First printed in Tarkir: Dragonstorm (2025)

All 4 prints

Secret Lair Promo (SLP) #56, 2026
Planeswalker Championship Promos (PWCS) #2026-6, 2026
Tarkir: Dragonstorm (TDM) #422, 2025
Tarkir: Dragonstorm (TDM) #94, 2025

Strategic Betrayal

Sorcery

Target opponent exiles a creature they control and their graveyard.

As Sultai blades threatened Qatros city walls, Mehtma of House Fenzala turned her weapons on her political rivals.

Illustrated by: Flavio Greco Paglia

Legality

Legal in: Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Not legal in: Pauper, Penny Dreadful, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH

Ruling (1)

2025-04-04 The opponent chooses which creature to exile as Strategic Betrayal resolves. If they don’t control any creatures at that time, they simply exile their graveyard.

Prices

MTGO price: 0.63 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 1 Nov 2026).

In Limited on MTG Arena

Win rates in Arena drafts and sealed, retrieved from 17Lands (CC BY 4.0).

Win rates of Strategic Betrayal in Limited
Set	GIH WR	vs set	IWD	Games
Tarkir: Dragonstorm (TDM), Premier Draft	55.0%	0.0	+2.8	10499
Tarkir: Dragonstorm (TDM), Sealed	57.9%	+0.6	+5.0	819

GIH WR: win rate of the games in which the card was in the opening hand or drawn
vs set: points above or below the average win rate of all decks in the set
IWD: improvement when drawn: GIH WR minus the win rate when the card stayed in the library
Games: games in which the card was seen

Standard In 805 of 1778 decks (45.3%), most in Dimir Midrange

Staple: main deck, 13% of decks (#30); sideboard, 33% of decks (#2)

Share of decks

45.3%

▲ 7.6 vs previous 30 days

Weekly, last 90 days

Decks

805

343 main, 782 sideboard

Avg. copies

1.3

in the main deck

Win rate

60%

145 top 8 (challenges only)

Archetypes by metagame share

Archetype	Meta	Play it
Dimir Midrange	10.6%	100%
Orzhov Lifegain	9.5%	82%
UB (unclassified)	9.2%	98%
BRG (unclassified)	8.3%	96%
Azorius Control	6.0%	3%
WUBR (unclassified)	3.6%	91%
BR (unclassified)	2.5%	41%
UBR (unclassified)	2.2%	40%

Played together with

Card	Together	Lift
Watery Grave	87%	3.7
Requiting Hex	87%	2.9
Bitter Triumph	86%	3.4
Gloomlake Verge	84%	3.6
Restless Reef	82%	4.1
Shipwreck Marsh	81%	4.3
Theorix Charm	60%	4.5
Spell Snare	49%	2.2
Shoot the Sheriff	49%	3.7
Deadly Cover-Up	46%	4.2

Best win rate

Deck	Record
BRG pizzangry in Standard Challenge 16	9-0 100%
UB peter780108 in Standard Challenge 32	9-0 100%
Dimir Midrange Ale_Mtg in Standard Championship Week Finals	10-1 91%
UB pepeteam in Standard Challenge 32	9-1 90%
Dimir Midrange claudioh in Standard Challenge 16	8-1 89%
Dimir Midrange Pafru in Standard Challenge 16	8-1 89%
Dimir Midrange MattTumavitch13 in Standard Challenge 32	8-1 89%
BRG Univerce in Standard Challenge 32	8-1 89%

Challenges only: MTGO publishes only the 5-0 league decks.

Latest decks

Deck	Copies	Finish
UBR McWinSauce, 31 Oct	1 side	#3 (top 8) of 187 8-2
BRG NickBolas90, 31 Oct	2 side	#4 (top 8) of 187 8-2
UB tchuco, 31 Oct	1 main 1 side	#5 (top 8) of 187 7-2
BRG Denisevich, 31 Oct	2 side	#10 of 187 6-2
Dimir Midrange Strongmind, 31 Oct	2 main 2 side	#12 of 187 6-2
Orzhov Lifegain hyyy1, 31 Oct	1 side	#14 of 187 6-2
Dimir Midrange ls149950, 31 Oct	2 main 1 side	#15 of 187 6-2
BRG Arcbound_Papi, 31 Oct	3 side	#18 of 187 6-2

Pioneer In 59 of 649 decks (9.1%), most in Golgari Midrange

Staple: sideboard, 3% of decks (#69)

Share of decks

9.1%

▲ 7.4 vs previous 30 days

Weekly, last 90 days

Decks

2 main, 57 sideboard

Avg. copies

1.5

in the main deck

Win rate

60%

17 top 8 (challenges only)