Foul Spirit MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityUncommon
TypeCreature — Spirit
Abilities Flying
Power 3
Toughness 2

Key Takeaways

  1. Foul Spirit offers removal and disruption abilities, enhancing its value within a deck’s strategy.
  2. Instant speed play increases tactical flexibility, despite the card’s specific mana requirements.
  3. While Foul Spirit is viable, consider the potential drawbacks of higher casting cost and hand size reduction.

Text of card

Flying When Foul Spirit comes into play from your hand, destroy one of your lands.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Foul Spirit can provide a distinct edge by potentially removing an opponent’s creature from the board, leading to a one-for-one trade that can disrupt their strategy.

Resource Acceleration: While Foul Spirit itself may not directly offer resource acceleration, its synergy with graveyard mechanics can be a powerful enabler in decks focused on reanimation or leveraging the graveyard as a resource.

Instant Speed: The ability to summon Foul Spirit at instant speed gives players the flexibility to optimize their tactics and respond swiftly to an evolving game state, maintaining tempo and strategic advantage.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Incorporating Foul Spirit into your deck comes with a drawback as playing this card necessitates discarding another from your hand. This can be a strategic setback, especially when your hand size is already dwindling, potentially limiting your gameplay choices.

Specific Mana Cost: Foul Spirit requires a precise mana arrangement to cast, demanding both black mana and additional mana of any type. This could be a limiting factor for multicolored decks that value mana flexibility, thus hindering the card’s versatility across various deck builds.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a cost to bring into play that may be considered steep relative to its abilities, Foul Spirit faces competition. There exists an array of options that might provide greater board presence or more impactful abilities for the same or lower mana investment, leading players to weigh their choices heavily when considering Foul Spirit for their decks.


Reasons to Include Foul Spirit in Your Collection

Versatility: Foul Spirit can seamlessly incorporate into a variety of black decks. Its ghastly nature allows it to fit into themes of removal, attrition, and life point manipulation strategies that are common amongst black-centric playstyles.

Combo Potential: With its innate synergies in spirit or zombie decks, Foul Spirit can act as a key piece in graveyard-based combos, enabling you to exploit mechanics like reanimation or sacrifice for greater advantage.

Meta-Relevance: Foul Spirit’s role can be pivotal in environments where creature-based aggression is prevalent. Its capacity to serve as both an offensive threat and a defensive barrier makes it a useful tool in navigating the ebb and flow of the dynamic MTG battlefield.


How to beat

Foul Spirit is a challenging card to face in the MTG arena. This creature can be quite a nuisance with its flying ability, allowing it to soar over ground-based defenses with ease. To effectively counter this spectral adversary, you’ll need to rely on a mix of removal spells, defense strategies, and creature abilities. One of the most common approaches is to use spells that can target and destroy a flying creature or force a player to sacrifice it. Instant spells with ‘destroy target creature’ effects are particularly useful since they can be played on your opponent’s turn, maintaining the element of surprise.

Another strategy is to include creatures with ‘reach’ in your deck, giving you the ability to block flying creatures like Foul Spirit and negate their battlefield advantage. Additionally, bolstering your deck with enchantments or artifacts that limit your opponent’s abilities or enhance your defenses can provide the upper hand needed to survive this ghostly onslaught. Ultimately, the key to overcoming a card like Foul Spirit lies in anticipating its threats and having the right mix of answers at the ready in your MTG strategy.


Cards like Foul Spirit

When it comes to common black creature cards in Magic: The Gathering, Foul Spirit is an interesting card to evaluate. It resonates with cards such as Abhorrent Overlord, given their shared offering of flying creatures with high power. However, Foul Spirit lacks the additional abilities and impact on the board that Abhorrent Overlord carries with its harpy token generation based on devotion to black.

Examining Dread Reaver, we notice that it provides an alternative with similar mana cost and strength for black-aligned decks. Dread Reaver stands out with its undying mechanic, giving it resilience against opponents’ removal strategies. Although Foul Spirit may not return to the battlefield like Dread Reaver, it makes up for this with a simple and straightforward game plan suitable for new players or specific deck themes that benefit from such creatures.

Ultimately, when pondering card choices for a MTG deck, Foul Spirit serves an essential role within specific archetypes and strategies. Its lack of complex mechanics presents an uncomplicated option for summoning a sizeable flying creature, making it a reliable if not always the most powerful, choice in its category.

Abhorrent Overlord - MTG Card versions
Abhorrent Overlord - Theros Promos (PTHS)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Foul Spirit MTG card by a specific set like Portal Second Age and Masters Edition IV, 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 Foul Spirit and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Foul Spirit Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 1998-06-24 and 2011-01-10. Illustrated by rk post.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
11998-06-24Portal Second AgeP02 731997normalblackrk post
22011-01-10Masters Edition IVME4 811997normalblackrk post

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Foul Spirit has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal
PennyLegal

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