The Most Iconic Instant Spells in Magic: The Gathering

Instants are one of the most important elements of Magic: The Gathering. Allowing immediate responses to plays, whether it’s countering a crucial spell, removing a threat, or providing protection at opportune moments, this category of card is one of the core elements that sets Magic apart from other TCGs in the industry.

In this article, we’ll explore the game’s most iconic instants, which have shaped matches and defined strategies, as well as set historical precedents that have influenced both deckbuilding and Magic’s design philosophy!

Lightning Bolt

Lightning Bolt is arguably the most iconic, famous, and versatile instant in Magic: The Gathering history. Its timeless design inspired the creation of the concept of Aggro, gave life to archetypes like Zoo and Sligh while also providing the means to respond to the opponent's creatures in Midrange and Control decks.

It may not be the best instant of all time (it's hard to compete with Ancestral Recall), but it is certainly the best design this type has ever had in the game.

Counterspell

Counterspell created the concept of fearing whenever the opponent has two untapped lands capable of generating blue mana. Its infamy has brought countless memes since the 90s, including a Brazilian funk from the early days of YouTube, where it was summarized the dubious quality content it had back then - so dubious that we prefer to forget it existed - and remains as one of the references of "fear of playing your main card" to this day.

In the game design and competitive play spectrum, Counterspell contributed to the creation of the Control archetype and inspired several variants of what would become one of the main elements of interaction in a Magic game - the ability to deal with a spell before it resolves.

One-Mana Tutors

The one-mana tutor cycle provided an important lesson for Magic design: too-easy access to specific cards creates situations where the game breaks, even if you try to balance them by giving your opponent “a turn” to solve the problem.

Still, many of them have remained in the competitive scene for years: Vampiric Tutor was a staple of the late Extended, while Mystical Tutor took years to be banned from Legacy, while Enlightened Tutor and Worldly Tutor, despite not having the same competitive relevance, are timeless Commander staples.

Brainstorm

Few cards in Magic have such simple effects with such complex applications as Brainstorm. In essence, it allows the player to filter their hand and dig deeper for an answer at the expense of, if they don't find what they want, being stuck with those cards for another two turns - but it didn't take long for them to find means to exploit its potential in other ways.

Along with Fetch Lands, Brainstorm allows to "throw away" the useless cards you've put on top. In response to a discard like Duress, it ensures that your most important pieces are protected and hides relevant information from your hand from an opponent. With effects like Predict or cards with the Miracle ability, we can manipulate the top to generate a lot of value for a low cost, among several other applications that make this the most important cantrip in Magic history.

Swords to Plowshares

As simple as its effect is, Swords to Plowshares captures the essence of how almost every white instant in Magic would work in some ways: you interact with the opponent, but give them some compensation.

Life probably seemed too costly in the early years of the game, but it didn't take long for people to realize that it's better to give your opponent a few extra points than to deal with a creature, making it the best removal in the game to date and whose design inspired several other cards, such as Condemn, Path to Exile and Solitude.

Fatal Push

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the card above, Fatal Push was one of the first less conditional removals in black and changed the way competitive Magic was played in formats like Modern and Legacy. Its release was the first sign of the times for a once eternal staple of the game, Tarmogoyf, and the first sign of the power creep that would come in the years to come.

Its interaction with Fetch Lands and artifacts like Mishra’s Bauble changed the way Modern was played and put cards like Gurmag Angler in the spotlight simply because they bypassed Fatal Push, and it remains a staple in Pioneer to this day.

Stifle

Stifle was one of the first Magic cards to interact, for a low cost, with abilities. Its creation, along with Fetch Lands, led to the rise of Tempo decks that capitalized on minimizing the opponent's resources with cards like Wasteland while playing cheap threats like Nimble Mongoose.

These decks would later gain Delver of Secrets and become the Tempo archetypes we know today. Stifle lost its place in Legacy as power creep increased, but it still occasionally appears in some lists and is a key piece of the Stiflenought, where it is cast to bypass the ETB trigger of Phyrexian Dreadnought.

Dark Ritual

Dark Ritual started the tradition of cards where the player pays mana to receive more mana, and during the entire time it was in Type 2 (current Standard), it did something relevant in the competitive scene: whether it was playing Hypnotic Specter on the first turn or, to the nightmare of many, a Necropotence, this card made history in Magic as one of the greatest enablers of absurd turns of all time.

Today, it joins other cards with similar effects to form the basis of Storm decks, one of the most broken mechanics in Magic history. Gone are the days when using it even for a Liliana of the Veil on the first turn was considered absurd - today, its fast mana needs to be used to win games in the same turn, and without its release in Alpha, we wouldn't have half the cards that seek to replicate its effect in some way.

Collected Company

Collected Company is a recent release (I mean, it's almost eight years old but recent compared to other spells on this list), but it's inevitable not to remember it when we think about the Instants that made history in Magic: the number of archetypes enabled by it and/or that benefit from it is immeasurable.

From typals like Elves, Spirits and Humans to value-oriented archetypes like Selesnya Company or combos like Heliod Company, this Instant has become the core of card advantage for creature-based strategies in competitive Magic for years - in Standard, for example, it took over the format for a long time and is admittedly a card that the design team considers they should have banned back then.

Force of Will

There is no way to end this list without mentioning the card that has become the core of the eternal formats: Force of Will is the greatest regulator in Magic and, by far, one of the most important cards in the game.

Its presence inhibits the possibility of absurd combos and unfair plays that would end the game in one or two turns, its alternative cost is relevant enough to not be an instant staple that enters every game, putting it in a privileged position between one of the pillars that support Legacy and Vintage.

That's all for today!

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Thanks for reading!