Extinction Event MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 5 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityRare
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Strategically resets the board by targeting selective mana costs, influencing momentum and resource management.
  2. Factors like meta, deck composition, and board state determine Extinction Event’s effectiveness in gameplay.
  3. Thoughtful inclusion of this card enhances deck versatility, control potential, and response to varied threats.

Text of card

Choose odd or even. Exile each creature with mana value of the chosen quality. (Zero is even.)


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Extinction Event provides a select sweep effect, allowing you to potentially remove multiple threats on the board at once. This can swing the momentum of the game in your favor, placing you at an advantageous position with a more robust hand.

Resource Acceleration: While the card itself doesn’t directly accelerate resources, it serves as a crucial pivot that can reset the board state. By eliminating creatures of certain converted mana costs, it indirectly accelerates your resource dominance by potentially leaving your board untouched or targeting a specific cost range where the opponent is heavily invested.

Instant Speed: Although Extinction Event operates at sorcery speed, its strategic impact mimics the surprise and timing advantages of an instant. It allows you to craft your game plan and wait for the perfect moment during your turn to drastically alter the board and capitalize on the new state of play.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Especially when you’re facing a tight hand, Extinction Event can feel costly. Not discarding a card per se but making a critical decision to potentially remove your own creatures can be tantamount to discarding a valuable piece of your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: Extinction Event’s color identity is locked to black mana, requiring a dedicated source from your land base or mana-fixing artifacts. This cost composition can restrict its integration into multi-colored decks that may run lighter on black sources.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of four mana, Extinction Event competes with numerous other board-clear options. Some decks might favor lower-costed alternatives like “Wrath of God” or “Damnation” for the immediate and unconditional removal they provide.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Extinction Event offers a unique approach to board wipes, allowing players to choose between even or odd-cost creatures. This flexibility makes it adaptable to various board states and advantageous in diverse deck builds.

Combo Potential: Its selective exile mechanic can be strategically used to preserve your creatures while decimating only your opponent’s, setting up advantageous board states for subsequent plays and synergies.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta populated with aggro decks or persistent creature-based strategies, Extinction Event serves as a powerful tool, efficiently dealing with creatures and sometimes leaving a one-sided board in your favor.


How to beat

The Extinction Event card in Magic: The Gathering presents a unique challenge due to its ability to potentially swing the game. This removal spell clears the board of creatures with either an odd or even converted mana cost, depending on your choice. Such a decisive clear can heavily disrupt strategies reliant on a diversified field of creatures.

To effectively counteract this card, players should diversify the mana costs within their creature base, ensuring a mix of odd and even costs. This makes it more difficult for an opponent to completely clear your side of the board. Additionally, including cards that grant indestructibility or have protection from specific mana costs can leave you with a standing force after Extinction Event resolves. Prioritizing creatures with resilience, like those that return from the graveyard, can also mitigate the tempo loss from such a widespread removal.

Ultimately, understanding the meta and predicting when Extinction Event could be played will guide your strategy to either pace creature deployment or to secure your board with creatures that can withstand or avoid its effects. Preparing for its inevitability is key in today’s competitive MTG landscape.


BurnMana Recommendations

Grasping the intricacies of Extinction Event is pivotal for any MTG player looking to dominate the board. With its tactical flexibility, it poses as a significant game-changer that can propel your deck’s performance to new heights. Delving further into the depths of MTG strategy, we encourage players to refine their decks with this adaptable wipe, finding the sweet spot between power and precision. If you’re curious about how to integrate Extinction Event into your arsenal effectively or seeking alternatives for your current meta, let’s connect. Dive deeper into advanced MTG tactics and elevate your game today with us.


Cards like Extinction Event

Extinction Event adds a dynamic layer to sweepers in the game. Tailored for impact, it finds itself in line with board wipe giants like Languish and Damnation. Each of these spells holds the power to shift the game’s momentum, but Extinction Event offers unique versatility. Choosing between odd or even-cost creatures, it allows precision targeting of threats, unlike the indiscriminate destruction of Damnation.

Moreover, it’s akin to Ritual of Soot, which destroys creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less, offering a strategic edge in removing low-cost armies. Yet, Extinction Event stands out for including higher-cost creatures and leaving half of the battlefield intact, potentially retaining your own threats. This selective approach can be a double-edged sword, granting either favor or failure dependent on the board state.

Assessing Extinction Event against these similar cards, we recognize its unique strength in the current MTG meta. Its ability to selectively cleanse the board, while keeping resource costs moderate, positions it as a tactical cornerstone in any deck that aims for high-stakes control.

Languish - MTG Card versions
Damnation - MTG Card versions
Ritual of Soot - MTG Card versions
Languish - Magic Origins Promos (PORI)
Damnation - Planar Chaos (PLC)
Ritual of Soot - Guilds of Ravnica Promos (PGRN)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Extinction Event MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, 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 Extinction Event and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Extinction Event Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2020-04-24 and 2020-04-24. Illustrated by Filip Burburan.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 808812015normalblackFilip Burburan
22020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 3212015normalblackFilip Burburan
32020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 88p2015normalblackFilip Burburan
42020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths PromosPIKO 88s2015normalblackFilip Burburan
52020-04-24Ikoria: Lair of BehemothsIKO 882015normalblackFilip Burburan

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Extinction Event has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-04-17 If a creature on the battlefield has in its mana cost, X is considered to be 0.
2020-04-17 The converted mana cost of a token that isn’t a copy of another object is 0. A token that is a copy of another object has the same mana cost as that object.
2020-04-17 You choose odd or even while Extinction Event is resolving. Players can’t take any actions between the time you make that choice and the time some creatures go extinct.

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