Soul Bleed MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Enchantment — Aura
Abilities	Enchant
Released	2009-07-17
Set symbol
Set name	Magic 2010
Set code	M10
Number	113
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Key Takeaways

Generates card advantage by depleting opponents’ resources while advancing your position.
Offers strategic flexibility with its instant speed, adapting to in-game changes.
Deters opponents with its persistent life-draining effect, disrupting common strategies.

Text of card

Enchant creature At the beginning of the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, that player loses 1 life.

Whether the end comes swift or slow, it always comes too soon.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Soul Bleed provides a consistent means of depleting the opponent’s resources while replenishing your own. Through each trigger, this card potentially draws you closer to game-winning spells while disrupting your adversary’s plan.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana, Soul Bleed can rapidly escalate the pressure on your opponent, indirectly leading to an accumulation of advantages that can be converted into further resources or decisive plays.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Soul Bleed at instant speed offers tactical flexibility, enabling play on the opponent’s turn or in response to their actions. This ensures that your strategy adapts fluidly in the ever-changing landscape of a game.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: In order to cast Soul Bleed, players must meet its discard requirement, potentially leading to a loss of valuable cards in hand which can be particularly detrimental in tight gameplay situations.

Specific Mana Cost: Soul Bleed commands a very distinct mana cost that necessitates black mana. This can be restrictive, as not all MTG deck structures may accommodate this requirement, thus reducing its ubiquity across various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When examining its casting cost in comparison to other spells within the game, Soul Bleed might be seen as having a rather high investment for the effect it offers. Players might find alternative cards that achieve similar effects or provide greater flexibility at a lower mana cost.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Soul Bleed can be a flexible choice for black-themed decks that benefit from constant life drain effects. It works well in both aggressive and control strategies, chipping away at your opponent’s life total turn after turn.

Combo Potential: This enchantment pairs well with cards that incentivize life loss or that react to triggered abilities, amplifying your offensive capabilities and creating daunting scenarios for your opponents.

Meta-Relevance: Given that many popular MTG decks often have a plan to gain life or outlast opponents, including Soul Bleed in your deck adds a passive but persistent threat that can disrupt such strategies and keep the pressure on your adversaries.

How to Beat Soul Bleed

Soul Bleed is a unique enchantment that can alter the dynamics of an MTG game, imposing a drain life effect on your opponent’s creatures. To navigate around this card, understanding its mechanism is vital. It triggers its life loss ability only when a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, making timing your creature plays crucial.

Counterplay focuses on either removing the enchantment directly through disenchantment effects, adapting with non-creature spells or utilizing creatures with enter-the-battlefield (ETB) effects that offer value despite the life loss. Consider leveraging cards like Naturalize or cards with exile effects to eliminate the threat without triggering its effect. Always be ready with instant-speed interaction to tackle Soul Bleed as soon as it hits the board, minimizing its impact on your strategy.

Ultimately, the key to beating Soul Bleed is bypassing its passive damage through smart play, strategic creature deployment, and having enchantment removal at hand. This will allow you to maintain control of the board and secure your life total while dampening the effectiveness of your opponent’s Soul Bleed.

Cards like Soul Bleed

Within the diverse array of black enchantments in Magic: The Gathering, Soul Bleed offers an intriguing mechanism for passive damage. It is akin to cards like Exquisite Blood that capitalize on life gain and loss, though Soul Bleed specifically triggers its effect when an opponent’s creature dies. This creates a reliable source of life drain, maintaining pressure on the opponent.

Alongside Soul Bleed, there’s the formidable Blood Artist, which has a similar death-triggered ability. While Blood Artist targets a single player, Soul Bleed delivers consistent life loss across the board, harnessing the potential for multiplayer format strategies. Another comparable card, Zulaport Cutthroat, also thrives on the death of creatures, yet it is limited by requiring the creatures to be under your control, unlike the broad reach of Soul Bleed.

Essentially, Soul Bleed holds its ground among other self-synergizing black cards. By examining its counterparts, it’s clear that while there are other options available, Soul Bleed’s unique appeal lies in its ability to affect all opponents, proving its usefulness in games with more players and reinforcing its standing in the pantheon of passive damage enchantments in Magic: The Gathering.

Cards similar to Soul Bleed by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Soul Bleed MTG card by a specific set like Magic 2010, 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 Soul Bleed and other MTG cards: