Irradiate MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	4
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant
Released	2003-10-02
Set symbol
Set name	Mirrodin
Set code	MRD
Number	67
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Dave Dorman

Key Takeaways

Irradiate presents a strategy to gain card advantage by eliminating key opposing creatures.
Its instant speed allows for flexible, responsive plays, disrupting your opponent’s plans.
Mana requirements and discard costs limit its inclusion in decks, shaping deck strategies.

Text of card

Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each artifact you control.

The blast ignores the cage of metal but devours the flesh inside.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Irradiate’s potential to remove a threat from the battlefield is a solid pathway to card advantage. By neutralizing a key creature, you hinder your opponent’s board presence, indirectly leading to a more favorable card balance for you.

Resource Acceleration: While Irradiate itself isn’t a direct source of resource acceleration, its efficient use of mana relative to its effect helps maintain your pace in the game. This allows you to allocate resources effectively and keep up with or even outpace your opponent’s development.

Instant Speed: The instant nature of Irradiate offers significant tactical flexibility. It allows you to react to opponents’ actions during their turn, which can disrupt their strategies or minimize the impact of their plays. This adaptability often gives seasoned players the upper hand in tightly-contested matches.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Irradiate necessitates the player discarding a card to activate its ability, a hurdle that might set you back when your hand is already depleted or if you’re struggling to maintain card advantage on the battlefield.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana arrangement to cast, specifically including black mana in its cost. This requirement might restrict its integration into a diverse range of decks, particularly those not running black mana or multi-color decks that can’t always guarantee the right mana mix.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With cost set above the curve for its effect, Irradiate’s mana investment might be on the higher side when compared with other removal options available in the MTG universe. Players could find themselves in scenarios where lower-cost alternatives could offer similar or better efficiency for controlling opponents’ creatures.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Irradiate offers the ability to respond to various threats on the board. Its scalability with mana investment makes it a suitable choice for decks that can generate ample mana and need spot removal to handle problematic creatures, irrespective of their size.

Combo Potential: In decks that manipulate counters or proliferate, Irradiate can be a key piece, turning any increase in power or toughness against the opponent’s creatures into a liability, effectively enhancing your reactive gameplan.

Meta-Relevance: As creature-based strategies often dominate the playing field, having access to a removal option like Irradiate can shape how efficiently you interact with the meta. Its role in keeping check on the creatures that are central to many decks’ win conditions can’t be overstated.

How to beat

Irradiate is a unique card that can pose significant challenges during MTG gameplay. Its ability to assign damage to a creature equal to the number of artifacts you control means it gets more potent in artifact-heavy decks. To effectively counter Irradiate, it’s essential to keep the battlefield clear of excessive artifacts or make them less accessible through removal spells or abilities. Keeping artifact count low diminishes Irradiate’s potential damage output.

Another strategy is to include cards in your deck that offer hexproof or shroud to your creatures, rendering them untargetable by spells like Irradiate. Cards like Asceticism can provide a layer of protection against targeted removals. Similarly, playing with instant-speed spells that can counteract sorceries or destroy artifacts on the fly, like Naturalize or Negate, could also help maintain control over the artifacts your opponent has in play.

In the end, understanding the environment in which Irradiate thrives and preparing for it either through deck-building or strategic gameplay is the best way to mitigate its threat. It requires a balance of proactive and reactive measures to ensure your creatures survive the radiating damage potential of this potent card.

Cards like Irradiate

Exploring the depths of MTG card strategies, Irradiate emerges as a noteworthy entry. This card resonates with the ability found in other removal spells such as Death Wind. Like Irradiate, Death Wind scales with the amount of mana invested into it, offering a way to neutralize larger threats. However, what sets Irradiate apart is its specificity to artifacts, as it bases its power on the converted mana cost of the target artifact creature.

In a similar comparison, we find the card Shriveling Rot. Both cards share the instant speed, allowing for strategic plays during an opponent’s turn, but Shriveling Rot offers flexibility, giving players the choice between preventing creature healing or turning damage dealt into permanent removal. Despite Shriveling Rot’s versatility, Irradiate’s artifact focus can be incredibly potent in a meta heavy with artifact creatures. Then there’s Pharika’s Libation, which forces an opponent to sacrifice a creature or enchantment. Unlike Irradiate, it doesn’t target, but in some cases, this can bypass indestructibility or hexproof.

When assessing the utility of removal cards in MTG, Irradiate holds a unique position, particularly in artifact-centric matchups, demonstrating its power in specifically tailored scenarios.

Cards similar to Irradiate by color, type and mana cost

Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit - MTG Card versions

When Fluffy Bunnies Attack - MTG Card versions

Tendrils of Corruption - MTG Card versions

Silence the Believers - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Irradiate MTG card by a specific set like Mirrodin, 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 Irradiate and other MTG cards: