Slip Out the Back MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityUncommon
TypeInstant

Key Takeaways

  1. Maintains a resourceful edge by protecting key creatures and preserving player momentum in games.
  2. Instant speed allows flexibility and surprise, crucial for turning the tides during critical moments.
  3. Consider mana and discard costs, as they may influence its effectiveness in certain deck builds.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Slip Out the Back MTG card by a specific set like Streets of New Capenna and Ravnica: Clue Edition, 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 Slip Out the Back and other MTG cards:

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Text of card

Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. It phases out. (Treat it and anything attached to it as though they don't exist until its controller's next turn.)

"I was never here."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Slip Out the Back is known for its potential to sustain your resource pool while disrupting an opponent’s strategy. Its ability to protect a vital creature from targeted removal or board wipes keeps your board presence secure, often leading to a significant advantage as the game progresses.

Resource Acceleration: This card, integral to decks focused on pace and efficiency, enables a player to maintain momentum. By costing only one Phyrexian mana, it allows for a strategic play without heavily investing your mana resources, keeping you ready for subsequent moves or threats.

Instant Speed: The flexibility offered by instant speed spells is unmatched, and Slip Out the Back shines in this department. It allows you to wait until the most opportune moment to act, whether that be in response to a removal spell or during combat to turn the tides unexpectedly, offering both strategic depth and surprise to your play.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Slip Out the Back’s playability comes with the stipulation that players must forfeit another card from their hand. This constraint is particularly troublesome during the late game or in scenarios where card advantage is critical to maintaining one’s competitive edge.

Specific Mana Cost: Confining its mana cost to include blue mana can be restrictive. Decks that do not run blue or those with a tight mana base might struggle to cast it efficiently, potentially leaving it as a dead card in hand.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana value that can be considered steep for the effect it provides, Slip Out the Back might not be the most economical choice. Players could potentially find alternative spells that offer similar or better effects with a lower investment, making it less attractive in mana-sensitive situations.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Slip Out the Back can be a flexible addition to decks favoring protection and evasion tactics. Its ability to phase out a creature provides clever ways to dodge removal or to save a key piece during combat.

Combo Potential: This card can easily slip into combo-centric builds, especially those that capitalize on enter-the-battlefield or leave-the-battlefield triggers. It allows creatures to reinitiate their effects or avoid unfavorable interactions.

Meta-Relevance: With a metagame that may lean into heavy removal, Slip Out the Back affords an efficient tool to preserve your creatures. It’s a strategic edge that can keep important creatures in play against control or removal-heavy opponents.


How to beat

Slip Out the Back is a strategic card in Magic: The Gathering that presents a challenge during play. Recognized for its potential to protect key creatures with its phasing ability, the card can be a thorn in the side for those unfamiliar with its mechanics. Opponents can deal with this card effectively by targeting it when it’s most vulnerable – in the opponent’s hand or graveyard. Discard strategies can force the opponent to rid of Slip Out the Back before it’s ever cast, nullifying its influence.

Graveyard manipulation is another avenue to explore. Cards that can exile from graveyards preemptively remove any opportunity to get Slip Out the Back back onto the battlefield. The key lies in anticipation and dealing with it indirectly; due to its low mana cost, waiting to act until it’s played may be too late. Notably, phasing out does not trigger enter the battlefield effects, which can be leveraged against opponents who depend on those triggers by utilizing cards that thrive on repeated entrance effects.

Overall, the art of outmaneuvering Slip Out the Back lies in preemptive and indirect tactics, by either eliminating it before it hits the table or turning its limited defensive potential to your advantage.


BurnMana Recommendations

If you’ve enjoyed digging into the subtleties of Slip Out the Back, we have more for you. Delving into the depths of MTG strategies and card mechanics is what transforms a regular player into a formidable one. Whether you’re intrigued by the resourcefulness of phasing, the intricacies of mana efficiency, or the cunning required to maneuver around drawbacks, there’s a wealth of knowledge to gain. Swing by BurnMana for comprehensive insights and expert tips on making the most of your cards and refining your deck’s strategy. Together, let’s take your MTG experience to the next level.


Cards like Slip Out the Back

Slip Out the Back adds depth to the suite of protective spells in Magic the Gathering. It bears a resemblance to cards like God’s Willing, which provides a creature with protection from the color of your choice for a single white mana. Slip Out the Back slightly pivots, offering a phasing out effect that makes a creature temporarily disappear from the battlefield, avoiding all forms of interaction.

In terms of cost and speed, Otherworldly Journey is another benchmark. It also aims to save creatures with a temporary exile mechanic, but it costs one more mana and has the added benefit – or drawback, in the context of a tight game – of returning the creature with a +1/+1 counter. In terms of speed and agility, Slip Out the Back excels at being a low-cost, instant-speed option for creature protection, overtaking Journey’s sorcery speed limitation.

Overall, while each card offers a distinctive angle of defense, Slip Out the Back secures its spot in MTG as a cost-effective, instant shielding option that could serve as a clutch safeguard in a tightly-contested match.

Otherworldly Journey - MTG Card versions
Otherworldly Journey - MTG Card versions

Printings

The Slip Out the Back Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2022-04-29 and 2024-02-23. Illustrated by Zara Alfonso.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12022-04-29Streets of New CapennaSNC 622015NormalBlackZara Alfonso
22024-02-23Ravnica: Clue EditionCLU 992015NormalBlackZara Alfonso

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Slip Out the Back has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

Date Text
2022-04-29 An attacking or blocking creature that phases out is removed from combat.
2022-04-29 Any continuous effects with a “for as long as” duration, such as that of Extraction Specialist, ignore phased-out objects. If ignoring those objects causes the effect's conditions to no longer be met, the duration will expire.
2022-04-29 As a creature is phased out, Auras and Equipment attached to it also phase out at the same time. Those Auras and Equipment will phase in at the same time that creature does, and they'll phase in still attached to that creature.
2022-04-29 Choices made for permanents as they entered the battlefield are remembered when they phase in.
2022-04-29 Permanents phase back in during their controller's untap step, immediately before that player untaps their permanents. Creatures that phase in this way are able to attack and pay a cost of during that turn. If a permanent had counters on it when it phased out, it will have those counters when it phases back in.
2022-04-29 Phased-out permanents are treated as though they don't exist. They can't be the target of spells or abilities, their static abilities have no effect on the game, their triggered abilities can't trigger, they can't attack or block, and so on.
2022-04-29 Phasing out doesn't cause any “leaves the battlefield” abilities to trigger. Similarly, phasing in won't cause any “enters the battlefield” abilities to trigger.