Despise MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 4 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityUncommon
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Despise excels at preemptive control, offering a glimpse into the opponent’s hand and strategic advantage.
  2. It’s specialized for removing creatures or planeswalkers, pivotal in creature-heavy metagames.
  3. Effective use of Despise can safeguard one’s game plan, disrupting opponents early in the match.

Text of card

Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a creature or planeswalker card from it. That player discards that card.

"Truth is always a weapon in your enemies' hands." —Geth, Lord of the Vault


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Despise offers strategic insight into an opponent’s hand, letting you pluck a key creature or planeswalker card right from the start. This preemptive move can tilt the scales in your favor, ensuring you stay ahead in the resource battle.

Resource Acceleration: Although Despise itself doesn’t directly accelerate resources, effectively removing a potential threat from your opponent’s hand can indirectly fast-track your game plan by clearing the path for your own strategies to unfold unimpeded.

Instant Speed: While Despise operates at sorcery speed, its proactive nature allows you to set the pace of the game early on. By disrupting your opponent’s early game, you maintain the tempo, dictating the flow of plays and keeping their responses on the back foot.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Despise hinges on the opponent having a creature or planeswalker in hand for it to be effective, and if they don’t, it could become a card disadvantage for the player casting Despise.

Specific Mana Cost: Despise requires black mana, making it exclusive to decks running Swamps or sources of black mana, potentially limiting its versatility in multi-colored decks.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While costing only one black mana might seem low, in fast-paced games, the opportunity cost of not advancing your own board state can be substantial compared to other one-mana plays.


Reasons to Include Despise in Your Collection

Versatility: Despise has the flexibility to be included in various deck strategies that focus on early disruption of the opponent’s game plan. It shines in formats where knowing and controlling your opponent’s hand can be the difference between victory and defeat.

Combo Potential: While not a combo enabler itself, Despise helps to protect your own combinations by preemptively removing key pieces from your opponent’s hand. It secures the way for your own strategies to unfold without interference.

Meta-Relevance: In a meta heavy with creature-based or planeswalker strategies, Despise offers targeted precision to remove high-impact cards before they can influence the board, making it a relevant choice for players looking to gain the upper hand in the current competitive scene.


How to beat Despise

Despise is a potent and selective discard spell in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to pluck a creature or planeswalker card straight from an opponent’s hand makes it a strategic early game disruptor. Yet, even the most troublesome cards have their Achilles’ heel. Overcoming Despise hinges on diversifying your hand and baiting out the spell prematurely.

A resilient strategy involves stocking your hand with an assortment of non-creature, non-planeswalker spells. This dilutes the impact of Despise, especially when you are holding onto redundant cards. Instant-speed effects and spells that can’t be targeted by Despise strengthen your position, keeping your critical creatures and planeswalkers safe. Additionally, by presenting multiple threats simultaneously, you force your opponent to make tough choices, often reducing the efficacy of their Despise.

Remember, timing is everything. By playing out less important creatures or planeswalkers first, you can entice the cast of Despise, safeguarding more valuable cards in your hand for later stages of the match. Keep calm, anticipate the play, and let your opponent waste their Despise on less critical elements of your strategy. This will leave you free to deploy your game-changing spells once the threat of discard has passed.


Cards like Despise

Despise stands out in the Magic: The Gathering landscape as a targeted discard spell that allows a player to peer into an opponent’s hand and pluck out a creature or planeswalker card. This card aligns itself with the likes of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, both highly regarded in the realm of preemptive control tactics. Thoughtseize, however, extends its reach by allowing the discard of any nonland card at the expense of two life points, providing a broader sweep at a minor self-inflicted cost. Inquisition of Kozilek also lets the player target an array of nonland cards, but only those with a converted mana cost of three or less, adding a restriction not seen in Despise.

Among similar spells, Duress captures attention by targeting noncreature, nonland cards, essentially complementary to Despise’s specific focus. What makes Despise unique is its creature and planeswalker specificity, pinpointing the types of cards often central to an opponent’s strategy. Unlike its counterparts, the limitation to disrupt only two specific card types can be seen as a specialized approach, effective in certain metagames where these cards are prevalent.

Evaluating the utility of Despise within the broader context of discard spells in MTG, it presents a niche role by tactically dismantling creature and planeswalker-based strategies, affirming its place in the pantheon of hand disruption tools.

Thoughtseize - MTG Card versions
Inquisition of Kozilek - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Thoughtseize - Lorwyn (LRW)
Inquisition of Kozilek - Rise of the Eldrazi (ROE)
Duress - Urza's Saga (USG)

Cards similar to Despise by color, type and mana cost

Raise Dead - MTG Card versions
Mind Twist - MTG Card versions
Contract from Below - MTG Card versions
Spoils of War - MTG Card versions
Tendrils of Despair - MTG Card versions
Mind Peel - MTG Card versions
Bloodcurdling Scream - MTG Card versions
Organ Harvest - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Unearth - MTG Card versions
Bubbling Muck - MTG Card versions
Chorus of Woe - MTG Card versions
Reanimate - MTG Card versions
Soul Strings - MTG Card versions
Skull Fracture - MTG Card versions
Restless Dreams - MTG Card versions
Cabal Therapy - MTG Card versions
Confront the Past - MTG Card versions
Stir the Grave - MTG Card versions
Cry of Contrition - MTG Card versions
Raise Dead - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Mind Twist - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Contract from Below - Foreign Black Border (FBB)
Spoils of War - Ice Age (ICE)
Tendrils of Despair - Weatherlight (WTH)
Mind Peel - Stronghold (STH)
Bloodcurdling Scream - Portal Second Age (P02)
Organ Harvest - Unglued (UGL)
Duress - Innistrad: Double Feature (DBL)
Unearth - Historic Anthology 7 (HA7)
Bubbling Muck - Urza's Destiny (UDS)
Chorus of Woe - Starter 1999 (S99)
Reanimate - Jumpstart (JMP)
Soul Strings - Prophecy (PCY)
Skull Fracture - Odyssey (ODY)
Restless Dreams - Torment (TOR)
Cabal Therapy - Premium Deck Series: Graveborn (PD3)
Confront the Past - Strixhaven: School of Mages Promos (PSTX)
Stir the Grave - Betrayers of Kamigawa (BOK)
Cry of Contrition - Guildpact (GPT)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Despise MTG card by a specific set like Magic Online Promos and New Phyrexia, 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 Despise and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Despise Magic the Gathering card was released in 4 different sets between 2011-05-13 and 2014-09-26. Illustrated by 3 different artists.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 430652003normalblackRaymond Swanland
22011-05-13New PhyrexiaNPH 562003normalblackTerese Nielsen
32012-01-01Friday Night Magic 2012F12 22003normalblackRaymond Swanland
42014-09-26Khans of TarkirKTK 692015normalblackTodd Lockwood

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Despise has restrictions

FormatLegality
HistoricbrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal
TimelessLegal

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