To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost (such as a flashback cost) you're paying, add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions. The mana value of the spell is determined only by its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast the spell was.
2025-06-06
A spell cast using flashback will always be exiled afterward, whether it resolves, is countered, or leaves the stack in some other way.
2025-06-06
"Flashback [cost]" means "You may cast this card from your graveyard if the resulting spell is an instant or sorcery spell by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost" and "If the flashback cost was paid, exile this card instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack."
2025-06-06
If a card with flashback is put into your graveyard during your turn, you can cast it if it's legal to do so before any other player can take any actions.
2025-06-06
You can cast a spell using flashback even if it was somehow put into your graveyard without having been cast.
2025-06-06
You must still follow any timing restrictions and permissions, including those based on the card's type. For instance, you can cast a sorcery using flashback only when you could normally cast a sorcery.
2016-06-08
You draw two cards and discard two cards all while Faithless Looting is resolving. Nothing can happen between the two, and no player may choose to take actions.
Draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Flashback (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
Faithless Looting is a premier graveyard enabler, and that's the whole point — this isn't card advantage, it's card selection and self-mill.
The math matters: you draw two, discard two, so you're card-neutral but filtering toward what you want while intentionally dumping fuel into your graveyard. Flashback lets you do it again, meaning two looting effects from one card. That double-dip is why it's better here than most rummaging spells.
Who wants it:
- Reanimator decks pitching fatties (Krark/Sakashima, Jund value, any deck with Reanimate/Animate Dead) to graveyard.
- Aristocrats and graveyard-recursion shells that love things in the bin.
- Spellslinger/storm decks that want to discard reusable instants/sorceries and rebuy them.
When NOT to play it: Decks that need raw card advantage, not selection — Faithless Looting nets you zero cards, so it's dead weight in fair midrange or token go-wide builds without graveyard payoffs. If your graveyard isn't an asset, skip it. It's a synergy piece, not a generic include.
