Reality Shift MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 11 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityUncommon
TypeInstant
Abilities Manifest

Key Takeaways

  1. Offers instant speed exile to disrupt opponents and shape the battlefield in your favor.
  2. Specific blue mana and two mana cost can limit deck inclusion versatility.
  3. Vital for blue control decks in a creature-heavy metagame for maintaining board presence.

Text of card

Exile target creature. Its controller manifests the top card of his or her library. (That player puts the top card of his or her library onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. If it's a creature card, it can be turned face up any time for its mana cost.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Reality Shift offers the potential for indirect card advantage by exiling a target creature an opponent controls. This can disrupt opponents’ strategies and pave the way for your own creatures to dominate the battlefield.

Resource Acceleration: Though Reality Shift does not directly accelerate resources, the removal of a key creature can lead to faster victory, effectively accelerating your path to win the game.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Reality Shift at instant speed provides flexibility, enabling you to react to threats on your opponent’s turn and keep mana open for strategic plays.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Reality Shift doesn’t require discarding, its utility might tempt players into a less favorable exchange, trading away potential creature counters for immediate, but possibly temporary, relief.

Specific Mana Cost: This card asks for one blue mana specifically, which can be a hurdle in multicolored or colorless decks; it’s not a universal fit, potentially causing hiccups in mana-fluidity during gameplay.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Though two mana appears lean, it’s an investment for a singular exile effect, with no direct card advantage. Some players may find other cards with broader impacts or additional benefits at a similar, or only slightly higher, mana cost.


Reasons to Include Reality Shift in Your Collection

Versatility: Reality Shift offers immediate removal for problematic creatures across various game situations, making it a fitting choice for decks that require flexible answers to threats on the board.

Combo Potential: In decks that manipulate the top of an opponent’s library, Reality Shift can turn into a pseudo two-for-one play by transforming an opponent’s key creature into a less threatening creature manifested from their top deck.

Meta-Relevance: With a metagame often populated by formidable creatures, this card serves as an efficient and inexpensive blue color removal spell, maintaining a pivotal role within a game’s dynamics where creature control can be crucial for victory.


How to beat

Reality Shift is a unique form of removal found in blue decks of Magic: The Gathering, providing an effective way to handle troublesome creatures. Unlike a straightforward destruction spell, it exiles the target creature and leaves behind a 2/2 manifest creature. This can be a double-edged sword, as your opponent might turn the manifest into a powerful creature.

To outplay Reality Shift, keep in mind that it only targets creatures. Non-creature spells slide under its radar. Prioritize spells that can counteract its exile effect, like Stifle or Disallow, to nullify it completely. You can also employ hexproof to shield your creatures or instant-speed removal to dispose of the manifest before it becomes a threat. Additionally, since Reality Shift can unintentionally upgrade an opponent’s manifested card into an active creature, be strategic in what creatures you play and avoid running low-impact creatures that could potentially backfire when manifested.

Skillful foresight and a well-prepared sideboard accommodating counterspells and hexproof enablers can dismantle the disruption caused by Reality Shift, ensuring that your key creatures remain unscathed and on the battlefield where they belong.


BurnMana Recommendations

Reality Shift is an essential spell for MTG enthusiasts seeking to maintain control of the battlefield. With its capacity to exile creatures at instant speed, this card becomes a strategic advantage in your blue arsenal. It calls for precise timing and understanding of the meta to employ it effectively, turning the tide in many games. Whether you’re finessing your deck or countering dominant creatures, Reality Shift deserves a closer look. Visit us for deeper insights and strategies to optimize your gameplay with this versatile spell and others like it. Elevate your MTG experience with the right knowledge and tools.


Cards like Reality Shift

Reality Shift stands out in the Magic: The Gathering lineup as an efficient creature removal tool. It closely resembles Pongify, another spell capable of neutralizing creature threats. Both swiftly transition a formidable creature into something far less menacing. However, Reality Shift’s exile approach versus Pongify’s creature destruction mechanism notably affects graveyard-based strategies.

Just as compelling is Unsummon, which doesn’t outright remove creatures but instead returns them to the owner’s hand. This subtle difference can provide a significant tempo swing, despite the creature eventually being playable again. Rapid Hybridization is also in the same league, creating a token creature in place of the removed threat, similar to Pongify, yet it lacks the permanent exile impact provided by Reality Shift.

To sum up, assessing the toolkit of blue spells in Magic: The Gathering, Reality Shift proves its value with its direct exile ability at instant speed, making it a strong inclusion in decks that require dependable creature control without the concern of graveyard recursion.

