Cleansing Wildfire MTG Card


Cleansing Wildfire - Zendikar Rising
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Released2020-09-25
Set symbol
Set nameZendikar Rising
Set codeZNR
Number137
Frame2015
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byMathias Kollros

Key Takeaways

  1. Disrupts opponents’ lands and provides card advantage, crucial for maintaining a lead in card resource.
  2. Enables acceleration by targeting your own lands for beneficial enter the battlefield effects.
  3. Versatile addition to your collection, offering combo potential and relevance in varied meta games.

Text of card

Destroy target land. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. Draw a card.

Every rebirth looks like a death.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Cleansing Wildfire shines in its ability to disrupt opponent’s land base while allowing you to draw a card. This ensures you won’t fall behind in card count, providing a buffer while applying pressure.

Resource Acceleration: In some deck builds, targeting your own land that can be brought back from the graveyard or has an enter the battlefield effect can act as a ramp, accelerating your resource availability to cast more impactful spells earlier in the game.

Instant Speed: While Cleansing Wildfire doesn’t operate at instant speed, its sorcery speed is tactically beneficial, setting up your next move post land destruction and card draw, paving the way for a well-planned strategy as the game progresses.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Cleansing Wildfire demands a specific red mana in its casting cost, potentially restricting its inclusion in multicolored decks that may have mana base inconsistencies.

Specific Mana Cost: The need for one red mana can require precise mana fixing in a deck, making it less flexible outside of mono-red or red-centric decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the two-mana investment is reasonable, some players might find other land destruction or cantrip options more cost-efficient when considering the card’s impact on the game state.


Reasons to Include Cleansing Wildfire in Your Collection

Versatility: Cleansing Wildfire shines in its ability to adapt to various situations on the battlefield. This card not only disrupts opponents’ mana bases by destroying a land but also allows for mana fixing within your own deck as you can target your lands for card advantage.

Combo Potential: Players have leveraged this card in conjunction with landfall and graveyard mechanics. It acts as a catalyst in strategies designed to recur lands from the graveyard or benefits from repeated landfall triggers.

Meta-Relevance: With the presence of strong nonbasic lands in many competitive formats, Cleansing Wildfire is a versatile tool. It serves as an effective check against those powerful lands while keeping your hand replenished with its card draw effect.


How to beat

Cleansing Wildfire is a versatile card often seen in Magic: The Gathering decks that take advantage of its land destruction and card draw abilities. It can be a real nuisance, particularly when it targets mana-fixing lands or destroys a crucial color source in your opponent’s deck. To counter this strategy, incorporating basic lands in your deck is essential. Lands that lack special abilities are not only less likely to be targeted by Cleansing Wildfire but also provide a stable mana base that is resistant to such tactics.

Additionally, running cards that can counter noncreature spells or offer land protection can effectively nullify the impact of Cleansing Wildfire. Holding up mana for a counter spell or having cards like Heroic Intervention in your hand could ensure your key lands remain on the battlefield despite your opponent’s attempts to disrupt your mana. It’s also beneficial to deploy cards that allow you to search for basic lands quickly, thereby replenishing any that might be destroyed and maintaining the flow of the game in your favor.

To sum up, though Cleansing Wildfire may disrupt your game plan, preparing your deck with basic lands, protection spells, and land retrieval can help you maintain control and diminish the card’s effectiveness against you.


BurnMana Recommendations

Delving into the strategy of MTG, Cleansing Wildfire emerges as a unique spell that can shift the tide of battle. Whether exploiting its card draw for advantage or utilizing land destruction for control, incorporating this card into your arsenal could be a game-changer. Recognize the versatility and potential it brings to deckbuilding, especially in land-centric strategies. Are you ready to get the upper hand against nonbasic lands in competitive play? Or maybe fine-tune your deck’s mana ramp and cycling efficiency? Dive deeper with us and discover how to optimize Cleansing Wildfire to bolster your MTG gameplay.


