Tragic Arrogance might seem like a card that hits both players the same, but you can definitely make it work to your advantage. Obviously if they have many creatures to your few, that’s good value. Or if they have only creatures while you have one artifact, creature, enchantment and planeswalker, that’s also pretty good for you. But there’s another way to get maximum value from this complicated spell.

Lets say you control Boon Satyr, Hangarback Walker, and Bow of Nylea. Your opponent controls a Hangarback Walker, Dragonlord Silumgar controlling your Courser of Kruphix, and Whip of Erebos. As you resolve Tragic Arrogance, you choose your Boon Satyr as an enchantment, Hangarback Walker as a creature, and Bow of Nylea as an artifact. You won’t have to sacrifice anything. For your opponent, you choose Courser of Kruphix as an enchantment AND as a creature, and Hangarback Walker as an artifact. Your opponent must sacrifice Dragonlord Silumgar and Whip of Erebos, giving you back your Courser. That’s a pretty big swing in the game! Similarly, you could have chosen Hangarback Walker as both creature and artifact, and Courser as enchantment, forcing the same sacrifices.

And if someone had been silly enough to enchant Whip of Erebos with Ensoul Artifact, you could have chosen that one card as creature, enchantment and artifact!

Just keep this in mind the next time you find yourself casting Tragic Arrogance while an opponent controls either an artifact creature, and enchantment creature, or an enchantment artifact!

Today’s Rules Tip written by Josh Stansfield