Flay Essence MTG Card

Modern Horizons 2 (MH2)
2021-06-18 - Number 85

Flay Essence // Flay Essence - Modern Horizons 2 Art Series (AMH2)

Modern Horizons 2 Art Series (AMH2)
2021-06-18 - Number 29s

Modern Horizons 2 Art Series (AMH2)
2021-06-18 - Number 29

Card sets	Released in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Sorcery

Key Takeaways

Flay Essence provides dual utility by removing threats and increasing life, adding strategic depth to gameplay.
Its discard requirement and specific mana cost can limit deck-building flexibility and in-game options.
Strategically using low-toughness creatures or sacrifice mechanics can reduce Flay Essence’s effectiveness.

Text of card

Exile target creature or planeswalker. You gain life equal to the number of counters on it.

"Your argument as to why I should spare you lacked substance. Now, so do you." —Geyadrone Dihada

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Flay Essence offers a unique benefit by not only removing a creature from the game but also potentially providing a significant life boost. This life gain translates into an effective card advantage, as it can help stabilize you during the game and potentially draw out more resources from your opponent as they attempt to reverse the life difference.

Resource Acceleration: While Flay Essence itself doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, the life gained can indirectly support a more aggressive use of life-payment effects or cards with life costs. This allows for greater flexibility and efficiency in resource management throughout the game.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Flay Essence at instant speed means you have the tactical advantage of timing. You can respond to your opponent’s moves during their turn or end of turn, ensuring you’re making the most informed decisions with the most current information available, without committing your resources unnecessarily early.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Flay Essence comes with a discard cost, potentially putting you at a card disadvantage and pressuring you to make difficult decisions about what to keep in hand.

Specific Mana Cost: This card requires both black and colorless mana, making it less flexible for multicolored decks that may struggle with mana consistency.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost that is significant for its effect, some players may find more value in lower-cost cards that offer similar or greater impacts on the game.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Flay Essence stands out as a flexible removal option, capable of fitting into a variety of decks. Whether you’re playing control or midrange, the ability to remove creatures and gain life is a universal benefit, providing both a defense against aggressive strategies and a means to stabilize your board.

Combo Potential: Flay Essence not only deals with threats on the board but its life gain aspect can also synergize with decks that capitalize on life total as a resource. This could bolster strategies built around cards that use life as a method to trigger abilities or activate alternative costs for powerful effects.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where creature-based decks are prevalent, Flay Essence gains significant value. Its capability to act as an efficient answer to essential threats while contributing to your health pool makes it an apt choice for dealing with the creatures that dominate the current meta.

How to beat

Flay Essence presents players with unique challenges on the battlefield. As a potent removal spell that serves a dual purpose of eliminating threats and bolstering your life total, navigating around it requires careful strategy. One approach is to limit the value it can extract by playing low-toughness creatures, diminishing the life your opponent can gain. Alternatively, you could protect your vital creatures with counterspells or hexproof effects, thereby rendering Flay Essence ineffective.

Incorporating sacrifice mechanics can also turn the tables, as you could choose to sacrifice your creatures in response to Flay Essence, ensuring your opponent spends the card and mana without the benefits. Moreover, resilient creatures that return from the graveyard, such as the Rekindling Phoenix, nullify the advantage Flay Essence provides by coming back into play after being removed.

In essence, adapting your play to account for the potential appearance of Flay Essence in your opponent’s deck can mitigate its impact significantly. By deploying tactical counters and maintaining a diverse board state, you can safeguard your key creatures and deprive Flay Essence of its true power.

Cards like Flay Essence

Flay Essence sits amongst a unique cluster of removal cards within Magic: The Gathering. It’s somewhat akin to cards such as Murder, a straightforward spell that destroys a target creature for three mana. Despite the similarities, Flay Essence offers an additional benefit by also gaining life equal to the destroyed creature’s power, differing significantly from Murder’s single-purpose role.

Another parallel can be drawn with Eat to Extinction, which not only removes a creature or planeswalker from the game but also provides the player the choice to put a card from their library into their graveyard. Eat to Extinction provides a thinner mana cost but hinges on its exile effect more than life gain. Lastly, we have Vraska’s Contempt, which exiles at four mana, offering both creature and planeswalker removal plus an assured life gain of two, regardless of the exiled card’s power.

In discerning the value among these options, Flay Essence enters the fray with its life gain tied to creature power, creating potential for a significant swing in life totals, an attribute that gives it a distinct place among MTG removal spells.

Cards similar to Flay Essence by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Flay Essence MTG card by a specific set like Modern Horizons 2 and Modern Horizons 2 Art Series, 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 Flay Essence and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Flay Essence Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2021-06-18 and 2021-06-18. Illustrated by Bastien L. Deharme.

#	Released	Name	Code	Number	Frame	Layout	Border	Artist
1	2021-06-18	Modern Horizons 2	MH2	85	2015	Normal	Black	Bastien L. Deharme
2	~~2021-06-18~~	Modern Horizons 2 Art Series	AMH2	29s	2015	Art series	Borderless	Bastien L. Deharme
3	~~2021-06-18~~	Modern Horizons 2 Art Series	AMH2	29	2015	Art series	Borderless	Bastien L. Deharme

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Flay Essence has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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