The Best X-Cost Spells In MTG

Summary

• Entreat The Angels has a powerful miracle cost, cast early for best results, paves the way for a strong late-game army.
• Blot Out The Sky provides both Inkling tokens and board wipe, great for turning the tide in your favor.
• Crackle With Power is costly but worth it, dealing massive damage to targets of your choice, perfect for closing out games.

Who doesn’t love casting big spells? In Magic: The Gathering, any spell with X in the casting cost suddenly becomes the biggest spell in the game, letting you do all sorts of wild things to push a game in your favor.

With tons of ways to ramp up in mana, you might be looking for a few ways to put it to good use. We scoured the archives to find the best cards with X in the casting cost, giving you the freedom to scale your spells to match your fancy.

10

Entreat The Angels

Can Never Have Enough

Casting Entreat the Angels normally is fine. You spend double X and get yourself a few Angels. The scaling of it isn’t great, since it costs triple white and then double X, so to get even one Angel token, you’re spending five mana.

The miracle cost is what makes this card great. When you cast it this way, it only costs two white mana, and you only have to put mana into a single X. Sure, you have to cast it when you draw it, so early in the game it might not be great, but it can definitely pump out a huge army late in the game.

9

Blot Out The Sky

A Two-For-One

One of the more unique X cards in Magic, Blot Out the Sky is both a board wipe and a a threat all in one. Blot Out the Sky makes X 2/1 Inkling tokens with flying, though they come into play tapped. This downside isn’t too bad if you’re able to meet the second part of the spell.

If you put six or more mana into the spell, you get to blow up all noncreature, nonland permanents first. This paves the way for all your new buddies and potentially gives you a way to swing the game in your favor.

8

Crackle With Power

Phenomenal Cosmic Power

If you’re looking to dish out some serious damage you’re going to want to pick up a copy of Crackle with Power. This brutal red card deals an incredible amount of damage split up any which way you want.

Even with the huge triple X casting cost, it is worth it to close a game out with a single spell. It deals five times X damage to up to X number of targets. That means if you pay five mana into each of the Xs, you’re dealing 25 damage to up to 25 targets. Sure, that’ll cost you 17 mana, but if you’re out to win, that isn’t a problem.

7

Hydroid Krasis

Triple The Creature Types

Blue and green decks love doing two things, making mana and drawing cards, and with Hydroid Krasis, you can do both while throwing in a little life gain on top. Casting Hydroid Krasis gets you to draw half as many cards as you put into the X cost, while also gaining half that much life.

Not only that, but you get to have the Krasis enter with X +1/+1 counters, turning it into a flying, trampling powerhouse that refilled your hand and buffered your life total a bit. Even if it is countered you get to draw those cards since it’s a cast trigger, making it that much better.

6

Forth Eorlingas!

“Ride For Ruin, And The World’s Ending!”

A sweet and simple X card, Forth Eorlingas! is a powerful spell that gives you an army you can swing in with immediately for some serious damage. For just one red and one white in addition to the single X cost, you make X 2/2 Human Knight tokens with both trample and haste.

When any one of your creatures makes contact with an opponent via combat damage on the turn you cast Forth Eorlingas!, you get to become the monarch. This incredibly thematic card crowns you as the king, ensuring you get ahead of your opponents with the bonus card draw.

Becoming the Monarch is one of the better statuses you can claim in a game, giving you an extra card each turn and a new level of politics in a match.

5

Finale Of Devastation

Grab That Craterhoof

One of the best tutor spells in green, Finale of Devastation lets you grab quite literally any creature from your deck or even from your graveyard, and slam it on the battlefield, so long as their mana cost is equal to or less than X.

If you’re able to spend ten or more mana on Finale of Devastation, you get to give all your creatures +X/+X and haste for the turn. Pair that up with Craterhoof Behemoth or any other similar creature and everything is getting a huge powerup for an all-out attack.

4

Genesis Wave

The Green Tide Comes In

One of the more unpredictable X spells in Magic, Genesis Wave works best in a creature-heavy, or at least permanently-heavy, deck with lots of ways to pump out mana. Genesis Wave lets you reveal the top X cards of your deck, taking any number of permanent cards that cost less than the amount of mana you spent on the X cost and putting them into play.

You do get to pick and choose which permanent cards you’re playing, so if there’s a spell or two you don’t want to cast you don’t have to, though it does go straight to the graveyard.

3

The Meathook Massacre

Stay Out Of The Kitchen

A unique boardwipe that gets around effects like indestructibility, The Meathook Massacre is a brutal enchantment that has some lingering effects once it hits the board. When The Meathook Massacre enters the battlefield, you get to give each creature -X/-X for the turn.

This pairs nicely with two other abilities that The Meathook Massacre has, having your opponents lose one life when one of your creatures dies, and gaining one life when one of their creatures dies. While this is all but a guaranteed boardwipe for your stuff too, it does a fantastic job at clearing the battlefield.

2

Sphinx’s Revelation

They’re Willing To Share

One of the most powerful spells around, Sphinx’s Revelation is an incredible card in any control deck, particularly in the ‘draw-go’ style that sits back and waits for your opponent to make a move. For two blue mana and one white, plus whatever you load up the X cost with, you get to gain that much life and draw that many cards.

The best part of the spell is that you can cast it at instant speed, letting you drop Sphinx’s Revelation at the end of your opponent’s turn or in response to an attack, letting you draw a bunch of cards or keep your life total up above the danger zone.

1

Torment Of Hailfire

One of the most brutal cards to ever come out of Magic, Torment of Hailfire doesn’t even take that much mana to close out a game. For two black and X mana, you get to repeat one process X times.

Each of your opponents loses three lives for each one mana you’ve paid into X unless they sacrifice a nonland permanent or discard a card. You’ll either drain them of all their life or force them to sacrifice a bunch of permanents, more often than not, both, leaving them incredibly vulnerable.