Opposition Agent is a powerful and disruptive Magic: The Gathering card that has significantly impacted both casual and competitive formats, especially Commander. It’s a black creature with a unique ability that lets you control your opponents’ searches. Players often misunderstand how it works, especially regarding replacement effects and card ownership. To get the most value from Opposition Agent or to protect yourself from it, it’s important to understand how its mechanics interact with search abilities, library manipulation, and other common gameplay scenarios.
Card Overview
Card Details
Opposition Agent is a black Human Rogue with a converted mana cost of three (2B). It has flash and a power/toughness of 3/2. Its most defining characteristic is its triggered and replacement effect that interferes with your opponents’ search mechanics. Here’s the official text of the card:
- Flash
- You control your opponents while they’re searching their libraries.
- While an opponent is searching their library, they exile each card they find. You may play those cards for as long as they remain exiled, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast them.
This combination makes Opposition Agent an excellent tool for disrupting tutors and ramp spells while gaining access to powerful cards from your opponents’ decks.
How Opposition Agent’s Ability Works
Controlling Search Effects
When an opponent attempts to search their library for a card, Opposition Agent replaces the process. Instead of them choosing a card, you, as the controller of Opposition Agent, make that decision. You look at their library and choose which card or cards they find during the search. Those cards are then exiled under Opposition Agent’s ability instead of being added to your opponent’s hand, battlefield, or other zone.
Replacement Effect Mechanics
Opposition Agent does not let the opponent find any cards themselves. If a spell or ability instructs a player to search their library, that entire process is intercepted. The replacement effect ensures that each card found is exiled, and you, the controller of the Agent, may play those cards for as long as they remain exiled. This means they are under your control, not your opponent’s.
Playing Cards Exiled with Opposition Agent
Timing Restrictions
You can only play the cards you exile using Opposition Agent if the game allows you to. If it’s a land, you must follow the standard rule of playing one land per turn. If it’s a spell, you must cast it at a legal time unless it has flash or a similar ability. The good news is you may spend mana as though it were any color, giving you flexibility regardless of your deck’s colors.
Staying in Exile
The cards you exile with Opposition Agent don’t go into your hand or your opponent’s hand. They stay in exile, and you can continue to play them as long as they remain there. If Opposition Agent leaves the battlefield, the exiled cards stay in exile, but you can no longer play them unless another card effect allows it.
Examples of Common Interactions
Using Tutors
When an opponent casts a tutor spell likeDemonic Tutor,Vampiric Tutor, orGreen Sun’s Zenith, and you flash in Opposition Agent in response, you control the search. Instead of your opponent choosing their combo piece, you pick any card from their library, exile it, and potentially play it later.
Fetch Lands and Ramp
Opposition Agent also stops fetch lands and ramp spells. If an opponent cracks aMisty Rainforestor castsCultivate, you control which land is found (if any). You might choose to exile a basic land they don’t want or pick something irrelevant just to deny them value.
Searching With Restrictions
If a spell or ability limits what can be found (like search your library for a creature card), you can only choose a legal target. You can’t break the restriction just because you’re controlling the search. However, you’re not obligated to find anything if it’s worded as may search. You can decline to find a card altogether, further denying value.
Strategic Uses of Opposition Agent
Disrupting Combo Decks
Combo decks often rely on searching for specific cards to assemble their win condition. Opposition Agent completely shuts this down by taking away their ability to find those key pieces. Flashing it in response to a tutor can break the combo chain and give you a massive tempo advantage.
Gaining Card Advantage
Not only does Opposition Agent prevent your opponents from getting value, but it also gives you access to their best cards. If you exile something powerful, likeTeferi, Hero of Dominariaor a strong creature, you can cast it and use it against them. This turns a disruption tool into a source of card advantage and control.
Political Plays in Commander
In multiplayer formats like Commander, Opposition Agent introduces an element of politics. You might choose to let one player resolve their search unopposed while targeting another player’s critical search. Or, you may exile a key card and promise not to cast it turning the card into a bargaining chip.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Does Not Prevent Drawing
Opposition Agent only affects search effects. It does not prevent players from drawing cards, looting, scrying, or any other card advantage methods that don’t involve searching the library. Players can still dig through their deck the traditional way to find answers or threats.
Dies to Removal
Like most creatures, Opposition Agent is vulnerable to removal. A simpleLightning Bolt,Swords to Plowshares, orTerminatewill eliminate the threat. Experienced players will wait for you to tap out or use your flash opportunity before resuming their search plans.
Timing Is Critical
You must flash in Opposition Agent before the opponent resolves their search. Once a player starts searching, it’s too late to respond. This means you have to anticipate tutors or ramp spells and hold up three mana at the right time to make the card effective.
Best Decks and Archetypes for Opposition Agent
Mono-Black and Dimir
Opposition Agent fits naturally in decks that run heavy black control themes. Mono-black decks enjoy the disruption and card advantage it brings, while Dimir builds use it alongside counterspells and discard to control the board completely.
Stax and Hatebears
In decks focused on denying resources or slowing the game down, like Stax or Hatebear strategies, Opposition Agent plays perfectly into that plan. It pairs well with cards likeAven MindcensororDrannith Magistrateto choke opponent options.
Commander Decks
In EDH, Opposition Agent is a popular inclusion in decks led by commanders likeYuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow,Leovold, Emissary of Trest, andKaalia of the Vast. These decks value disruption and benefit from flash threats that shift momentum in a multiplayer setting.
Understanding how Opposition Agent works can change the outcome of a game. It is a flash-speed threat that not only prevents your opponent from accessing key cards but also gives you the ability to use their resources against them. From shutting down tutors to exiling lands and combo pieces, it serves as both a defensive and offensive tool. Mastering its timing, knowing how to interact with search mechanics, and building around its strengths can make this rogue one of the most feared cards at the table. Whether you’re piloting it or facing it, a deep understanding of how Opposition Agent works is essential for every Magic: The Gathering player.