Meteor Shower MTG Card
1995-06-03 - Number 202
2008-09-22 - Number 135
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 1 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Sorcery |
Key Takeaways
- Meteor Shower can efficiently deal with several creatures, tipping the game balance in your favor.
- The instant-speed play offers strategic advantage for disrupting opponents unexpectedly.
- While powerful, Meteor Shower’s discard and specific mana cost can limit its use in some decks.
Text of card
Meteor Shower deals X+1 damage divided any way you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players.
"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe . . . oh, why not all of them?" —Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Meteor Shower can potentially remove multiple creatures or threats at once. This card can turn the tide of a game by efficiently dealing with several low-toughness creatures, giving you a substantial edge on the battlefield.
Resource Acceleration: While Meteor Shower itself doesn’t directly accelerate resources, its scalability means you can utilize excess mana efficiently. This enables you to maximize your mana each turn, thereby indirectly contributing to resource optimization over the course of a match.
Instant Speed: The versatility of being an instant cannot be overstated. Meteor Shower’s instant speed allows for strategic plays during an opponent’s turn or in response to an action, maintaining the element of surprise and providing the capability to disrupt your opponent’s strategy when they least expect it.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: One of the hurdles when deploying Meteor Shower is the necessity to forfeit a card from your hand. This can severely impact your game strategy, especially during tight scenarios where every card in hand counts.
Specific Mana Cost: The casting cost for Meteor Shower involves specific mana types, which may not align with every deck archetype. The need for red mana can pose a deck building challenge, limiting the card’s versatility across various strategies.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost that rests on the higher spectrum for its effect, Meteor Shower may not be the most mana-efficient choice. Players often seek spells that maximize impact for a lower mana investment, providing more flexibility in responding to an opponent’s actions.
Reasons to Include Meteor Shower in Your Collection
Versatility: Meteor Shower offers a unique flexibility as it scales with the game, allowing you to remove multiple threats or target a single problematic creature later on. Whether you’re playing casual kitchen table magic or aiming for high stakes competition, its adaptability makes it a valuable asset to have on hand.
Combo Potential: This card’s ability to distribute damage as you choose opens up various synergistic possibilities. It pairs well with damage doublers or effects that trigger upon damage dealt, thus providing an avenue for strategic plays that can turn the tide of the game in your favor.
Meta-Relevance: Given its scalable damage capability, Meteor Shower suits various metagames, as it can adjust to the power level of opponents’ creatures. In creature-heavy or token-laden environments, being able to address several threats at once can be particularly impactful, making Meteor Shower a prudent choice for your arsenal.
How to beat Meteor Shower
Meteor Shower is an intriguing card in Magic the Gathering, offering a potential for dealing a significant amount of damage across multiple targets. However, the card’s effectiveness is contingent on having a high land count, which becomes the key to countering it. The best strategy to overcome Meteor Shower is by controlling the battlefield with spells and abilities that limit your opponent’s land retrieval or accelerates your own board presence.
Consider incorporating cards that disrupt land-based strategies such as land destruction or counterspells that specifically target noncreature spells. Cards with the landwalk ability can also provide an advantageous position, as they often remain unblockable as long as your opponent controls a land of the specified type. Moreover, instant-speed removal or damage prevention spells can be pivotal when timing is crucial to survive a Meteor Shower’s impact. Proactively managing the board and maintaining a steady pace can mitigate the effectiveness of your opponent’s Meteor Shower.
Ultimately, the key resides in maintaining versatility within your deck to adapt to various threats, including Meteor Shower. By ensuring a robust defense and flexible offense, this powerful card can be neutralized, allowing you to gain the upper hand in your Magic the Gathering matches.
Cards like Meteor Shower
Meteor Shower is an intriguing addition to direct damage spells in Magic: The Gathering. It draws a parallel with cards like Rolling Thunder, a spell which also allows players to divide multiple points of damage among any number of targets. Meteor Shower distinguishes itself with the unique element of scaling the damage with the number of lands you control. Conversely, Rolling Thunder adjusts its power based on the mana you’re willing to spend at the moment of casting.
In a similar category, we observe Volcanic Geyser, which provides flexibility in its mana sink capability, allowing a player to inflict damage equivalent to the mana invested. However, unlike Meteor Shower, which increases its potential as the game progresses, Volcanic Geyser’s impact is restricted to the mana available at the time of casting. Then there’s Fireball, another direct damage staple. Fireball offers a scalable threat but requires an additional mana for each target beyond the first, making it less efficient in handling multiple threats simultaneously compared to the proportional growth of Meteor Shower.
Ultimately, when we evaluate the tactical advantages and long-term potential damage output, Meteor Shower emerges as a strategic tool in Magic: The Gathering, especially in decks that prioritize land ramping and late-game board control.
Cards similar to Meteor Shower by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Meteor Shower MTG card by a specific set like Ice Age and Masters Edition II, 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 Meteor Shower 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 Magic products
Printings
The Meteor Shower Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1995-06-03 and 2008-09-22. Illustrated by Rick Emond.
| # | Release | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1995-06-03 | Ice Age | ICE | 202 | 1993 | normal | black | Rick Emond | |
| 2 | 2008-09-22 | Masters Edition II | ME2 | 135 | 1997 | normal | black | Rick Emond |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Meteor Shower has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Premodern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Meteor Shower card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2004-10-04 | You can’t choose to do fractional damage to a target. |
| 2008-10-01 | A tip on how this math works: To deal a total of 1 damage, X is 0. The cost is + + = . To deal a total of 2 damage, X is 1. The cost is + + = . To deal a total of 3 damage, X is 2. The cost is + + = . And so on. |
| 2008-10-01 | You divide the damage as you cast Meteor Shower, not as it resolves. Each target must be assigned at least 1 damage. |
