Last Rites MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 3 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost3
RarityCommon
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Exploits card advantage by simultaneously discarding and disrupting the opponent’s hand choices.
  2. Offers strategic depth through careful timing, despite the absence of instant speed.
  3. Demands thoughtful hand management due to its own discard requirement for activation.

Text of card

Discard any number of cards from your hand. Target player reveals his or her hand, then you choose a nonland card from it for each card discarded this way. That player discards those cards.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: With the ability to discard any number of cards to force an opponent to also discard that many, Last Rites enables strategic depletion of the opponent’s resources, tipping card advantage in your favor.

Resource Acceleration: Unlike direct resource ramp, Last Rites accelerates your game plan by diminishing your opponent’s choices, paving the way for a smoother execution of your strategy with lesser interference.

Instant Speed: While Last Rites is not an instant, its strategic depth comes from the choice of timing for its use, ideally when the opponent has fewer cards in hand to minimize their options and maximize the impact of the discarded cards.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Last Rites requires players to discard any number of cards to realize its potential. This can lead to a significant loss of hand advantage, especially if a player discards more cards than they’re ultimately able to affect within the opponent’s hand.

Specific Mana Cost: The necessity for black mana to cast Last Rites could limit its integration into multi-colored decks. Players running decks without black mana may find this card incompatible with their strategy.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: With a casting cost of three mana, including two black, Last Rites can be quite costly relative to its potential impact. When considering the need to also discard cards, some players might find the cost too steep compared to other disruption tools in MTG that come at a lower overall resource expense.


Reasons to Include Last Rites in Your Collection

Versatility: Last Rites offers a unique blend of discard mechanics and card selection, allowing players to strategically remove key cards from their own hand while also disrupting the opponent’s game plan. This duality makes it a handy tool in various decks that capitalize on graveyard strategies or hand disruption.

Combo Potential: For decks built around synergies with discarded cards, Last Rites can be a catalyst. It serves as a bridge, populating the graveyard with creature cards that trigger on discard or death, or simply enabling powerful reanimation spells.

Meta-Relevance: In environments where players rely on specific hand-sized cards for their win conditions, Last Rites can be a game-changer. It’s particularly effective in uprooting finely-tuned combos or depleting an adversary’s resources, allowing for a shift in the balance of power at critical moments during a match.


How to beat Last Rites

Last Rites requires strategic play, as it can drastically alter the game by discarding multiple cards from an opponent’s hand while potentially drawing cards. To effectively combat Last Rites, it’s essential to maintain a full hand, minimizing the card’s impact should it be played. Cards like Elixir of Immortality, which shuffle your graveyard back into your library, or threshold-enabling cards that benefit from having many cards in your own graveyard, can turn the tables. Also, instant-speed draw spells that refill your hand after Last Rites has resolved can mitigate its effectiveness.

Relics with graveyard-exiling abilities, such as Tormod’s Crypt or Relic of Progenitus, hinder efforts to leverage the discard into additional benefits. Also, having cards with madness or those that can be played from the graveyard helps to use the forced discard to your advantage. Be wary of when to deploy creatures and other permanents, as holding them back in the face of Last Rites preserves them for a better timed play. Always remember, hand disruption can be potent, but through proper deck building and timely responses, Last Rites can be rendered less threatening.


Cards like Last Rites

Last Rites stands out as a unique spell in the realm of hand disruption within Magic: The Gathering. The card allows you to discard any number of cards from your hand to have an opponent discard that many. When you compare this to other discard spells like Mind Rot, which forces an opponent to discard two cards at the cost of three mana, Last Rites provides flexibility based on the number of cards in your hand.

Delve into the discussion of Cabal Therapy, another comparison comes to light. This spell enables you to name a card, and the chosen player must discard all cards with that name from their hand, with an additional Flashback cost. However, unlike Last Rites, Cabal Therapy requires knowledge or a guess of what’s in the opponent’s hand to be effective. Similarly, another disruptor is Duress, a one-mana spell that discards noncreature, nonland cards but doesn’t offer the mass discard capability of Last Rites.

Assessing the capacity for strategic hand disruption, Last Rites offers a potentially powerful and situational advantage in Magic: The Gathering. Its flexibility in discarding makes it a card that could fit into strategies aiming to utilize the graveyard or disrupt opponents significantly in one fell swoop.

Mind Rot - MTG Card versions
Cabal Therapy - MTG Card versions
Duress - MTG Card versions
Mind Rot - Portal (POR)
Cabal Therapy - Judgment (JUD)
Duress - Urza's Saga (USG)

Cards similar to Last Rites by color, type and mana cost

Darkpact - MTG Card versions
Demonic Attorney - MTG Card versions
Jovial Evil - 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
Infernal Contract - MTG Card versions
Coercion - MTG Card versions
Hand of Death - 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
Victimize - MTG Card versions
Darkpact - Limited Edition Alpha (LEA)
Demonic Attorney - Summer Magic / Edgar (SUM)
Jovial Evil - Legends (LEG)
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)
Infernal Contract - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Coercion - Eighth Edition (8ED)
Hand of Death - 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)
Victimize - Magic Online Promos (PRM)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Last Rites MTG card by a specific set like Odyssey and World Championship Decks 2003, 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 Last Rites and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Last Rites Magic the Gathering card was released in 3 different sets between 2001-10-01 and 2011-11-18. Illustrated by Bradley Williams.

#ReleaseNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12001-10-01OdysseyODY 1461997normalblackBradley Williams
22003-08-07World Championship Decks 2003WC03 pk146sb2003normalgoldBradley Williams
32011-11-18Premium Deck Series: GravebornPD3 212003normalblackBradley Williams

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Last Rites has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
PremodernLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

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