Head Games

Sorcery

Target opponent puts the cards from his or her hand on top of his or her library. Search that player's library for that many cards. The player puts those cards into his or her hand, then shuffles his or her library.

Midnight Ritual

Sorcery

Exile X target creature cards from your graveyard. For each creature card exiled this way, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield.

Bury old friends deeply, lest they return bearing worms.

Plague Wind

Sorcery

Destroy all creatures you don't control. They can't be regenerated.

Rain of Tears

Sorcery

Destroy target land.

"When mortals die, they have family, friends, compatriots to mourn them. When the land dies, all else dies with it, and there is no one left to weep."
-Jacinth, Skyshroud ranger

Recover

Sorcery

Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

Draw a card.

As Barrin exhumed his daughter's body, he finally realized the full price of his faith in Urza.

Soul Feast

Sorcery

Target player loses 4 life and you gain 4 life.

"I smell the tang of a mortal's fresh blood. I hear it sliding wetly beneath its skin. My hunger cannot refuse the invitation."
-Yuri, Sengir vampire

Stronghold Discipline

Sorcery

Each player loses 1 life for each creature he or she controls.

In Urborg, the instigators of each new rebellion are soaked in the blood of the last.

Blaze

Sorcery

Blaze deals X damage to target creature or player.

Cone of Flame

Sorcery

Cone of Flame deals 1 damage to target creature or player, 2 damage to another target creature or player, and 3 damage to a third target creature or player.

Cryoclasm

Sorcery

Destroy target Plains or Island. Cryoclasm deals 3 damage to that land's controller.

The people of Terisiare had come to live on frozen fields as though on solid ground. Nothing reminded them of the difference more clearly than the rifts brought on by the Thaw.

Flowstone Slide

Sorcery

All creatures get +X/-X until end of turn.

"Like an avalanche. With teeth. That will chase you. Uphill."
-Flint Foot, viashino runner

Goblin Lore

Sorcery

Draw four cards, then discard three cards at random.

"Now listen closely, my young gob. There are many ways to eat pimple bugs, but I say the best way is all smashed together between two slug chips."

Relentless Assault

Sorcery

Untap all creatures that attacked this turn. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase.

"Mercy? Mercy is for the playground, not the battleground."

Shatterstorm

Sorcery

Destroy all artifacts. They can't be regenerated.

From a marvel of magical mechanization to a smoking stack of scrap in one easy step.

Spitting Earth

Sorcery

Spitting Earth deals damage to target creature equal to the number of Mountains you control.

"Within each of you is the strength of a landslide."
-Kumano, to his pupils

Threaten

Sorcery

Untap target creature and gain control of it until end of turn. That creature gains haste until end of turn. (It can attack and this turn.)

Goblins' motivational techniques are crude, but effective.

Commune with Nature

Sorcery

Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a creature card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Creeping Mold

Sorcery

Destroy target artifact, enchantment, or land.

Mold crept over the walls and into every crevice until the gleaming white stone strained and burst.

Hurricane

Sorcery

Hurricane deals X damage to each creature with flying and each player.

"Don't envy the grandeur of drakes. Their impression of grace fades when the first gust sends them crashing into one another."
-Molimo, maro-sorcerer

Natural Spring

Sorcery

Target player gains 8 life.

"Jewels cannot be eaten nor gold drunk. What civilization trades, nature simply provides."
-Molimo, maro-sorcerer

Recollect

Sorcery

Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

"The bones of the past will tell their tales-if you know how to speak their language."
-Savra

Sylvan Scrying

Sorcery

Search your library for a land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

One glimpse of an elf's home lasts her weeks away in the wild.

Gift of Estates

Sorcery

If an opponent controls more lands than you, search your library for up to three Plains cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Sacred Nectar

Sorcery

You gain 4 life.

"Over the silver mountains,
Where spring the nectar fountains,
There will I kiss
The bowl of bliss;
And drink my everlasting fill. . . ."
-Sir Walter Raleigh, "The Pilgrimage"

Baleful Stare

Sorcery

Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You draw a card for each Mountain and red card in it.

"Though there is little to be learned from your dust and stones, I shall wring them dry nevertheless."

Exhaustion

Sorcery

Creatures and lands target opponent controls don't untap during his or her next untap step.

Tired doesn't even begin to cover it.

Sleight of Hand

Sorcery

Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library.

"Gambling with mages never is."
-Remin, venerable monk

Time Ebb

Sorcery

Put target creature on top of its owner's library.

Like the tide, time both ebbs and flows.

Withering Gaze

Sorcery

Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You draw a card for each Forest and green card in it.

"Nature cares not for the knowledge to be gained from its study. Better to bleed it dry, lest its potential be wasted on lizards and leaves."

Blackmail

Sorcery

Target player reveals three cards from his or her hand and you choose one of them. That player discards that card.

