Ill-Gotten Gains MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost4
RarityRare
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Recovers key cards, offering a chance to execute game-altering strategies with graveyard resources.
  2. Deck-building constraints arise from specific mana requirements and potential self-sabotage.
  3. Its unique symmetric effect adds layers of complexity, suited for advanced graveyard strategies.

Text of card

Remove Ill-Gotten Gains from the game. All players discard their hands, then each player puts up to three cards from his or her graveyard into his or her hand.

Urza thought it a crusade. Xantcha knew it was a robbery.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Ill-Gotten Gains provides a unique form of card advantage by allowing players to recover key cards from their graveyard. This enables a player to strategically reclaim spells that will help regain or further fortify their position in the match.

Resource Acceleration: While Ill-Gotten Gains itself does not directly generate resources, it indirectly leads to resource acceleration by allowing the recasting of cards that may accelerate mana or provide other valuable assets critical for outpacing opponents.

Instant Speed: Ill-Gotten Gains operates at sorcery speed, yet its effect can set the stage for instant speed interactions on future turns. By recouping instant speed spells from the graveyard, it strategically prepares a player for responsive play and potential game-winning interruptions.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One of Ill-Gotten Gains’ drawbacks lies in its symmetrical effect that forces each player to discard their hand. This condition can backfire, especially if your opponent can benefit from a graveyard strategy or if you’re inadvertently providing them with a fresh set of cards.

Specific Mana Cost: The casting cost requires three black mana, making it less flexible. It locks you into a heavily black-influenced mana base, which can restrict deck-building options, especially in multicolor scenarios.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost set at four mana, Ill-Gotten Gains asks for a significant investment for an effect that might not always be favorable, considering the current pool of cards in play. This makes it less appealing in environments where tempo and resource efficiency are crucial.


Reasons to Include Ill-Gotten Gains in Your Collection

Versatility: This powerful spell offers strategic flexibility across a variety of decks that capitalize on recursion and hand disruption. Ill-Gotten Gains can refill your hand while disrupting opponents’ carefully curated hands, working well in environments where timing and resource management are key.

Combo Potential: The card is notorious for its ability to enable combo finishes. Used alongside effects that negate the downside for you or amplify the pain for your opponents, it can create game-winning scenarios, especially in the right context of graveyard-based strategies or when paired with a well-timed discard effect.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta filled with graveyard synergy or where players often find themselves with depleted hands, Ill-Gotten Gains can turn the tide of the game. Its ability to disrupt and provide card advantage can be particularly potent against control decks that rely on maintaining specific answers to your threats.


How to beat

Confronting Ill-Gotten Gains on the battlefield is a unique challenge in Magic: The Gathering. This card requires careful strategy to counteract its ability to disrupt the state of play by forcing both players to discard their hands and reclaim only up to three cards from their graveyard. A key strategy to overcoming Ill-Gotten Gains is to minimize the value it can provide to your opponent. As it exiles itself upon resolution, graveyard interaction becomes limited, pushing players to maximize the utility of the cards they choose to retrieve.

To effectively counter Ill-Gotten Gains, consider employing graveyard hate cards to remove key pieces before your opponent has the chance to recover them. Leyline of the Void, for instance, can be a debilitating foil to your opponent’s plans, as it ensures that any card sent to the graveyard is exiled instead. Similarly, playing cards with flashback or other alternative casting methods from the graveyard can ensure that you maintain momentum no matter which cards you’re forced to discard. By limiting your opponent’s choices and maintaining a flexible game plan, you can turn the tide against Ill-Gotten Gains, making it more of a nuisance than a decisive advantage for your opponent.


Cards like Ill-Gotten Gains

Ill-Gotten Gains from Magic: The Gathering is an intriguing card that offers an overwhelming advantage if played strategically. Comparable to other cards that allow players to reclaim spells from the graveyard such as Yawgmoth’s Will, Ill-Gotten Gains is distinct due to its symmetric effect, allowing all players to benefit from returned cards. While Yawgmoth’s Will is a one-sided affair, giving a single player a massive lead, Ill-Gotten Gains requires more nuanced plays, often factoring in opponents’ graveyards.

Likewise, Exhume stands out as another card that presents a balanced exchange by allowing each player to return a creature from their graveyard to the battlefield. Exhume is cheaper and more targeted, focusing solely on creatures. This makes Ill-Gotten Gains a broader option but potentially riskier if the opponents have a graveyard stocked with answers or threats. In addition, cards like Day’s Undoing end the turn as part of its effect, acting as a reset button that shuffles hands and graveyards into libraries, whereas Ill-Gotten Gains allows the game to continue, setting up for potent follow-up plays.

Comparing these options shows the versatile nature of graveyard interaction in Magic: The Gathering. Ill-Gotten Gains earns its place as a powerful card for those players willing to navigate the potential pitfalls of its symmetrical effect.

Yawgmoth's Will - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Day's Undoing - MTG Card versions
Yawgmoth's Will - Urza's Saga (USG)
Exhume - Urza's Saga (USG)
Day's Undoing - Magic Origins (ORI)

Cards similar to Ill-Gotten Gains by color, type and mana cost

Stench of Evil - MTG Card versions
Mind Warp - MTG Card versions
Fatal Lore - MTG Card versions
Final Strike - MTG Card versions
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Stench of Evil - Ice Age (ICE)
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Befoul - Seventh Edition (7ED)
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Cranial Extraction - Champions of Kamigawa (CHK)
Devouring Greed - Modern Masters 2015 (MM2)
Diabolic Tutor - Secret Lair Drop (SLD)
Aphetto Dredging - Premium Deck Series: Slivers (H09)
Dread Return - Commander Masters (CMM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Ill-Gotten Gains MTG card by a specific set like Urza's Saga and Conspiracy, 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 Ill-Gotten Gains and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Ill-Gotten Gains Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1998-10-12 and 2014-06-06. Illustrated by Greg Staples.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11998-10-12Urza's SagaUSG 1381997normalblackGreg Staples
22014-06-06ConspiracyCNS 1142003normalblackGreg Staples

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Ill-Gotten Gains has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2004-10-04 Players can get fewer than 3 cards if they want.

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