The 33 Best Flicker Targets and Payoffs in Magic Ranked

Ghostly Flicker | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

Flicker decks are eternally popular, for good reason. The card quality is often high since you play powerful creatures with two-for-ones tied to their enters abilities. Instant-speed flicker effects give you lots of options, and it’s just satisfying to overwhelm your opponents by flooding the stack.

If you want to take your Ghostly Flicker beyond flickering Aether Channeler and a random cantrip, this article is for you: I’ve compiled some of the best flicker payoffs to level up your shenanigans!

What Are Flicker Targets and Payoffs in MTG?

Syr Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar | Illustration by Ryan Pancoast

Flicker targets and payoffs are cards that reward you for using flicker spells (spells that exile a permanent, then return it to play under your control) on themselves or other permanents. This is a broad category. For the most part, flicker effects pair well with permanents that have strong enters abilities.

We have guides to the best enters abilities in each color (white , blue , black , red , green ), so I’ve avoided cards worth flickering strictly for their enters ability. While some permanents have great enters abilities, they have a specific angle or trick that makes them better with flicker spells than the average ETB card.

In addition to those cards, I’ve included spells that reward you for permanents that leave play, cards with strong leaves the battlefield triggers, cards that reward you for exiling cards, and cards that just synergize really, really well with flicker effects.

#33. Whip of Erebos

Though very costly—perhaps too costly, given power creep’s influence—Whip of Erebos pairs very well with flicker effects because flickering the creature you reanimate lets that creature stick around. It also lets you re-reanimate it if it dies again, so you can bully your friends with the same, never-dying Archon of Cruelty.

#32. Moira and Teshar

Moira and Teshar has a super niche interaction with flicker spells. Its triggered ability effectively unearths permanents, so they’ll go to exile if they leave the battlefield for any zone. But if you exile the permanent with a flicker effect, the replacement effect never happens because it went to exile, and the permanent returns to play without getting exiled later. Though this trick works with any unearth card like Cityscape Leveler, it works best with this commander.

#31. Tidehollow Sculler

Tidehollow Sculler is an old-school flicker target that relies on some rules nonsense. The enters ability that exiles a card from your opponents’ hand and the ability that returns said card are two separate abilities, so they trigger separately. If you flicker Sculler in response to the enters ability, it returns to play with the first exile ability still on the stack. Because this is a new instance of Tidehollow Sculler, it triggers again, and you steal a card. Then the original exile ability resolves, except your opponent has no chance to get that card back!

This trick works with any of these old cards whose exile and return abilities are separated, like Fiend Hunter and Mesmeric Fiend.

#30. Reality Acid

In a vacuum, Reality Acid slowly melts an opposing creature. Throw flicker effects into the mix and you suddenly have a strong removal engine: Flickering the Acid instantly kills the enchanted creature.

Even better, when a flickered aura comes back into play, you must attach it to a legal permanent. This has two boons: First, you get repeated removal for just 3 mana plus your flicker effect. Second, perhaps more importantly, this reattachment doesn’t target, so you can attach Reality Acid to creatures with hexproof and shroud to remove even the most obnoxious permanents.

#29. Threaten Effects

Red has endless Threaten effects—cards that steal an opponent’s creature until the end of the turn. They pair nicely with flicker effects: If you flicker a permanent and return it to play, it counts as a new instance of said permanent, so it’s no longer beholden to the Threaten’s end of turn clause.

Be mindful of which flicker spells you play with threatens: Some flicker spells return the permanent under your control and others return it under its owner’s control. You need flicker effects like Conjurer's Closet that return the permanent under your control for this combo to work.

#28. Genku, Future Shaper

Genku, Future Shaper has a hard cap on its utility since you can only trigger it three times a turn, but that’s plenty, assuming you can reliably trigger it all three times. Flooding the board with tokens is a great reward for flickering stuff, and Genku’s activated ability gives you a meaningful win condition.

#27. Strionic Resonator

Admittedly, Strionic Resonator is more of a sideways payoff for flicker effects. It doesn’t directly work with, say, Ghostly Flicker, but you’d never play Ghostly Flicker without cards it triggers in some way. Those triggers—LTB, ETB, whatever—are the reason to run the Resonator. If you thought one Mulldrifter trigger was good, why not two?

#26. Mystic Remora

All cumulative upkeep cards technically work well with flicker effects, but Mystic Remora is among the strongest, and one of the easiest to flicker. Since flickering a permanent knocks the counters off it, you can keep Mystic Remora around for far longer than you want to pay for it—though there are diminishing returns.

