Opposition Agent MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityRare
TypeCreature — Human Rogue
Abilities Flash
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Opposition Agent grants card advantage by letting you tap into opponents’ searches and alter the game’s dynamics.
  2. The card’s specific mana cost and its three-mana value may challenge inclusion in varied MTG deck builds.
  3. It’s meta-relevant, with high utility for control strategies, and significantly disrupts opponents’ game plans.
Flash card art

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

Flash You control your opponents while they're searching their libraries. While an opponent is searching their library, they exile each card they find. You may play those cards for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast them.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Playing Opposition Agent not only potentially disrupts your opponent’s searches for cards, it also allows you to benefit from them, giving you access to resources that can tip the scale in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: By taking control of your opponent’s search and using their resources, Opposition Agent can function as a form of acceleration, providing you with additional land drops or key cards that would otherwise cost you turns to acquire.

Instant Speed: With the ability to flash in Opposition Agent during your opponent’s turn, you create a surprise factor that can hinder their strategies at a crucial moment, all while keeping your mana open to respond to other plays until it’s absolutely necessary to deploy this card.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Opposition Agent doesn’t directly require you to discard a card, its presence on the battlefield effectively forces the discard of cards from your opponents. This is achieved through its disruption of their search strategies, leading to card disadvantage on their side but does not inherently cause you to lose resources.

Specific Mana Cost: Opposition Agent requires both black mana and generic mana to cast (2B). This specific mana cost may limit its integration into multi-colored decks or those that don’t have a strong black mana base, thus reducing its versatility in deck-building.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, Opposition Agent may seem fair for its impactful ability. However, in games where tempo is crucial, the card competes with other potent three-mana spells or creatures that could affect the board more immediately. Therefore, assessing its cost against desired board impact is key.


Reasons to Include Opposition Agent Mtg Card in Your Collection

Versatility: Opposition Agent showcases remarkable versatility by disrupting opponents’ search strategies, making it a valuable addition to any black deck that thrives on control and resource denial.

Combo Potential: This card shines in combination with effects that force opponents to search their libraries, turning their game plan to your advantage while potentially locking down their critical strategies.

Meta-Relevance: Given its ability to interfere with tutors and fetch lands, Opposition Agent remains highly relevant in metas where such cards are prevalent, granting you an edge by preemptive disruption.


How to beat

Opposition Agent highlights a unique and potentially frustrating aspect for many Magic: The Gathering players due to its ability to disrupt opponents’ searches for cards. To effectively counter this powerful card, smart deck construction and strategic play are essential. Tactics such as prioritizing instant-speed removals allow players to eliminate the Opposition Agent before their search triggers resolve. Cards like Abrupt Decay or Fatal Push are excellent options, as they cannot be countered and deal with the Agent swiftly.

Another effective strategy involves minimizing search effects that could benefit the Opposition Agent. Playing lands that don’t require searching or choosing draw effects instead can limit the value your opponent gets from the card. Additionally, including cards in your deck that grant you or your creatures hexproof, like Shalai, Voice of Plenty or Leyline of Sanctity, creates a protective shield against such meddling strategies. By staying one step ahead and choosing your in-game actions wisely, maintaining a solid defense becomes simpler, and the chances of your opponent capitalizing on the Opposition Agent’s ability drastically decrease.

Adjusting to the meta and anticipating an Opposition Agent’s appearance is the key. Understand that meta shifts and game plans may fluctuate. However, with the right precautions and responses, triumphing over this threatening card is entirely within reach for any skillful Magic: The Gathering player.


BurnMana Recommendations

Understanding the nuances of the Opposition Agent can vastly improve your gameplay in MTG. Given its capacity to disrupt and accelerate resources, it’s an undeniably potent card in matches that pivot on card advantage. Deck optimization includes strategic incorporation of cards like this, balancing their pros and cons in the context of your game plan. If you’re looking to sharpen your deck-building skills or grasp the complexities of in-game strategy around such impactful cards, delve deeper with us. Our aim is to guide you through crafting decks that not only challenge your opponents but also reflect your unique style as a player. Immerse yourself in the world of MTG with us and transform your gameplay experience.


Cards like Opposition Agent

Opposition Agent is a standout card within the realm of player interaction and resource denial strategies in Magic: The Gathering. It bears similarities with other notorious control pieces such as Notion Thief, which also hijacks an opponent’s draw mechanics. Opposition Agent elevates the disruption by not only drawing from an opponent’s play but actually stealing their search and allowing you to use it yourself. Notion Thief offers no such additional resource acquisition.

