Asphyxiate MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Asphyxiate is a targeted removal that can sway the battlefield in your favor by eliminating key threats, effectively reducing your opponent’s card count while yours remains unchanged.

Resource Acceleration: Although Asphyxiate does not directly accelerate resources, effectively removing a creature that may block or threaten yours can indirectly maintain your board presence and momentum.

Instant Speed: As an instant, Asphyxiate offers flexibility in gameplay, allowing you to wait for the perfect moment during your opponent’s turn to disrupt their strategy without sacrificing your mana allocation for the turn.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One notable drawback of Asphyxiate is the absence of any discard effect. For players looking to leverage graveyard strategies or enable reanimation tactics, the lack of discard synergy can be a missed opportunity for deck optimization.

Specific Mana Cost: Asphyxiate’s specific mana cost is three black mana (BBB). This stringent casting requirement can be restrictive, as it demands a solid black mana base. In multi-colored decks, this can result in the card being stranded in hand, unusable until the appropriate lands are drawn.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of BBB, Asphyxiate can be considered costly for its effect—destroying a creature that isn’t untapped. Other removal options in MTG might provide more versatility or lower-cost solutions to deal with threats on the board.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Asphyxiate is a solid removal option that fits smoothly into black control and midrange decks. Its potential to deal with nonblack creatures ensures that it has a place in decks focusing on creature-heavy metas while adhering to unilateral color schemes.

Combo Potential: Asphyxiate complements strategies revolving around creature control while paving the way for combo finishes by clearing potential blockers or combo enablers on the opponent’s board. It synergizes with cards that benefit from having fewer opposing creatures in play.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where creature-based decks are dominant, having effective and easy-to-cast removal spells like Asphyxiate can give players the upper hand. Its relevance often peaks when the meta shifts towards creature-heavy strategies, making it a tactical choice for savvy deck builders.

How to beat Asphyxiate

Asphyxiate is a black removal spell that targets nonblack creatures that have no +1/+1 counters on them. While its instant-speed utility allows you to pinpoint threats at a critical moment, there are strategic ways to navigate around its constricting grip. Including creatures that naturally come with or generate +1/+1 counters can render Asphyxiate useless against them. Lorwyn’s Gilder Bairn or Kalonian Hydra from Magic 2014 are prime examples of such creatures, unbothered by Asphyxiate’s lethal touch.

Another angle of resilience against Asphyxiate lies in diversifying your deck’s color palette. Fielding multicolored creatures, especially those with a black identity like Rakdos Cackler or Corpsejack Menace, ensures immunity from Asphyxiate’s targeted death sentence. Finally, relying on instant-speed spells like Giant Growth or, from a longer-term approach, bolstering your board with continuous counters supply – think Hardened Scales – can effectively neutralize the looming threat of Asphyxiate, allowing your creatures to escape its deadly embrace and thrive on the battlefield.