Guiding Voice MTG Card

Guiding Voice - Strixhaven: School of Mages

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Sorcery
Abilities	Learn
Released	2021-04-23
Set symbol
Set name	Strixhaven: School of Mages
Set code	STX
Number	19
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Steve Argyle

Key Takeaways

Enhances creatures and delves into your library, seamlessly merging power increase with strategic card selection.
Demands white mana and a card discard, weighing deck synergy against resource management.
Cultivates combos and counters diverse metas, affirming its place in MTG deck considerations.

Text of card

Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Learn. (You may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)

When honormancers work together, their compliments are complementary.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Guiding Voice not only aids in bolstering your creature but also delves you deeper into your library by Learning, thus offering an invaluable selection flexibility that’s pivotal in clutch moments, all while sustaining your grasp on the game’s flow.

Resource Acceleration: Through Learning and acquiring a Lesson card, Guiding Voice can effectively function as an accelerant, providing access to externally housed cards that potentially unlock more resources or accelerate your mana availability.

Instant Speed: Although Guiding Voice operates at sorcery speed it compensates by setting up your next move instantaneously. You can plan your strategy and shape your turns ahead, adapting to the pace of the match and maintaining momentum. In a game where speed and reaction are critical, this strategic setup is invaluable.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While casting Guiding Voice, you must discard a card, potentially putting you at a resource disadvantage in the game.

Specific Mana Cost: Guiding Voice demands a precise white mana for activation, which may restrict its integration only in decks that run white mana efficiently.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With the need to invest one white mana and the additional cost of discarding, other cards might provide similar effects without such steep requirements, proving more economical in mana-strapped situations.

Reasons to Include Guiding Voice in Your Collection

Versatility: Guiding Voice is a flexible addition to decks that seek to empower creatures through +1/+1 counters. Its low mana cost makes it easy to fit into various game strategies, whether you’re bolstering your creatures for an aggressive stance or setting up defenses.

Combo Potential: This card synergizes with strategies that capitalize on counters or benefit from creatures becoming the target of spells. It can be a key piece in sparking off powerful combinations with cards seeking to exploit these interactions.

Meta-Relevance: With an ever-changing meta, the utility of Guiding Voice shines against decks that struggle to deal with incremental advantage. In environments where buffing single creatures can tip the scales, this card gains significant traction.

How to beat

Guiding Voice adds a nuanced strategic element to deck-building in Magic: The Gathering. This card allows players to learn, which means they can reveal a lesson card they own from outside the game and put it into their hand. To counter Guiding Voice effectively, players need to adapt their strategies beyond simply preventing their opponent from learning. One approach is to minimize the utility of the learned lessons by employing discard strategies that force the opponent to toss their cards before they can use them. Cards like Thoughtseize or Duress are great tools for stripping key lesson cards from your opponent’s hand, disrupting their planned synergies.

Another tactic is to employ counterspells to prevent Guiding Voice from resolving in the first place. This approach can halt the tempo of decks that rely heavily on learning to assemble their pieces. Denial spells like Counterspell or Drown in the Loch can be highly effective in these scenarios, especially when your opponent is banking on the value provided by their lessons.

Finally, incorporating graveyard hate into your deck can mitigate the advantages gained from learning and lessons. With cards like Grafdigger’s Cage, you can prevent your opponents from exploiting their graveyard as a resource, thereby negating one of Guiding Voice’s potential benefits and maintaining the upper hand in card advantage and board state.

Cards like Guiding Voice

Guiding Voice, a staple in white-based limited decks in MTG, aligns well with the family of low-cost spells that enhance your creatures. It’s akin to cards like Defiant Strike, which not only boosts your creature’s power for a turn but also slips in some card draw. Though Guiding Voice forgoes the immediate power boost, it compensates by permitting a deeper dive into your library to fetch a key lesson card, thus expanding your strategic options.

Another relative in this category is Fight as One, which provides both a power bump and protection to your creatures. While not directly enabling card advantage like Guiding Voice’s learn ability, it offers a critical response to your opponent’s attempts to disrupt your battlefield. Then there’s Swift Response, which while not buffing your creatures, offers a cost-effective solution to remove an opposing threat. Both are fundamentally different in approach but serve the pivotal role of protecting your board or advancing your game plan in a cost-efficient manner.

In sum, Guiding Voice’s ability to pull specific answers or threats directly from your sideboard gives it a strategic edge in deck-building, making it a uniquely versatile tool in the MTG universe.

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Guiding Voice MTG card by a specific set like Strixhaven: School of Mages, 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 Guiding Voice and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Guiding Voice has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Commander	Legal
Modern	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2021-04-16	If a card is brought into the game from outside the game, it will stay in the game until it ends or until its owner leaves the game, whichever comes first.
2021-04-16	If instructed to learn, you may do nothing. Discarding a card and putting a Lesson card into your hand are both optional.
2021-04-16	If you bring a card into the game from outside the game in a Constructed tournament (or a Constructed game played under tournament conditions), you may select only a card from your sideboard. In casual Constructed games, the card comes from your collection.
2021-04-16	If you bring a card into the game from outside the game in a Sealed Deck or Booster Draft event, you may select only a card that is in the card pool that you built your deck from.