Alms MTG Card

Alms facilitates sustained gameplay through card retrieval from the graveyard at instant speed. Trading off a card to activate may be risky, despite its deck-building restrictions. Alms’ life-gain and combo potential make it a resilient addition to any collection.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment
Released	1997-06-09
Set symbol
Set name	Weatherlight
Set code	WTH
Number	3
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Rogério Vilela

Text of card

o1, Remove the top card in your graveyard from the game: Prevent 1 damage to any creature.

"Helping people is mostly a matter of teaching them to help themselves." —Sisay, journal

Cards like Alms

Alms is a unique utility card within the realm of Magic: The Gathering, standing out for its ability to incrementally gain life in exchange for surplus land cards in your hand. Comparing it to other life-gain spells, it’s akin to Chaplain’s Blessing, a card that offers a sizeable, one-time boost in life points. Alms, however, provides a more controlled, repeatable source of life gain, which suits longer, attrition-focused matches.

Looking at alternatives such as Healing Salve, we observe that while both cards focus on life preservation, Healing Salve is more flexible, providing an option to prevent damage instead. Alms doesn’t have this adaptability but compensates with a potentially larger, cumulative life gain over time. Then there’s the card Renewed Faith, which grants life gain with a cycling ability for added card draw. Alms does not offer card draw but requires no additional mana investment once on the field, allowing for a more efficient mana usage over several turns.

Ultimately, Alms commands a niche among life-gain enchantments in Magic: The Gathering with its unusual but effective strategy for converting a surplus of lands into a crucial resource: life points. Its role in decks keen on stabilizing through incremental advantages cannot be overstated.

Cards similar to Alms by color, type and mana cost

Mask of Law and Grace - MTG Card versions

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Alms enables you to reclaim cards from your graveyard, effectively recycling them back into your deck or hand. This function makes it an essential tool for outlasting opponents through sustained card resources.

Resource Acceleration: Though not directly impacting mana resources, Alms offers indirect acceleration by retrieving key cards that could lead to further mana generation or cost-reducing effects, subtly speeding up your gameplay.

Instant Speed: The ability to play Alms at instant speed grants you the flexibility to respond to game changes dynamically or utilize your mana efficiently at the end of your opponent’s turn, further underpinning your strategic depth.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Alms demands that players discard a card to activate its ability, a trade-off that could prove costly in tightly contested matches where each resource counts. This stipulation constrains strategic flexibility, often forcing players to make tough decisions that might not always tilt in their favor.

Specific Mana Cost: Featuring a mana cost that requires white mana, Alms confines itself to decks running this specific color. This restriction narrows deck-building options and may discourage inclusion in multi-colored decks that may not always have the necessary mana readily available.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an activation cost that could be deemed steep for its return, players might pause to consider other cards with lower cost thresholds for potentially greater payoffs. In environments where mana efficiency can dictate the pace and outcome of the game, the mana investment into Alms could be seen as a suboptimal use of resources.

Reasons to Include Alms in Your Collection

Versatility: Alms is a card that offers a flexible role, easily slipping into decks that aim to maximize the use of their graveyard. As a one-drop enchantment, it can be played early, serving as a consistent source of life gain throughout the game.

Combo Potential: With Alms, synergy with cards that benefit from life gain or continuous sacrificing can be effortlessly established. It sets the stage for various combo mechanics, particularly in decks crafted around the graveyard and recurring creature abilities.

Meta-Relevance: Given that MTG’s competitive scene frequently shifts, a card like Alms retains relevance for its low cost and life management capabilities. It can be particularly effective in formats where prolonged matches favor incremental advantages, making it a smart addition to collections focused on tactical depth and resilience.

How to beat

Alms presents itself as a unique challenge within the MTG arena with its ability to convert cards in hand to life points. This white spell, costing a single mana, allows players on the defense to potentially outlast their opponent by trading in non-essential or excess cards for a life boost. Yet, the key to overcoming Alms lies in strategic card management and timing.

Effective counters include applying pressure early in the game; this strategy forces Alms users to use their resources prematurely or to hold on to Alms, risking their life total. Moreover, implementing graveyard retrieval mechanics can also diminish the impact of Alms since discarded cards might be reclaimed for future use. Additionally, including cards that restrict life gain or punish opponent actions tied to hand size or graveyard interactions can significantly reduce Alms’ effectiveness.

In essence, understanding your opponent’s potential reliance on Alms as a lifeline can guide you to formulate a thoughtful approach, pressuring their resources while maintaining the agility to respond to life gain strategies. Consequently, with the right tactics, Alms, while potent, can be outmaneuvered in the dynamic world of MTG.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Alms MTG card by a specific set like Weatherlight, 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 Alms and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Alms has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2008-04-01	If an effect or rule puts two or more cards into the same graveyard at the same time, the owner of those cards may arrange them in any order.
2008-04-01	Players may not rearrange the cards in their graveyards. This is a little-known rule because new cards that care about graveyard order haven’t been printed in years.
2008-04-01	Say you’re the owner of both a permanent and an Aura that’s attached to it. If both the permanent and the Aura are destroyed at the same time (by Akroma’s Vengeance, for example), you decide the order they’re put into your graveyard. If just the enchanted permanent is destroyed, it’s put into your graveyard first. Then, after state-based actions are checked, the Aura (which is no longer attached to anything) is put into your graveyard on top of it.
2008-04-01	The last thing that happens to a resolving instant or sorcery spell is that it’s put into its owner’s graveyard. —Example: You cast Wrath of God. All creatures on the battlefield are destroyed. You arrange all the cards put into your graveyard this way in any order you want. The other players in the game do the same to the cards that are put into their graveyards. Then you put Wrath of God into your graveyard, on top of the other cards.
2008-04-01	The “top” card of your graveyard is the card that was put there most recently.