There Is No Refuge MTG Card
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Scheme |
| Released | 2017-06-16 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Schemes |
| Set code | OE01 |
| Number | 17★ |
| Frame | 2015 |
| Layout | Scheme |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Tomasz Jedruszek |
Key Takeaways
- There Is No Refuge offers life stabilization with each creature played, countering aggressive decks effectively.
- Enchantment requires discarding for activation, challenging to utilize with a limited hand.
- Strategically valuable, it’s a combo enabler and a staple against creature-dense metagames.
Text of card
When you set this scheme in motion, it deals 3 damage to up to one target creature. Create a 3/3 black Horror creature token.
"The dunes smell spilled blood."
Card Pros
Card Advantage: There Is No Refuge provides an avenue to regain life whenever you play a creature card. Every creature you summon translates not only to a presence on the battlefield but also helps stabilize your life total against aggressive strategies.
Resource Acceleration: The enchantment might not create physical resources, but it accelerates your game plan by enhancing the value of each creature you deploy. This incremental gain in life can be a resource in itself, giving you extra turns against damage-dealing opponents and making your creatures more effective during each of those turns.
Instant Speed: Although There Is No Refuge is not an instant itself, it blends seamlessly with instant-speed spells in your arsenal. By offsetting some of the life spent on instant-speed interactions, Whether you’re casting creatures with flash or activating abilities in response to your opponent’s moves, you’ll find that this card reinforces your strategy by cushioning your life total in the immediate exchange.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: There Is No Refuge mandates that you discard a card to activate its abilities, posing a challenge when your hand is already sparse.
Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise mana combination to be played, making it more challenging to integrate into decks that don’t primarily run blue and green mana sources.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring a total of four mana points to cast, There Is No Refuge stands at a higher bracket in terms of cost efficiency, especially when measured against other options in the same mana range that might offer better versatility or immediate board presence.
Reasons to Include in Your Collection
Versatility: There Is No Refuge offers excellent flexibility as it can serve multiple roles in a deck. It functions as both creature deterrent and life-gain mechanism, making it a valuable asset in strategies that need to stabilize against aggressive opponents while building towards their win condition.
Combo Potential: The enchantment synergizes well with decks that focus on triggering life gain effects or punishing opponents for casting spells. This card can be a linchpin in a combo that tips the scales in your favor with each spell your opponent casts.
Meta-Relevance: In a playing environment where creature-based strategies are prevalent, There Is No Refuge has a place as an effective tool in a control player’s arsenal. Its ability to consistently gain life can be essential in grinding out matches and maintaining an edge over creature-heavy decks.
How to Beat
There Is No Refuge is a unique instance in MTG where defense becomes pivotal in an offensive strategy. This card bolsters your creatures as they attack, granting them a temporary shield with its lifelink attribute, thereby complicating direct confrontation tactics. To counter this, consider emphasizing removal spells that can target creatures before they declare an attack. Cards like Fatal Push or Path to Exile can efficiently deal with potential threats preemptively, thereby nullifying the advantage provided by There Is No Refuge.
An alternative strategy is to focus on effects that restrict your opponent’s ability to declare attackers. Enchantments like Ghostly Prison force your opponent to pay mana for each attacker, potentially limiting the number of threats that can benefit from There Is No Refuge. Additionally, playing sweepers such as Wrath of God can reset the board, removing all creature-based advantages from the equation.
Ultimately, confronting a card like There Is No Refuge requires a blend of foresight and control. By managing threats before they can exploit the card’s benefits or by employing tactics that invalidate the advantage of attacking, players can preserve their life total and maintain board stability.
Cards like There Is No Refuge
There Is No Refuge is an intriguing enchantment spell in Magic: The Gathering that offers a unique blend of life gain and damage to opponents. When analyzing its attributes, one may draw parallels to cards like Exquisite Blood, which also provides a beneficial life swing mechanism. However, There Is No Refuge stands distinct with its potential to deliver damage each turn.
Comparably, Sanguine Bond offers a similar strategy but focuses more on amplifying the life draining aspect by inflicting damage equivalent to the amount of life you’ve gained. While it doesn’t deal automatic damage per turn, it can lead to explosive turns in the right deck. Meanwhile, Retreat to Hagra provides a versatile choice with its landfall trigger causing opponents to lose life while you gain life, albeit with a less consistent impact than the sustained pressure from There Is No Refuge.
In essence, while each card in this comparison fosters a strategy focused around life totals, There Is No Refuge garners attention for its capacity to chip away at an opponent’s life consistently, rounding out a deck that leans into incremental advantages and constant pressure.
Cards similar to There Is No Refuge by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase There Is No Refuge MTG card by a specific set like Archenemy: Nicol Bolas Schemes, 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 There Is No Refuge 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
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering There Is No Refuge card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2017-06-13 | If you choose a target creature and it becomes an illegal target by the time this scheme’s triggered ability would resolve, the entire ability doesn’t resolve. You won’t create a Horror token. |
| 2017-06-13 | The effects of this scheme’s triggered ability in multiples within the same turn are cumulative. It’s also cumulative with other effects that let you play additional lands, such as that of Explore. |
| 2017-06-13 | This scheme’s effect allows you to play an additional land during your main phase. Doing so follows the normal timing rules for playing lands. |
| 2017-06-13 | You can choose to target zero creatures. If you do, you’ll still create the Horror token. |
