Phyrexian Grimoire MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Artifact |
| Released | 1997-10-14 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Tempest |
| Set code | TMP |
| Number | 301 |
| Frame | 1997 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Doug Chaffee |
Key Takeaways
- Phyrexian Grimoire facilitates superior card selection, giving players a competitive edge in drawing essential cards.
- The Grimoire’s instant speed abilities allow players strategic control during gameplay twists and turns.
- Despite its advantages, the Grimoire requires careful management due to its discard condition and specific mana needs.
Text of card
o4, oc T: Target opponent chooses one of the top two cards in your graveyard. Remove that card from the game and put the other into your hand.
Every page cost a life; every secret cost a thousand more.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: The Phyrexian Grimoire navigates players towards maintaining dominance by enabling them to sift through their library effectively. With its card selection mechanism, users improve their chances of drawing into critical game pieces or answers, ensuring that they stay steps ahead of their opponents.
Resource Acceleration: This arcane artifact not only enriches the lore but accelerates a player’s resources. By possibly untapping lands or ramping up mana production, it equips players with the means to cast high-impact spells sooner than expected, rapidly changing the tides of the match in their favor.
Instant Speed: Reactivity is key in MTG, and the instant speed of Phyrexian Grimoire’s abilities gives players the upper hand. The flexibility to activate key abilities during the opponent’s turn or in response to their actions allows for strategic depth and control over the pace and outcome of engagements.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The Phyrexian Grimoire comes with a steep price, necessitating the discard of a card as part of its activation. This can put you at a disadvantage by reducing your hand, particularly if you are already struggling with maintaining card advantage over your opponent.
Specific Mana Cost: The Grimoire’s activation is locked behind a specific mana cost that requires black mana. This color demand can be limiting, as it might not seamlessly integrate into decks that aren’t heavily skewed towards generating black mana or multicolored decks that can’t afford the color specificity.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With an investment that is on the higher end of the mana curve, Phyrexian Grimoire competes with other impactful cards you could be playing at the same stage of the game. The balancing act between its cost and payoff is crucial, as there may be alternative artifacts or effects that provide more immediate or less restrictive benefits.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: Phyrexian Grimoire is a multifaceted card that can be a key piece in numerous deck archetypes. It supports strategies that require graveyard manipulation or artifact synergy, fitting seamlessly into control, midrange, or combo decks.
Combo Potential: This card excels when combined with other cards that feed off artifact count or graveyard resources. Its ability to recur from the graveyard adds another layer to potential combos, making it an asset for players who love complex and powerful interactions.
Meta-Relevance: With an evolving competitive scene, Phyrexian Grimoire remains a relevant choice due to its inherent resilience and interaction with popular mechanics. If artifact-centric or graveyard-based decks are prominent, having this card in your arsenal could provide a significant edge.
How to beat
The Phyrexian Grimoire card in Magic: The Gathering stands as a formidable artifact known for its ability to disrupt opponent’s strategies by forcing them to discard cards. Overcoming this challenge requires strategic planning and deployment of your own resources. Cards with hexproof can shield your key creatures from its harmful effects, while artifact destruction spells like Naturalize or Disenchant can directly remove the Grimoire from play.
Considering alternative strategies, using graveyard retrieval spells can also nullify the impact of forced discard. Cards like Regrowth or Eternal Witness allow players to bring back important cards lost to the Grimoire. It’s essential to manage your hand size effectively, playing out your hand to minimize the discard impact or by incorporating cards that benefit from being in the graveyard, effectively turning Phyrexian Grimoire’s setback into an advantage for you.
In essence, the key to outmaneuvering Phyrexian Grimoire lies in pre-emptive strikes against artifacts, wise hand management, and an ability to utilize your graveyard as a resource. This strategic finesse can shift the balance of power and safeguard your game from the threat of this pervasive artifact.
Cards like Phyrexian Grimoire
The Phyrexian Grimoire has carved itself a unique spot within Magic: The Gathering arsenal of artifact cards. Like the storied Grimoire, cards such as Jayemdae Tome also offer the promise of knowledge, allowing players to draw a card at the cost of mana and the Tome’s activation. However, the Grimoire’s Phyrexian flavor means it comes with an additional twist, asking for a piece of your life force to draw a card, a common trait among Phyrexian-themed items.
Comparably, the Elixir of Immortality doesn’t provide raw card draw but offers something potentially more valuable in the long run: life gain and reshuffling of the graveyard back into one’s library. Both cards embody the value of recycling resources, but the Grimoire focuses on immediate advantage while Elixir plays the long game. Staff of Domination, on another note, is a multifaceted artifact that provides an array of options, including drawing a card, albeit with a higher initial mana investment.
Ultimately, in the résumé of artifact cards in Magic: The Gathering, the Phyrexian Grimoire stands unique in its life-for-knowledge exchange and epitomizes the Phyrexian philosophy – an offer of immense power that comes at a cost.
Cards similar to Phyrexian Grimoire by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Phyrexian Grimoire 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 Phyrexian Grimoire 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
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Phyrexian Grimoire has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Phyrexian Grimoire card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | If there is only one card in your graveyard, it is exiled by the first part of the effect and you do not get to put any cards into your hand since the second part fails. |
| 2006-10-15 | It does not target the cards, but it targets the opponent. If you can’t target an opponent, you can’t activate this ability. |
