Foretell is one of many fun and flavorful mechanics in MTG. Not only does it let you use your mana efficiently, but it also captures the feeling of seeing into the future. Many players love this mechanic, but how exactly does it work?
If you have a foretell card in your hand, you can pay two generic mana to exile that card face-down. On a later turn, you may cast the foretold card by paying its foretell cost.
This is a special action that you can only take during your turn when you have priority. You still have to follow typical timing restrictions, so foretell doesn’t let you cast sorcery-speed cards whenever you could cast an instant.
These rules are simple enough, but they can lead to trickier questions. You might also be wondering whether foretell is a powerful mechanic, or how you could build around it. No matter what you want to learn about this keyword, I predict that this article will have the answers you’re looking for.
Table Of Contents:
- How Does Foretell Work in MTG?
- Why Is Foretell Good in MTG?
- Can You Make an MTG Foretell Commander Deck?
- End Step
| Pros | Cons |
| Lets you split up mana costs | Doesn’t change the |
| Allows you to bluff | Limited card pool |
How Does Foretell Work in MTG?
We’ve gone over the basics of foretell, but we all know MTG has multiple layers of complexity. Now that you how to use it, you might have other rules questions about this keyword. Below are some of the most common questions about foretell and how it interacts with other aspects of MTG.
Can You Counter Foretell?
No. Foretell is a special action, which means that it doesn’t use the stack. Once you pay the foretell cost, you exile the card face down and maintain priority. Your opponent never has a window to cast spells, and there isn’t anything on the stack for them to counter.
What If I Have Multiple Foretold Cards?
You can foretell as many cards as you want, but you have to keep them all in a defined order. For example, let’s say you foretold a card on turn two, and then another one on turn three. You can’t just put the two foretold cards in a pile; you have to keep them separate.
Your opponent also gets to know the order in which you foretold the cards, so you can’t mix them up. Admittedly, this will rarely matter in a game, but it’s polite to your opponent to keep your
Can You Foretell a Land?
Sort of, but there’s little to no upside to do so. Ethereal Valkyrie lets you exile cards from your hand, then gives them a foretell cost based on their normal mana cost. Although these cards become foretold, you don’t technically foretell them when doing this, so cards such as Dream Devourer won’t trigger.
You also can’t play a foretold land. Foretell specifically says you have to cast it, and you don’t cast lands. Any land you exile with Ethereal Valkryie becomes stranded, so there isn’t really a reason to do it. If an opponent has The Rack out and you only have lands, I suppose you could exile one to keep your hand smaller.
What Happens When The Game Ends?
If the game ends while you still have face down cards, you have to reveal them to your opponent. This means that your opponent will know about any cards that you foretold but didn’t get to play.
Giving up that information isn’t too bad, since they won’t know what you cards you foretell in future games, anyway. You also show your opponent lots of cards throughout a series, so this isn’t too different. Still, you shouldn’t foretell a card if you can win without using it since anything you can hide about your deck will benefit you.
Why Is Foretell Good in MTG?
Figuring out exactly how a mechanic works is important, but there’s another big question we have to address: is foretell even good? Should you run foretell cards outside of limited, or even build an entire deck around it? The answer isn’t a simple yes or no, so let’s dive into what makes or breaks foretell.
What Are The Advantages?
The biggest advantage of foretell cards is how it lets you split up mana costs. Using all of your mana is important, but that can be difficult if you have too many expensive cards in your hand. Foretell can help mitigate this by giving you something to do with just two mana.
Spending all the mana you can is crucial in MTG. The more you spend, the more you can affect the
If you can’t quite cast two spells in the same turn, you might be able to foretell one and cast the other. Using more mana than your opponent likely means you’re accomplishing more in the game, and foretell helps you do that.
Foretell also gives you the chance to bluff. Once you’ve foretold a card, your opponent has limited information. Sure, they might know that there’s only a set’s worth of foretell cards, but which one do you have? Should they get blockers on the
What Are The Disadvantages?
Of course, this mechanic comes with some downsides. When you foretell a card, you aren’t doing anything to affect the
There are also only so many foretell cards you could be running. While there’s some opportunity to bluff, there’s also only a few foretell cards that see play. You might play Starnheim Unleashed or Doomskar, but you likely won’t play Iron Verdict or Gods’ Hall Guardian outside of limited.
Thankfully, foretell is a very popular mechanic, so we’ll likely see it again. The idea of looking into the future is also generic enough that it could work for a variety of worlds. I doubt we have to wait for a return to Kaldheim to get more foretell cards. Until we do, however, you’re giving your opponents a fair amount of information just by foretelling a card.
Final Thoughts on Foretell in MTG
Foretell is in a strange spot at the moment. Part of its allure is only giving your opponents some information, but there just aren’t enough good foretell cards to really stump your opponents. This is a problem that will get better as more foretell cards are released, but it’s very real at the moment.
If you want to play with foretell, though, it’s still a solid mechanic. Not only does it let you use your mana efficiently, but it also lets you set up for explosive turns later on. However, I would advise you to run multiple foretell cards to keep your opponents guessing. The more you play with people, the more they remember about your deck. With even half a dozen foretell cards, it can be difficult for them to play around everything you could possibly have.
Can You Make an MTG Foretell Commander Deck?
As I’ve already explained, foretell cards work better when you play lots of them. This means that if you really love this mechanic, you might enjoy building an EDH deck around it. With lots of foretell cards, you can keep your opponents guessing while using your mana efficiently and setting up for big turns.
Of course, it’s going to be difficult to build your entire deck around this keyword. Only one set in MTG has foretell cards, so there just aren’t that many of them out there. Still, you can make it a major theme of your deck with the right commander.
Ranar, the Ever-Watchful
The most obvious commander for a foretell deck is Ranar, the Ever-Watchful. After all, he was the face commander for the precon built around this strategy, and he’s currently the only legendary creature that directly references foretell.
Both of his abilities work perfectly with this keyword. Obviously, paying nothing to foretell is great for this deck. Not only does it give you more mana to foretell more cards, but it also lets you spend your mana to affect the
No matter how you take advantage of it, mana reduction is one of the best things you can do in MTG. Cosmos Charger will even let Ranar save you mana on every player’s turn, assuming you have that many foretell cards in hand.
Ranar’s second ability might not seem as strong, but it’s very useful in a foretell-heavy build. Remember: foretelling cards doesn’t affect the
Prosper, Tome-Bound
Prosper, Tome-Bound can also reward you for building around foretell. You’ll usually want to foretell your cards before casting them anyway, but Prosper gives you another big reason to do so. Getting extra treasures just for casting your spells is pure value.
With enough setup, you could easily have a turn where you get to cast multiple foretold spells, make extra mana, and use that to foretell even more cards for your next turn. Prosper is an engine that can take over a game if left unchecked, and foretell synergizes with it really well.
The biggest problem with running Prosper as your commander is that you get access to fewer foretell cards. There are 24 foretell cards you could run with Ranar, but only 16 you could run with Prosper.
However, running Prosper gives you access to arguably the best foretell card available: Dream Devourer. With this, you can foretell any nonland card in your hand. Even if you don’t play many foretell cards, Dream Devourer lets you get even more value from the rest of your deck.
End Step
I hope my prediction was correct, and that you found all the answers you were looking for. Foretell is one of the most popular mechanics in recent years, and I think just about every MTG player can find something they enjoy about it. Whether you want to mess with your opponent’s head or just play your game as optimally as possible, foretell will have a bright spot in your future.
