Restless Dreams MTG Card


Restless Dreams - Torment
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Released2002-02-04
Set symbol
Set nameTorment
Set codeTOR
Number79
Frame1997
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byJohn Matson

Key Takeaways

  1. Restless Dreams excels in graveyard-themed decks, enabling powerful late-game recoveries.
  2. Its instant speed flexibility allows for strategic responses to opponents’ moves.
  3. Mana and card costs limit use, advocating for strategic resource management.

Text of card

As an additional cost to play Restless Dreams, discard X cards from your hand. Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.

Braids dreams of dark rebirth.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Restless Dreams can offer significant card advantage in the right circumstances. It allows players to return several creature cards from their graveyard to their hand, essentially drawing multiple cards for a potentially low mana cost.

Resource Acceleration: This card acts as a potent tool for resource acceleration, especially in decks focused on self-mill or graveyard strategies. By recovering key creatures from the graveyard, it accelerates your game plan and can bring back crucial tools that contribute to your board presence and overall mana usage.

Instant Speed: The ability to play Restless Dreams at instant speed grants flexibility and strategic depth. This allows players to wait until the end of an opponent’s turn or respond to removals and board wipes, ensuring that the timing of the card’s effect is as favorable as possible.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Restless Dreams demands sacrificing a card in addition to its mana cost. This can deplete your hand, leaving you vulnerable, especially when you don’t have an abundance of cards to spare.

Specific Mana Cost: The card’s cost is tied to black mana, which may not blend well with multicolored decks that have a restricted black mana pool. This requirement can restrict its versatility and impede its inclusion in varied deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For its mana value, Restless Dreams may not deliver an immediate impact compared to other spells of similar cost. In a game where tempo is key, having your resources tied up in a potentially low-impact play can be detrimental to your board state and overall strategy.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Restless Dreams stands out for its ability to turn graveyard resources into a tool of redemption. Suitable for decks focusing on graveyard interaction, this card can be a game-changer, offering a strategic edge by returning valuable creatures back into play.

Combo Potential: As a spell with synergy in decks that self-mill or discard, Restless Dreams links well with several combo lines. This card works great in tandem with mechanics like Dredge or Flashback, streamlining powerful and potentially game-winning plays.

Meta-Relevance: Given the shift towards graveyard-centric plays in recent times, Restless Dreams slips seamlessly into current deck builds. The card’s ability to disrupt opponent strategies and reclaim creatures makes it an adaptive addition to face various meta challenges.


How to Beat Restless Dreams

Restless Dreams is an intriguing spell in Magic: The Gathering that allows players to return multiple creature cards from the graveyard to their hand. It’s tuned to synergize with decks that have a substantial graveyard presence. While being mana-efficient, Restless Dreams requires a well-stocked graveyard to function optimally, which is key to devising a strategy against it.

Addressing Restless Dreams is about managing the graveyard. Graveyard hate cards such as Relic of Progenitus or Leyline of the Void can prevent the accumulation of creature cards, rendering Restless Dreams virtually useless. Another effective tactic is to maintain pressure, forcing your opponent to use resources before they can capitalize on the full potential of Restless Dreams. Additionally, countering it with spells like Negate ensures it never resolves, keeping those creatures in the graveyard.

Prevention is just as vital; strategies that prevent creatures from hitting the graveyard in the first place, such as exile effects, will severely limit the usefulness of Restless Dreams. In a game of strategy and foresight, tactical graveyard control can assure your victory over decks relying on this particular card.


Cards like Restless Dreams

Restless Dreams stands out in the realm of graveyard utility spells in Magic: The Gathering. It shares conceptual space with cards like Unearth, allowing players to bring back creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield or hand. While Unearth brings back a single creature card for a low cost, Restless Dreams has the scalability to return numerous creatures as long as the player can discard enough cards as part of its cost.

Another parallel can be drawn to the renowned spell, Disentomb, which simply returns one creature card from graveyard to hand at a very low cost. Restless Dreams adds more flexibility and potential card advantage, at the expense of requiring a larger setup. Then we have Zombify, which straight away puts a creature onto the battlefield from the graveyard, without the discard requirement but at a higher mana cost. Restless Dreams offers more nuance with its threshold ability that can return multiple creatures, giving it a potentially higher ceiling in the late game.

As we compare these spells, it becomes clear that Restless Dreams occupies a unique niche, providing massive late-game advantages for players who can carefully manage their graveyard and hand resources.

Unearth - MTG Card versions
Disentomb - MTG Card versions
Zombify - MTG Card versions
Unearth - Urza's Legacy (ULG)
Disentomb - Magic 2010 (M10)
Zombify - Odyssey (ODY)

Cards similar to Restless Dreams by color, type and mana cost

Raise Dead - MTG Card versions
Mind Twist - MTG Card versions
Contract from Below - MTG Card versions
Spoils of War - MTG Card versions
Tendrils of Despair - MTG Card versions
Mind Peel - MTG Card versions
Bloodcurdling Scream - MTG Card versions
Organ Harvest - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Unearth - MTG Card versions
Bubbling Muck - MTG Card versions
Chorus of Woe - MTG Card versions
Reanimate - MTG Card versions
Soul Strings - MTG Card versions
Skull Fracture - MTG Card versions
Tombfire - MTG Card versions
Cabal Therapy - MTG Card versions
Confront the Past - MTG Card versions
Despise - MTG Card versions
Stir the Grave - MTG Card versions
Raise Dead - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Mind Twist - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Contract from Below - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
Spoils of War - Ice Age (ICE)
Tendrils of Despair - Weatherlight (WTH)
Mind Peel - Stronghold (STH)
Bloodcurdling Scream - Portal Second Age (P02)
Organ Harvest - Unglued (UGL)
Duress - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Unearth - Historic Anthology 7 (HA7)
Bubbling Muck - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Chorus of Woe - Starter 1999 (S99)
Reanimate - Jumpstart (JMP)
Soul Strings - Prophecy (PCY)
Skull Fracture - Odyssey (ODY)
Tombfire - Odyssey (ODY)
Cabal Therapy - Premium Deck Series: Graveborn (PD3)
Confront the Past - Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos (PSTX)
Despise - Khans of Tarkir (KTK)
Stir the Grave - Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Restless Dreams MTG card by a specific set like Torment, 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 Restless Dreams and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Restless Dreams has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

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