Thoughtseize forces a player to reveal his/her hand to you and you get to choose any nonland card for that player to discard.  You then lose 2 life.  It’s sounds awfully like Duress or Ostracize but a lot more flexible.  Duress, for example, will only let you get rid of a non-land non-creature card from their hand while Ostracize only lets you force them to discard a creature of your choice.  It’s a bit frustrating when you use either of those two spells and find your opponent has no creatures or all creatures and lands in his/her hand and cannot discard anything.  Thoughtseize will solve that but for an additional cost of 2 life.

Watch Thoughtseize in Action

Final Thoughts

This card is excellent if losing 2 life isn’t that big of a deal.  Usually it’s best played in the beginning of the game when you still have a sufficient “cushion” to protect yourself against further loss of life.  To learn more about Thoughtseize, please check it out on Amazon.com by following the button below!