Glimpse of Freedom MTG Card

Glimpse of Freedom - Theros Beyond Death

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	2
Rarity	Uncommon
Type	Instant
Abilities	Escape
Released	2020-01-24
Set symbol
Set name	Theros Beyond Death
Set code	THB
Number	50
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Clint Cearley

Key Takeaways

Offers card drawing with potential repeated use, enhancing hand replenishment throughout the game.
Instant speed casting adds strategic flexibility, allowing players to hold mana and react optimally.
Escape mechanic synergizes with graveyard strategies, offering longevity and combo potential.

Text of card

Draw a card. Escape—, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost.)

"Freedom lies in accepting a single path." —Nyklos, Meletian philosopher

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Glimpse of Freedom offers a unique approach to drawing cards. Initially, you get to draw one card, but with its escape mechanic, you unlock the potential to draw additional cards later in the game. This utility makes it a handy tool for replenishing your hand, ensuring you’re never at a loss for options.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana, Glimpse of Freedom facilitates resource acceleration by cycling through your deck. This increases the chances of drawing into your mana sources or finding the key spells to execute your strategy more efficiently.

Instant Speed: The flexibility of casting Glimpse of Freedom at instant speed means you can optimize your turns by holding back mana to respond to your opponent’s actions. If no immediate threats arise, you can cast Glimpse of Freedom on their end step, maintaining the element of surprise and strategic advantage.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: To harness the escape mechanic of Glimpse of Freedom effectively, a player must exile five other cards from their graveyard. This means holding back useful cards in your graveyard solely for this purpose, which can be strategically limiting and could inadvertently deplete valuable resources.

Specific Mana Cost: The initial casting cost for Glimpse of Freedom requires one blue mana. This specificity necessitates a deck with blue mana sources, making it less versatile for decks that do not run blue as a primary color.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: When considering its escape cost, Glimpse of Freedom’s overall expense can be seen as steep for drawing just one card. Other options in the game may draw multiple cards or provide additional value for a similar or less investment, leading to potentially more efficient alternatives for deck building and in-game strategy.

Reasons to Include Glimpse of Freedom in Your Collection

Versatility: Glimpse of Freedom is an asset across various decks, finding its place in control strategies that prioritize card advantage. Its simple requirement for casting allows for easy inclusion, regardless of deck complexity.

Combo Potential: Due to its escape mechanic, this card can synergize with graveyard strategies, offering repeated utility and facilitating combinations with cards that benefit from spells being cast multiple times or from incrementally filling the graveyard.

Meta-Relevance: In environments heavy on interaction and disruption, the ability to draw cards efficiently is key. Glimpse of Freedom maintains relevance when competing against these strategies, providing consistent card flow to edge out in long, drawn-out games.

How to beat

Glimpse of Freedom is a unique card in Magic: The Gathering, offering players an effective means to draw a card with the upside of leveraging their graveyard for repeated use. Its escape mechanic allows for consistent deck cycling—crucial in longer matches. Competing options such as Opt or Anticipate can’t match Glimpse of Freedom in terms of potential recurring value, as once they are cast, they’re gone for good.

To counter Glimpse of Freedom, consider employing graveyard hate cards like Tormod’s Crypt or Rest in Peace to neutralize the escape capability, rendering the card a one-time use. Alternatively, Nimble Obstructionist can stifle the trigger when the card attempts to escape, preventing the additional card draw and maintaining card advantage. Strategic use of counterspells on initial cast can also be effective, ensuring the card never makes it to the graveyard for future use.

It is essential to anticipate your opponent’s moves and disrupt their plans preemptively. By doing so, Glimpse of Freedom loses its advantage and becomes just another single-use spell in their repertoire. Thus, understanding when and how to disrupt graveyard synergies is key to beating this card.

Cards like Glimpse of Freedom

Glimpse of Freedom adds depth to the multitude of card-drawing options available in Magic: The Gathering. This card aligns well with others like Think Twice, which is also an instant and allows drawing a card with the additional upside of flash back, providing a second chance to draw. However, Glimpse of Freedom takes a unique approach with its escape mechanic, offering repeated use from the graveyard at the cost of exiling five other cards.

Another comparable spell is Accumulated Knowledge, which also becomes more potent each time it’s played from the hand, increasing the number of cards drawn with each instance in the graveyard. Though not reusable like Glimpse of Freedom, its potential card advantage cannot be overlooked. Then, consider the strategic implications of Radical Idea – it allows for drawing at instant speed, and like our featured card, can be played a second time from the graveyard, albeit just once.

Ultimately, selecting Glimpse of Freedom among its contemporaries in Magic: The Gathering is a testament to its flexible escape mechanic and the repeated card advantage it can provide in the right deck, especially for players looking to capitalize on their graveyard resources.

Accumulated Knowledge - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Glimpse of Freedom MTG card by a specific set like Theros Beyond Death, 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 Glimpse of Freedom and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Glimpse of Freedom has restrictions

Format	Legality
Historicbrawl	Legal
Commander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Explorer	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Timeless	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2020-01-24	After an escaped spell resolves, it returns to its owner’s graveyard if it’s not a permanent spell. If it is a permanent spell, it enters the battlefield and will return to its owner’s graveyard if it dies later. Perhaps it will escape again—good underworld security is so hard to come by these days.
2020-01-24	Escape’s permission doesn’t change when you may cast the spell from your graveyard.
2020-01-24	If a card has multiple abilities giving you permission to cast it, such as two escape abilities or an escape ability and a flashback ability, you choose which one to apply. The others have no effect.
2020-01-24	If a card with escape is put into your graveyard during your turn, you’ll be able to cast it right away if it’s legal to do so, before an opponent can take any actions.
2020-01-24	If you cast a spell with its escape permission, you can’t choose to apply any other alternative costs or to cast it without paying its mana cost. If it has any additional costs, you must pay those.
2020-01-24	Once you begin casting a spell with escape, it immediately moves to the stack. Players can’t take any other actions until you’re done casting the spell.
2020-01-24	To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you’re paying (such as an escape cost), add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The converted mana cost of the spell remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was and no matter whether an alternative cost was paid.