Pongify - MTG Card versions
Unsummon - MTG Card versions
Rapid Hybridization - MTG Card versions
Pongify - Planar Chaos (PLC)
Unsummon - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Rapid Hybridization - Gatecrash (GTC)

Cards similar to Reality Shift by color, type and mana cost

Counterspell - MTG Card versions
Hurkyl's Recall - MTG Card versions
Hypnotic Sprite // Mesmeric Glare - MTG Card versions
Lat-Nam's Legacy - MTG Card versions
Flash - MTG Card versions
Boomerang - MTG Card versions
Rebound - MTG Card versions
Memory Lapse - MTG Card versions
Hoodwink - MTG Card versions
Tidal Bore - MTG Card versions
Accumulated Knowledge - MTG Card versions
Impulse - MTG Card versions
Cyclonic Rift - MTG Card versions
Thassa's Intervention - MTG Card versions
Metamorphose - MTG Card versions
Echoing Truth - MTG Card versions
Early Frost - MTG Card versions
Mana Leak - MTG Card versions
Remand - MTG Card versions
Vision Skeins - MTG Card versions
Counterspell - Commander Masters (CMM)
Hurkyl's Recall - Antiquities (ATQ)
Hypnotic Sprite // Mesmeric Glare - Throne of Eldraine (ELD)
Lat-Nam's Legacy - Alliances (ALL)
Flash - Mirage (MIR)
Boomerang - Masters Edition III (ME3)
Rebound - Stronghold (STH)
Memory Lapse - Strixhaven Mystical Archive (STA)
Hoodwink - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Tidal Bore - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Accumulated Knowledge - World Championship Decks 2001 (WC01)
Impulse - Game Night: Free-for-All (GN3)
Cyclonic Rift - Commander Masters (CMM)
Thassa's Intervention - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Metamorphose - Scourge (SCG)
Echoing Truth - Modern Masters (MMA)
Early Frost - Fifth Dawn (5DN)
Mana Leak - Double Masters 2022 (2X2)
Remand - Duel Decks: Jace vs. Vraska (DDM)
Vision Skeins - Commander 2013 (C13)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Reality Shift MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Fate Reforged, 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 Reality Shift and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Reality Shift Magic the Gathering card was released in 10 different sets between 2015-01-23 and 2023-09-08. Illustrated by 2 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 557592015normalblackHoward Lyon
22015-01-23Fate ReforgedFRF 462015normalblackHoward Lyon
32017-08-25Commander 2017C17 912015normalblackHoward Lyon
42019-08-23Commander 2019C19 922015normalblackHoward Lyon
52020-09-26The ListPLST C19-922015normalblackHoward Lyon
62022-02-18Neon Dynasty CommanderNEC 952015normalblackHoward Lyon
72023-04-21March of the Machine CommanderMOC 2312015normalblackHoward Lyon
82023-08-04Commander MastersCMM 6342015normalborderlessWarren Mahy
92023-08-04Commander MastersCMM 1132015normalblackHoward Lyon
102023-08-04Commander Masters Art SeriesACMM 352015art_seriesborderless
112023-09-08Wilds of Eldraine CommanderWOC 1042015normalblackHoward Lyon

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Reality Shift has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2014-11-24 A permanent that turns face up or face down changes characteristics but is otherwise the same permanent. Spells and abilities that were targeting that permanent, as well as Auras and Equipment that were attached to the permanent, aren't affected.
2014-11-24 Any time you have priority, you may turn a manifested creature face up by revealing that it's a creature card (ignoring any copy effects or type-changing effects that might be applying to it) and paying its mana cost. This is a special action. It doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to.
2014-11-24 At any time, you can look at a face-down permanent you control. You can't look at face-down permanents you don't control unless an effect allows you to or instructs you to.
2014-11-24 Because face-down creatures don't have names, they can't have the same name as any other creature, even another face-down creature.
2014-11-24 Because the permanent is on the battlefield both before and after it's turned face up, turning a permanent face up doesn't cause any enters-the-battlefield abilities to trigger.
2014-11-24 If a double-faced card is manifested, it will be put onto the battlefield face down. While face down, it can't transform. If the front face of the card is a creature card, you can turn it face up by paying its mana cost. If you do, its front face will be up.
2014-11-24 If a face-down permanent you control leaves the battlefield, you must reveal it. You must also reveal all face-down spells and permanents you control if you leave the game or if the game ends.
2014-11-24 If a manifested creature would have morph if it were face up, you may also turn it face up by paying its morph cost.
2014-11-24 The face-down permanent is a 2/2 creature with no name, mana cost, creature types, or abilities. It's colorless and has a mana value of 0. Other effects that apply to the permanent can still grant or change any of these characteristics.
2014-11-24 There are no cards in the Fate Reforged set that would turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, but some older cards can try to do this. If something tries to turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, reveal that card to show all players it's an instant or sorcery card. The permanent remains on the battlefield face down. Abilities that trigger when a permanent turns face up won't trigger, because even though you revealed the card, it never turned face up.
2014-11-24 Turning a permanent face up or face down doesn't change whether that permanent is tapped or untapped.
2014-11-24 Unlike a face-down creature that was cast using the morph ability, a manifested creature may still be turned face up after it loses its abilities if it's a creature card.
2014-11-24 You must ensure that your face-down spells and permanents can easily be differentiated from each other. You're not allowed to mix up the cards that represent them on the battlefield in order to confuse other players. The order they entered the battlefield should remain clear. Common methods for indicating this include using markers or dice, or simply placing them in order on the battlefield. You must also track how each became face down (manifested, cast face down using the morph ability, and so on).

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