Cram Session MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Cram Session shines in providing card selection coupled with life gain. It allows you to scour your library for a Lesson card to add to your hand, which in turn helps cement your game plan while maintaining a healthy card flow.

Resource Acceleration: While Cram Session itself does not directly produce mana or tokens, the Lesson cards it tutors can impact the board state significantly by ramping up your resources or providing utility that complements your strategy.

Instant Speed: Though Cram Session is a sorcery, it is worth mentioning that the Lesson cards it can retrieve may be instants, giving rise to unexpected plays and allowing you to adapt to the unfolding game at a moment’s notice, especially during critical turns.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Cram Session demands you sacrifice a card from your hand to fuel its effect. This trade-off can inadvertently diminish your options and strategic diversity, especially if you’re already grappling with a dwindling hand size.

Specific Mana Cost: With a requirement for black mana, Cram Session imposes a deck-building constraint, confining its synergy mainly to black-centered or multicolored mana bases and potentially excluding it from mono-color decks not aligned with black.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sitting at a higher casting cost, Cram Session might not always be the most resource-efficient choice. Players could find that other cards in their pool accomplish similar outcomes – such as card draw or tutoring – with less of a mana investment, leaving more room for additional plays within a single turn.

Reasons to Include Cram Session in Your Collection

Versatility: Cram Session can be a valuable addition to many deck types due to its life gain and Learn ability, which allows you to adapt to various game situations by fetching the appropriate Lesson card from outside the game.

Combo Potential: This card works well in synergistic strategies, complementing decks built around life gain triggers or benefiting from its Learn mechanic to set up powerful card interactions and tutor specific answers or threats.

Meta-Relevance: Given its ability to search for solutions that can respond to an evolving meta, Cram Session can help maintain competitive edge, offering flexibility to adjust your game plan on the fly against a variety of decks.

How to beat

Cram Session is a unique life gain and learn card that has become a talking point among Magic: The Gathering players. Much like its counterparts in the life gain category, Cram Session offers the unique twist of allowing you to access your Sideboard or “Lesson” cards, effectively increasing your options during a game. However, overcoming this card involves strategic play and understanding its limitations.

To effectively counter Cram Session, it’s crucial to apply pressure early in the game. This card is at its best when it can shift the momentum in your opponent’s favor, so maintaining a pace that outstrips their ability to set up their best plays is key. Utilize removal spells to clear their creatures and leverage counterspells to thwart their plans. Additionally, graveyard disruption can be potent, as it interferes with the card advantage that Cram Session aims to provide. Keep in mind that like all sorcery speed spells, it lacks the versatility of being used on an opponent’s turn, making timing your plays well an advantage. By keeping these strategies in mind, you stand a good chance of diminishing the impact of Cram Session in your matches.