View from Above 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
Target creature gains flying until end of turn. If you control a white permanent, return View from Above to its owner's hand.
Complete guide
View from Above is a versatile blue instant from the Conflux set that offers repeatable utility for decks featuring white permanents. By granting evasion to your creatures, it can close out games while staying in your hand for future use.
Granting Evasion and Returning to Hand
When you cast View from Above, you choose a target creature to gain flying until the end of the turn. The most unique aspect of this spell is its self-recursion: as the spell resolves, it checks if you control at least one white permanent. If you do, the card moves directly from the stack back to your hand instead of going to the graveyard.
The Importance of Resolution
The check for a white permanent happens only during resolution. If you control a white permanent when you cast the spell but it is removed from the battlefield before View from Above resolves, you will not get the card back. Furthermore, if the targeted creature becomes an illegal target (for example, if it gains shroud or leaves the battlefield), the spell is removed from the stack and put into the graveyard without any of its effects happening, meaning it won't return to your hand even if you have a white permanent.
Timing and Strategy
Since this is an instant, you can use it to surprise an opponent by giving a blocker flying or to push through lethal damage during your combat phase. In a deck with consistent white permanents, this serves as a 'mana sink' that can trigger 'magecraft' abilities or other spell-casting payoffs repeatedly every turn.
Interaction examples
You cast View from Above targeting a creature while you control a white enchantment. Upon resolution, the creature gains flying. Because you control a white permanent, the card returns to your hand, ready to be cast again.
CounterspellYou cast View from Above. Your opponent casts Counterspell targeting it. Because View from Above is countered, it never resolves. The instruction to return it to your hand never happens, and the card is put into your graveyard.
An Offer You Can't RefuseIf you cast View from Above and then target it with your own An Offer You Can't Refuse, View from Above is countered and sent to the graveyard. You will create two Treasure tokens, but you will not get View from Above back to your hand because the spell did not resolve.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : View from Above
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
This checks the colors of permanents you control as it resolves.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
If you control a white permanent, View from Above moves from the stack to your hand as part of its resolution. It never hits the graveyard. If you don’t control a white permanent, View from Above is put into the graveyard from the stack as normal.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
If View from Above doesn’t resolve for any reason (for example, if its target has become illegal), none of its effects happen. It will be put into your graveyard as normal.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Popular combos
Real combos played by the community, sorted by popularity.
Kykar, Wind's Fury + View from Above + Storm-Kiln Artist
- 1Cast View from Above by paying
, targeting Kykar. - 2Kykar and Storm-Kiln Artist trigger.
- 3Resolve the Kykar trigger, creating a 1/1 Spirit creature token.
- 4Resolve the Storm-Kiln Artist trigger, creating a Treasure token.
- 5Resolve View from Above, giving Kykar flying until end of turn and returning View from Above to your hand.
- 6Activate Kykar by sacrificing the Spirit token, adding
. - 7Activate the Treasure token by tapping and sacrificing it, adding .
- 8Repeat.
Veyran, Voice of Duality + Storm-Kiln Artist + View from Above
- 1Cast View from Above by paying , targeting Storm-Kiln Artist.
- 2Storm-Kiln Artist and Veyran trigger twice.
- 3Resolve the Storm-Kiln Artist triggers, creating two Treasure tokens.
- 4Resolve the Veyran triggers, giving it +2/+2 until end of turn.
- 5Resolve View from Above, giving Storm-Kiln Artist flying until end of turn and returning View from Above to your hand.
- 6Activate the two Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing them, adding .
- 7Repeat.
Storm-Kiln Artist + Harmonic Prodigy + View from Above
- 1Cast View from Above by paying , targeting Storm-Kiln Artist.
- 2Storm-Kiln Artist triggers twice and Harmonic Prodigy triggers once.
- 3Resolve the Storm-Kiln Artist triggers, creating two Treasure tokens.
- 4Resolve the Harmonic Prodigy trigger, giving it +1/+1 until end of turn.
- 5Resolve View from Above, giving Storm-Kiln Artist flying until end of turn and returning View from Above to your hand.
- 6Activate the two Treasure tokens by tapping and sacrificing them, adding .
- 7Repeat.
View from Above + Storm-Kiln Artist + Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty
- 1Cast View from Above by paying , targeting Birgi.
- 2Birgi and Storm-Kiln Artist trigger.
- 3Resolve the Birgi trigger, adding .
- 4Resolve the Storm-Kiln Artist trigger, creating a Treasure token.
- 5Resolve View from Above, giving Birgi flying until end of turn and returning View from Above to your hand.
- 6Activate the Treasure token by tapping and sacrificing it, adding .
- 7Repeat.
Goldspan Dragon + View from Above
- 1Cast View from Above by paying , targeting Goldspan Dragon.
- 2Goldspan Dragon triggers, creating a Treasure token.
- 3Resolve View from Above, returning it to your hand.
- 4Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding .
- 5Repeat.
Orvar, the All-Form + View from Above + Sapphire Medallion
- 1Activate an animated land by tapping it, adding at least .
- 2Cast View from Above by paying , targeting the animated land.
- 3Orvar triggers, creating a token copy of the animated land that is not a creature.
- 4Resolve View from Above, returning it to your hand.
- 5Activate the land token by tapping it, adding at least .
- 6Repeat from step 2.
Orvar, the All-Form + View from Above + Peregrine Drake
- 1Cast View from Above targeting Peregrine Drake.
- 2Orvar triggers, creating a token copy of Peregrine Drake.
- 3The token Peregrine Drake enters, untapping five lands you control.
- 4View from Above resolves, returning to your hand.
- 5Repeat.
- 6Once you have infinite mana, you may target any other permanents you control in step 1, gaining infinite copies of those permanents in step 2.
Orvar, the All-Form + View from Above + Storm-Kiln Artist
- 1Activate an animated land by tapping it, adding at least .
- 2Cast View from Above by paying , targeting the animated land.
- 3Orvar and Storm-Kiln Artist trigger.
- 4Resolve the Storm-Kiln Artist trigger, creating a Treasure token.
- 5Resolve the Orvar trigger, creating a token copy of the animated land that is not a creature.
- 6Resolve View from Above, returning it to your hand.
- 7Activate the land token by tapping it, adding at least .
- 8Activate the Treasure by tapping and sacrificing it, adding .
Legal formats
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Meta decks with View from Above
No archived Top 8 deck with this card yet.