With every set, it’s very common during spoiler season for a handful of cards to receive a ton of hype. Players are naturally quick to judge how strong or weak they think all the new cards are before having a chance to play with them. In some cases, a card that receives a ton of hype ends up falling way short of expectations.
Other times, though, a card that was dismissed or largely deemed overrated will end up being way stronger than originally anticipated. I believe this to be the case with Split Up.
Upon the card getting spoiled, we thought it would be rather difficult to set up compared to most board wipes. After all, if the opponent attacked with some creatures and then played another threat in their post-combat main phase untapped, Split Up wouldn’t function as a reliable board wipe.
Nonetheless, the potent sorcery has quickly emerged as a multi-format staple. It sees consistent play from Standard all the way down to Legacy, which is extremely impressive. Given that Split Up sits at under $2 in its cheapest form according to TCGPlayer market price, it seems as though players are still underestimating how good this card is.
Efficiency is Key
- Mana Value: 1WW
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Sorcery
- MTG Sets: Duskmourn
- Card Text: Choose one- Destroy all tapped creatures. Destroy all creatures.
At a baseline, what makes Split Up so strong is its mana cost. Three-mana board wipes are hard to come by in any format. Our initial estimation was that Temporary Lockdown would end up being a better option against most aggro decks, since it can hit all small creatures regardless of whether they’re tapped or untapped. However, Split Up has some essential applications that make it a great sideboard card.
In Standard, first and foremost, the card is particularly strong against mono-red. Mono-red utilizes tons of creatures with Haste, making it more likely that all of their creatures will be tapped on their turn. Split Up then gets to clean up beaters like Screaming Nemesis that Temporary Lockdown would miss.
Another important thing to realize with Split Up is that unlike Temporary Lockdown, you can play it in a deck with small creatures or other non-land permanents of your own and potentially set up a window where Split Up functions closer to Plague Wind than Wrath of God. Pioneer Spirits does this perhaps better than any other deck.
Obviously, if the opponent attacks with a bunch of creatures at once, when you untap with yours, Split Up can destroy only tapped creatures to leave your board unscathed. On top of that, though, because all of your threats have Flying, you can attack into a board of untapped creatures on the ground with no fear. Then, simply cast Split Up destroying all untapped creatures, and you’re in great shape.
Abusing Split Up Further
- Mana Value: W
- Rarity: Rare
- Card Type: Enchantment
- MTG Sets: Kaladesh, MTG Foundations
- Card Text: Creatures your opponents control enter tapped. Whenever a creature an opponent controls enters, you gain 1 life.
It’s incredible how much utility Split Up has in general. Even Death and Taxes shells often utilize Split Up, as it can be devastating versus Elves and the mirror if you can set things up. That being said, Split Up gets even better when you have tools that can tap opposing threats.
Mono-white token decks in Standard, for example, very commonly play Authority of the Consuls out of the sideboard, too. Authority of the Consuls and Split Up are best friends. Now, if the opponent attacks you, any threat they play after combat will enter tapped. This lets you clean up everything of theirs at once.
Spirits decks in Pioneer often have access to Shacklegeist, which also is a messed-up card alongside Split Up. Simply use Shacklegeist and your other Spirits to tap a bunch of your opponent’s threats on their end step. From there, you untap your creatures, and cast Split Up to decimate their side of the battlefield.
Split Up is just so much easier to maximize than we initially thought. Don’t sleep on it, or you might end up on the wrong side of a blowout.
