particular quality. You aren't searching with Thoughtseize , though, so you can't fail to find. You must choose a nonland card from the targeted player's revealed hand, which will be discarded. Yes, this includes if you are the target, whether you cast Thoughtseize on yourself or Misdirection changed the target to you.

tallman4444 on Thoughtseize and misdirection

1 week ago

I had my own Thoughtseize redirected by Misdirection in a game tonight. My question is, if i still control the choice of card from thought seize can i fail to find or do i have to pick a legal target if able?

Thanks.

TheMagicMafia on Hour of Grixis

1 week ago

Mana Issues

The mana's going to suck. You're running a completely 3-color deck hoping to play Cryptic Command s turn 4 and Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God turn 5.

I really like Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God and want to see him stay, so I suggest taking out some of the cards that really want a color that is not black, such as Cryptic Command , Vendilion Clique , and Sweltering Suns .

Style Issues

The counter spells and instant speed interaction like Vendilion Clique and Countersquall adds something to the deck, but shouldn't be the focus of it. Instead I think Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God would do best in a sort of Grixis-that-feels-like-Jund list that wants to make sure the coast is clear with removal and discard before slamming an unstoppable threat and winning.

Suggestions:

Discard

please put in Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek

Threats I think would be good/interesting.

Note: I only want like one or two of these in alongside Bolas

• Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - great all around threat which works well with removal and gets better as the game goes on.
• Liliana of the Veil - runs down your opponents' resources.
• Gurmag Angler - "cheap" threat
• Death's Shadow - most shadow decks are very aggressive, but as control decks run low on life generally, it may be a fine way to close out the game while freeing up the rest of your mana for removal or card draw. Would require some relatively major changes to the deck though.

Cards to Remove

• Cryptic Command - too blue intensive
• Vendilion Clique - too blue intensive and not a strong enough threat
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor - too blue intensive and cards like Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet would be better for the mana and as a threat
• Sweltering Suns - red intensive, but also objectively worse than Anger of the Gods in a Arclight Phoenix and Bloodghast meta.
• Countersquall - Mana Leak should probably be your only counter as life doesn't really matter for you and there are many creature heavy decks running around, but also it just doesn't fit with the discard/removal + slam a threat game plan.

Cards I like in the deck

• Opt - blue card draw and selection is one of the biggest reasons to play blue, and I think Opt and Serum Visions would be good for smoothing out your mana, curve, and finding the answers you need.
• Angrath's Rampage - good removal that people won't expect
• Kolaghan's Command - 2 for 1
• Search for Azcanta  ^Flip - good blue card advantage engine
• Snapcaster Mage - just good value
• Terminate - good removal