Death of a Thousand Stings MTG Card

Death of a Thousand Stings - Saviors of Kamigawa

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	5
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant — Arcane
Released	2005-06-03
Set symbol
Set name	Saviors of Kamigawa
Set code	SOK
Number	64
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Scott M. Fischer

Key Takeaways

Enables grinding out opponents through incremental life point exchange and card advantage acceleration.
Demands careful hand resource management due to its graveyard activation discard condition.
Offers unique endgame potential with its recurring nature in long-format games like Commander.

Text of card

Target player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have more cards in hand than each opponent, you may return Death of a Thousand Stings from your graveyard to your hand.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: ‘Death of a Thousand Stings’ enables players to slowly whittle down an opponent’s life total while gaining incremental card advantage. Each activation can indirectly translate to drawing more cards as it forces the opponent to deal with the incremental damage or risk losing valuable resources.

Resource Acceleration: This card fits well in strategies aiming to recycle cards from the graveyard. By doing so, it can function as a form of resource acceleration, allowing you to effectively utilize your graveyard as a resource, continually reaping the benefits of the same card.

Instant Speed: The ability to play ‘Death of a Thousand Stings’ at instant speed gives players flexibility in their tactics. They can cast it at the end of an opponent’s turn to maintain mana efficiency, ensuring that they’re never falling behind on tempo and always ready to respond to an opponent’s threats.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: The ability to cast Death of a Thousand Stings from your graveyard comes at the price of discarding another card, forcing players to continually whittle down their hand size to reuse this effect, which could put them at a strategic disadvantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Deploying Death of a Thousand Stings demands a precise combination of one black and one generic mana, which essentially restricts it to decks with a black mana base, potentially limiting its versatility.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For five mana, the impact of casting Death of a Thousand Stings may not equate with the replenishment of resources or the damage inflicted on the opponent, particularly when other cards may offer greater damage output or additional effects for an equivalent, or even lower, mana investment.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Death of a Thousand Stings fits into a range of black-based control and combo decks. Its ability to chip away at an opponent’s life total while replenishing yours can pivot crucial moments in a game.

Combo Potential: This card can work synergistically with decks built around untap mechanics or graveyard recursion, enabling repeated casts to create significant advantages or even close out games.

Meta-Relevance: In formats where games tend to go long, such as Commander, the incremental life swings can become meaningful. It can be especially potent in metas where life totals are actively used as a resource.

How to beat

Death of a Thousand Stings is a card that might seem daunting due to its capability to control the endgame by slowly chipping away at an opponent’s life total while restoring your own. One effective strategy to combat this persistent threat is to proactively manage your life total, keeping it robust enough to minimize the impact of each sting. Utilizing cards with life gain effects can significantly negate the impact, making it less threatening over time.

Additionally, maintaining a strong board presence can pressure the opponent, compounding the necessity for them to address your threats instead of investing mana into the recurring ability of Death of a Thousand Stings. Counterspells and removal spells offer direct ways to handle this card before it can start to affect the game. Be mindful of the spells in your deck that can interact with it in the graveyard, as this card can be activated from there, and plan to neutralize it before it starts its cycle of damage and healing.

By understanding the nature of Death of a Thousand Stings and incorporating these methods into your playstyle, you can effectively dismantle the gradual pressure it aims to create, keeping the control firmly in your grasp throughout the match.

Cards like Death of a Thousand Stings

Death of a Thousand Stings occupies a unique position in Magic: The Gathering’s arsenal of cards, offering players a chance to tip the scales during late-game moments. Its closest relatives in terms of function are cards like Syphon Soul and Vicious Rumors. Syphon Soul, for instance, also deals damage to each opponent and grants you life, but it does not have the flexibility of being played from your graveyard as Death of a Thousand Stings does with its splice ability.

Cards like Poison the Well may also come to mind, due to their ability to inflict damage and provide a secondary benefit. However, Poison the Well focuses on destroying lands and costing more mana, lacking the nuanced strategies enabled by Death of a Thousand Stings. Additionally, Drain Life is another similar card that provides a direct damage and life-gain effect, yet it requires a significant mana investment for substantial impact—a stark contrast to the leaner cost and the iterative potential of Death of a Thousand Stings.

Delving into these comparisons helps clarify that while there are several cards with analogous effects, Death of a Thousand Stings stands out due to its late-game recursive utility and modest mana demands, catering to a different strategy and pace in Magic: The Gathering games.

Cards similar to Death of a Thousand Stings by color, type and mana cost

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Death of a Thousand Stings MTG card by a specific set like Saviors of Kamigawa, 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 Death of a Thousand Stings and other MTG cards: