By providing maximum timing flexibility, instants in MTG are typically revered more highly than their sorcery-speed counterparts. From efficient counterspells to game-breaking combo pieces, this card type offers a wide range of multi-format powerhouses. Here, you can find the best instants ever printed in MTG.
7 | Vampiric Tutor
Vampiric Tutor is one of the best ways to find your combo pieces in MTG. The life loss and card disadvantage are a big deal, but the consistency boost Vampiric Tutor offers easily outweighs those negatives. Thanks to this, the card is extremely ubiquitous, earning a Legacy ban, Vintage restriction, and addition to the Commander Game Changers list.
In general, Vampiric Tutor shines brightest in combo strategies centered around specific game-ending cards. In Vintage, for example, Vampiric Tutor is a common inclusion in Tinker and Oath of Druids decks, both of which need their namesake card to win. This card is also a cEDH staple, threatening to grab any win condition like Underworld Breach.
Even outside of cEDH, Commander’s singleton nature makes Vampiric Tutor’s consistency boost ridiculously valuable. Thanks to this, it’s no wonder that 700,000 Commander decks play this Tutor according to EDHREC.
6 | Mental Misstep
Debuting in 2011, it didn’t take long for players to realize how broken the Phyrexian mana mechanic truly was. Replacing two life for one mana, these “free” spells could completely ignore their color identity, allowing any deck to play them. Even among these broken spells, however, Mental Misstep was the best of the bunch.
What makes Mental Misstep so powerful is that it always trades up on mana. Being able to counter your opponent’s turn one play while on the draw is an enormous tempo swing. Unfortunately, this interaction is so powerful that it encourages players to play Mental Misstep to counter… itself. This basically forced every MTG deck to run a playset of the card when it was legal.
Thanks to the combination of power, efficiency, and homogeneity, it makes perfect sense why Mental Misstep is banned in Modern and Legacy. It’s also restricted in Vintage, but still shows up as a one-of consistently to answer cards like Ancestral Recall. Add on the card’s cEDH appeal in a format filled with one-mana tutors and Sol Ring, and it’s easy to see why the card is so good.
5 | Gush
Drawing two cards for zero mana is obviously an absurd deal, and Gush makes this a reality. While returning two lands may seem like a huge cost, it’s actually quite easy to minimize this downside. For instance, if you have no lands in hand, Gush lets you replay a land so you have more mana to work with that turn.
Where Gush really starts to pop off, however, is in decks that get extra value from having lands bounced. Combining it with Brainstorm and a Fetchland, for example, lets you put excess lands back on top of your library, then shuffle them away. The card also pairs extremely well with Foil, enabling its alternate casting cost. These interactions played a big part in Gush earning a ban in Legacy and Pauper.
If that weren’t enough, Gush also pairs particularly well with Doomsday, making it more likely you can assemble a Thassa’s Oracle kill the same turn you resolve the potent sorcery. As such, Gush still plays a vital role in Vintage despite its restriction. Despite how you use it, Gush proves that free card draw, even with a significant downside, is too powerful in MTG.
4 | Force of Will
Despite not actually being banned in Legacy or restricted in Vintage, it’s impossible to deny how powerful Force of Will truly is. This card is the perfect reactive tool, stopping combo decks in their tracks. If it weren’t for Force of Will, turn one combo decks might run rampant in Eternal formats. At the same time, though, Force of Will is also an excellent protective tool for blue combo decks like Sneak and Show.
This versatility has caused Force of Will to emerge as the most-played card in Legacy, according to MTGTOP8. Similarly, Force of Will sees play in 65% of Vintage decks, edging out Ancestral Recall! Even in Commander, this spell sees play in over 460,000 decks according to EDHREC, which is quite impressive for a $58 card. Considering its major multi-format impact, Force of Will easily earns a top spot in our rankings.
3 | Demonic Consultation
On the surface, Demonic Consultation looks like a cool but risky tutor. After all, if the specific card you name is among the top six cards in your deck, you may end up exiling your whole library and losing to decking.
In practice, however, this instant is primarily used to exile your entire library by naming an absent card, making Thassa’s Oracle become an immediate game-ender. This combo leads to the fastest draws out of Vintage Doomsday, since it only requires three mana total. If it weren’t for its Vintage restriction and Legacy ban, it would certainly be a dominant force in both formats.
Demonic Consultation is still legal in Commander, though, where it remains a key component of cEDH combo decks. After all, Thassa’s Oracle and Consultation remains the most powerful combo in the format, and the card can also tutor for a specific answer in an emergency. This card really is bonkers no matter how you slice it.
2 | Flash
While Flash was designed to simply put creatures into play at instant speed, getting all enters and death triggers from big bombs for two mana was broken. The combination of Flash and Protean Hulk in particular resulted in a game-ending combo for two mana, which was far too powerful. Thankfully, Flash earned bans in Legacy and Commander, removing this absurd play pattern.
While being restricted in Vintage has made Flash less appealing as a build-around there, it does make a splash in Oath of Druids decks alongside Atraxa, Grand Unifier. Intriguingly, Flash also remains legal in Duel Commander while Protean Hulk is banned instead. As a result, reanimator decks still get to utilize Flash as a “discard outlet.”
This is a classic example of an MTG design mistake that has aged quite badly. Hopefully, Wizards of the Coast has learned from their mistakes and won’t design anything like Flash ever again.
1 | Ancestral Recall
To the surprise of no one, Ancestral Recall is still the best instant ever designed. Printed 33 years ago in MTG’s first set, this card draw engine is as unbalanced as it gets. Every blue deck would kill for a source of card advantage that’s as efficient as this.
With its power level and ubiquitousness through the roof, it makes perfect sense why Ancestral Recall is banned in Legacy and Commander. The only places players can really make good use of it are Vintage, where it’s restricted, and Canadian Highlander, where its inclusion eats up eight of your 10 points. Every Vintage deck that can reliably cast Ancestral Recall plays it, and it’s the best tutor target imaginable in grindy matchups.
Along with the rest of the Power 9, Ancestral Recall’s iconicness knows no bounds. A best instants list would simply be incomplete without it as the top entry.
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