Terminus MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost6
RarityRare
TypeSorcery
Abilities Miracle

Key Takeaways

  1. Terminus offers a massive swing in advantage, resetting the board with its potential miracle cost.
  2. The card excels in decks designed to manipulate the library’s top, enabling strategic plays.
  3. While powerful, Terminus requires a strict white mana commitment, affecting deck flexibility.

Text of card

Put all creatures on the bottom of their owners' libraries. Miracle (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Terminus has the potential to be a massive swing in card advantage. By putting all creatures on the bottom of their owners’ libraries, you can clear multiple threats with just one card, efficiently dealing with boards that other spells couldn’t handle without requiring multiple resources.

Resource Acceleration: Although Terminus itself does not directly accelerate your resources, its low miracle cost can lead to a resource acceleration effect. By only paying a single white mana when you draw it at the right time, you free up your mana to develop your board or hold up interaction.

Instant Speed: This card’s miracle ability can be triggered during your draw step, giving it an almost instant speed-like element. This allows for a surprise factor, potentially clearing the board during your turn and before an opponent has the opportunity to commit more to their board state. While not a traditional instant, its timing can be critical and offer strategic advantages that are typically associated with instant speed spells.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Although not a physical discard from hand, Terminus requires a precise set up to be cast for its miracle cost, which can equate to a form of resource loss if your deck is not built to consistently manipulate the top card of your library.

Specific Mana Cost: Terminus demands a strict white mana commitment with its mana cost making it somewhat inflexible. This inherent restriction might inhibit its inclusion in multicolor decks that can’t reliably produce the appropriate mana.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Terminus can be a substantial investment with its full mana cost of six. In faster-paced games or environments where mana efficiency is key, the cost can be prohibitive, potentially stalling your development when you’re unable to cast it for its miracle price.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Terminus is a powerful addition to any deck that can manipulate the top of its library. Its ability to clear the battlefield with its Miracle cost offers a way to turn the tide of battle in your favor at a moment’s notice.

Combo Potential: This card synergizes well with setup cards like Sensei’s Divining Top or Brainstorm, allowing players to arrange a game-changing board wipe for minimal mana expenditure, hence boosting its combo potential significantly.

Meta-Relevance: In competitive play, creature-based strategies often dominate, making Terminus an essential tool. Its relevance in a meta filled with creature-heavy decks cannot be overstated, as it can efficiently deal with multiple threats at once.


How to beat

Terminus presents a unique challenge on the battlefield with its potential to sweep the board clean, disrupting the carefully laid plans of creature-dependent strategies. One central aspect that sets it aside is its Miracle cost, allowing for a sudden and cost-efficient way to clear all creatures. Nonetheless, countering Terminus requires strategic planning and conscious deck building. Prioritize cards that grant your creatures indestructibility or allow you to regenerate them in response to a board clear.

Another tactic is to employ instant-speed spells or abilities to return your important creatures to your hand when Terminus is revealed. This mitigates the impact and keeps your key threats safe so you can redeploy them post-sweep. Additionally, using counterspells to deny Terminus from resolving or discarding it directly from your opponent’s hand before they can utilize its Miracle cost can be effective measures. Lastly, having a diverse range of non-creature threats in your arsenal ensures that your ability to win doesn’t solely rely on a creature-heavy board presence.

Understanding the mechanics and timing of Terminus can help navigate the challenge it poses. It’s about having the right tools and the keen sense of when to use them, maintaining the upper hand even when facing the threat of a total board reset.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering MTG isn’t just about knowing your cards but understanding how to counter them. Terminus, with its game-changing board wipe potential, exemplifies this. Though it can catch players off-guard with its Miracle cost, this also presents you with unique strategies to defend against it. Whether it’s saving your creatures from a one-sided defeat or fortifying your board, the key lies in anticipating and mitigating its impact. Exploring cards that safeguard your creatures or using counterspells strategically can make all the difference. Dive deeper with us into advanced tactics and ensure Terminus works for you—or not at all.


Cards like Terminus

Terminus is a unique sweep-play in the world of Magic: The Gathering, offering players a rare opportunity to reset the battlefield. Esteemed among spells for its potential mass removal, its mechanics are reminiscent of Wrath of God, a classic board wipe that also clears the field of creatures. What sets Terminus apart is its Miracle cost, allowing for a surprising turn of events at a significantly reduced mana cost if drawn at the right moment.

Day of Judgment is another parallel, which like Wrath of God, destroys all creatures but lacks the preventative grace of countering regeneration that Wrath embodies. Terminus bypasses such nuances with its bottom-of-the-library fate for creatures, not destruction, throwing a curveball in graveyard strategies. Supreme Verdict also clears the board but adds an uncounterable clause, an edge in play where control decks loom large.

