Stroke of Midnight is a Instant (mana cost {2}{W}; Instant; rarity: uncommon; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Reality Fracture Comm...
Stroke of Midnight is a Instant (mana cost {2}{W}; Instant; rarity: uncommon; most recent printing listed by Scryfall: Reality Fracture Commander). Scryfall lists its Commander legality as legal, Modern legality as legal, and Legacy legality as legal. Here is what the card actually does and how to judge whether your deck wants it.
The card, on its actual text
Destroy target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a 1/1 white Human creature token.
That text is the whole evaluation. Cards earn slots by what their text does in the games you actually play — the turns where mana is tight, the board is contested, and a card drawn late has to matter immediately. Judge this one against the role it would fill in your list, not against a highlight reel, and weigh any drawback printed on it as seriously as the effect itself.
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Which decks want it
Protect the plan, but do not smother it. A small protection package earns its keep when your commander or engine is the target; beyond that, extra protection dilutes the very strategy it guards. Run enough answers to stop a game-ending threat, and spend the remaining slots moving your own plan forward.
If this topic is on your bench, keep going with Shorikai, Genesis Engine Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins — it covers the neighbouring decisions from a different angle, and the two pieces together give you a fuller picture than either one alone.
Keep reading
Keep reading: Shorikai, Genesis Engine Commander Guide: How the Deck Actually Wins and Rules: Does Lifelink Stack? And When Exactly Do You Gain the Life?.
The honest verdict
The wins rarely come from a single spectacular play. They come from the deck doing its ordinary thing one turn earlier than the table expects, then doing it again while opponents are still setting up. Build for that ordinary game first: enough lands to make your drops, enough ramp to reach your key spells on schedule, and enough card flow that one removal spell slows you down instead of ending you.
For current details on this card and everything like it, check the MTGBrew card database — articles like this one deliberately leave prices out, because prices move and your deck decisions should be made on live numbers.
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