Smell Fear MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Abilities Fight,Proliferate

Key Takeaways

  1. Offers card advantage by potentially eliminating an opposing creature, leveraging the count in your favor.
  2. Instant speed allows strategic flexibility and surprise plays, enhancing its combat relevance.
  3. Low-cost, efficient spell that accelerates your board development without heavy mana investment.

Text of card

Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) Target creature you control fights up to one target creature you don't control.

"It's fun when they run a little." —Wasitora, Nekoru queen


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Smell Fear can potentially remove an opponent’s creature from the game, keeping your card count high while depleting theirs.

Resource Acceleration: As a low-cost spell, Smell Fear helps maintain your momentum by allowing you to develop your board presence without a significant mana investment.

Instant Speed: The instant nature of Smell Fear provides the flexibility to surprise an opponent during combat or at the end of their turn, making it a versatile tool in your strategic arsenal.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Casting Smell Fear often necessitates discarding other cards — a setback especially when hand size is critical for your strategy.

Specific Mana Cost: This spell demands green mana which might not seamlessly fit into multi-colored or colorless decks, reducing its versatility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For a single targeted effect, Smell Fear’s mana cost may be on the higher side, considering other spells that could provide more value for the same or less mana investment.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Smell Fear is a cost-effective spell that can be seamlessly integrated into a variety of green decks, especially those that rely on creatures with high power. Its ability to boost a creature’s potential while also removing an opponent’s threat makes it a flexible pick for your lineup.

Combo Potential: This card shines in synergistic environments where +1/+1 counters are abundant or creature-based strategies prevail. Smell Fear can easily become a crucial part of combos that revolve around enhancing your creatures or using their power to control the board state.

Meta-Relevance: With an ever-shifting competitive scene, Smell Fear can play a key role in metas dominated by creature-heavy decks. Its low mana cost and the prevalence of such strategies in the current meta can make it a fitting and impactful addition to your collection.


How to beat

Smell Fear is one of those cards in Magic: The Gathering that can shift momentum in creature-based matchups. This green spell from Modern Horizons 2 enables a fight between one of your creatures and a target creature an opponent controls, with the significant advantage that your creature gains indestructible until end of turn if it’s sufficiently powerful. To come out on top when facing Smell Fear, players should prioritize removal spells that can target creatures at instant speed. This negates the benefit of the indestructible buff, allowing you to remove the threat before it can damage your creature.

Another smart strategy is to manage the number of creatures you have on the battlefield. If you limit your opponent’s targets, the utility of Smell Fear decreases as its conditional indestructible clause becomes harder to satisfy. Also, countermagic is your friend against such tricks. By keeping blue mana open, you can disrupt your opponent’s efforts to unsettle the board balance. Alternatively, effects that grant hexproof or shroud to your creatures can prevent Smell Fear from targeting them, rendering the card ineffective.

In essence, understanding the nuances of creature combat and maintaining control over the battlefield interactions is crucial to outmaneuvering strategies that rely heavily on cards like Smell Fear.


BurnMana Recommendations

The key to mastery in Magic the Gathering lies in understanding and applying the subtleties of cards like Smell Fear. Analyzing its pros and cons, its place in your collection, or how it compares to similar spells will greatly sharpen your strategic edge. Should it find a home in your deck, its synergy with other cards and its potential as a combat trick can turn the tides of battle in your favor. Ready to take a deeper dive into the strategic nuances of MTG, or perhaps to discover the next card that could change the game? Let’s continue to explore and enhance our strategic gameplay together.


Cards like Smell Fear

Smell Fear carves its niche in the realm of creature combat tricks within Magic: The Gathering. Drawing comparisons to other spells, Giant Growth stands out with its provision of a straightforward power and toughness boost with no added conditions, offering an immediate and hefty +3/+3 to your creature for just one green mana. While Smell Fear also offers the possibility of a creature getting stronger, it hinges on its unique ‘provoke’ mechanic where a creature you control fights another target creature you don’t control if it has a +1/+1 counter on it. This requires a bit more setup compared to the simplicity of Giant Growth.

Then there’s Prey Upon, which offers a similar ‘fight’ mechanic for one green mana but lacks the potential for a power increase that Smell Fear possesses through its counter precondition. Ram Through extends this concept by potentially dealing excess damage to the creature’s controller, adding a layer of reach that Smell Fear does not have. However, Smell Fear’s potential to strengthen a creature—with the right strategy and board presence—can create pivotal turning points during gameplay.

Ultimately, Smell Fear presents a tactical advantage in certain decks that focus on +1/+1 counters, combining combat manipulation with the capacity for bolstering creatures, albeit at the cost of some flexibility when compared with some of its peers.

Giant Growth - MTG Card versions
Prey Upon - MTG Card versions
Ram Through - MTG Card versions
Giant Growth - MTG Card versions
Prey Upon - MTG Card versions
Ram Through - MTG Card versions

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Smell Fear MTG card by a specific set like Modern Horizons 2 and Jumpstart: Historic Horizons, 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 Smell Fear and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Smell Fear Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-06-18 and 2021-08-26. Illustrated by Cristi Balanescu.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12021-06-18Modern Horizons 2MH2 1732015NormalBlackCristi Balanescu
22021-08-26Jumpstart: Historic HorizonsJ21 6382015NormalBlackCristi Balanescu

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Smell Fear has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
CommanderLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
GladiatorLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2021-06-18 If all targets are illegal as Smell Fear tries to resolve, it doesn't resolve and you will not proliferate.
2021-06-18 If you choose two creatures as targets with this spell and only one target is legal as the spell resolves, no fight will occur and no damage will be dealt, but you will still proliferate.
2021-06-18 Players can respond to a spell or ability whose effect includes proliferating. Once that spell or ability starts to resolve, however, and its controller chooses which permanents and players will get new counters, it's too late for anyone to respond.
2021-06-18 To proliferate, you can choose any permanent that has a counter, including ones controlled by opponents, and you can choose any player who has a counter, including opponents. You can't choose cards in any zone other than the battlefield, even if they have counters on them.
2021-06-18 While proliferating, if you choose a permanent or player with multiple kinds of counters, the permanent or player gets another counter of each kind, not just one kind. This change from the original proliferate rules was introduced in a previous set.
2021-06-18 You cannot cast Smell Fear without any targets just to proliferate. You must choose at least one creature you control as a target to cast this spell. If you don't choose a creature you don't control as a target, no fight will occur.
2021-06-18 You don't have to choose every permanent or player that has a counter, only the ones you want to add another counter to. Since “any number” includes zero, you don't have to choose any permanents at all, and you don't have to choose any players at all.

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