Flash Flood MTG Card

Legends (LEG)
1994-06-01 - Number 57

Chronicles (CHR)
1995-07-01 - Number 21

Masters Edition III (ME3)
2009-09-07 - Number 35

Card sets	Released in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant

Key Takeaways

Flash Flood offers board control by targeting lands, gaining card advantage and disrupting opponents.
Its instant speed allows strategic plays on the opponent’s turn, adding flexibility to your game.
However, its specific mana cost and card discard requirement can limit its use in diverse decks.

Text of card

Destroy target red permanent, or return target mountain to owner's hand. Enchantments on target land are destroyed.

Many people say that no power can bring the mountains low. Many people are fools.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: By targeting a land card, Flash Flood lets you affect the board state while keeping parity or even gaining an edge in hands. It’s a tactical play that can disrupt your opponent’s strategy without compromising your own resources.

Resource Acceleration: Although not directly serving as a classic accelerant, Flash Flood can slow down your opponent’s resource deployment. This temporal shift often translates into an indirect acceleration for you, allowing you to be one step ahead.

Instant Speed: Flash Flood’s instantaneity is a significant asset, giving you the flexibility to decide when it’s most opportune to affect the game. Interrupting your opponent’s plans during their turn can be paramount, particularly if they’re reliant on specific lands for their strategy.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The Flash Flood card necessitates players to relinquish another card from their hand, potentially depleting critical resources or disrupting strategic plays.

Specific Mana Cost: With a cost demanding both blue mana and additional generic mana, Flash Flood might not seamlessly fit into multicolored decks or those with a stringent mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Considering its targeted effect on destroying red permanent, the mana investment for Flash Flood can be steep in contrast to other color-specific interaction options available to players.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Flash Flood is a card that offers flexibility in decks that want an efficient response to red spells or permanents, particularly in formats where red strategies are prevalent.

Combo Potential: This card can serve as a crucial part of a control deck’s arsenal, allowing players to swiftly interrupt an opponent’s combo, especially if it’s red-centric, paving the way for your own combos to unfold uncontested.

Meta-Relevance: With a constantly evolving metagame that often favors red aggro decks, having Flash Flood in your collection gives you a targeted tool to disrupt those strategies effectively.

How to beat

Confronting Flash Flood on the battlefield requires strategic foresight and a solid understanding of your own deck’s strengths. This blue instant chiefly targets red spells and artifacts, disrupting the plans of many aggressive or combo-driven decks. To effectively counteract Flash Flood’s potential disruption, consider diversifying your spell colors. Relying less on red spells can minimize the impact of this card, making it less of a silver bullet against your strategy.

Another approach is to bolster your deck with countermeasures such as counter spells for blue or artifact-defensive cards, which can protect your valuable assets from being washed away by Flash Flood’s effect. Ensuring that you have a variety of mana sources can help too, allowing you to adapt and deploy threats or defenses that are not susceptible to Flash Flood’s targeted removal.

Ultimately, being prepared for environment shifters like Flash Flood means being able to quickly recover and maintain a state of play that keeps your strategy on course. By doing so, you won’t find your game plan eroded by the sudden surge of this reactive blue instant.

Cards like Flash Flood

Flash Flood is an intriguing option within the realm of blue disruption spells in MTG. Its likeness can be seen in cards like Blue Elemental Blast, which similarly offers a way to counter or destroy red spells or permanents. Flash Flood carves its niche with the flexibility of being cast during any phase on either player’s turn. Blue Elemental Blast has this same flexibility but does not have the instant speed that gives Flash Flood its surprise factor.

Hydroblast is another spell that counters red spells or destroys red permanents. It is more focused than Flash Flood; it targets only spells on the stack, which means it doesn’t hit red permanents. However, Flash Flood requires a specific land type as a target, which Hydroblast does not. Another relative is Red Elemental Blast, a card that shows the reverse ability, targeting blue spells or permanents, which showcases the symmetrical aspect of these types of cards.

Analyzing the differences and utility of these options, Flash Flood emerges as a specialist tech card against decks heavily reliant on mountains. Its instant speed and unexpected nature make it a valuable tool in a blue mage’s arsenal for disrupting the red-centric strategies prevalent in MTG.

Blue Elemental Blast - MTG Card versions

Cards similar to Flash Flood by color, type and mana cost

Whispers of the Muse - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Flash Flood MTG card by a specific set like Legends and Chronicles, 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 Flash Flood and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Flash Flood Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 1994-06-01 and 2009-09-07. Illustrated by Tom Wänerstrand.

#	Released	Name	Code	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	1994-06-01	Legends	LEG	57	1993	Normal	Black	Tom Wänerstrand
2	1995-07-01	Chronicles	CHR	21	1993	Normal	White	Tom Wänerstrand
3	2009-09-07	Masters Edition III	ME3	35	1997	Normal	Black	Tom Wänerstrand