Blasphemous Edict

Sorcery

LegalBoard WipeRank #540

You may pay {B} rather than pay this spell's mana cost if there are thirteen or more creatures on the battlefield.

Each player sacrifices thirteen creatures of their choice.

Why is this card good?

Blasphemous Edict is a swingy, board-state-dependent edict that ranges from underwhelming to backbreaking depending on the table. The headline is the cost reduction: in a creature-flooded board (token decks, go-wide tables), you can cast it for a single black mana and force everyone to sacrifice thirteen creatures. That's a one-mana board wipe for go-wide strategies and an answer to enemy token armies. Against a deck with a fat, tokens-make-bodies position, it's devastating. The catch is "of their choice." Like all edicts, opponents keep their best creatures and dump chaff, so it's terrible against decks playing one or two key threats — they'll just lose a Servo. It punishes flood, not quality. Want it in: mono-black or Rakdos/Golgari decks that can build up board states, aristocrats decks that don't mind sacrificing (and want fuel), and pods full of tokens. Skip it in low-creature-count or singleton-threat metas, where it rots in hand or whiffs entirely.