#25. Ulamog, the Defiler

Ulamog, the Defiler makes the cut due to a very strange rules interaction: If you flicker this, when it comes back into play, Ulamog sees itself as the most expensive card in exile, thus entering with 11 +1/+1 counters. Toss in a haste enabler and annihilator 11 ensures that one player stops participating in the game.

#24. Ranar the Ever-Watchful

Azorius () is generally the best color pair for flicker decks, so you should have easy access to Ranar the Ever-Watchful. It pairs best with flicker engines like Thassa, Deep-Dwelling and Displacer Kitten to trigger its ability as often as possible to swarm the battlefield with spirits.

#23. The Ozolith

The Ozolith looks pretty unassuming but spirals out of control with the right build. Flicker effects help here since they let you move counters to The Ozolith without losing the creature in the process. Once you load The Ozolith with counters, you can move them to permanents like Walking Ballista or Animar, Soul of Elements to enable explosive, potentially game-ending turns.

#22. Toothy, Imaginary Friend

If you flicker Toothy, Imaginary Friend with a spell like Essence Flux that returns it to play instantly, Toothy returns to play before the draw trigger resolves. That means it sees all the cards it draws: If Toothy had five counters on it pre-flicker, you draw five cards and replace them straight away. If you have a counter doubler—perhaps Pir, Imaginative Rascal—you even net counters, which makes the next flicker spell even more devastating.

#21. Syr Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar

Syr Vondam, Sunstar Exemplar shines as both a flicker payoff, as it grows while you flicker other permanents, and a flicker target, since flickering it with 4 power triggers the kill spell. Trying to pair this with anthems like Flowering of the White Tree to minimize the downtime between destroying permanents.

#20. Anticausal Vestige

The primary flicker trick with Anticausal Vestige is to cast it for its warp cost, then flicker it so you get the card draw and the massive creature for very little mana. Once in play, it’s still an amazing flicker target—drawing cards and putting permanents into play is very, very strong, especially when attached to a large colorless body. Since it works on leaveing the battlefield rather than entering, it even helps to rebuild post-wrath.

#19. Thragtusk

Thragtusk shines due to its combination of an enters and leaves ability. It’s a great anti-aggro tool that stabilizes you straight away with 5 life and an annoying body that often dies into a second body, but flicker effects make it even better: It’s hard to win games when your opponent gains 15 life and makes multiple 3/3s.

#18. Shallow Grave + Corpse Dance

Though Shallow Grave and Corpse Dance are second-rate reanimation spells compared to cards like Animate Dead and Reanimate, flicker effects balance the scales since they allow you to keep whatever you reanimate. It’s particularly useful because these two instants can reanimate Eldrazi titans and other creatures that would shuffle themselves back into your library.

#17. Muldrotha, the Gravetide + Pantlaza, Sun-Favored

What do Muldrotha, the Gravetide and Pantlaza, Sun-Favored have in common? They let you do something once each turn. And they’re very valuable abilities: Discovering and casting spells from your graveyard can run away with the game. Imagine if you could do it multiple times.

When you flicker a permanent, it counts as a new instance of said permanent, so you can perform that “once per turn” action again. Note that this doesn’t work with cards that care about your first or second spell; those track things differently. But these cards? You can cast all the enchantments you like by flickering Muldrotha or discover endless caverns with Pantlaza. Other cards benefit from this—Lurrus of the Dream-Den, Serra Paragon—but these popular commanders benefit from it most.

#16. Reveillark

One of the scariest leaves the battlefield cards in Magic, Reveillark often sees play as a combo enabler alongside Karmic Guide. Even when you don’t combo off, you can construct strong engines by flickering this elemental to reanimate creatures like Bounty Agent and Accursed Marauder that sacrifice themselves to impact the board.

#15. Soulherder

Soulherder is a perfect example of a self-fueling engine: It’s the flicker spell and flicker payoff in one package. A reliable blink card that triggers every turn makes your flicker deck more powerful and consistent; since you only need to invest mana into Soulherder once, it gives you more time to establish your board and play other flicker spells or creatures worth blinking.

#14. The Wandering Emperor

Few effects actually flicker planeswalkers, but those that do pair beautifully with The Wandering Emperor because you can activate its abilities at instant speed. You can hit this with Teferi's Time Twist and still trigger it on your end step, or go nuts with Displacer Kitten during another player’s combat step.

#13. Cryogen Relic

Cryogen Relic is an exceptional flicker target because it has a leaves the battlefield and enters the battlefield trigger; both trigger when you hit this with Teferi's Time Twist or what have you. It makes every flicker spell at worst a draw-two.

