Stroke of Midnight

Instant

LegalRemovalEDHREC #193

Destroy target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a 1/1 white Human creature token.

Why is this card good?

Stroke of Midnight is one of white's best premium removal spells, and the gold standard for flexibility. Hitting any nonland permanent at instant speed for three mana means you're never dead to a problematic artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, or creature — and white historically struggles with non-creature threats, so this fills a real gap. The 1/1 Human token downside is almost always negligible. You're trading a 1/1 for whatever bomb, Voltron commander, or game-warping enchantment your opponent committed real resources to. That math heavily favors you. Who wants it: essentially every white deck. It's an auto-include in stax, control, midrange, and any deck light on flexible removal. Aristocrats and token decks barely even mind giving the token, since they can leverage or punish it. When to skip it: ultra-competitive cEDH decks may prefer cheaper, less symmetrical answers (Swords to Plowshares, Path), and dedicated go-wide aggro decks sometimes want to hold removal slots for proactive spells. Otherwise, run it.