Cards like Cleansing Wildfire

Cleansing Wildfire straddles a unique position among land destruction and card draw spells in MTG. Taking a side-by-side look, Stone Rain stands out as one of the classic land destruction spells – simple and direct, it destroys any land for the same amount of mana. What it lacks, however, is the cantrip effect that Cleansing Wildfire provides, giving the latter an edge in terms of card advantage.

Molten Rain is another card that can be looked at in comparison. It deals damage upon destroying a nonbasic land, offering an offensive play along with the land removal. But again, it doesn’t help cycle through your deck as Cleansing Wildfire does. Conversely, treading on both card draw and land disruption is Pillage. While it can certainly deal with artifacts in addition to land, the absence of the draw mechanic makes Cleansing Wildfire a more versatile choice for players seeking to balance their mana disruption with maintaining card flow.

In essence, while other cards in MTG might offer land destruction or card advantage separately, Cleansing Wildfire bridges these strategies, providing a graceful balance of disruption and drawing that bolsters its appeal within the land interaction meta.

Stone Rain - MTG Card versions
Molten Rain - MTG Card versions
Pillage - MTG Card versions
Stone Rain - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Molten Rain - Mirrodin (MRD)
Pillage - Alliances (ALL)

Cards similar to Cleansing Wildfire by color, type and mana cost

Scent of Cinder - MTG Card versions
Spitting Earth - MTG Card versions
Volcanic Hammer - MTG Card versions
Rolling Thunder - MTG Card versions
Fanning the Flames - MTG Card versions
Strategy, Schmategy - MTG Card versions
Disorder - MTG Card versions
Fit of Rage - MTG Card versions
Warrior's Oath - MTG Card versions
Last Chance - MTG Card versions
Tribal Flames - MTG Card versions
Breath of Darigaaz - MTG Card versions
Lava Blister - MTG Card versions
Pyroclasm - MTG Card versions
Book Burning - MTG Card versions
Incendiary Flow - MTG Card versions
Embereth Shieldbreaker // Battle Display - MTG Card versions
Nahiri's Lithoforming - MTG Card versions
Mizzium Mortars - MTG Card versions
Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass - MTG Card versions
Scent of Cinder - Media Inserts (PMEI)
Spitting Earth - Duel Decks Anthology: Elves vs. Goblins (EVG)
Volcanic Hammer - Salvat 2005 (PSAL)
Rolling Thunder - The List (PLST)
Fanning the Flames - Stronghold (STH)
Strategy, Schmategy - Unglued (UGL)
Disorder - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Fit of Rage - Classic Sixth Edition (6ED)
Warrior's Oath - Double Masters 2022 (2X2)
Last Chance - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Tribal Flames - Modern Masters (MMA)
Breath of Darigaaz - Commander 2015 (C15)
Lava Blister - Odyssey (ODY)
Pyroclasm - Duel Decks: Sorin vs. Tibalt (DDK)
Book Burning - Judgment (JUD)
Incendiary Flow - Friday Night Magic 2017 (F17)
Embereth Shieldbreaker // Battle Display - Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate (CLB)
Nahiri's Lithoforming - Zendikar Rising (ZNR)
Mizzium Mortars - Magic Online Promos (PRM)
Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass - Zendikar Rising Promos (PZNR)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Cleansing Wildfire MTG card by a specific set like Zendikar Rising, 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 Cleansing Wildfire and other MTG cards:

Continue exploring other sealed products in Amazon
See Magic products

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Cleansing Wildfire has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2020-09-25 If the target land is an illegal target by the time Cleansing Wildfire tries to resolve, the spell doesn’t resolve. No player searches for a basic land card and you don’t draw a card. If the target is legal but not destroyed (most likely because it has indestructible), its controller does search for a basic land card and you do draw a card.

Recent MTG decks

Continue exploring other format decks
More decks