Blasphemous Act – Double Masters MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

The red Wrath of God, perhaps? While it’s technically possible to get around it with damage prevention or just a high enough toughness, it’s close enough in many circumstances; it does take a lot of creatures in play to get the Act’s cost into the same range as other common Wrath variants. You might not see that too often in competitive tournaments, but its unique set of characteristics is highly appealing for slower and/or more casual settings. You can play “Sweep and Keep” with Paladin en-Vec and Mark of Asylum, or kill people in one hit with creatures like Stuffy Doll and Boros Reckoner. I always like to see this – an obviously useful card is always useful, but a subtle card can be almost anything. And this is remarkably subtle as red damage spells go!

Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
Commander: 4/5

Going from one board wipe to another board wipe, Blasphemous Act offers the ability to blow up all creatures for one red mana…if there are at least eight creatures. The obvious value of this spell is that it scales very rapidly into a cheap mass nuke, though it’s not optimal if your opponent just has one creature. Admittedly, 13 damage will kill most things, and it may be worth spending 8 mana to take out, say, a Kozilek that threatens to do Very Rude Things to you. Regardless of how you use it, Blasphemous Act is a staple red Commander card and one that can offer a bit of utility in broader formats, though reliance on an opponent to do Things to make this card work is a bit of a downer.

Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.25 (Limited tends to focus more on singular creatures; most will still die all the same, but you’re still going to have to pay up)
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander: 4.25