Each of these sweepers holds its own in varying strategic setups, yet Terminus often emerges as a powerful choice in MTG for those seeking a reset button that can potentially swing the tide of battle for a meager single white mana—assuming luck favors the draw for its Miracle cost to kick in.

Wrath of God - MTG Card versions
Day of Judgment - MTG Card versions
Supreme Verdict - MTG Card versions
Wrath of God - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Day of Judgment - Zendikar (ZEN)
Supreme Verdict - Return to Ravnica Promos (PRTR)

Cards similar to Terminus by color, type and mana cost

Icatian Town - MTG Card versions
Righteous Fury - MTG Card versions
Catastrophe - MTG Card versions
Guan Yu's 1,000-Li March - MTG Card versions
Kirtar's Wrath - MTG Card versions
Devastating Mastery - MTG Card versions
Austere Command - MTG Card versions
Akroma's Vengeance - MTG Card versions
Solar Tide - MTG Card versions
Final Judgment - MTG Card versions
Chronomantic Escape - MTG Card versions
Spectral Procession - MTG Card versions
Planar Cleansing - MTG Card versions
Open the Vaults - MTG Card versions
Nomads' Assembly - MTG Card versions
Phyrexian Rebirth - MTG Card versions
Sudden Disappearance - MTG Card versions
Vanquish the Foul - MTG Card versions
Triplicate Spirits - MTG Card versions
Descend upon the Sinful - MTG Card versions
Icatian Town - Masters Edition (ME1)
Righteous Fury - Starter 1999 (S99)
Catastrophe - The List (PLST)
Guan Yu's 1,000-Li March - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Kirtar's Wrath - Crimson Vow Commander (VOC)
Devastating Mastery - Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos (PSTX)
Austere Command - Fallout (PIP)
Akroma's Vengeance - Commander 2020 (C20)
Solar Tide - Mirrodin (MRD)
Final Judgment - Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)
Chronomantic Escape - Future Sight (FUT)
Spectral Procession - Commander 2014 (C14)
Planar Cleansing - Core Set 2020 Promos (PM20)
Open the Vaults - Fallout (PIP)
Nomads' Assembly - Commander 2014 (C14)
Phyrexian Rebirth - March of the Machine Commander (MOC)
Sudden Disappearance - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Vanquish the Foul - Theros (THS)
Triplicate Spirits - Jumpstart 2022 (J22)
Descend upon the Sinful - Shadows over Innistrad Remastered (SIR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Terminus MTG card by a specific set like Avacyn Restored and Modern Masters 2017, 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 Terminus and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Terminus Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2012-05-04 and 2018-08-09. Illustrated by James Paick.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12012-05-04Avacyn RestoredAVR 382003normalblackJames Paick
22017-03-17Modern Masters 2017MM3 262015normalblackJames Paick
32018-08-09Commander 2018C18 772015normalblackJames Paick

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Terminus has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2017-03-14 Each player chooses the order that creatures they own are put onto the bottom of their library. This order isn’t revealed to other players.
2018-07-13 If an effect puts a card into your hand without using the word “draw,” the card wasn’t drawn.
2018-07-13 If the card with miracle leaves your hand before the triggered ability resolves, you won’t be able to cast it using its miracle ability.
2018-07-13 It’s important to reveal a card with miracle before it is mixed with the other cards in your hand.
2018-07-13 Miracle is an alternative cost to cast the spell with miracle. It can’t be combined with other alternative costs, such as casting a spell “without paying its mana cost.”
2018-07-13 Multiple card draws are always treated as a sequence of individual card draws. For example, if you haven’t drawn any cards yet during a turn and cast a spell that instructs you to draw three cards, you’ll draw them one at a time. Only the first card drawn this way may be revealed and cast using its miracle ability.
2018-07-13 To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost (such as a miracle cost) you’re paying, add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The converted mana cost of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
2018-07-13 You can cast a card for its miracle cost only as the miracle triggered ability resolves. If you don’t want to cast it at that time (or you can’t cast it, perhaps because there are no legal targets available), you won’t be able to cast it later for the miracle cost.
2018-07-13 You can reveal and cast a card with miracle on any turn, not just your own, if it’s the first card you’ve drawn that turn.
2018-07-13 You cast the card with miracle during the resolution of the triggered ability. Ignore any timing rules based on the card’s type.
2018-07-13 You don’t have to reveal a drawn card with miracle if you don’t wish to cast it at that time.
2018-07-13 You still draw the card, whether you use the miracle ability or not. Any ability that triggers whenever you draw a card, for example, will trigger. If you don’t cast the card using its miracle ability, it will remain in your hand.

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