Curfew MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Curfew is particularly sharp in bouncing key creatures back to the owner’s hand, disrupting the opponent’s board presence and potentially giving you a card advantage if you manage the situation cleverly.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly providing mana or tokens, Curfew can contribute to resource acceleration by clearing the board of blockers or threats, thereby facilitating your game plan and progression on the board.

Instant Speed: The strength of Curfew is amplified by its instant speed. This allows a player to wait until the most opportune moment, such as the beginning of the combat phase or in response to an opponent’s spell, to cast Curfew and maximize its strategic impact.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One notable downside of Curfew is the necessity for players to discard a card to utilize its effect. This can pose a significant drawback, especially in situations where hand advantage is critical, and every card in hand matters greatly for maintaining the player’s strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Curfew demands a particular mana arrangement for casting, specifically blue mana. This requirement can impede its inclusion in multicolored decks that might struggle with consistent blue mana availability or strategies that do not prioritize blue mana in their construction.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While Curfew’s effect can be impactful, its mana cost can be a point of contention. Given other options in the game that can offer similar or better board control at a lower or more flexible cost, Curfew can sometimes be overshadowed by these alternatives, making its comparatively high mana cost a stumbling block for deck builders seeking efficiency.

Reasons to Include Curfew in Your Collection

Versatility: Curfew is a card that offers great flexibility in various deck archetypes. Its low cost allows it to be easily slotted into control, tempo, and even some aggro decks that aim to reuse their own creatures’ enter-the-battlefield effects.

Combo Potential: This card can be part of strategies that necessitate returning creatures to the owner’s hand, whether to save them from removal, to reuse their abilities, or to inconvenience opponents by forcing them to return their most dangerous creatures. The tactical advantages it brings can often turn the tide of a game.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where the board state can often become cluttered with powerful creatures, Curfew allows players to reset the playing field. This can be particularly effective in metagames where creature-based strategies dominate, and the ability to remove a key creature from the board, even temporarily, can be crucial.

How to beat

Curfew is a unique control card in the realm of MTG designed to disrupt opponents by enforcing a mutual sacrifice. This can be particularly challenging when you’re facing a deck that thrives on keeping specific creatures on the battlefield. To effectively counter Curfew, consider timing and the current board state. Implementing creatures that generate tokens or have enter-the-battlefield effects can mitigate Curfew’s impact on your side while still forcing your opponent to make a tough decision. Furthermore, saving instant-speed removal or other bounce spells to respond to Curfew can preserve your more valuable creatures. It’s also worth looking into cards that can grant indestructibility or have the ability to sacrifice themselves for a greater benefit, turning a momentary setback into an advantage.

Strategically, patience plays a key role against Curfew. By not overcommitting to the board and maintaining a reserve of creatures in your hand, you avoid giving Curfew a target-rich environment. Always be mindful of the possibility of this card in matchups where it’s likely to be played and plan your creature deployment accordingly. This ensures that when Curfew hits, it will be more of a nuisance than a catastrophe, allowing you to rebound and retain a strong presence in the game.