Soul Strings MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Common
Type	Sorcery
Released	2000-06-05
Set symbol
Set name	Prophecy
Set code	PCY
Number	78
Frame	1997
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Daren Bader

Key Takeaways

Instant speed allows for tactical responses and unexpected plays during an opponent’s turn.
Discard requirement and specific mana cost can limit Soul String’s utility in some decks.
Potential for card and creature recovery strengthens its appeal in recurrent strategies.

Text of card

Return two target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand unless any player pays o X.

Everyone is manipulated. It's just more obvious with the dead.

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Soul Strings offers a unique take on card advantage by allowing players to potentially return not one but two creatures from their graveyard to their hand. This can shift the momentum of the game, giving the player access to key creatures for a second play through.

Resource Acceleration: The underlying strength of Soul Strings lies in its ability to provide resource acceleration. By leveraging the creatures you return from the graveyard, you can gain indirect mana advantages by effectively bypassing casting costs or utilizing enter-the-battlefield triggers for added value.

Instant Speed: Soul Strings operates at instant speed, providing a tactical edge by allowing players to react during an opponent’s turn or at the end of it. This flexibility ensures that your mana is never idle and that you’re able to surprise your opponent with unanticipated plays.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Soul Strings demands that you discard a card as an additional cost to exploit its ability. This could aggravate resource scarcity by potentially discarding a critical component of your strategy, especially in situations where your hand is already dwindling.

Specific Mana Cost: With a blend of one black and one colorless mana needed, Soul Strings can ironically be a string attached for decks that don’t consistently generate both types of mana, predominantly restricting its synergy to black-centric builds or those with a reliable mana base.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Charging three mana overall for its effect places Soul Strings in a competitive slot concerning mana resources. Given that the card landscape includes a breadth of lower-cost alternatives that can provide graveyard recursion or card advantage, the card may be overlooked when deckbuilding in favor of more economical options.

Reasons to Include Soul Strings in Your Collection

Versatility: Soul Strings is a flexible card that can slot into multiple deck types. Its ability to potentially return two creatures from your graveyard to your hand makes it a useful tool in any strategy that plays from or utilizes the graveyard.

Combo Potential: With Soul Strings, you can bring back combo pieces that have been countered or destroyed, thereby setting the stage for powerful play sequences. This can be particularly potent in decks built around specific creature combos.

Meta-Relevance: Given the ever-shifting landscape of competitive play, a card like Soul Strings that provides creature recovery can maintain its relevance. This card can be especially effective in a meta with heavy removal, helping to sustain your board presence and resilience.

How to beat Soul Strings

Soul Strings can be quite the enigma for players in an MTG match due to its capacity for recursion, allowing for a smooth retrieval of creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. This powerful card brings significant strategic depth, mirroring the utility of legendary spells like Unearth or the characteristic undying effect, which similarly pull back creatures into play, but with varying caveats.

To effectively counteract the finesse of Soul Strings, one would need an efficient exile strategy. Cards such as Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares remove creatures from the game entirely, making it impossible for Soul Strings to reach into the beyond and retrieve them. Other alternatives include graveyard hate cards like Relic of Progenitus or Leyline of the Void, which ensure that creatures never hit the graveyard in the first place, preemptively neutralizing the threat that Soul Strings poses.

In essence, to dismantle the synergy and recurrent value that Soul Strings contributes to a game, incorporating definitive removal and graveyard disruption within your deck is essential. A well-prepared defense against this nuanced threat can convert Soul Strings from being an asset to just another card in the opponent’s hand with minimized impact.

Cards like Soul Strings

Soul Strings finds its niche among MTG’s array of reanimation spells. Resembling other cards like Unearth or Exhume, Soul Strings allows players to return a creature card from their graveyard to their hand. Where it diverges is in its versatility, as it can also retrieve an enchantment card, offering something more akin to Auramancer’s ability but with the added creature recovery option.

Another card that mirrors this elastic approach to retrieval is Eternal Witness, which enables the recovery of any card from the graveyard to the hand. Although Soul Strings doesn’t provide the immediate board presence that Eternal Witness does, its lower casting cost can make it a more accessible option in certain scenarios. Despite this, Gravedigger stands as a closer comparison—both return a creature from the graveyard to the hand, but Soul Strings’s dual nature provides an edge by including enchantments.

Evaluating Soul Strings within the Magic: The Gathering realm, it offers an interesting dynamic by merging creature and enchantment recovery. This unique duality can potentially enrich deck strategies, propelling Soul Strings to a distinguished position amongst graveyard retrieval spells.

Cards similar to Soul Strings by color, type and mana cost

Bloodcurdling Scream - MTG Card versions

Call to the Netherworld - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Soul Strings MTG card by a specific set like Prophecy, 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 Soul Strings and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Soul Strings has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Paupercommander	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal

Rules and information

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