Dissension in the Ranks MTG Card

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dissension in the Ranks provides a strategic edge by forcing opponents to turn on their own creatures. This not only may eliminate key threats but also keeps your hand and field position healthy.

Resource Acceleration: While this card doesn’t directly provide resource acceleration, it helps in preserving your resources. By making opponents use their creatures in unfavorable clashes, you can maintain your board state and mana for more critical turns.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of instant speed allows you to disrupt enemy combat strategies during their turn. Activation during the combat phase can turn the tide of battle, giving you a decisive advantage in the game’s outcome.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Dissension in the Ranks requires players to potentially discard a valuable card from hand, forcing a tough decision on resource management, especially detrimental when your hand is holding the keys to future strategies.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s need for both red and white mana can be restrictive, needing a well-tuned mana base, thus not universally viable across all deck types that don’t run those colors.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: The card’s five mana cost is a significant investment, particularly in a game where speed can be of the essence. There are alternatives that might disrupt opponents for less, leaving more room for other plays.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Dissension in the Ranks is a powerful tool in games that often lead to a crowded battlefield. With its ability to turn opponents’ creatures against each other, it’s flexible enough to serve as removal or a game-ending swing, fitting snugly into various red-centric or multicolored strategies.

Combo Potential: This instant holds potential for interesting combos in decks that can manipulate which creatures are battling. By pairing it with cards that force combat or double damage effects, players can unexpectedly flip the tide of a skirmish in their favor.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where creature matchups are crucial and the board state can become complex, Dissension in the Ranks shines. It capitalizes on decks that aim to overpopulate the field with tokens or heavy hitters, making it a strategic choice in the current meta where such tactics are prevalent.

How to beat Dissension in the Ranks

Dissension in the Ranks can tip the scales of a battlefield in MTG when creatures clash in unexpected ways. Often your strategy may require you to tackle this disruptive force. Understanding the card’s mechanism as forcing two target creatures to fight, can be the key to your victory. By maintaining control over creatures with high toughness or indestructible abilities, you can minimize the impact of this red instant spell. Moreover, utilizing flash creatures to strategically affect the board state, or employing instant speed removal can negate the intended effect of Dissension in the Ranks.

Utilize strategic spells like Heroic Intervention to grant your creatures indestructibility or use dive-down effects to increase toughness temporarily. Remember, timing is critical, and knowing when to hold back creatures rather than playing into your opponent’s hands can be just as effective. In essence, learning to foresee and capably navigate around this card can be more adept than facing it unprepared. In doing so, you may find that Dissension in the Ranks loses its bite, turning from a feared card to a mere tactical hiccup in your game plan.