Psychic Puppetry MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Instant — Arcane |
| Abilities | Splice |
| Released | 2004-10-01 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Champions of Kamigawa |
| Set code | CHK |
| Number | 80 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Joel Thomas |
Key Takeaways
- Untapping permanents with Psychic Puppetry can lead to more card draws and a stronger hand.
- Instant speed use enables unexpected playmaking, boosting in-game strategic depth.
- Arcane spell synergy enhances Psychic Puppetry’s integration in specific MTG deck strategies.
Text of card
Tap or untap target permanent. Splice onto Arcane (As you play an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Psychic Puppetry can effectively untap a key permanent. This action can lead to drawing additional cards, especially when combined with permanents that have tap abilities to draw cards, subtly increasing your card advantage.
Resource Acceleration: By untapping a land or a mana-producing artifact, Psychic Puppetry helps in resource acceleration. This can be essential for progressing your board state faster, allowing you to deploy bigger threats or answers ahead of schedule.
Instant Speed: The ability to cast Psychic Puppetry at instant speed provides flexibility, enabling strategic plays during critical phases of the game. It allows you to surprise an opponent by liberating resources or benefiting from newly untapped permanents unexpectedly.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: The complexity of integrating the card into a deck due to the necessity of having arcane spells to capitalize fully on its untapping abilities. This specificity can be restrictive when considering deck space and consistency.
Specific Mana Cost: Psychic Puppetry requires both blue mana and another colourless mana. This specific demand for blue mana can potentially limit its inclusion to decks that run blue or have a mana base that can reliably produce blue mana.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Though the card itself is not expensive at two mana, the overall mana cost to achieve a combo can be high since it requires you to first play another arcane spell. This means that to get the full effect, you often need a significant amount of mana available in a single turn, which can be resource-intensive compared to other untap options available.
Reasons to Include Psychic Puppetry in Your Collection
Versatility: Psychic Puppetry is a card that has found a home in various deck archetypes due to its flexible tap or untap ability. This utility can be crucial for controlling opponents’ threats or maximizing your own resource efficiency.
Combo Potential: With the arcane mechanic, this instant can easily be spliced onto other spells, allowing for intricate combos in decks focusing on spell synergies. Its interactions with permanents that untap lands or produce additional effects when casting spells are particularly potent.
Meta-Relevance: In metagames where instant-speed interaction is pivotal, Psychic Puppetry shines by disrupting opponents or unexpectedly enabling your own combinations. It’s especially relevant in formats that favor long, drawn-out games where every incremental advantage counts.
How to Beat
Psychic Puppetry is unique within the vast array of spells at a Magic: The Gathering player’s disposal. This arcane spell from the Kamigawa block functions by tapping or untapping a permanent which can subtly dismantle an opponent’s strategy or fortify your own position. The key to playing against Psychic Puppetry, therefore, is strategic foresight. It’s crucial to anticipate the tap or untap potential of this card and counter it effectively.
Control cards that prohibit spell casting or special abilities can contain the threat posed by Psychic Puppetry. Hold up counterspells like Cancel or Mana Leak during essential parts of your opponent’s turn when they might aim to utilize Psychic Puppetry’s capabilities. Additionally, since the card is often used in combo decks, hand disruption techniques can be incredibly effective. Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek enables you to remove Psychic Puppetry from your opponent’s hand before it can become a problem, thus preventing their planned synergies.
In essence, beating Psychic Puppetry comes down to preparedness and disruption. Through these strategies, you can mitigate the advantages it provides and maintain the upper hand in your Magic: The Gathering encounters.
Cards like Psychic Puppetry
Psychic Puppetry is an intricate spell in the realm of Magic: The Gathering, offering a unique tap or untap ability. Its closest relatives are cards like Twiddle, which shares the basic function of targeting a single permanent to tap or untap. However, where Psychic Puppetry stands out is in its Splice onto Arcane feature, allowing for a clandestine addition to other arcane spells you’re casting, thus providing potential for unexpected plays without using additional cards from your hand.
Gigadrowse is another comparable card, giving players the power to replicate the spell for each additional mana paid, potentially tapping multiple targets. Though Gigadrowse lacks the Splice mechanic, it compensates with its flexibility and scalability. Then there’s Dream’s Grip, which also performs a similar task as these cards but boasts the Entwine mechanic, permitting both tapping and untapping in one swoop if the mana cost is paid.
Considering the nuances of playstyle and deck synergy in Magic: The Gathering, Psychic Puppetry can be a clever inclusion in decks seeking to exploit arcane synergies or those setting up combo plays, holding its own among the subtle tactics of tapping and untapping cards.
Cards similar to Psychic Puppetry by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Psychic Puppetry MTG card by a specific set like Champions of Kamigawa, 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 Psychic Puppetry 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 Psychic Puppetry has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Psychic Puppetry card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2013-06-07 | A card with a splice ability can’t be spliced onto itself because the spell is on the stack (and not in your hand) when you reveal the cards you want to splice onto it. |
| 2013-06-07 | If all of the spell’s targets are illegal when the spell tries to resolve, it won’t resolve and none of its effects will happen. |
| 2013-06-07 | You choose all targets for the spell after revealing cards you want to splice, including any targets required by the text of any of those cards. You may choose a different target for each instance of the word “target” on the resulting spell. |
| 2013-06-07 | You reveal all cards you intend to splice at the same time. Each individual card can be spliced only once onto any one spell. |
