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In Magic: The Gathering, card value is a key idea where you aim to make each of your cards effectively eliminate as many of your opponent’s cards as possible. A typical exchange of one card for one from your opponent (a one-for-one trade) is the standard value you want to achieve, but particular keywords can enhance your advantage.
One such keyword, flashback, allows you to play cards from your graveyard by paying a specified cost. Since most cards eventually end up in the graveyard, having flashback means you can use any card with this ability twice. Here’s a breakdown of what flashback entails.
Understanding Flashback
Flashback is a keyword ability found on instants and sorceries that enables you to replay a spell directly from your graveyard. After you use the spell, it is exiled, preventing you from casting it repeatedly.
The counterpart to flashback for permanent cards is known as unearth.
First seen in the Odyssey block, flashback was originally indicated by a small tombstone icon next to the card name, which has since been retired. Flashback can only be activated during the same timing as the spell type; for example, a sorcery with flashback can only be played when it’s normally appropriate to play a sorcery.
Cards featuring flashback will always include the keyword printed alongside their cost—usually a mana cost that differs from the original casting cost of the card. Flashback costs can vary from mana of different colors to the card’s original casting cost, or involve paying life, tapping or sacrificing creatures, or other permanents.
Typically, the flashback cost is higher than the card’s original casting cost, although some cards with flashback will actually cost less to play from the graveyard compared to casting them from your hand.
Maximizing Flashback Strategies
Flashback is a valuable feature for nearly any deck because it offers substantial value—after a flashback card is cast from your hand, it rests in the graveyard, ready to be played again when you can meet the flashback cost.
Various deck strategies specifically take advantage of the ability to play cards directly from the graveyard. Any tactic that involves placing cards into your graveyard—like milling, dredging, delving, or discarding—will greatly benefit from including cards with flashback.
Unlike most spells, instants and sorceries with flashback remain accessible once they enter your graveyard—they simply adopt a different casting cost and are exiled after their effect resolves.
A strategic move in green and black decks is to breathe life into spells with flashback by filling your graveyard for reanimation purposes. Cards like Grisly Salvage or Satyr Wayfinder help populate your graveyard, and if those cards have flashback, it’s almost as if you’ve drawn them instead.
Another effective approach is to discard flashback cards. For instance, Faithless Looting and Desperate Ravings facilitate discarding cards that might possess flashback, while also being flashback cards themselves, allowing you to stockpile more flashback-ready cards.
Additionally, you can capitalize on flashback with cards that lack the keyword. Creatures and spells like Snapcaster Mage, Dralnu, Lich Lord, and Return to the Past can give instants and sorceries in your graveyard flashback capability, letting you play them again.
Top Flashback Cards
The concept of flashback has been part of Magic: The Gathering for many years, with nearly 200 cards featuring this keyword. While we can’t cover every card with flashback, here are some notable mentions.
Drawing More Cards with Flashback
Utilizing flashback is a fantastic method for card drawing. Generally, a spell that allows card draws is limited to one use, but cards like Deep Analysis and Think Twice grant you two draws when your hand gets low.
For draw-and-discard mechanics, Faithless Looting and Desperate Ravings deserve recognition, as does Faithful Mending for its bonus life gain. Additionally, Ignite the Future offers even greater benefits if its flashback cost is paid, much like Increasing Ambition.
Two-for-Ones (or More)
Trading one card for the elimination of two is significantly more rewarding. Cards such as Ancient Grudge, Wreck and Rebuild, Ray of Revelation, and Chainer’s Edict excel at taking out two cards at the cost of one.
Divine Reckoning has the potential to strike even more cards, albeit at the cost of some of your own.
Recycle, Reuse, Reanimate
Reanimation pairs well with flashback strategies. Cards like Can’t Stay Away, Unburial Rites, Dread Return, Visions of Dread, Wake to Slaughter, and Sevinne’s Reclamation can retrieve other cards from your graveyard if they’ve found their way in there.
Producing More Creatures
Why settle for one creature when you can create two? Cards such as Wurmquake, Visions of Glory, Roar of the Wurm, Increasing Devotion, and Chatter of the Squirrel produce more creature tokens than typical spells.
Other Notable Flashback Cards
Numerous flashback cards don’t conform to specific strategies. Galvanic Iteration and Increasing Vengeance can replicate spells or effects to enhance your efficiency. Prismatic Strands and Moment’s Peace can disrupt several plans. Seize the Day puts you on the offensive, and Cabal Therapy is known for providing a way to sacrifice while also causing discard.
Cards Offering Flashback Capability
If you lack cards with flashback, don’t worry. Look for cards like Snapcaster Mage, Lier, Disciple of the Drowned, Katilda and Lier, Dralnu, Lich Lord, The Fugitive Doctor, and Return to the Past, all of which enable you to grant flashback to instants and sorceries in your graveyard.