Hideous Visage MTG Card


Hideous Visage - Magic 2012
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery
Released2011-07-15
Set symbol
Set nameMagic 2012
Set codeM12
Number100
Frame2003
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byNils Hamm

Key Takeaways

  1. Grants creatures unblockable status by opponents’ nonblack creatures, leveraging aggressive strategies.
  2. Combos well with on-hit effects, enhancing its value in assault-based decks.
  3. Requires a balance in deck building to mitigate its particular mana and discard costs.

Text of card

Creatures you control gain intimidate until end of turn. (Each of those creatures can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)

"Seeing you cower before me is its own reward."


Card Pros

Card Advantage: As a sorcery that can potentially affect multiple creatures, Hideous Visage gives you the leverage to swing the game’s momentum in your favor. When you play Hideous Visage, you’re setting up for an aggressive board state where your entire team becomes harder to block due to fear, potentially resulting in successful attacks that can diminish your opponent’s life points significantly.

Resource Acceleration: Although Hideous Visage itself does not directly accelerate your resources, the ability to get your creatures through the opponent’s defenses can indirectly result in resource gain. By potentially clearing the way for attack, you might benefit from cards or abilities that trigger upon dealing combat damage to a player, leading to an increase in your available resources or a depletion of the opponent’s.

Instant Speed: While Hideous Visage operates at sorcery speed, its strategic implementation can be as crucial and impactful as an instant speed card. By timing Hideous Visage cleverly with other spells in your arsenal, you can create game states in which your opponents are pressured to react inefficiently, inadvertently giving you the upper hand as if you had interacted at instant speed.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Hideous Visage demands players to discard a card to activate its potential, a hefty price that can set you back when your hand size is diminishing.

Specific Mana Cost: With its particular black mana requirement, this card can’t slip seamlessly into just any deck. It’s tethered to those that can produce the necessary swamp energy.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Requiring three mana to play, Hideous Visage may not be the most economical option for the effect it delivers, especially when alternative spells could provide a more cost-effective solution.


Reasons to Include Hideous Visage in Your Collection

Versatility: Hideous Visage seamlessly integrates into a multitude of deck strategies, primarily those that thrive on assertive, combat-focused tactics. Its ability to make creatures unblockable by opponents’ nonblack creatures allows for surprise endgame maneuvers or the preservation of key creatures in a critical turn.

Combo Potential: Harnessing its powers can lead to devastating combinations, particularly when paired with cards that benefit from successful combat damage to a player, such as enabling various on-hit effects, or supporting evasion-centric strategies that could swing the game’s momentum in your favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta where board presence and creature-heavy decks are prevalent, Hideous Visage can play a pivotal role in breaking through defenses. In a well-timed play, it could be the linchpin to outmaneuvering an opponent’s fortified board state, ensuring your creatures make their mark.


How to beat Hideous Visage

In the intricacies of Magic: The Gathering, understanding the nuances of each card is crucial for securing a win. Hideous Visage is a card that gives creatures you control Intimidate until end of turn, a trait that can be quite troublesome if you are unprepared. To counteract the impact of Hideous Visage, one strategy involves incorporating creatures in your deck that share a color with your opponent’s creatures, thereby nullifying the Intimidate ability as it only affects creatures of differing colors.

Additionally, cards that can remove creatures from the battlefield or neutralize their abilities until end of turn are effective counters—notably, instant removal spells that can interrupt the combat phase or board wipes that reset the playing field regardless of creature abilities. Your deck’s flexibility in managing both the stack and the battlefield is key. Cards such as Naturalize, Disenchant, or creature-based counters ensure that Hideous Visage’s effect won’t tilt the combat in your opponent’s favor.

Ultimately, tactical foresight and having a well-rounded deck with a balance of offensive and defensive spells will enhance your ability to thwart Hideous Visage and maintain control of the game.


Cards like Hideous Visage

Hideous Visage emerges as an intriguing option for Magic: The Gathering players looking to push their creatures through an opponent’s defenses. It shares a likeness with another powerful card, Goblin War Paint, which not only grants creatures the ability to become unblockable by creatures with power 2 or less but also a beneficial pump in power and toughness. While Goblin War Paint enhances a single creature, Hideous Visage scales this effect, applying it to all your creatures for a turn.

Delving deeper into cards with a similar scope, we encounter Intimidation, which grants your creatures the foreboding fear mechanic permanently, restricting blocks to black and artifact creatures only. This yields a lasting strategic advantage over Hideous Visage’s temporary effect but at an increased mana investment. Lastly, Falter is worth mentioning for its non-permanent nature akin to Hideous Visage, forbidding blocks for a single turn without targeting any specific creature size, offering a more flexible approach in certain combat scenarios.

In the realm of MTG cards focused on advancing offensive capabilities, Hideous Visage finds its niche through its sweeping, temporary evasion-granting ability, positioning it as an impactful choice for decks intent on seizing those critical, unobstructed attacks.

Goblin War Paint - MTG Card versions
Intimidation - MTG Card versions
Falter - MTG Card versions
Goblin War Paint - Zendikar (ZEN)
Intimidation - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Falter - Urza's Saga (USG)

Cards similar to Hideous Visage by color, type and mana cost

Darkpact - MTG Card versions
Demonic Attorney - MTG Card versions
Jovial Evil - MTG Card versions
Infernal Contract - MTG Card versions
Touch of Death - MTG Card versions
Wicked Pact - MTG Card versions
Nature's Ruin - MTG Card versions
Buried Alive - MTG Card versions
Choking Sands - MTG Card versions
Brush with Death - MTG Card versions
Coercion - MTG Card versions
Hand of Death - MTG Card versions
Grim Tutor - MTG Card versions
Forced March - MTG Card versions
Stupor - MTG Card versions
Soul Burn - MTG Card versions
Noxious Vapors - MTG Card versions
Mind Rot - MTG Card versions
Crippling Fatigue - MTG Card versions
Flaying Tendrils - MTG Card versions
Darkpact - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Demonic Attorney - Summer Magic / Edgar (SUM)
Jovial Evil - Legends (LEG)
Infernal Contract - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Touch of Death - Fifth Edition (5ED)
Wicked Pact - Portal (POR)
Nature's Ruin - Portal (POR)
Buried Alive - Odyssey (ODY)
Choking Sands - World Championship Decks 1997 (WC97)
Brush with Death - Stronghold (STH)
Coercion - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Hand of Death - Starter 1999 (S99)
Grim Tutor - Starter 1999 (S99)
Forced March - Mercadian Masques (MMQ)
Stupor - Arena League 2000 (PAL00)
Soul Burn - Invasion (INV)
Noxious Vapors - Planeshift (PLS)
Mind Rot - Kaladesh Remastered (KLR)
Crippling Fatigue - Hachette UK (PHUK)
Flaying Tendrils - Friday Night Magic 2016 (F16)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Hideous Visage MTG card by a specific set like Magic 2012, 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 Hideous Visage and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Hideous Visage has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PennyLegal

Rules and information

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

DateText
2011-09-22 A multicolored creature with intimidate can be blocked by any creature that shares a color with it, in addition to artifact creatures. For example, a white-blue creature with intimidate can be blocked by white creatures and/or blue creatures, no matter what other colors they are.
2011-09-22 If an attacking creature has intimidate, what colors it is matters only as the defending player declares blockers. Once it’s blocked, changing its colors won’t change that.

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