#12. Wernog, Rider’s Chaplain

Wernog, Rider's Chaplain (sometimes known as Will the Wise) is a passable flicker target because its ability triggers when it enters or leaves play. You get at least two Clues plus 6 damage across the board—potentially more Clues if your opponents investigate alongside you. That’s among the most efficient Clue production in the game.

#11. Peregrine Drake

Perhaps the most famous combo enabler among flicker payoffs, Peregrine Drake can pull its weight without going infinite. Almost any effect that can flicker this (or Great Whale or Palinchron) nets mana.

#10. Eternal Witness + Archaeomancer

Eternal Witness, Archaeomancer, and other creatures that return instants to your hand on ETB are combos with flicker effects like Ghostly Flicker that flicker two permanents. Because of timing and the stack, the enters ability of the flickered Witness can return the flicker spell to your hand, so you can cast it as often as you have the mana to pay for it. That alone is underwhelming, but it gets broken once you add another card to flicker: Maybe Mulldrifter for on-demand Divinations, or Mystic Snake for endless countermagic, or Ravenous Chupacabra to prevent your opponents from maintaining a board.

#9. Quantum Riddler + Mulldrifter

If you’ve touched a Constructed format since Edge of Eternities dropped, you’ve probably seen somebody combine Quantum Riddler and flicker effects. The Riddler and Mulldrifter are busted with flicker effects for a similar reason: You can cast them for a greatly reduced cost via warp or evoke, then flicker them. The flickered permanent is a new instance of the card, so it isn’t exiled or sacrificed, and you get a second enters trigger. We’re talking 3-4 mana for a flying creature that drew at least two cards—what’s not to love?

#8. Preston, the Vanisher

Flicker effects are the best enabler for Preston, the Vanisher’s powerful ability. It works similarly to ETB doublers like Panharmonicon, except it scales much better with them and token doublers, plus you can use it as the crux of infinite combos with cards like Felidar Guardian. Part combo piece, part value engine, Preston is a flicker deck’s ideal bomb.

#7. Aura Shards

Some players simply can’t play the game with Aura Shards around, especially when you fuel it with flicker effects to pummel artifacts and enchantments out of existence. It plays very well with cards like Liquimetal Torque and Mycosynth Lattice that turn permanents into artifacts to shatter.

#6. Galadriel, Light of Valinor

If you can trigger all three of Galadriel, Light of Valinor’s alliance abilities, you have a great shot at winning. That’s a team-wide power boost, a free Dark Ritual, and a free Preordain each turn. Flicker effects are the perfect enabler here, especially the 1- or 2-mana ones that go mana positive with the ability.

#5. Basalt Monolith + Grim Monolith + Mana Vault

The trifecta of Basalt Monolith, Grim Monolith, and Mana Vault play well with flicker effects that cost less than 3 mana because it makes them mana-positive (you can achieve a similar result with Ghostly Flicker to blink two of them). The best flicker effect for this is Displacer Kitten, but anything that untaps these rocks leads to explosive, storm-style turns.

#4. Dour Port-Mage

Dour Port-Mage is one of the strongest flicker payoffs printed in recent years. The potential card draw out of this 2-mana spell is obscene, and the activated ability lets you reset your enters abilities cards and doubles as protection. Pair this with something like Soulherder that flickers a card each turn, and your opponents will be desperate to find a removal spell.

#3. Solitude

It’s fundamentally unfair to chew through your opponents’ boards and pressure them for as little as 1 mana. Flicker decks rarely struggle with card advantage, and Solitude ensures they need not struggle with interaction, either.

#2. Grief

A thousand Modern players shuddered at the memory of Grief plus Ephemerate stripping their hand of any use. While that potent combo has been (rightfully) banned in Modern, it’s still a great strategy in Cube. It’s backbreaking to spend 1 mana for a 3/2 that makes your opponent discard two cards, and it’s fully capable of wrapping up a game turn 1. This is better suited for Constructed or Cube than Commander.

#1. Ketramose, the New Dawn

Ketramose, the New Dawn is the exile payoff in Magic. Flicker effects are one of the most efficient ways to trigger Ketramose, which makes it a natural inclusion in any Orzhov+ (+) blink shell. Your flicker effect already impacts the board since it nets a strong enters ability; tacking additional card advantage to that takes over the game quickly.

Wrap Up

Genku, Future Shaper | Illustration by Chuck Lukacs

Flicker effects are already very powerful because they compound the value of already-strong permanents with strong enters abilities. But the right support adds new dimension to the deck, which allows you to construct powerful value engines that your opponents must disrupt, or lose the game to.

What’s your favorite flicker payoff? How do you get the most from your Ghostly Flicker? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!