Embolden MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	3
Rarity	Common
Type	Instant
Abilities	Flashback
Released	2001-10-01
Set symbol
Set name	Odyssey
Set code	ODY
Number	22
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Rebecca Guay

Key Takeaways

Embolden provides a strong defense, allowing players to negate multiple threats at instant speed.
The cost of casting Embolden includes both a precise mana combination and a card discard.
Despite restrictions, it remains a versatile and meta-relevant choice for any MTG collection.

Text of card

Prevent the next 4 damage that would be dealt this turn to any number of target creatures and/or players, divided as you choose. Flashback o1o W (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.)

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Embolden grants significant card advantage by potentially nullifying multiple threats with a single card, leading to advantageous board states.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly impacting mana, Embolden can effectively save resources by protecting your creatures, preserving the mana and cards invested in them.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Embolden at instant speed enables strategic depth, allowing players to react to opponents’ moves and optimize the timing for protection.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Embolden necessitates discarding a card, which can be challenging when your hand is already depleted, potentially forcing you to get rid of valuable assets.

Specific Mana Cost: The casting cost of Embolden is a precise combination of mana, which may not seamlessly fit into multicolored decks that can struggle with mana consistency.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Its requirement of three mana, including one white, might be considered steep for the effect rendered, especially when compared to other protection spells that might cost less and provide similar or greater value.

Reasons to Include Embolden in Your Collection

Versatility: Embolden is a multi-purpose card that can be slotted into various deck types. It provides both defensive and aggressive capabilities, making it useful in different game situations.

Combo Potential: Embolden plays well with strategies that involve damage prevention and life total manipulation. It can fit into combos that capitalize on spells that are cast for free or at a reduced cost.

Meta-Relevance: As metagames cycle through aggressive phases, Embolden remains a relevant card for countering burn strategies, offering players a chance to stabilize their board state against quick, damaging decks.

How to beat

Embolden is a unique card that can pose quite the challenge in Magic: The Gathering. Its ability to provide indestructibility to creatures can be a game-changer, protecting key pieces from removal and enabling favorable trades or all-out assaults without fear. To effectively tackle this, timing and choosing the right spells are crucial.

Counterspells are a suitable first line of defense against Embolden, preventing it from ever resolving. Holding back on casting removal spells until your opponent is tapped out can negate its shielding effects as well. In addition, cards that force sacrifices, such as Diabolic Edict, are immune to Embolden’s protection and can remove pesky creatures regardless of their indestructible status.

Hand disruption tools, like Thoughtseize, can extract Embolden from an opponent’s grip before it becomes a problem on the battlefield. Lastly, employing board wipes that don’t destroy, but exile, tuck, or return all creatures to hand can outmaneuver Embolden by avoiding its defensive mechanism altogether. Adaptability and strategic planning are key in mastering the art of defusing the solid defense Embolden offers to your opponent’s creatures.

Cards like Embolden

Engaging the battlefield with novelty, Embolden is a distinctive card in Magic: The Gathering’s arsenal of defensive spells. Its kinship can be noted with cards such as Shelter, which also offers protection to a creature, albeit Shelter goes a step further by granting it immunity from a color of your choice. While Embolden’s recuperative powers can prevent damage multiple times in a turn, Shelter is a single-use spell, but it’s enhanced by its card drawing ability.

Shielded Passage is another card that mirrors Embolden’s protective charm by fending off all damage to a single creature for a turn, but unlike Embolden, its effect is not repeatable during the turn. Then there’s Make a Stand, which protects not just one but all of your creatures from damage for a turn and also grants them indestructible, which is an upgrade in defensive capabilities. But, Make a Stand demands a higher mana investment and doesn’t offer the possibility of spacing out protection over multiple turns as Embolden does.

Decoding the nuances of these alternatives reveals that Embolden holds a special place in MTG’s spell hierarchy. Its flexibility in damage prevention across multiple instances in a single turn helps it shine in a multitude of tactical situations.

Cards similar to Embolden by color, type and mana cost

Ardenvale Tactician // Dizzying Swoop - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Embolden MTG card by a specific set like Odyssey, 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 Embolden and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Embolden 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 Embolden card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2021-03-19	A spell cast using flashback will always be exiled afterward, whether it resolves, is countered, or leaves the stack in some other way.
2021-03-19	If a card with flashback is put into your graveyard during your turn, you can cast it if it’s legal to do so before any other player can take any actions.
2021-03-19	To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost (such as a flashback cost) you’re paying, add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The converted mana cost of the spell is determined only by its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast the spell was.
2021-03-19	You can cast a spell using flashback even if it was somehow put into your graveyard without having been cast.
2021-03-19	You must still follow any timing restrictions and permissions, including those based on the card’s type. For instance, you can cast a sorcery using flashback only when you could normally cast a sorcery.
2021-03-19	“Flashback -ost]” means “You may cast this card from your graveyard by paying -ost] rather than paying its mana cost” and “If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.”