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Sorceries have been in Magic: The Gathering since the very first set. Although they are weaker than their instant counterpart due to being restricted on when they can be cast, their effects more than make up for it. More powerful effects can be found on sorceries thanks to their inherent downside of only being able to be cast on your turn at the start of a stack. Some sorceries are among the best cards in the entire game, standing above other card types. These are the 13 most powerful sorceries in Magic: The Gathering and how to use them.
What are the best sorceries in MTG?
The best sorceries in MTG will enhance your instants and creatures and eat up your mana pool. At the same time, the counters they can place on your creatures, alongside the negative counters you can poke your opponent with, will give you total control over the battlefield.
13. Ponder
Ponder is one of the best cantrips (spells that can cast for one mana that draw cards) in Magic. It lets you see what your next three draws are and control what order you draw them. If none of them seem appealing, you can shuffle them away before drawing a card.
Decks playing Ponder are ones that want to cast multiple instants and sorcery spells in one turn, usually in Storm or tempo decks that benefit from casting spells. Ponder is so strong because these decks’ draws are very important, and Ponder can help to ensure your draws stay strong over the next two turns.
12. Supreme Verdict
Among all of the board wipes in Magic, Supreme Verdict is the best one you can be casting. This is because it cannot be countered, meaning it’s guaranteed to resolve unless they can return the spell itself back to the hand or library. Its effect is simple, destroying all creatures for just four mana.
Supreme Verdict tends to be played in Control decks that want to keep as many creatures as they can off the battlefield while grinding out with creature lands and planeswalkers. Four mana is easy to achieve, and can punish your opponent for over-committing to creatures on the battlefield by setting them back greatly. Four mana is the baseline cost for unconditional board wipes, and one that can’t be countered makes it the best in that slot.
11. Treasure Cruise
Treasure Cruise is such a powerful sorcery that it was banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, and restricted in Vintage. In fact, it’s only legal in Pioneer and Commander (and Historic and Timeless for Arena players). While eight mana is a lot for a spell, odds are you are casting Treasure Cruise for just one blue mana since you’re delving away seven cards to discount it.
Treasure Cruise is best played in decks that are playing a lot of spells, as it will make it easier to delve cards you don’t need anymore. Drawing three cards is a lot for one mana, and even if you don’t delve the entire casting cost, just a small discount can be enough to make an impact.
10. Faithless Looting
Faithless Looting is the reason drawing and discarding cards is referred to as looting. For just one mana, Faithless Looting can draw you into your main cards while discarding weak ones or cards you want in the graveyard. Faithless Looting can be cast later in the game to help you dig deeper during grind games and in turns you want to cast as many spells as you can.
Faithless Looting slots best into decks that want specific cards in your graveyard. It’s the best way to get them there while drawing into the reasons you want them in the first place. Outside of that, some red decks appreciate the card draw Faithless Looting provides even if you lose two cards in your hand.
9. Expressive Iteration
A uniquely powerful card, Expressive Iteration is so good it was banned from Pioneer and Legacy. The strength of Expressive Iteration comes from the card selection it provides. It essentially draws to cards, though one you have to play that turn while putting a dead card to the bottom of your library. This is a lot of card advantage provided for just two mana and is a great turn three play to set you up for the rest of the game.
The card that Expressive Iteration exiles should be a card you can play on that turn. That’s why it’s best to use it before you play your land in case there’s one in the top three cards while you put a card you’ll want later into your hand. Otherwise, you want to exile a card you can cast and save the cards in your hand for later. It’s best played in Izzet Tempo decks like Murktide in Modern which wants spells in the graveyard and payoffs in the hand.
8. Lórien Revealed
Lórien Revealed is a powerful sorcery that is very rarely actually cast. While drawing three cards is a solid effect, being attached to a five mana sorcery is a big ask. What makes Lórien Revealed so powerful is its islandcycling ability. This lets you get any Island out from your deck. Notably, this doesn’t have to be a basic Island, but can be dual lands like shocklands or triomes.
Unlike other landcyclers, Lórien Revealed is on a sorcery which plays into strategies that want specific card types in the graveyard. It’s a star of Pauper Tolarian Terror decks which discounts its primary creatures for each instant and sorcery in the graveyard.
7. Show And Tell
Show And Tell is one of the best ways to cheat a permanent onto the battlefield and is half of the namesake of “Sneak And Show” decks. It does let all your opponents do the same, but unless their deck is built around powerful permanents, whatever you put onto the battlefield will be far better than anything they do.
Show And Tell is most commonly played in decks with creatures that have powerful enter the battlefield abilities like Atraxa, Grand Unifer or generically strong ones with high casting costs like Emrakul, The Aeons Torn. Show And Tell isn’t going to be played fairly, and will always cheat out some incredible card without spending more than three mana.
6. Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize is the best hand disruption card in all of Magic. For just one mana, you get to discard any nonland card from your opponent’s hand at the cost of two mana. This is a one-for-one, but while you only lose Thoughtseize you can force your opponent to discard one of their key cards.
Almost every black deck has no reason to not run Thoughtseize, and its inclusion in your deck will only improve it and your matchups. Even if you’re not playing the maximum number of Thoughtseizes, it’s good to have a full playset in the sideboard as situations where you want to ensure your opponent doesn’t keep a card in their hand will come up frequently.
The Equalizer:
Thoughtseize is unique in that there are decks that want to play it and the decks you want to play it against. It’s both great at ensuring your combo will resolve by removing a card that can stop it and stopping a combo piece from staying in your opponent’s hand. In some cases, it’s best to Thoughtseize a Thoughtseize to keep your combo safe.
5. Tinker
Tinker is fantastic because it can transform any artifact into an artifact from your library. There are no restriction on what you can bring out when you use Tinker, letting you cheat out powerful high-mana artifacts or any artifact you might need for a given gamestate. Simple artifacts like Food and Treasure tokens can be used as Tinker’s cost, as well as artifacts that want to be put into the graveyard like Ichor Wellspring.
Decks playing Tinker are ones that have many artifacts they want to cheat out. It’s only legal in Vintage where it’s restricted, and despite only allowing one copy, it is still a part of the top decks in Vintage. The effect is just that powerful.
4. Gitaxian Probe
While Gitaxian Probe may not look like much, it’s banned in Modern, Legacy, Pauper, restricted in Vintage, and is only fully legal in Commander. You don’t have to pay any actual mana to cast it, letting you use two life instead. Looking at your opponent’s hand is a great effect, as it tells you what you need to play around and what deck they are playing during game one of a match. It also immediately replaces itself in the hand. Since you don’t need mana to play it, Gitaxian Probe essentially lets you run a smaller deck since it erases itself from the deck as casting it draws a card.
The decks that take the most advantage of Gitaxian Probe are ones that want to cast as many spells as possible. Storm decks take any spell they can get, and a “free” spell makes it easier to rack up the Storm count for an explosive turn.
3. Reanimate
The Magic term “reanimate” means to return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield, named after the card Reanimate. Reanimate is the best reanimation spell by a mile, as for just one mana, you get the creature from the graveyard onto the battlefield. While you lose life for its mana value, this cost is trivial when you get a powerful creature onto the battlefield much faster than you’re “supposed to.”
Reanimate’s strength only works inside of Reanimator decks that purposefully load up their graveyard with powerful creatures to cheat onto the battlefield without ever casting them. Reanimator decks are running the maximum number copies allowed because drawing it with a powerful creature in the graveyard often means you will win the game off it resolving.
2. Demonic Tutor
Most tutors can only get a specific type of card from your library but not Demonic Tutor, which lets you get any card from your library and put it directly into your hand. Only having to pay two mana for this effect is fantastic, and a large reason why it’s banned in every format except Commander and restricted in Vintage. It’s the best two-mana tutor by a mile, and the best one attached to a sorcery. It’s stronger than some one-mana instant ones as well. Demonic Tutor is so good sometimes it’s best to tutor for Demonic Tutor if you can only look for specific cards.
There is no deck that gets worse by including Demonic Tutor. If a deck can afford to run it, it should be playing it. Demonic Tutor makes all decks more consistent as you can search for whatever card you need at any given point of a game.
1. Time Walk
Time Walk is a part of the “Power 9,” which refers to the nine best cards that Magic: The Gathering has even seen released in the original set. Time Walk is perhaps the best of the Power 9. For just two mana, you can take an extra turn. Taking an extra turn is one of the best effects in all of Magic, and even ones that cost five mana are widely played.
There is never a time you wouldn’t want to draw Time Walk, as you can push your advantage even further with your extra turn. If a deck has the option of playing Time Walk, it should be. It is only legal in Vintage where it’s restricted, but Arena players in Alchemy, Historic, and Timeless can make use of it as Oracle Of The Alpha puts it into your library.
Those were the best 13 sorceries in Magic: The Gathering and how to use them. Sorceries have a long history in the game, with their powerful effects being so strong they became the main focus of entire decks that resided at the top of the metagame. While weaker than instants which can be cast at any point, they are still solid, and in some cases much better with stronger effects that take place when they’re cast. The best sorceries like the ones on this list are ones that make an immediate impact on the gamestate and if they resolve, can win the game outright when played in the decks that can take the most advantage of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which sorceries deal the most damage?
If you kick Fight With Fire, you could deal 10 damage in some instances.
