How Does Blasphemous Act Work?
Blasphemous Act, a red sorcery card from Magic: The Gathering, functions as a potent board wipe that becomes significantly cheaper to cast the more creatures there are on the battlefield. The card’s text reads: “Blasphemous Act costs 1 less to cast for each creature on the battlefield. Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to each creature.” This means that in a game with many creatures, especially in formats like Commander, Blasphemous Act can often be cast for a single red mana or even for free. Crucially, it deals damage, unlike some board wipes that destroy directly, which has important implications for its interactions with other card abilities. This makes it a staple card in Commander decks that utilize red, offering a cost-effective solution to creature-heavy boards.
Understanding the Mechanics
Blasphemous Act’s effectiveness stems from its cost reduction ability. The more creatures present, the lower its mana cost becomes. This includes all creatures on the battlefield, regardless of who controls them. In a crowded board state, a card that normally costs 9 mana can be cast for a fraction of that cost.
The damage dealt by Blasphemous Act, specifically 13 damage, is typically enough to destroy most creatures. This differentiates it from “destroy” effects, as damage can be prevented, redirected, or modified by other abilities.
Interactions with Indestructible
One of the most common questions surrounding Blasphemous Act concerns its interaction with indestructible creatures. Indestructible only prevents destruction by “destroy” effects and lethal damage. Since Blasphemous Act deals damage, it does interact with indestructible. While the 13 damage is typically lethal, indestructible prevents the creature from being destroyed by lethal damage. Therefore, a creature with indestructible will survive a Blasphemous Act.
Interactions with Protection
Protection abilities are another key factor to consider. Protection from a specific color (e.g., protection from red) will prevent all damage dealt by sources of that color. Thus, if a creature has protection from red, it will take no damage from Blasphemous Act, making protection a potent countermeasure.
Strategic Applications
Blasphemous Act is most effective in formats like Commander, where creature-heavy strategies are common. It’s a valuable tool for decks that need a reliable and potentially inexpensive way to clear the board. It’s also useful as a surprise answer to explosive creature swarms, often turning the tide of a game when opponents overextend. The GamesLearningSociety.org website has resources on various card interactions and strategic card game play.
Decks that can benefit the most from this card are those which can capitalize on an empty board, or those that benefit from casting spells for cheap. It provides a reset button to quickly gain an advantage.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some frequently asked questions to further clarify how Blasphemous Act works:
1. Does Blasphemous Act target creatures?
No, Blasphemous Act does not target creatures. It deals damage to each creature on the battlefield, affecting them globally without targeting any specific creature. This is important because abilities that trigger when a creature is targeted will not be activated by Blasphemous Act.
2. Does Blasphemous Act get around hexproof?
Yes, Blasphemous Act gets around hexproof. Hexproof only prevents a permanent from being the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. Because Blasphemous Act doesn’t target, hexproof provides no protection against it.
3. What happens if a creature has both indestructible and protection from red?
If a creature has both indestructible and protection from red, it will survive Blasphemous Act. Protection from red will prevent the damage from being dealt in the first place, and therefore, indestructible will not even come into play.
4. Can Blasphemous Act destroy creatures with high toughness if they have no other abilities?
Yes, Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage, which is typically enough to destroy any creature unless it has indestructible. A creature with 13 or less toughness that isn’t Indestructible will be destroyed by lethal damage.
5. If a creature has lifelink, and I cast Blasphemous Act, how much life do I gain?
You don’t gain any life. Blasphemous Act does not grant lifelink to the player who cast the spell, only creatures with the lifelink keyword that are on the field grant that ability to their controller. If one of your creatures had lifelink, you would gain life equal to the damage it dealt.
6. Does Blasphemous Act trigger “when a creature dies” abilities?
Yes, Blasphemous Act can trigger abilities that activate “when a creature dies”. Since the damage dealt by Blasphemous Act will result in the death of non-indestructible creatures (assuming they have 13 or less toughness), these triggers will occur for each creature that dies due to the spell.
7. If I have a creature with regeneration, can I regenerate it in response to Blasphemous Act?
Yes, you can activate a creature’s regeneration ability in response to Blasphemous Act. The regeneration shield replaces the destruction event. The creature will be tapped, removed from combat and all damage removed.
8. Does Blasphemous Act affect planeswalkers?
No, Blasphemous Act only affects creatures. It does not deal damage to or affect planeswalkers in any way.
9. How does Blasphemous Act interact with creatures that have damage prevention abilities?
Damage prevention abilities can reduce or prevent the damage dealt by Blasphemous Act. If a creature has an ability that prevents the next X damage dealt to it, that ability will reduce the damage from Blasphemous Act accordingly. If it can prevent all 13 damage, the creature will survive.
10. If I cast Blasphemous Act and then give a creature indestructible, does it survive?
No. Creatures die as a state based action, so it needs to have indestructible before the damage is applied.
11. Is Blasphemous Act a good card in formats other than Commander?
While Blasphemous Act shines in Commander due to the high creature counts, it can still be useful in other formats, such as Modern or Legacy, if the meta involves a lot of creature-based strategies. However, its high mana cost can be a drawback in faster formats.
12. How does Blasphemous Act interact with creatures that have effects when they are dealt damage?
If a creature has an ability that triggers when it is dealt damage, Blasphemous Act will trigger that ability. For example, if a creature has an ability that triggers when it is dealt damage, that ability would trigger once after Blasphemous Act resolves.
13. Can Blasphemous Act be countered?
Yes, Blasphemous Act can be countered like any other spell. Counterspell, or any similar counter magic, can prevent Blasphemous Act from resolving, negating its effects.
14. If I have multiple creatures with protection from red, will they prevent Blasphemous Act from being cheaper to cast?
No. The mana reduction provided by Blasphemous Act is based on the number of creatures on the battlefield, regardless of whether those creatures are affected by the damage dealt by Blasphemous Act. Creatures with protection from red still count towards reducing the cost of the spell.
15. How does Blasphemous Act interact with creatures that have “when this creature dies” abilities and indestructible?
If a creature has “when this creature dies” abilities and indestructible, it will not trigger those abilities. Indestructible prevents the creature from being destroyed, so it never truly “dies” as a result of lethal damage. This can be strategically relevant, as you might want to prevent certain death triggers from occurring. You can find more information and resources about game mechanics on the Games Learning Society website.