Heist in MTG Arena: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Weave the Nightmare | Illustration by Wayne Wu

One of the main advantages of having a digital client for MTG is that designers get to experiment with digital-only mechanics for formats like Alchemy. This leads to some true innovation that sometimes even makes the jump to paper MTG, or that inspires similar, future paper mechanics.

Heist is one of these, and it was developed to fit the flavor of Outlaws of Thunder Junction and its namesake outlaws, and to bolster the crime mechanic. Heist is a somewhat complicated mechanic, but it’s a powerful one, so I’m covering it at length here.

Let’s dive in!

How Does Heist Work?

Triumphant Getaway | Illustration by Caio Monteiro

Heist is a mechanic that allows you to steal cards from your opponent’s library and cast them as though they were your own, kind of like Gonti, Lord of Luxury works. This keyword action uses the phrase: “Heist target opponent’s library.”

Whenever you heist, you’ll see three random nonland cards from your opponent’s library, choose one of them, and exile it face down. You can cast the exiled card for as long as it’s exiled, and you can pay mana of any color to cast it. The other two cards you saw but didn’t choose go back to your opponent’s library in their original positions, so the library isn’t shuffled. Only you get to see the nonland cards, so your opponent won’t ever know what you’ve seen and exiled.

We can shortcut this mechanic to getting one of three cards for free from your opponent’s library. It’s never going to be a land, and you can bypass color-intensive costs entirely. It’s all upside, and that’s why it’s so powerful.

The History of Heist in MTG

Heist is mainly a Grixis () mechanic, with most designs in black, and the combinations of BR and UB. It was conceived to boost the crime theme in Outlaws of Thunder Junction, considering that heisting a library is a crime.

Six heist cards were designed for Alchemy: Outlaws of Thunder Junction, and we also got a heist card each in Alchemy: Duskmourn and Alchemy: Edge of Eternities. The mechanic looks like it’ll be used here and there in Alchemy sets to spice things up. The cards have also appeared pretty extensively in various Arena Cubes.

Can You Heist a Land?

No, you can’t. Heist specifically says three random nonland cards, so it’s not possible to heist lands.

Does the Opponent See What Card I Heisted?

No. Your opponent won’t ever see what’s being heisted, which makes sense considering the mechanic’s theme. When you heist, you exile a card face down, and the cards you saw aren’t ever revealed to your opponent. That’s why it’s a digital-only mechanic, because implementing this in paper would be really hard, especially without shuffling. You’d need a judge to get random nonland cards from your opponent’s deck.

What Happens to the Other Two Cards That Weren’t Chosen?

Heist doesn’t alter the order of the cards in your opponent’s library. It simply shows you the cards, keeping the non-chosen cards in their original position. It’s digital-only Magic. So, if your opponent has scried two cards to the top and you heist your opponent’s library after that, chances are that the scried cards are still at the top of their library.

Do You Have to Pay the Correct Colors of Mana for Heisted Cards?

No. You can spend mana of any color to cast a card that you’ve heisted. It makes a lot of sense, because if I’m black-red and I heist a library full of white cards, I need to cast those white cards without relying on Treasure tokens or other mana fixing or filtering. In fact, this is the standard text for cards that let you play cards from your opponent’s library, at least in blue and black.

What If I Lose the Permanent That Heisted a Card? Can I Still Cast the Stolen Card?

The heisted card is unrelated to the card that heisted it. The card becomes exiled face down for the rest of the game, and you can cast it as long as it remains exiled. So if your Thieving Aven heisted a card and got killed, you can still cast the card.

Is Heist Good on Arena?

Heist is actually very good, and one of the most powerful digital-only mechanics on MTG Arena. Many MTG players claim cards like Grenzo, Crooked Jailer are meta-warping and that they should be banned or nerfed (Grenzo was in fact changed). Of course, in a Cube environment, choosing cards from your opponent’s library and casting them is very strong since all cards are powerful, and you can cast cards outside of your color pie, too. Heist cards also see a lot of play in Historic and Alchemy.

