Reverse the Sands MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost8
RarityRare
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Provides card advantage by facilitating life-based strategies and interactions in MTG.
  2. Allows instant speed play, creating unexpected game states during critical phases.
  3. Demands specific mana cost, posing a challenge for resource management within MTG decks.

Text of card

Redistribute any number of players' life totals. (Each of those players gets one life total back.)

Worse than the years of aging was the burden of memory. The young monk lost his youth and gained a vicarious lifetime of hardship and woe.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Reverse the Sands shines in scenarios where you can manipulate life totals to gain a significant advantage. By resetting your life total higher, you maintain your staying power and potentially access card effects that are contingent on higher life totals.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly acting as resource acceleration, Reverse the Sands can be a strategic pivot in games where life can be traded for other resources. Swapping a high life total for a more advantageous board state can indirectly lead to accelerated gains in other areas.

Instant Speed: Its ability to disrupt at instant speed offers a pivotal switch in fortunes during crucial phases of play. Casting this during an opponent’s turn can unexpectedly upset their combat calculations or combined with other cards, it can create favorable exchanges out of seemingly desperate situations.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Reverse the Sands offers a unique and potentially game-changing effect, it does so at the cost of a specific mana combination. This requirement can be particularly challenging in multi-colored decks or situations where mana generation is inconsistent.

Specific Mana Cost: The card demands a precise mana blend, including two white and six additional mana of any color, which can be restrictive. Decks that struggle to produce a reliable mana base may find including and casting this spell impractical during critical game turns.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The card’s power to reset life totals comes with a steep price. With an eight-mana total cost, players might find that during the early and mid-game, investing resources into playing Reverse the Sands competes with establishing board presence or responding to opponents’ threats, potentially putting them at a strategic disadvantage.


Reasons to Include Reverse the Sands in Your Collection

Versatility: Reverse the Sands stands out for its unique ability to completely turn the tides of a game, making it a worthy inclusion in a diversity of life gain or life manipulation themed decks.

Combo Potential: This card can be a key component in combo strategies, significantly altering life totals to either secure a win with cards like “Near-Death Experience” or set up for a massive “Aetherflux Reservoir” discharge.

Meta-Relevance: In a format where aggressive strategies are prevalent, Reverse the Sands can serve as a powerful countermeasure, replenishing your life pool and depleting your opponent’s in one fell swoop, potentially disrupting their game plan.


How to beat

Reverse the Sands, a unique sorcery from Magic the Gathering, presents players with a strategic challenge. It allows a complete redistribution of life totals among players and creatures, turning the tides of battle in an instant. To effectively counter this card, it’s critical to maintain control of the board state and keep pressure on your opponent. Being aware of the mana necessary to cast Reverse the Sands is also crucial, as it requires a considerable investment of eight mana, including two white.

Preparation is key; having a counterspell ready or cards that prevent life total changes can nullify the effect. Additionally, strategies revolving around life gain can indirectly dilute Reverse the Sands’ impact. Ensure you have a diverse array of plays to recover or finish off an opponent before they can leverage their life total as a resource. Ultimately, staying alert and adaptable when Reverse the Sands is a potential threat can lead to a successfully mitigated situation, allowing you to retain the upper hand in your MTG matches.


Cards like Reverse the Sands

Within the dynamic strategic landscape of Magic: The Gathering, Reverse the Sands stands out with its unique ability to shuffle life totals, creating sudden and dramatic shifts in the tides of battle. A card with a similar utility is Axis of Mortality, which also enables players to exchange life totals, but it does so at the beginning of their upkeep, providing a predictable and recurrent effect that can be planned for accordingly.

Another member of this niche is Soul Conduit, which offers a similar life swapping effect, but it requires six mana to activate and doesn’t reset life totals, merely exchanges them as they are. This differs from Reverse the Sands, which allows players to redistribute life points among players as they see fit, offering a higher degree of control.

When comparing these cards, it’s clear Reverse the Sands holds a unique position, with the flexibility to recalibrate the game’s state in a way that can be tailored to the current board, providing life total manipulation that can act as either a surprise element or a calculated move to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

Axis of Mortality - MTG Card versions
Soul Conduit - MTG Card versions
Axis of Mortality - Ixalan (XLN)
Soul Conduit - New Phyrexia (NPH)

Cards similar to Reverse the Sands by color, type and mana cost

Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins - MTG Card versions
Vanquish the Horde - MTG Card versions
Invincible Hymn - MTG Card versions
Archangel's Light - MTG Card versions
Play of the Game - MTG Card versions
Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins - From Cute to Brute (PCTB)
Vanquish the Horde - Innistrad: Double Feature (DBL)
Invincible Hymn - Shards of Alara (ALA)
Archangel's Light - Dark Ascension (DKA)
Play of the Game - Battlebond (BBD)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Reverse the Sands MTG card by a specific set like Champions of Kamigawa and Commander 2016, 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 Reverse the Sands and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Reverse the Sands Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2004-10-01 and 2016-11-11. Illustrated by Jeremy Jarvis.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12004-10-01Champions of KamigawaCHK 412003normalblackJeremy Jarvis
22016-11-11Commander 2016C16 752015normalblackJeremy Jarvis

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Reverse the Sands has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2004-12-01 You can’t split up a life total when you redistribute it. For example, suppose that in a two-player game your life total is 5 and your opponent’s life total is 15 when Reverse the Sands starts to resolve. You can choose to (a) leave the life totals as they are or (b) make your life total 15 and your opponent’s 5. You can’t choose to make your life total 20 and your opponent’s 0.
2004-12-01 You choose which player gets which life total when the spell resolves.

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