Mana Severance MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Rare
Type	Sorcery
Released	1997-10-14
Set symbol
Set name	Tempest
Set code	TMP
Number	73
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Terese Nielsen

Key Takeaways

Enables precise deck manipulation by extracting lands, fine-tuning draws for strategic advantage.
Acts as a cornerstone for combos involving low or no-land libraries, potentially securing wins.
While powerful, Mana Severance requires careful play to avoid transforming into a costly non-factor.

Text of card

Search your library for any number of land cards and remove them from the game. Shuffle your library afterwards.

"And when this land is wasted, where will we go?" —Thalakos lament

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Mana Severance provides a singular advantage for those employing a strategy that seeks to harness the potential of drawing only non-land cards. It allows a player to specifically tailor their deck mid-game, ensuring that future draws improve the odds of getting the spells they need precisely when they need them.

Resource Acceleration: In combo decks, Mana Severance acts as a setup tool, significantly thinning the deck. This paves the way for powerful synergy with cards that benefit from having fewer lands in a deck or interact with the graveyard. Though it doesn’t directly produce mana or reduce costs, the acceleration of a combo’s consistency can be just as pivotal.

Instant Speed: Although Mana Severance is a sorcery, its impact on your game can be as critical as an instant-speed spell. By carefully choosing the moment to play Mana Severance, such as right before a big shuffle effect or a pivotal card draw, it ensures that your next actions are brimming with potential, aligning closely with the value of instant timing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Mana Severance necessitates you to have a deck heavily loaded with land cards. Without an ample supply of lands in your deck, the card might be a dead draw, offering little to no strategic benefit during critical moments of a game.

Specific Mana Cost: Mana Severance comes at the cost of two blue mana in its price tag, constraining its utility to decks that run on blue mana or have a reliable mana base that can support double blue mana requirements without hindering the deck’s overall performance.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of two generic and two blue mana, Mana Severance can be considered expensive considering its specialized role in a deck. Players could potentially use that mana for spells that create immediate impact on the board or challenge an opponent’s strategy more directly.

Reasons to Include Mana Severance in Your Collection

Versatility: Mana Severance offers a unique deck-thinning tool, removing excess lands from your deck so you can more consistently draw into game-changing spells and creatures. Its application is universal, influencing late-game outcomes across various deck archetypes.

Combo Potential: This card is a linchpin in combos involving cards that capitalize on having little to no lands left in the library. By pairing it with cards like “Goblin Charbelcher” or “Thassa’s Oracle,” you can set the stage for a dramatic and unexpected win condition.

Meta-Relevance: Its relevance peaks in environments where decks are fine-tuned and pilot to peak efficiency. In combo or control decks, ensuring that every draw counts can make the difference, pushing Mana Severance into a spotlight of strategic significance within the current meta.

How to Beat

Mana Severance presents a unique strategy in the vast MTG landscape, allowing players to tailor their deck mid-game by removing all lands. This tactic can streamline your deck, ensuring you draw into action rather than more lands. It may seem daunting to face off against such a card, but effective counters exist.

One strategy is to disrupt your opponent’s deck before they can cast Mana Severance. Hand disruption spells can remove it before use. Meanwhile, counter spells prevent it from resolving, maintaining the natural balance of lands and spells in their deck. Artifact and enchantment destruction also offer ways to neutralize the card if it’s being utilized alongside recurring mechanisms or spells that would benefit from a thinned deck. Plus, in a game with Mana Severance on the board, accelerating your own game plan to apply pressure before your opponent can benefit from a refined library is key.

Ultimately, while Mana Severance can be a powerful tool in the right MTG deck, there are multiple angles from which you can challenge its efficacy. Control, swift aggression, or strategic discard are all viable methods to ensure that this card does not tip the scales against you.

Exploring the Depths of Deck Manipulation

Mana Severance offers a unique approach to library refinement within Magic: The Gathering, standing out in its niche of deck thinning spells. The card allows players to scour their deck, exiling any number of land cards, sculpting the draws for the ensuing turns. This effect is somewhat mirrored by cards like Trench Gorger, which also removes lands from your deck, albeit as a one-time monster effect when it enters the battlefield.

Cards like Mana Severance

Mana Severance may remind seasoned players of the card Goblin Charbelcher, which also manipulates the deck for a more predictable outcome. Both cards work well in decks that aim to reduce the chances of drawing lands in the mid to late game, enhancing the likelihood of drawing into non-land spells that could swing the game. Thrumming Stone is another related card; it doesn’t remove lands, but it does provide the probability to chain multiple copies of the same spell, similar to how Mana Severance smoothens draws. Nonetheless, Mana Severance does so without relying on the randomness of the ripple effect.

From a strategic standpoint, Mana Severance is unparalleled in guaranteeing no further lands are drawn when a deck has reached its optimal mana base. Such a definitive effect offers a certain allure for combo decks that rely on drawing into specific non-land cards. While alternatives like Goblin Charbelcher and Thrumming Stone provide related benefits, the certainty offered by Mana Severance remains unmatched in MTG’s vast array of spells targeted towards deck manipulation.

Cards similar to Mana Severance by color, type and mana cost

Fae of Wishes // Granted - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Mana Severance MTG card by a specific set like Tempest, 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 Mana Severance and other MTG cards: