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Instant
You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you do, sacrifice it unless you pay its mana cost reduced by {2 generic}.
Ban history
Instant-speed 'cheat a creature in'; flagged in 2019 as a possible future unban but still banned.
- Banned in Premodern
- On or before May 2018
- On earliest archived list; likely since 2012 founding
- Category
- Power
- Research
- Research confidence: Medium confidence
- First printed
- First printed in Mirage (8 October 1996).
Why it’s banned
Power level (no published rationale). 2019 post: banning Bargain 'opens up the possibility to unban other cards like Show and Tell and Flash in the future, but these cards must first be tested'.
Official reason
No official reason published. Berlin (2019) named Flash as a possible future unban candidate, implying it was banned partly as a fast-combo safeguard. (Ban List Update 2019 (Martin Berlin, 2019-08-20))
Community & historical context (not an official statement)
Note: Protean Hulk (Dissension, 2006) is NOT in the Premodern pool, so the Legacy Flash-Hulk combo is irrelevant; Premodern Chronicles' claim otherwise is an error. Draftsim cites Flash + Academy Rector instead. Flash was banned in Legacy (June 2007) and restricted in Vintage (June 2008) because of Hulk.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
The story
Flash (Mirage, 1996) only became notorious after its modern Oracle text met Protean Hulk in 2006-07, leading to a Legacy ban and Vintage restriction. Hulk is not in Premodern's pool, but Flash still cheats Academy Rector and other creatures into play cheaply. Berlin said in 2019 that banning Yawgmoth's Bargain opened the door to testing Flash and Show and Tell for unbans; Show and Tell came off in 2022, Flash has not.
Premodern changes
Other formats (Wizards)
Related cards
Sources
- Ban List Update 2019 (Martin Berlin, 2019-08-20)
- Draftsim: The Premodern Ban List: All 33 Cards Banned (A.L. Walser, 2026-04-24) — community
- Premodern Chronicles: Premodern Banlist (2026) — community
- Scryfall card data (printings, release dates)
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- Wayback: premodernmagic.com/banned-watched/ 2018-05-06 (34 banned, 5 watched)
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- premodernmagic.com legal sets endpoint
Research as of 18 October 2026.
In our decks
Not in any of our curated decklists yet. Find similar cards.
Played in tournaments
Share of published Premodern decklists that play Flash (main or sideboard): 2,950 lists from paper events and MTGO in the last 90 days, through .
Not seen in any of the 2,950 tournament lists from the last 90 days. Browse the meta.
Printings (3)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