In addition to killing peasants, punishing subordinates, and raising an army of nightmares, Braids somehow found time for her favorite hobby: petty extortion.

Coercion

Sorcery

Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.

"Of all I that I have lost, I miss my mind the most."

Final Punishment

Sorcery

Target player loses life equal to the damage already dealt to him or her this turn.

The pain of a lifetime-every scrape, illness, and bruise-condensed into a single moment.

Persecute

Sorcery

Choose a color. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all cards of that color.

"Of all the tyrannies on humane kind
The worst is that which persecutes the mind."
-John Dryden,
"The Hind and the Panther"

Raise Dead

Sorcery

Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.

The earth cannot hold that which magic commands.

Boiling Seas

Sorcery

Destroy all Islands.

What burns the land, boils the seas.

Flame Wave

Sorcery

Flame Wave deals 4 damage to target player and each creature he or she controls.

"I hear the roaring of a wave whose waters are red and whose mists are black."
-Oracle en-Vec

Flashfires

Sorcery

Destroy all Plains.

Dry grass is tinder before the spark.

Mana Clash

Sorcery

You and target opponent each flip a coin. Mana Clash deals 1 damage to each player whose coin comes up tails. Repeat this process until both players' coins come up heads on the same flip.

Stone Rain

Sorcery

Destroy target land.

Volcanic Hammer

Sorcery

Volcanic Hammer deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

Fire finds its form in the heat of the forge.

Wildfire

Sorcery

Each player sacrifices four lands. Wildfire deals 4 damage to each creature.

Fire is always at the top of the food chain, and it has a big appetite.

Biorhythm

Sorcery

Each player's life total becomes the number of creatures he or she controls.

"I have seen life's purpose, and now it is my own."
-Kamahl, druid acolyte

Needle Storm

Sorcery

Needle Storm deals 4 damage to each creature with flying.

The rain is driven like nails.

Stream of Life

Sorcery

Target player gains X life.

Summer Bloom

Sorcery

You may play up to three additional lands this turn.

Summer sends its kiss with warmth and blooming life.

Weird Harvest

Sorcery

Each player may search his or her library for up to X creature cards, reveal those cards, and put them into his or her hand. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.

Krosa's distorted groves bear strange fruit.

Contract from Below

Sorcery

Remove Contract from Below from your deck before playing if you're not playing for ante.

Discard your hand, add the top card of your library to the ante, then draw seven cards.

Darkpact

Sorcery

Remove Darkpact from your deck before playing if you're not playing for ante.

You own target card in the ante. Exchange that card with the top card of your library.

Demonic Attorney

Sorcery

Remove Demonic Attorney from your deck before playing if you're not playing for ante.

Each player antes the top card of his or her library.

Demonic Tutor

Sorcery

Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Drain Life

Sorcery

Spend only black mana on X.

Drain Life deals X damage to target creature or player. You gain life equal to the damage dealt, but not more life than the player's life total before Drain Life dealt damage or the creature's toughness.

Mind Twist

Sorcery

Target player discards X cards at random.

Sinkhole

Sorcery

Destroy target land.

Braingeyser

Sorcery

Target player draws X cards.

Drain Power

Sorcery

Target player activates a mana ability of each land he or she controls. Then put all mana from that player's mana pool into yours.

Time Walk

Sorcery

Take an extra turn after this one.

Timetwister

Sorcery

Each player shuffles his or her hand and graveyard into his or her library, then draws seven cards. (Then put Timetwister into its owner's graveyard.)

Volcanic Eruption

Sorcery

Destroy X target Mountains. Volcanic Eruption deals damage to each creature and each player equal to the number of Mountains put into a graveyard this way.

Channel

Sorcery

Until end of turn, any time you could activate a mana ability, you may pay 1 life. If you do, add to your mana pool.

Ice Storm

Sorcery

Destroy target land.

Regrowth

Sorcery

Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.

Tranquility

Sorcery

Destroy all enchantments.

Tsunami

Sorcery

Destroy all Islands.

Disintegrate

Sorcery

Disintegrate deals X damage to target creature or player. That creature can't be regenerated this turn. If the creature would die this turn, exile it instead.

Wheel of Fortune

Sorcery

Each player discards his or her hand and draws seven cards.

Armageddon

Sorcery

Destroy all lands.

Balance

Sorcery

Each player chooses a number of lands he or she controls equal to the number of lands controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. Players discard cards and sacrifice creatures the same way.

Resurrection

Sorcery

Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Reconstruction

Sorcery

Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.

Tedious research made the Sages of the College of Lat-Nam adept in repairing broken artifacts.

Desert Twister

Sorcery

Destroy target permanent.

Ashes to Ashes

Sorcery

Exile two target nonartifact creatures. Ashes to Ashes deals 5 damage to you.

"All rivers eventually run to the sea. My job is to sort out who goes first."
-Maeveen O'Donagh, Memoirs of a Soldier

Word of Binding

Sorcery

Tap X target creatures.

