Scout's Warning MTG Card

Mana cost
Converted mana cost	1
Rarity	Rare
Type	Instant
Released	2007-05-04
Set symbol
Set name	Future Sight
Set code	FUT
Number	16
Frame	2003
Layout	Normal
Border	Black
Illustred by	Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Key Takeaways

Scout’s Warning facilitates instant plays, enabling strategic board state manipulation.
The card’s draw ability ensures it replaces itself, maintaining hand size.
Usage demands white mana and an additional creature card for maximum value.

Guide to Flash card ability

Explore the dynamic Flash ability in Magic: The Gathering (MTG), a feature that allows you to cast spells at lightning speed, often leaving your opponents reeling and your strategy several steps ahead. This versatile ability can turn the tide of a game, providing the element of surprise and tactical advantage. It places a premium on timing and foresight, transforming an ordinary deck into a formidable arsenal of instant threats and responses.

Text of card

The next creature card you play this turn can be played as though it had flash. Draw a card.

"There is no tactic I enjoy more than ambushing the ambushers."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Scout’s Warning is a unique card that lets you draw a card upon casting, helping you to replace itself in your hand and maintain your resources. This ability to draw means you aren’t losing out on other opportunities.

Resource Acceleration: While Scout’s Warning itself does not directly accelerate your resources, it does allow you to cheat the timing rules of the game by enabling you to play creature cards as though they had flash. This can potentially accelerate your board state by surprising your opponent with an unexpected creature.

Instant Speed: The instant speed aspect of Scout’s Warning is a significant tactical advantage. It allows for nimble reactions to your opponent’s moves, setting up defensive plays or allowing for end-of-turn surprise plays that can shift the momentum of the game in your favor.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: While Scout’s Warning doesn’t enforce discarding directly, it compels the player to immediately play another creature card from their hand to fully utilize its effect. This can strain your hand, especially when you’re trying to maintain card advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Scout’s Warning requires white mana to cast. This specificity can prove restrictive, aligning it closely with white-based decks and potentially limiting its versatility across various deck types.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: For a single white mana, Scout’s Warning allows you to play a creature card as though it had flash, but its true cost is steep when considering opportunity cost. You may forsake playing a more impactful card at the same mana cost, especially since the effect is contingent upon having another creature card in hand ready to play.

Reasons to Include Scout’s Warning in Your Collection

Versatility: Scout’s Warning is not deck-specific and can be a valuable addition to any build that aims to surprise opponents. Its ability to enable you to cast creature cards as though they had flash increases your strategic options, allowing for unexpected plays.

Combo Potential: This card shines in combinations that aim to exploit the element of surprise or require timing precision. It can be a game-changer when paired with creatures that have powerful enter-the-battlefield effects or when you need to avoid sorcery-speed removal.

Meta-Relevance: Due to its tactical nature, Scout’s Warning holds its ground in meta games that favor control decks or where reactions to opponent moves are crucial. Deploying key creatures at the right moment can shift the tide of any match, providing vital advantages over less-flexible strategies.

How to beat Scout’s Warning

Scout’s Warning is a unique card in MTG that allows players to cast a creature card as though it had flash, also providing the bonus of drawing a card. This means your opponent can surprise you by bringing creatures onto the battlefield at unconventional times. To circumvent the advantages of Scout’s Warning, one effective strategy is to maintain open mana for instant-speed removals or counter spells. Cards like Fatal Push or Counterspell can be pivotal in disrupting your opponent’s plan.

It’s important to anticipate the unexpected when Scout’s Warning is at play and leverage the elements of control and foresight. Stay alert of the mana your opponent has available and their potential to cast creatures during your turns. Prioritize holding back some resources to react accordingly. Pay special attention to game states and onboard clues that may suggest your opponent is holding back a creature to maximize Scout’s Warning’s efficiency. Understanding and predicting when this card is likely to be played can turn the tables and negate its benefit entirely.

Overall, defeating Scout’s Warning involves a combination of strategic mana management, attentive play, and recognizing the right moment to employ your reactive cards. With proper timing and the correct responses, you can mitigate its effectiveness and maintain control of the game.

Cards like Scout's Warning

Scout’s Warning holds a unique place in the fabric of white spells within Magic: The Gathering. Much like the card ‘Cavern Harpy’, Scout’s Warning also provides the surprise element by allowing a creature to be played at a time your opponents least expect. However, it delivers the added advantage of drawing a card, distinguishing it from the Harpy’s mere evasive ability.

Next in the comparison is ‘Emergence Zone’, which similarly enables you to cast spells as though they had flash. Though Emergence Zone does not require mana payment for its activated ability, it sacrifices itself in the process, unlike Scout’s Warning, which remains a more subtle and tactically versatile tool. Another card to consider is ‘Vedalken Orrery’, which allows for any card to be cast at any time you could cast an instant. While it provides a broader reach for noncreature cards, it doesn’t come with the card draw that Scout’s Warning offers, giving Scout’s Warning an edge for decks seeking to maintain card advantage.

In essence, while there are other cards that offer similar instant-speed play capabilities, Scout’s Warning’s blend of quick utility and the bonus card draw makes it a valuable and nimble addition for players looking to retain momentum and surprise their adversaries.

Cards similar to Scout's Warning by color, type and mana cost

Swords to Plowshares - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Scout's Warning MTG card by a specific set like Future Sight, 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 Scout's Warning and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Scout's Warning has restrictions

Format	Legality
Commander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Vintage	Legal
Duel	Legal
Predh	Legal
Penny	Legal

Rules and information

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

Date	Text
2007-05-01	Scout’s Warning affects only the next creature card cast that turn, even if that creature already had flash.
2007-05-01	Scout’s Warning allows you to cast a noncreature card with morph (such as Lumithread Field) face down as though it had flash. It won’t affect that card if you cast it face up.
2007-05-01	Scout’s Warning works just like Quicken, except for creatures instead of sorceries.
2013-04-15	After Scout’s Warning resolves, you can suspend a creature card in your hand any time you can cast an instant. As soon as you actually cast a creature card, you lose this capability.
2013-04-15	If you cast multiple Scout’s Warnings on the same turn, they’ll all apply to the very next creature spell you cast.
2013-04-15	You cannot use this effect to play Dryad Arbor during an opponent’s turn.
2013-04-15	You don’t choose a creature card when Scout’s Warning resolves. Rather, this sets up a rule that is true for you until the turn ends or until you cast a creature card, even if you cast that creature at a time you normally could.