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Counterplay Guide: How to Beat Blood Sun
Blood Sun is a red enchantment with a deceptively simple text that can snowball into a table-wide disruption. When it hits the battlefield, you draw a card, and suddenly all lands lose every ability except their mana abilities. Translation for the table: your non-mana land tricks, activation-based abilities, and mana-fixing shenanigans take a hard hit. It’s a card that shouts “tempo win” if you let it stick, but it also opens doors for clever, non-land-centric lines of play. Let’s unpack how to answer it—both in the moment and in deckbuilding, with some MTG swagger 🧙♂️🔥💎⚔️.
Blood Sun in a nut, then why it matters
- Mana crutches go on lockdown: Lands lose abilities beyond generating mana. That means fetchlands, utility lands, and tap-down tricks stop functioning as they used to. Cards like Tectonic Edge or Field of Ruin that rely on land interactions may lose some bite, while Avalanches of nonland effects keep ticking away.
- Card draw on entry: You replace the card you drew with another in a vacuum, which can tilt the card-advantage math if your deck relies on playing through a slow setup. This is a gentle nudge toward early action rather than a slow burn toward a locked board.
- Color-cost reality check: Being a red enchantment, its best counters often live in multicolored or white-green space. Don’t forget that red decks can lean into fast, direct answers or aggressive tempo to pressure before the Blood Sun anchors itself.
“If your plan is built around land-based engines, Blood Sun can feel like a misdirection. If your plan is built around reliable mana and nonland interactions, you’ll find a way to stay two steps ahead.” — a veteran on the Ixalan shores 🎲
Direct answers: how to remove Blood Sun from the battlefield
- Enchantment removal across colors: Look for cards that can destroy or exile an enchantment. White and green have broad options, red can lean on hybrid tools, and blue often has counters for permanents if you control a control-heavy deck. In many formats, spell options like Disenchant or Naturalize variants exist in multiple color combinations, or you may use flexible removal that hits noncreature artifacts and enchantments.
- Counter magic and timing: If you’re playing a control shell, holding up counterspells until Blood Sun lands is a clean way to keep your mana base intact and deny a crucial tempo swing.
- Symmetry-breaking tools: Enchantment-centric decks can exile or bounce Blood Sun to reset the board and buy time for your plan. A well-timed bounce spell can also deter immediate recasts, punishing tempo-driven moves.
- Artifact or permanent versatility: Some cards provide flexible responses that can target enchantments or be used for other purposes if Blood Sun is answered elsewhere. It never hurts to have a plan that scales with your hand state and mana availability.
Counterplay by archetype: practical routes for your deck
- Aggro and tempo red decks: Go underneath Blood Sun with a fast clock. Your goal is to end the game before the Sun stabilizes the table. Burn spells, efficient creatures, and evasive threats can overwhelm an unprepared board even with land taps reduced to mana-only.
- Nonland mana acceleration: Lean on mana rocks or nonland sources to cast threats and answers. Sol Ring-like engines or other colorless mana producers let you keep tempo while your lands sit in a constrained mode under Blood Sun’s aura.
- Control and midrange: Build your win condition around big counterplay windows. If you can draw ahead after the enchantment hits, your late-game plans—mass removal suites, polymorph-style plays, or heavy hitters—remain intact because they don’t rely on land abilities beyond mana generation.
- Combo resilience (nonland-based): Some combos rely more on spellcasters or nonland mana that isn’t hindered by Blood Sun’s land-ability suppression. If your deck’s path to victory doesn’t hinge on land-based tutoring or mana-acceleration tied to lands, Blood Sun becomes a speed bump rather than a roadblock.
Deckbuilding tips to outpace Blood Sun
- Prioritize redundancy in disruption: Sideboard or main-deck multiple enchantment removals or flexible answers so you’re never stuck with a single route to dealing with Blood Sun.
- Increase your nonland consistency: Invest in mana sources and spells that don’t hinge on land taps for value. Cards that produce mana or provide card draw without relying on land-based triggers keep your plan intact even if your lands pause non-mana abilities.
- Plan ahead for late-game pressure: If Blood Sun sticks, your late-game threats—planeswalkers, game-ending finishers, or stax-y inevitables—can still slam through. Build around inevitability rather than trying to out-accelerate a tempo deck with lands alone.
- Critical mass of options: A mix of removal, disruption, and resilient threats ensures you’ll find a path to victory regardless of Blood Sun’s timing. Balance your curve so you can answer early threats while still pressing later.
Play examples and practical interactions
Imagine you’re facing a Blood Sun on turn two, and you’ve got a couple of inexpensive threats on the board. If you can answer Blood Sun with a single, efficient removal spell at the right moment, you prevent the table from grinding to a standstill while you advance your plan. If you can anchor a fast clock with early creatures or direct damage, Blood Sun’s land-lock can become a liability for players who leaned into the long game. The key is to stay flexible and read the board—don’t let one enchantment dictate all your decisions 🧙♂️.
Sideboard considerations and meta awareness play a big role here. In tables where enchantment removal is abundant, Blood Sun loses steam quickly; in more enchantment-poor environments, you’ll want to lean on broad, efficient answers and consistent pressure. Remember that your primary objective is to keep mana flowing for your threats while preventing Blood Sun from establishing a stable advantage. The moment you neutralize that tempo swing, you regain the initiative and push toward victory with momentum 🎨🎲.
Closing thoughts: a hopeful path forward
Blood Sun represents a classic “tempo-disruption” threat—fast to deploy, punishing to ignore, and surprisingly robust in the right shell. By embracing a plan that emphasizes nonland mana, timely destruction, and flexible disruption, you can tilt the odds back in your favor. It’s a dance of timing, resource management, and bold plays—one where experienced players ride the wave of tempo to convert a potential lockdown into a clean finish 🧙♂️🔥.
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