Sulfur Elemental MTG Card
Key Takeaways
- Sulfur Elemental’s flash ability enables surprise board impact, promoting card advantage and strategic depth.
- Demands red mana, which can limit its inclusion to specific deck types, affecting versatility.
- It’s a tactical defense against white creature-based strategies, relevant in varied metagames.
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 may play this spell any time you could play an instant.) Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't play spells or activated abilities that aren't mana abilities.) White creatures get +1/-1.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Sulfur Elemental can be a crucial element in gaining card advantage through its unique ability to disrupt opposing strategies. Its flash ability allows for surprise plays, unexpectedly tilting the board in your favor and potentially leading to favorable trades that can strip your opponent of their valuable resources.
Resource Acceleration: While Sulfur Elemental itself doesn’t directly provide mana acceleration, having it in your arsenal can lead to indirect resource acceleration. By pressuring your opponent with its swift entry onto the battlefield, you can force them to react in ways that can slow down their development, effectively giving you a lead in the race for resource superiority.
Instant Speed: The real power of Sulfur Elemental lies in its instant speed. This allows for tactical flexibility, enabling you to play it at the end of your opponent’s turn or respond immediately to their actions. In the dynamic environment of a MTG game, the capacity to act at instant speed with a creature like Sulfur Elemental provides a massive strategic edge, allowing you to maximize every turn.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Sulfur Elemental doesn’t require an actual discard upon casting, but it does bring a situational downside that can feel like a penalty. This elemental’s flash ability allows for surprise tactics which might not always synchronize with your strategic needs, potentially causing a disadvantage if you’re forced to play it at a less than opportune moment.
Specific Mana Cost: Sulfur Elemental asks for a very specific mana investment with a cost of one colorless and two red mana. This can be restrictive since it demands red mana sources, thereby pigeonholing the card into red or multicolor decks that can afford such a cost while potentially excluding it from others that cannot.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: While three mana might not seem exorbitant, for a 3/2 creature, it stands on the higher end considering other creatures in the aggressive mana cost range. In a game where tempo and efficiency are paramount, Sulfur Elemental’s cost can be a burden, especially when compared to other creatures which offer greater stats or additional abilities for a similar or lower mana investment.
Reasons to Include Sulfur Elemental in Your Collection
Versatility: Sulfur Elemental is a card that offers flexibility to players. Not only can it be a surprise blocker with flash, but its ability to give white creatures -1/-1 can disrupt opponent strategies, making it a versatile inclusion especially in sideboards.
Combo Potential: Its unique static ability can be tactically combined with other cards to weaken or eliminate a wide range of opposing creatures. In this regard, its splash damage has synergy with red’s damage amplifying effects, acting as a form of board control.
Meta-Relevance: Given that white weenie or token strategies are prevalent in many metagames, Sulfur Elemental acts as a useful countermeasure. Its asymmetrical impact can turn the tide of battle, making it a relevant choice for a well-rounded collection prepared to face diverse decks.
How to beat
The Sulfur Elemental is an intriguing Magic: The Gathering card that presents a unique challenge to overcome. Its flash ability allows it to swoop onto the battlefield unexpectedly, often in the middle of combat, altering the flow of the game. With its ability to grant all white creatures -1/-1, it can severely weaken an opponent’s army, particularly if they’re reliant on white creatures for their strategy.
Defeating the Sulfur Elemental requires a flexible approach. One effective tactic is to utilize creatures with sufficient toughness to withstand its ability or invest in instant-speed removal spells that can deal with the Elemental before it has a lasting impact on your board presence. Another strategy is to rely on non-creature spells, minimizing the potential negative effect that Sulfur Elemental can have. Finally, ensuring that your white creatures have a way to buff themselves or are accompanied by other cards that can do so will help mitigate the power reduction caused by the Elemental and keep your side in fighting shape against this fiery adversary.
In summary, while Sulfur Elemental can significantly affect gameplay, especially against white-centric decks, adapting your strategy to include versatile removal, a focus on non-white creatures, or buffing mechanisms can help ensure that this card doesn’t spell defeat for your MTG match.
Cards like Sulfur Elemental
Sulfur Elemental stands out in the MTG universe as a red creature with a quick impact on the battlefield. When assessing its parallels, we naturally examine Pyroclast Consul – both creatures have the capacity to provide an instant advantage during your opponent’s turn. However, Sulfur Elemental’s split second ability, which prevents any spells or abilities from being activated in response, sets it in a league of its own, offering tactical advantage for unexpected plays.
Next to consider is Scab-Clan Berserker, another red creature with the prowess ability. While both cards have a similar mana cost, Sulfur Elemental’s ability to alter the power and toughness of white creatures gives it a more specialized role, specifically in matchups against white creature-heavy decks. The Berserker, however, excels in punishing noncreature spells, thus serving as a deterrent against a different segment of strategies.
In conclusion, Sulfur Elemental excels with its unique ability to disrupt plays on the fly. It is a powerful tool against white strategies, ensuring that it remains a relevant choice in sideboards and situations where it’s most needed.
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sulfur Elemental MTG card by a specific set like Planar Chaos and Time Spiral Remastered, 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 Sulfur Elemental and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
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Printings
The Sulfur Elemental Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2007-02-02 and 2021-03-19. Illustrated by Dave Kendall.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2007-02-02 | Planar Chaos | PLC | 108 | 2003 | Normal | Black | Dave Kendall | |
| 2 | 2021-03-19 | Time Spiral Remastered | TSR | 195 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Dave Kendall |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Sulfur Elemental has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Sulfur Elemental card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2021-03-19 | After a spell with split second resolves (or otherwise leaves the stack), players may again cast spells and activate abilities before the next object on the stack resolves. |
| 2021-03-19 | Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to white creatures may become lethal if Sulfur Elemental enters the battlefield during that turn. |
| 2021-03-19 | Casting a spell with split second won’t affect spells and abilities that are already on the stack. |
| 2021-03-19 | If the resolution of a triggered ability involves casting a spell, that spell can’t be cast if a spell with split second is on the stack. |
| 2021-03-19 | Players can’t take actions between the time that Sulfur Elemental enters the battlefield and the time state-based actions are performed. |
| 2021-03-19 | Players may turn face-down creatures face up while a spell with split second is on the stack. |
| 2021-03-19 | Players still get priority while a card with split second is on the stack; their options are just limited to mana abilities and certain special actions. |
| 2021-03-19 | Split second doesn’t stop triggered abilities from triggering, such as that of Chalice of the Void. If one does, its controller puts it on the stack and chooses targets for it, if any. Those abilities will resolve as normal. |
