Words of Wind MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Rare
Type	Enchantment
Released	2002-10-07
Set symbol
Set name	Onslaught
Set code	ONS
Number	122
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Eric Peterson

Key Takeaways

Allows controlled bouncing of permanents, disrupting opponents while strategizing future plays.
A versatile card, fitting into multiple decks and enabling creative play through permanent bouncing.
Demands careful resource management due to its discard and mana requirements for activation.

Text of card

o1: The next time you would draw a card this turn, each player returns a permanent he or she controls to its owner's hand instead.

"Be logical in all things. Do not allow instinct or passion to cloud your mind." —*Volume II, The Book of Insight*

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Words of Wind offers a unique form of card advantage, providing players the power to send their own or opponents’ nonland permanents back to their owners’ hands. Done effectively, it can disrupt your opponent’s board while setting up your next strategic move.

Resource Acceleration: By bouncing your own permanents with beneficial enter-the-battlefield triggers, Words of Wind can be leveraged to reuse these effects, granting you additional value and the possibility for resource acceleration.

Instant Speed: The ability to activate Words of Wind at instant speed ensures that you maintain full control over the timing of its effect. You can decide when to cause the bounce, potentially during your opponent’s turn to thwart their plans or in response to an unfavorable move.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: One notable downside to Words of Wind is the necessity to discard another card to trigger its effect. This requirement can be particularly taxing when your hand is running low, forcing you to make tough decisions about resource management.

Specific Mana Cost: In order to utilize Words of Wind, players need access to both blue mana and generic mana, making it somewhat inflexible. This can pose a challenge in multicolored decks that may not always have the required blue mana at the ready.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a mana cost to cast and an additional activation fee, Words of Wind can be considered mana intensive. In a game where tempo is crucial, investing that much mana into a single turn’s play might set you back, especially when there are lower-cost alternatives for managing the battlefield.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Words of Wind offers a unique flexibility in various deck archetypes. It allows players to consistently return permanents to their hands, thereby providing a tool for resource management and board control.

Combo Potential: This card has significant synergy with strategies that exploit the act of bouncing objects to hand. Players can devise creative combinations to clear the board or benefit from repeatedly casting the same spells.

Meta-Relevance: In metagames where grinding out advantages is key, Words of Wind can disrupt opponents’ board presence. With proper timing, this can translate to unmatched tempo gains in games that require strategic permanents deployment.

How to beat

Words of Wind is a unique blue enchantment card in Magic the Gathering that can provide a strategic advantage by implementing a bounce effect to disrupt your opponent’s board state. Understanding its mechanism is crucial to countering it effectively. Unlike straightforward removal spells, Words of Wind requires a player to pay an additional one blue mana and return a permanent they control to their hand to replace their next draw. This allows them to bounce an opponent’s, or their own, permanent back to hand.

To effectively counter this card, it’s essential to limit its activation by restricting the player’s mana or hand size. Counterspells like Negate or Dispel can prevent Words of Wind from hitting the battlefield in the first place. Alternatively, applying pressure through aggressive strategies can prevent the opponent from settling into a position where they can leverage Words of Wind effectively.

Additionally, employing cards that punish returning permanents to the hand or cards that benefit from being bounced can turn the table on the Words of Wind’s controller. It’s all about timing, strategic play, and understanding when to commit resources or hold back to anticipate and dismantle the enchantment’s impact on the game.

Cards like Words of Wind

Words of Wind is an intriguing option for players looking to bounce cards back to hands within Magic: The Gathering. This blue enchantment card shares its fundamental effect with well-known cards like Capsize. While Capsize allows targeted bouncing at instant speed with its buyback ability, Words of Wind provides a potentially more expansive impact by replacing card draws to return each player’s own cards to their hands.

In a similar strategy, Evacuation offers a mass bounce effect, but unlike Words of Wind, it is a spell that affects all creatures on the battlefield in one swoop, yet it doesn’t allow for the selective and repetitive control that Words of Wind may offer during each draw. Cyclonic Rift also joins this comparison, which can be overloaded to clear opponents’ boards while leaving your own board state untouched, albeit at a much higher mana cost than the Words of Wind’s activation.

Measuring against its counterparts, Words of Wind can set up unique board states, reducing opponents’ resources while carefully curating your own. Its intricate gameplay can pivot the direction of a match, elevating it to a distinctive choice among its bounce mechanic peers in the game.

Cards similar to Words of Wind by color, type and mana cost

Threads of Disloyalty - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Words of Wind MTG card by a specific set like Onslaught, 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 Words of Wind and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Words of Wind has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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