Cunning Wish (Original Art)

Cunning Wish is a three-mana blue instant from Judgment (2002), that lets you choose an instant card you own from outside the game (sideboard) – you reveal it and put it into your hand, exiling Cunning Wish. It’s part of the “Wish cycle” from Judgment (Burning Wish, Living Wish, Death Wish and Golden Wish). This card is considered one of the most skill-testing blue spells ever printed, encouraging strategic sideboarding and rewarding format knowledge. At the 2002 World Championship, Carlos Romao’s winning blue-black “Psychatog” deck featuring Cunning Wish was the defining deck of the tournament. A control deck at heart, with lots of card drawing (e.g. Deep Analysis, Fact or Fiction) and countermagic (e.g. Counterspell, Circular Logic and Memory Lapse). This deck wanted to stall an opponent until it could play a devastating Upheaval and Psychatog on the same turn, finishing the game shortly after. Cunning Wish is mostly known for being a Legacy combo staple. It’s played in decks like High Tide / “Solidarity”, Ug Omnitell and Omni-Show. In these decks, Cunning Wish functions as a toolbox tutor, letting you access silver-bullet instants (e.g. Brain Freeze, Turnabout, Blue Sun’s Zenith, Flusterstorm, Wipe Away) at exactly the right moment. Being instant speed is crucial here, as it can be cast mid-combo or played in response to disruption. In the Premodern format, Cunning Wish is also a widely popular card – played in Mono Blue Storm and Ill-Gotten Gains combo decks and control variants such as Psychatog and Ux Control. Cunning Wish is not on the Reserved List.