Why Aren’t There Any Paper Heist Cards?

It’s almost impossible to heist in paper MTG. The mechanic could be rewritten for something closer to Gonti, Lord of Luxury or Outrageous Robbery. You need to have a way to get random nonland cards from your opponent’s library without seeing any other cards, and they can’t know which cards are land and nonland. That’s easy to implement in a digital platform with the client doing all the work, but you’d need a third person to do it in real life. Siphon Insight is an example of a way to “heist” that works in paper MTG, but it’s an adaptation at best, and it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get two nonland cards to choose from.

Gallery and List of Heist Cards

• Thieving Aven
• Grave Expectations
• Impetuous Lootmonger
• Weave the Nightmare
• Axavar, Fate Thief
• Grenzo, Crooked Jailer
• Polterheist
• Triumphant Getaway

Best Heist Cards

#6. Grave Expectations

Grave Expectations lets you heist at instant speed for just 1 mana, making it a very strong cantrip. Sometimes, the exile cards from the graveyard clause will be solid, and that’s a good effect to have in Constructed formats as a failsafe.

#5. Weave the Nightmare

Weave the Nightmare goes from okay to bonkers. Choosing just one of the modes is fine, but if you control a stolen nonland permanent, then you’re golden. Three mana for two modes is absurd, at which point you can have some combination of a Negate, removal, and a heist.

#4. Thieving Aven

As an uncommon, Thieving Aven is an “improved” Thief of Sanity, a card that sees play in Constructed formats and Cube. Heisting every turn you deal combat damage is strong, and the 1/4 flying body helps to attack every turn.

#3. Polterheist

Polterheist doesn’t even need to connect to heist; just attacking does the trick. It’s also a 3/3 with relevant protection in an aggressive deck, and if your opponent doesn’t kill it, you’ll keep getting card advantage.

#2. Triumphant Getaway

Triumphant Getaway is an enabler and payoff for heist, and you can flash it in to heist your opponent’s library twice. And each time you cast one of their spells, you drain them for 2 life. This is a card people would like to have in their paper theft decks for the build-around aspect, even if there’s some adaptation for the heist mechanic (like exile their first two cards face down).

#1. Grenzo, Crooked Jailer

Grenzo, Crooked Jailer is an absolute powerhouse, offering you card selection, card advantage, and a free spell when it enters right away. There's not a 3-mana restriction on the cards you can cast for free, which wasn't on the original pre-nerfed version of Grenzo. The weaker version is still a powerhouse, and it works exceptionally well with heisted instants.

Best Heist Payoffs

Most heist cards also work as payoffs for heisting cards, since you get some random bonuses for controlling cards you don’t own. Like Weave the Nightmare, a card that’s strong in a deck built to take advantage of heisting while also allowing you to heist. Triumphant Getaway is also one of those cases.

As for some other payoffs for the mechanic, every time you heist an opponent’s library, you’re committing a crime, and many black/red cards or Grixis cards are payoffs for the crimes you commit.

Many cards, especially in blue and black, reward you for casting spells or controlling permanents you don’t own. Those form the basis of what we call theft decks. Of course, heist fits perfectly in those. Cards like Agent of Treachery are interesting in these scenarios.

Whenever you heist a card, you’ll cast a spell from exile, and many cards support that strategy. There’s Hoarding Broodlord, Party Crasher, and Extraordinary Journey, just to cite a few Arena-viable cards.

Wrap Up

Thieving Aven | Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Heist is pretty powerful, and many Alchemy players have already called for a nerf on the mechanic. It’s interesting that it has some knobs to adjust, should it be considered worthy of a nerf. Maybe you’ll choose between one less card, or the mechanic can abandon the “nonland” clause entirely. On the bright side, if you steal a permanent from your opponent and they blink it, you’re in a tight spot now, so at least there’s a small amount of counterplay.

What do you think of heist, guys? Do you enjoy playing with and against the mechanic? How could it be implemented in paper Magic (with some alterations)? Let me know what you think in the comments section below, or over on our Draftsim Discord.

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Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there!