"That was the worst experience of my days: standing there helpless as they killed my whole troop."
-Maeveen O'Donagh, Memoirs of a Soldier

Energy Tap

Sorcery

Tap target untapped creature you control. If you do, add to your mana pool, where X is that creature's converted mana cost.

Mind Bomb

Sorcery

Each player may discard up to three cards. Mind Bomb deals damage to each player equal to 3 minus the number of cards he or she discarded this way.

Rebirth

Sorcery

Remove Rebirth from your deck before playing if you're not playing for ante.

Each player may put the top card of his or her library into the ante. If a player does, his or her life total becomes 20.

Untamed Wilds

Sorcery

Search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

Winter Blast

Sorcery

Tap X target creatures. Winter Blast deals 2 damage to each of those creatures with flying.

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!"
-William Shakespeare, King Lear

Detonate

Sorcery

Destroy target artifact with converted mana cost X. It can't be regenerated. Detonate deals X damage to that artifact's controller.

Pyrotechnics

Sorcery

Pyrotechnics deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.

"Hi! ni! ya! Behold the man of flint, that's me!
Four lightnings zigzag from me, strike and return."
-Navajo war chant

Winds of Change

Sorcery

Each player shuffles the cards from his or her hand into his or her library, then draws that many cards.

"'Tis the set of sails, and not the gales, Which tells us the way to go."
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Visions

Sorcery

Look at the top five cards of target player's library. You may then have that player shuffle that library.

"Visions of glory, spare my aching sight,
Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!"
-Thomas Gray, "The Bard"

Mind Ravel

Sorcery

Target player discards a card.

Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

An end to reason, an end to order. Forget all that has been.

Mind Warp

Sorcery

Look at target player's hand and choose X cards from it. That player discards those cards.

The hardest of wizards can have the softest of minds.

Pox

Sorcery

Each player loses a third of his or her life, then discards a third of the cards in his or her hand, then sacrifices a third of the creatures he or she controls, then sacrifices a third of the lands he or she controls. Round up each time.

Touch of Death

Sorcery

Touch of Death deals 1 damage to target player. You gain 1 life.

Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

"What was yours is mine. Your land, your people, and now your life."
-Lim-Dûl, the Necromancer

Forget

Sorcery

Target player discards two cards, then draws as many cards as he or she discarded this way.

Juxtapose

Sorcery

You and target player exchange control of the creature you each control with the highest converted mana cost. Then exchange control of artifacts the same way. If two or more permanents a player controls are tied for highest cost, their controller chooses one of them.

Portent

Sorcery

Look at the top three cards of target player's library, then put them back in any order. You may have that player shuffle his or her library.

Draw a card at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep.

Recall

Sorcery

Discard X cards, then return a card from your graveyard to your hand for each card discarded this way. Exile Recall.

Nature's Lore

Sorcery

Search your library for a Forest card and put that card onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library.

"It is in our nature to recognize beauty, but to repeat it-ah, that is another feat altogether."
-Hannah of Verdura

Game of Chaos

Sorcery

Flip a coin. If you win the flip, you gain 1 life and target opponent loses 1 life, and you decide whether to flip again. If you lose the flip, you lose 1 life and that opponent gains 1 life, and that player decides whether to flip again. Double the life stakes with each flip.

Jokulhaups

Sorcery

Destroy all artifacts, creatures, and lands. They can't be regenerated.

"The raging waters had swept away trees, bridges, and even houses. My healers had much work to do."
-Halvor Arenson, Kjeldoran priest

Dust to Dust

Sorcery

Exile two target artifacts.

"All this nonsense made by mages
Rusts and crumbles through the ages."
-Aline Corralurn, "Inheritance"

Icatian Town

Sorcery

Put four 1/1 white Citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Icatia's once-peaceful towns faced increasing attacks from orcs and goblins as the climate cooled. By the time the empire fell, they were little more than armed camps.

Tariff

Sorcery

Each player sacrifices the creature he or she controls with the highest converted mana cost unless he or she pays that creature's mana cost. If two or more creatures a player controls are tied for highest cost, that player chooses one.

Ancestral Memories

Sorcery

Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

Diminishing Returns

Sorcery

Each player shuffles his or her hand and graveyard into his or her library. You exile the top ten cards of your library. Then each player draws up to seven cards.

Dream Cache

Sorcery

Draw three cards, then put two cards from your hand both on top of your library or both on the bottom of your library.

Dreams' riches are easily spent.
-Suq'Ata adage

Library of Lat-Nam

Sorcery

An opponent chooses one - You draw three cards at the beginning of the next turn's upkeep; or you search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle your library.

Prosperity

Sorcery

Each player draws X cards.

"Wealth is a good thing, compared to poverty-your food is better, your robes are softer, and your companions have bathed more recently."
-Kukemssa pirate