Illusory Wrappings MTG Card

It weakens strong creatures, preserving your hand by not needing a direct creature removal. Requires blue mana, limiting its use to blue or multi-color decks with blue sources. Flexible utility in various blue decks, adaptive to the meta’s powerful threats.

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant
Released	2017-04-28
Set symbol
Set name	Amonkhet
Set code	AKH
Number	58
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Deruchenko Alexander

Text of card

Enchant creature Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 0/2.

"No amount of strength can help you overcome my trial. You must be ready to forgo your body and favor your mind." —Kefnet, god of knowledge

Cards like Illusory Wrappings

Illusory Wrappings is an intriguing enchantment that reduces a creature’s power and toughness within the wide array of control spells in Magic: The Gathering. This card shares its control purpose with cards like Reduce in Stature. Both cards effectively neutralize threats by altering the combat capabilities of target creatures. However, Illusory Wrappings allows the creature to keep some of its power and toughness, albeit minimized to 0/2, while Reduce in Stature leaves the creature as a mere 0/1.

An interesting comparison is drawn with the card Turn to Frog which also morphs the target creature’s power and toughness. Despite Turn to Frog being a temporary effect which lasts for only one turn, it comprehensively changes the creature to a 1/1 without any abilities. On the contrary, Illusory Wrappings has a lasting impact but does not strip away abilities. Lastly, Kasmina’s Transmutation is another similar card which turns a creature into a 1/1 with no abilities, yet remains in play as a persistent hindrance.

While these cards all serve to dampen the combat prowess of opposing creatures, Illusory Wrappings offers a unique balance between permanent effect and creature ability retention, placing it as a viable option among its counterparts.

Kasmina's Transmutation - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Illusory Wrappings by color, type and mana cost

Card Pros

Card Advantage: While Illusory Wrappings doesn’t directly provide a card draw, it’s a fantastic tool for neutralizing bomb creatures your opponent controls, effectively negating the threat they pose without costing you additional cards.

Resource Acceleration: Illusory Wrappings isn’t a resource acceleration tool in the conventional sense, but it can be considered a tempo play. By reducing an opposing creature’s power and toughness, you buy time to develop your board and can potentially avoid using a more expensive removal spell.

Instant Speed: As an enchantment, Illusory Wrappings operates at sorcery speed, but its impact can be immediate and unforeseen by an opponent, similar to instant speed scenarios. For instance, it can be laid down right after an opponent buffs their creature, effectively wasting their mana and spells used.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Illusory Wrappings doesn’t have a discard requirement itself, but as a control tool, it might force you to retain specific types of cards to maximize its effectiveness, thus limiting your hand flexibility.

Specific Mana Cost: With a casting cost that includes one blue mana, its utility is exclusive to blue decks or those that can accommodate blue mana, potentially narrowing the range of decks where it can be played.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The card costs three mana to play which, when considering other tempo plays available at lower costs, might not represent the best investment for players looking to maintain an aggressive board state.

Reasons to Include Illusory Wrappings in Your Collection

Versatility: Illusory Wrappings is a flexible enchantment that can be slipped into a variety of blue decks, offering a straightforward approach to diminish the power and toughness of threat creatures your opponents control.

Combo Potential: Its capability to turn any creature into a negligible threat pairs well with cards that profit off of creatures with low power, facilitating interesting gameplay permutations that can tilt the battlefield to your advantage.

Meta-Relevance: In a gaming environment teeming with powerful and high-powered creatures, the capacity of Illusory Wrappings to effectively neutralize such threats can shift the momentum of play, making it a card worth considering for its tactical applications in the current competitive scene.

How to beat

Illusory Wrappings is a clever piece of blue enchantment in Magic: The Gathering that can significantly weaken a powerful creature by reducing its power and toughness to just two. This spell can shift the tide of a game by turning a formidable threat into a less intimidating one. However, it’s not an insurmountable obstacle.

To effectively tackle Illusory Wrappings, removal spells become your best friends. Consider leveraging enchantment removal spells such as Disenchant or Naturalize, which can directly target and destroy Illusory Wrappings, thus restoring your creature’s original stats. Alternatively, playing your own buff spells to counteract the power and toughness reduction may also turn the tables. Bouncing your creature back to your hand, with a spell like Unsummon, also removes the enchantment’s effects when you cast the creature again. Post-removal, the creature can resume its role as a battlefield juggernaut, reinforcing the importance of versatile removal spells in any MTG deck.

By understanding your deck’s strengths and stocking it with a variety of answers, you can ensure that Illusory Wrappings, while a potentially significant hurdle, doesn’t dictate the outcome of a match.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Illusory Wrappings MTG card by a specific set like Amonkhet, 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 Illusory Wrappings and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Illusory Wrappings has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2017-04-18	Any power- or toughness-modifying effects (those that give +N/+N, for example) and counters will apply to the creature’s new base power and toughness, even if they started to apply before Illusory Wrappings became attached.
2017-04-18	Illusory Wrappings overwrites all previous effects that set the creature’s base power and toughness to specific values, including those that define a * such as that of Enigma Drake. Any power- or toughness-setting effects that start to apply to a creature after Illusory Wrappings becomes attached to it will overwrite this effect.