Invert the Skies MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Instant
Released	2008-07-25
Set symbol
Set name	Eventide
Set code	EVE
Number	155
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Randy Gallegos

Key Takeaways

Offers card advantage by nullifying opponents’ flyers, turning the tide of battle favorably.
Instant speed spell allows flexible play, responding to threats or altering combat outcomes.
The discard requirement and specific mana cost present strategic considerations for deck building.

Text of card

Creatures your opponents control lose flying until end of turn if was spent to play Invert the Skies, and creatures you control gain flying until end of turn if was spent to play it. (Do both if was spent.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Invert the Skies offers a unique twist on card advantage. While it may not directly allow you to draw cards, it disrupts your opponent’s strategy by turning their entire aerial assault groundward. This can effectively render their flying creatures useless and swing the battlefield in your favor, which, in many cases, is tantamount to gaining card advantage by negating the potential threats.

Resource Acceleration: While Invert the Skies itself doesn’t generate additional resources, it can provide indirect resource acceleration. By grounding the opponent’s aerial forces, you safeguard your life total and resources, potentially avoiding the need to spend mana on defensive measures. This saved mana allows you to accelerate your board development on subsequent turns.

Instant Speed: The power of Invert the Skies is magnified by its ability to be cast at instant speed. This allows savvy players to ambush an opponent during combat, undermining strategies reliant on flying creatures. The flexibility of instant speed also lets you keep mana available for other interactions and only deploy Invert the Skies when it will have the most impact, keeping opponents constantly guessing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Invert the Skies demands that you discard a card to activate its ability. This prerequisite can be a significant drawback, particularly in situations where your hand is already depleted, potentially compromising your game plan.

Specific Mana Cost: The card’s activation hinges on a combination of blue and other mana, which inherently restricts its integration. Decks not aligned with blue mana might find this card incompatible, potentially excluding it from various strategic builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Costing a substantial amount of mana to deploy, Invert the Skies can be less resource-efficient compared to other cards offering similar effects. Decks requiring a faster pace might consider the mana cost prohibitive, affecting its overall utility in certain playstyles.

Reasons to Include Invert the Skies in Your Collection

Versatility: Invert the Skies excels in its flexibility, seamlessly integrating into a variety of deck builds. Its unique function can serve as both a defensive turn-around and an offensive game-changer, adapting to the player’s needs in the heat of battle.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to flip the power dynamic on the board sets up players for numerous combo possibilities. It can enable unexpected wins and enhance strategies around creatures with flying or without.

Meta-Relevance: In a game environment heavy with flying creatures, Invert the Skies can become an essential tool, tipping the scales when facing decks that rely on aerial dominance. Its tactical use can disrupt your opponent’s plans and provide you with a significant advantage.

How to Beat

Invert the Skies is a strategic card that can turn the tides of battle in Magic: The Gathering. This blue spell allows players to gain temporary control of creatures with flying, often utilized to either block lethal air attacks or create unexpected offensive opportunities. To combat this, it’s crucial to anticipate the card’s play by maintaining a diverse board presence. Include creatures with reach or those that can get flying until end of turn, ensuring you hold sufficient blockers even if your flyer is commandeered.

Another effective method involves instant-speed removal or creature abilities that can neutralize threats at a moment’s notice. By keeping mana open, you can react to Invert the Skies by removing your own flying creature from the equation, making it an invalid target. Counterspells also serve as a direct answer to this disruptive card. By countering it, you prevent the opponent from executing their aerial takeover altogether.

Adaptability is key when facing any control-oriented cards in Magic: The Gathering. By carefully managing your resources, keeping a diverse and responsive board, and being prepared to disrupt your opponent’s strategy, overcoming Invert the Skies becomes a calculated move rather than a daunting challenge.

Cards like Invert the Skies

Invert the Skies is a unique card in the realm of Magic: The Gathering that offers a strategic advantage by impacting creatures’ flying abilities. Comparatively, cards like Gravity Shift and Archetype of Imagination also manipulate flying traits. Gravity Shift removes flying from all creatures and gives them reach instead, which can dramatically alter board control, while Archetype of Imagination grants your creatures flying and strips opponents’ creatures of the same ability.

Yet another analog to Invert the Skies is Earthbind, a classic from the early days of the game. Earthbind specifically targets a single creature and removes flying, but lacks Invert the Skies’ wider impact across multiple creatures. Lastly, there’s the card Sudden Spoiling, which, in a different approach, sets creatures’ power and toughness to zero and removes all abilities, including flying, albeit for just a single turn.

These alternatives exhibit a range of effects on creatures with or without flying. But it’s the selective and reversible, yet decisive, mechanism of Invert the Skies that provides a level of tactical flexibility that can be harnessed to turn the tides of a match in favor of its caster within the dynamic strategies of Magic: The Gathering.

Archetype of Imagination - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Invert the Skies by color, type and mana cost

Incubation // Incongruity - MTG Card versions

Tempest Hart // Scan the Clouds - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Invert the Skies MTG card by a specific set like Eventide, 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 Invert the Skies and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Invert the Skies has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2008-08-01	If a creature changes controllers later in the turn, that won’t change how Invert the Skies affected it.
2008-08-01	If the spell is copied, the copy will never have had mana of the stated color paid for it, no matter what colors were spent on the original spell.
2008-08-01	Invert the Skies affects only creatures on the battlefield at the time it resolves. If a creature enters the battlefield later that turn, it won’t be affected.
2008-08-01	The spell cares about what mana was spent to pay its total cost, not just what mana was spent to pay the hybrid part of its cost.
2008-08-01	The spell checks on resolution to see if any mana of the stated colors was spent to pay its cost. If so, it doesn’t matter how much mana of that color was spent.