Thought Hemorrhage MTG Card


Thought Hemorrhage - Alara Reborn
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityRare
TypeSorcery
Released2009-04-30
Set symbol
Set nameAlara Reborn
Set codeARB
Number47
Frame2003
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byChippy

Key Takeaways

  1. Grants a tactical advantage by stripping key nonland cards from your opponent’s game resources.
  2. Indirectly accelerates your game plan by slowing down the opponent, giving you the upper hand.
  3. Demands knowledge of the opponent’s deck for optimal use, turning good timing into a potent play.

Text of card

Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand. Thought Hemorrhage deals 3 damage to that player for each card with that name revealed this way. Search that player's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with that name and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Thought Hemorrhage shines at disrupting your opponent’s hand and strategy. By targeting a nonland card name and removing all cards of that name from your opponent’s hand, graveyard, and library, you gain a significant edge. The fact that it also deals damage equal to the number of cards removed furthers your advantage, impacting their life total directly.

Resource Acceleration: Though Thought Hemorrhage itself doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, its ability to strip key cards from your opponent’s deck can slow them down significantly. This tempo gain allows you to potentially speed up your game plan relative to theirs, indirectly acting as a kind of acceleration for you.

Instant Speed: While Thought Hemorrhage is a sorcery, understanding when to deploy this card is crucial. Timing it right after an opponent’s draw or when you suspect they’re relying on a specific card can radically shift the momentum of the game in your favor. Preemptive knowledge of your opponent’s deck can turn this card into a game-defining play.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Thought Hemorrhage demands no discard, it does require precise information about your opponent’s hand and library, which can often be as challenging as discarding your own cards.

Specific Mana Cost: Thought Hemorrhage comes with a restrictive casting cost that combines both black and red mana, limiting it mainly to decks that run on a Rakdos color scheme or have a reliable mana base for multicolor cards.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring a total of four mana, two of which are color-specific, Thought Hemorrhage can be quite steep compared to other hand disruption spells, potentially slowing down your own game plan while you wait to accumulate the necessary resources.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Thought Hemorrhage acts as a surgical removal tool against non-creature threats in various deck types. Whether you’re facing combo or control decks, this card can disrupt their plans by removing key components from their library.

Combo Potential: In decks that capitalize on opponents’ spells or graveyard interactions, Thought Hemorrhage offers a way to fuel those strategies. By knowing what’s in your opponent’s hand and library, you can strategize and combo off with your own spells more effectively.

Meta-Relevance: If the metagame is dominated by decks that rely on specific cards to win, Thought Hemorrhage is a targeted answer to those strategies. Its ability to extract vital cards from the game can shift the balance in your favor and disrupt well-laid plans.


How to beat

Thought Hemorrhage stands as a formidable challenge for Magic: The Gathering players aiming to protect their strategy. Effective against decks relying heavily on a single card, it can disrupt the best-laid plans with its pinpoint removal ability. To triumph over this spell, it’s essential to diversify your tactics. Including a variety of threats and answers in your deck will reduce the negative impact of losing one card. Additionally, utilizing cards with similar effects can help circumvent the void left by the targeted removal. It’s strategic to play less vital cards first, baiting out Thought Hemorrhage before committing the key pieces of your strategy to the battlefield.

Employing instant-speed card draw or search effects in response to Thought Hemorrhage can also alter the card targeted, effectively nullifying its potential damage to your game plan. Making use of graveyard retrieval mechanics allows you to bring back important cards that may have been discarded, thus reinforcing your defenses against this disruptive force. By adapting your strategy and diversifying your deck’s components, you can mitigate the threat posed by Thought Hemorrhage and maintain control over the direction of the game.


Cards like Thought Hemorrhage

Thought Hemorrhage brings a unique twist to the disruption tactics in Magic: The Gathering. It draws parallels with the infamous Thoughtseize, which allows players to target an opponent’s hand and surgically extract threats or key cards. However, Thought Hemorrhage trades the low cost and instant speed of Thoughtseize for the additional damage inflicted upon resolving the name-guessing game. It inflicts damage equal to the number of cards removed from the opponent’s hand and library, which can swing the momentum of a match significantly.

Another card with a similar disruptive nature is Cranial Extraction, which, instead of dealing damage, permanently exiles all copies of the named card. While it offers a potent lock-out mechanism, Cranial Extraction doesn’t provide the immediate board impact that the life loss from Thought Hemorrhage can. Meanwhile, Memoricide is a spell of equal mana cost to Thought Hemorrhage but lacks the burn element, focusing solely on the surgical removal of threats from the game.

Evaluating their functionality and impact on the game’s dynamic, Thought Hemorrhage stands out for its dual role in hand disruption and direct damage, a duality that offers not just control over the opponent’s strategies but also a pathway to victory through its burn capability.

Thoughtseize - MTG Card versions
Cranial Extraction - MTG Card versions
Memoricide - MTG Card versions
Thoughtseize - Lorwyn (LRW)
Cranial Extraction - Champions of Kamigawa (CHK)
Memoricide - Scars of Mirrodin Promos (PSOM)

Cards similar to Thought Hemorrhage by color, type and mana cost

Phyrexian Purge - MTG Card versions
Rare-B-Gone - MTG Card versions
Poison the Well - MTG Card versions
Slaughter Games - MTG Card versions
Cut // Ribbons - MTG Card versions
Widespread Brutality - MTG Card versions
Terminal Agony - MTG Card versions
In Thrall to the Pit - MTG Card versions
Lidless Gaze - MTG Card versions
The Nipton Lottery - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Purge - Mirage (MIR)
Rare-B-Gone - Unhinged (UNH)
Poison the Well - Shadowmoor (SHM)
Slaughter Games - Explorer Anthology 1 (EA1)
Cut // Ribbons - The List (PLST)
Widespread Brutality - War of the Spark Promos (PWAR)
Terminal Agony - Jumpstart: Historic Horizons (J21)
In Thrall to the Pit - Dominaria United (DMU)
Lidless Gaze - Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC)
The Nipton Lottery - Fallout (PIP)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Thought Hemorrhage MTG card by a specific set like Alara Reborn, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Thought Hemorrhage and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Thought Hemorrhage has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Thought Hemorrhage card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

DateText
2009-05-01 If the targeted player has multiple cards with the chosen name in their hand, the damage dealt by Thought Hemorrhage is all considered to be the same instance of damage. A single effect that prevents “the next time a source would deal damage,” for example, will prevent all of it.
2009-05-01 The card is named as Thought Hemorrhage resolves. Spells and abilities can’t be cast or activated between the time a card is named and the time that Thought Hemorrhage has the rest of its effect.
2009-05-01 The cards you’re searching for must be found if they’re in the graveyard, because that’s a zone everyone can see. Finding those cards in the hand and library is optional, though. This is true even though the targeted player has revealed their hand.
2009-05-01 Thought Hemorrhage has no effect on cards on the battlefield that have the same name as the named card.
2014-02-01 If you target yourself with this spell, you must reveal your entire hand to the other players just as any other player would.

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