Soul Transfer is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
Choose one. If you control an artifact and an enchantment as you cast this spell, you may choose both instead. • Exile target creature or planeswalker. • Return target creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand.
Complete guide
Soul Transfer is a versatile black sorcery from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty that offers powerful removal and recursion in one package. By rewarding players for balancing technology and tradition, it can swing the momentum of a game significantly. Understanding how to unlock its full potential is key to mastering black-based control decks.
Two Paths to Power
By default, Soul Transfer allows you to choose one of two modes: exiling a target creature or planeswalker, or returning a creature or planeswalker card from your graveyard to your hand. However, if you control both an artifact and an enchantment at the moment you cast the spell, you can choose both effects. Crucially, the official rulings state that a single permanent that is both an artifact and an enchantment fulfills this requirement entirely.
Step-by-Step Resolution
When you cast the spell, you first check if the 'both' condition is met and announce your modes. Next, you choose the targets for those modes. Upon resolution, the effects happen in the order printed on the card: first the target on the battlefield is exiled, and then the target card in your graveyard is returned to your hand. If you chose both modes and one target becomes illegal before resolution, the other effect will still resolve normally.
Common Pitfalls
A common mistake is worrying about your permanents after the spell is on the stack. Once you have legally cast Soul Transfer with both modes chosen, it does not matter if your opponent destroys your artifact or enchantment in response; both modes remain locked in. Additionally, remember that the second mode targets a card in the graveyard, so you must have a valid target there at the time of casting if you wish to use that mode.
Strategy and Timing
Soul Transfer is a Sorcery, meaning you can only cast it during your main phase when the stack is empty. It is most effective when you have established a board state with cheap artifacts or enchantments, turning this into a two-for-one trade that removes a threat while recovering your best fallen unit.
Interaction examples
Demonic TutorIf you have an enchantment but lack an artifact, you can use Demonic Tutor to search your library for an artifact land or cheap artifact creature. Once you play that artifact, you now satisfy the condition for Soul Transfer, allowing you to exile an opponent's threat and return a card from your graveyard simultaneously.
Toxic DelugeAfter casting Toxic Deluge to clear the board, your own creatures will be in the graveyard. If you still control an artifact and an enchantment (such as non-creature ones), you can cast Soul Transfer to exile a high-loyalty planeswalker that survived the Deluge, then use the second mode to return your best creature card from the graveyard to your hand to begin rebuilding.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Soul Transfer
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
The artifact and the enchantment may be the same permanent.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
Once you cast Soul Transfer and choose both modes, it doesn't matter what happens to the artifact or enchantment you control in response. Soul Transfer will still have both modes chosen.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
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Meta decks with Soul Transfer
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.