by Can Tran

Created on: November 07, 2009   Last Updated: May 15, 2012

"Reality Strobe" is a blue sorcery spell printed as an uncommon for the Magic the Gathering expansion set known as "Future Sight." This is a type of spell that could be useful or useless depending on the flow of the game and when you play this. However, Reality Strobe is one of the spells printed in the Future Sight expansion set that has a dynamic that can allow the daylights out of your opponents. In a blue control deck, you could get use out of the Reality Strobe.

The converted mana cost for Reality Strobe is six. You will need two blue mana and four colorless mana to play Reality Strobe. However, the main drawback and turnoff of Reality Strobe is the expensive mana cost. Because of this, many players might overlook Reality Strobe due to the mana cost. However, there is a low alternative cost of one blue mana and two colorless mana. Doing so would give Reality Strobe "Suspend 3." In that respect, Reality Strobe would be Exiled from the game for three turns with three time counters. At the start of your upkeep step for each turn, you remove a time counter from Reality Strobe. When all the time counters are removed, you can play Reality Strobe without paying its mana cost. Keep in mind that Reality Strobe is a sorcery spell and can only be played during your turn.

What does Reality Strobe do in the first place?

By playing Reality Strobe, you can return a target permanent to its owner's hand. Keep in mind that the target can neither have Shroud nor Protection from Blue. In a sense, one could say that "Capsize" is better because you can return a creature to its owner's hand and buy it back for mana. However, Capsize applies to creatures only. Reality Strobe lets you target almost any permanent.

In this respect, you can return an artifact to an opponent's hand. During the time of Future Sight, planeswalker cards were not introduced. If your opponent has a planeswalker on the battlefield and you have no means to get rid of it, you can play Reality Strobe on it. Being able to get rid of a planeswalker for the time being is a good ability to have. It means that your opponent has to start from scratch with putting the loyalty counters on his/her planeswalker.

Afterwards, Reality Strobe gets Exiled with three time counters on it. Three turns after Reality Strobe gets cast, it gets cast again. The only way that Reality Strobe can get sent to the graveyard after it is played would be to find a way to counter it. Overall, this is an interesting card for the most part. This is because this will forever annoy the daylights out of opponents after it is played. The only way to get rid of it would be to counter it after it is played or find a way to Exile it afterwards.

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