Hellish Rebuke MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Offers card advantage by clearing multiple threats, shifting game dynamics in your favor.
  2. It’s a deterrent, influencing opponents to commit fewer resources, enhancing your position.
  3. Instant speed allows for strategic surprise, maximizing its disruptive potential.

Text of card

Until end of turn, permanents your opponents control gain "When this permanent deals damage to the player who cast Hellish Rebuke, sacrifice this permanent. You lose 2 life."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: When casting Hellish Rebuke, you have the potential to eliminate multiple threats simultaneously. If played after an opponent’s wide attack, this can shift the balance drastically in your favor by potentially clearing their board, therefore gaining card advantage while disrupting their game plan.

Resource Acceleration: Hellish Rebuke can act as a deterrent for your opponent’s future plays, essentially accelerating your own position by forcing them to commit fewer resources to the board in fear of another devastating blow. It indirectly influences the resource race, keeping you ahead.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Hellish Rebuke at instant speed adds a layer of surprise and strategic depth. It allows you to wait until the most opportune moment, such as in response to a massive attack or complex combo, maximizing its effect and often catching opponents off guard.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Hellish Rebuke may force the player to discard a valuable card, potentially causing more harm than good if the discarded card was crucial for the game plan.

Specific Mana Cost: This spell requires exact mana, namely black and red, to cast. This can pose a challenge in decks that aren’t optimized for such a mana base or rely on a more diverse color palette.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that is relatively steep for its effect, players might find themselves unable to deploy it at a critical juncture or may prioritize other spells with lower casting costs that provide a similar or better impact on the game state.


Reasons to Include Hellish Rebuke in Your Collection

Versatility: Hellish Rebuke is a dynamic card that can be slotted into a variety of decks. It excels in serving as both a defensive answer to threats and an offensive tool to maintain board control.

Combo Potential: This card’s ability to punish opponents for dealing damage can synergize with strategies aiming to bait and switch, allowing savvy players to turn the tide. It can act as a deterrent, dissuading opponents from attacking, or play into combos that capitalize on punishing aggressive plays.

Meta-Relevance: As player strategies shift to favor more combat-centric approaches or aggressive decks, Hellish Rebuke stands out as a particularly relevant card. It can change the momentum of a game and functions effectively in an environment where creatures frequently engage in combat.


How to beat

Hellish Rebuke is a potent card in the MTG realm, offering a unique twist to red’s direct damage spells. Known for its conditional damage trigger, this card flips the script by retaliating when your creatures are targeted. To navigate around its reactive nature, consider strategies that avoid targeting your opponent’s creatures directly.

Non-targeted board wipes or using spells and abilities that affect all creatures equally can be a smart workaround. Additionally, including hexproof or shroud abilities in your deck could prevent your creatures from being viable targets, thereby nullifying the threat of Hellish Rebuke. Playing cautiously and reading the battlefield properly can keep this fiery retaliation in check, maintaining the momentum of your game.

Tapping into enchantments or artifacts that restrict casting or using alternative combat strategies like milling can also serve to undermine Hellish Rebuke. The key lies in clever deck construction and meticulous play style, ensuring that your opponent’s trigger conditions are left unmet. Understanding the mechanics and limitations of Hellish Rebuke can significantly diminish its impact in the game, securing your path to victory.


BurnMana Recommendations

Understanding Hellish Rebuke’s distinctive role in Magic the Gathering is crucial for any player looking to harness its power. Its ability to clear the board post-attack offers a unique strategic playing point. If you’re keen on refining your deck and want to use Hellish Rebuke’s potential to its fullest, it’s paramount to weigh the card’s pros against its cons carefully. Incorporating cards that synergize with a reactive strategy and managing your mana wisely can be game-changing. Are you ready to fortify your MTG arsenal and adapt to the ever-evolving battleground? Dive deeper with us and explore advanced tactics and combinations that will place you ahead of the competition.


Cards like Hellish Rebuke

Hellish Rebuke is a distinctive card that gives players a reactive tool to leverage against attackers. It shares similarities with cards like Radiant Flames and Anger of the Gods, which also focus on dealing damage to multiple creatures. Radiant Flames offers the versatility of scaling its damage based on the Converge mechanic, while Anger of the Gods can not only deal damage but also exile creatures it kills, ensuring that they don’t come back from the graveyard.

A closer look shows that Hellish Rebuke holds its own by allowing a player to punish opponents after being attacked, something neither Radiant Flames nor Anger of the Gods can do. Flame Sweep is another comparable card, with the ability to deal quick damage to multiple creatures. Still, Hellish Rebuke’s unique trigger condition provides a different angle of defense, triggered by the actions of an opponent rather than the proactive casting by the player.

When assessing these choices, Hellish Rebuke stands out for its retaliatory potential within Magic: The Gathering. It’s not just about dealing damage; it’s about turning the tides after the storm has struck, making it a tactical addition to any deck looking to discourage aggression from opponents.

Anger of the Gods - MTG Card versions
Radiant Flames - MTG Card versions
Flame Sweep - MTG Card versions
Anger of the Gods - MTG Card versions
Radiant Flames - MTG Card versions
Flame Sweep - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Hellish Rebuke by color, type and mana cost

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Spoils of Evil - MTG Card versions
Dark Banishing - MTG Card versions
Carrion - MTG Card versions
Sick and Tired - MTG Card versions
Corpse Dance - MTG Card versions
Bone Harvest - MTG Card versions
Slay - MTG Card versions
Afflict - MTG Card versions
Dismember - MTG Card versions
Body Count - MTG Card versions
Reaping the Graves - MTG Card versions
Execute - MTG Card versions
Kill! Destroy! - MTG Card versions
Sudden Death - MTG Card versions
Footbottom Feast - MTG Card versions
Fevered Strength - MTG Card versions
Hideous End - MTG Card versions
Corpse Lunge - MTG Card versions
Necrobite - MTG Card versions
Murder - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hellish Rebuke MTG card by a specific set like Forgotten Realms Commander and Forgotten Realms Commander, 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 Hellish Rebuke and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Hellish Rebuke Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2021-07-23 and 2021-07-23. Illustrated by Heonhwa Choe.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-07-23Forgotten Realms CommanderAFC 2952015NormalBlackHeonhwa Choe
22021-07-23Forgotten Realms CommanderAFC 262015NormalBlackHeonhwa Choe

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Hellish Rebuke has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2021-07-23 Copies of Hellish Rebuke that weren't cast will give opponents permanents the ability, but that ability won't do anything because no player cast that copy of Hellish Rebuke.
2021-07-23 If a player casts more than one Hellish Rebuke in a turn, permanents will gain multiple instances of the triggered ability. Each will trigger and resolve separately. For instance, if you cast Hellish Rebuke twice, each permanent which damaged you will cause its controller to lose 4 life.
2021-07-23 If a spell or ability causes another player to gain control of Hellish Rebuke while it is on the stack, permanents controlled by the opponents of that player will gain the ability (probably including permanents you control). However, you're still the player that cast Hellish Rebuke, so the ability will trigger whenever one of those permanents deals damage to you, not the player who controlled Hellish Rebuke as it resolved.
2021-07-23 If more than one player casts Hellish Rebuke in a turn, some permanents will gain multiple instances of the triggered ability that refer to different players. Each will trigger only for the player who cast the Hellish Rebuke that granted it the ability.
2021-07-23 When the triggered ability that Hellish Rebuke grants permanents resolves, if that permanent's controller can't sacrifice it, they will still lose 2 life. Similarly, if they can't lose life, they will still sacrifice the permanent.

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