Finishing Blow MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Finishing Blow enables you to eliminate a key threat your opponent controls, tilting the scales in your favor. Successfully resolving this can help swing the momentum of the game, especially if used to take out a high-value target.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing resource acceleration, removing a pivotal creature or planeswalker from your opponent’s board effectively sets them back. This can delay their strategy and give you an opportunity to develop your board unimpeded.

Instant Speed: With its instant speed, Finishing Blow offers flexibility allowing you to react swiftly to threats or wait until the most opportune moment during your opponent’s turn. This unpredictability can put an opponent on edge, forcing them to play more cautiously.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Not applicable to Finishing Blow as it does not require you to discard any cards, but the need to hold it until the opportune moment can make it a dead card in hand.

Specific Mana Cost: Finishing Blow demands both generic and black mana, constraining its playability to black-inclusive decks and hampering color flexibility in multicolor strategies.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost of five mana to destroy just one creature, Finishing Blow can be outclassed by other removal spells that are more cost-efficient or offer additional benefits.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Finishing Blow is a solid inclusion for a variety of deck builds that necessitate reliable removal options. It can handle even the most formidable creatures your opponents can muster, making it a flexible pick for your removal suite.

Combo Potential: In decks that capitalize on death triggers or cast effects, Finishing Blow can serve as a key piece to activate those synergies. It can be a strategic enabler for combo interactions that thrive on removing opposing threats.

Meta-Relevance: Given that powerful creatures are often at the heart of winning strategies, having Finishing Blow in your arsenal ensures you’re prepared to disrupt your opponents’ game plan, no matter the direction the meta takes.

How to beat

Finishing Blow is a solid removal spell in Magic: The Gathering, serving as a means to eliminate major threats on the battlefield. Effective in both the late and mid-game, it allows players to target and destroy any creature or planeswalker. Despite its strength, there are strategies for playing against this card. Monitoring your opponent’s mana pool can be key, as Finishing Blow requires a total of five mana, which might delay its casting. Additionally, deploying low-value creatures as bait can divert the use of Finishing Blow, preserving your more powerful creatures for later turns.

Cards with hexproof or indestructible properties can also safely navigate around Finishing Blow’s removal capabilities. Another approach is employing counter spells when your opponent attempts to cast it, preventing them from successfully resolving the spell. Always be prepared for the possibility of a Finishing Blow when your opponent has ample mana and fewer cards in hand, as it could signal their reliance on such game-changing removal to regain control. By anticipating and negating Finishing Blow effectively, you can secure your board presence and maintain an advantage.