Shadow of Doubt is another notable comparison, preventing players from searching libraries for a turn. While it carries a lighter mana investment and draws a card, it lacks the permanence and the creature body that Opposition Agent presents. Then we have Aven Mindcensor, reducing an opponent’s library search to just the top four cards. Although more subtly disruptive, it misses out on the outright theft and potential for direct benefit that Opposition Agent can provide.

Assessing these cards together, Opposition Agent commands attention for its unique combination of disruption and advantage acquisition, situating it powerfully among its peers in Magic: The Gathering’s host of control strategies.

Notion Thief - MTG Card versions
Shadow of Doubt - MTG Card versions
Aven Mindcensor - MTG Card versions
Notion Thief - Dragon's Maze (DGM)
Shadow of Doubt - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)
Aven Mindcensor - Future Sight (FUT)

Cards similar to Opposition Agent by color, type and mana cost

Nettling Imp - MTG Card versions
Royal Assassin - MTG Card versions
Plague Rats - MTG Card versions
El-Hajjâj - MTG Card versions
Frozen Shade - MTG Card versions
Scathe Zombies - MTG Card versions
Sorceress Queen - MTG Card versions
Lost Soul - MTG Card versions
Mindstab Thrull - MTG Card versions
Mischievous Poltergeist - MTG Card versions
Strongarm Thug - MTG Card versions
Razortooth Rats - MTG Card versions
Ghastly Remains - MTG Card versions
Lord of the Undead - MTG Card versions
Deepwood Ghoul - MTG Card versions
Dross Prowler - MTG Card versions
Nim Abomination - MTG Card versions
Vesper Ghoul - MTG Card versions
Hypnotic Specter - MTG Card versions
Dusk Imp - MTG Card versions
Nettling Imp - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Royal Assassin - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Plague Rats - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
El-Hajjâj - Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border (4BB)
Frozen Shade - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Scathe Zombies - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Sorceress Queen - Rivals Quick Start Set (RQS)
Lost Soul - Introductory Two-Player Set (ITP)
Mindstab Thrull - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Mischievous Poltergeist - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)
Strongarm Thug - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Razortooth Rats - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Ghastly Remains - Legions (LGN)
Lord of the Undead - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Deepwood Ghoul - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Dross Prowler - Mirrodin (MRD)
Nim Abomination - Darksteel (DST)
Vesper Ghoul - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Hypnotic Specter - Magic Player Rewards 2006 (P06)
Dusk Imp - Tenth Edition (10E)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Opposition Agent MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and Commander Legends, 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 Opposition Agent and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Opposition Agent Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2020-11-20 and 2020-11-20. Illustrated by Scott Murphy.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 860782015normalblackScott Murphy
22020-11-20Commander LegendsCMR 6512015normalblackScott Murphy
32020-11-20Commander LegendsCMR 1412015normalblackScott Murphy

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Opposition Agent has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-11-10 If a spell or ability instructs an opponent you control to search multiple zones including the library, you decide what cards they find in all zones. They'll exile all cards they find in any of the zones.
2020-11-10 If more than one player controls an Opposition Agent, and another player searches their library, the controller of the Opposition Agent that most recently entered the battlefield controls that player during the search. Because the last ability of each Opposition Agent is trying to exile the card and give permission to play it, the owner of the exiled card chooses which effect wins. However, that owner will be under another player's control, so that player controlling that owner actually makes the decision. In other words, the player who controls the Opposition Agent whose effect applies (and thus controls the opponent) can choose to give themselves all the play permissions unless they're feeling very generous.
2020-11-10 If the search instruction states a quality of the card to find, such as a color or card type, you may have the opponent not find any cards. If the search is simply for a number of cards without stating a quality, you must have them find that many cards (or as many as possible, if their library doesn't contain that many cards).
2020-11-10 In a multiplayer game, if a player leaves the game, all cards that player owns leave as well.
2020-11-10 The cards found in the search will be exiled rather than be put wherever the spell or ability tells the opponent to put them after finding them. Any other effects the spell or ability has will still apply. If such an effect refers to the found cards, it can't see them in exile.
2020-11-10 While controlling an opponent, you can't make any choices or decisions for that player related to tournament rules. You can't make them concede or have them agree to an intentional draw.
2020-11-10 While controlling an opponent, you make all choices and decisions for that player. However, because the control effect is limited to while they're searching their libraries, it's unlikely the player will be allowed to make any decisions other than what to find with the search.
2020-11-10 You can't have the player find cards in their library that aren't asked for by the search instruction. For example, if the opponent is searching their library for a basic land card, you can't have them find a different card, such as a creature card.
2020-11-10 You must follow the normal timing permissions and restrictions for each exiled card. If one is a land, you can't play it unless you have land plays available.
2020-11-10 You'll still pay all costs for a spell cast this way, including additional costs. You may also pay alternative costs if any are available.

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