Jul 28, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 14 segments
Split second is one of Magic's most unique mechanics—but is it actually good in cEDH?Zach Adler sits down with Trey Mikelson to break down the best split second spells, when they shine, and how they…
Trey MikelsonGuest
Zach AdlerHost
Yeah, so really the centerpiece of this conversation is going to be split-second spells.
The things that you can do while a split-second spell on the stack are pretty much limited to mana abilities and resolving triggers.
And so being able to use these spells on a deck like Raga Shai, which has access to so much control element, is really, really powerful.
I mean, again, no one is saying that no one has used split seconds falls in CDH before, but I, I personally have never seen something to this degree where we're seeing, I believe you guys are on four or five, five, five, possibly six if, Yeah.
But why don't you tell me kind of about how the split second thing started and what it's evolved to now and we'll dive into them one by one.
So, I mean, like I said, me, Zee and Jack have played a lot of games together.
And so we all play this Ragashy deck, and we were playing a bunch of mirrors with it, and the games were getting taken forever, three, five hours long, you know what I mean? And you just can't resolve those reasonably in even top-cut games where we have three-hour time limits or whatever.
Which is a lot of times where you run into these double or triple really sloppy decks.
You run into Kinnans, Ragashys, or slower-style decks that are making top cuts, and And so you have the time and then the games go to time or whatever.
And so we were looking for ways to win the game in the allotted amount of time.
Zerda player who said to us, he's like, why don't you guys run this Molten Disaster card? You guys keep getting into these games with Smothering Tide.
You can give it split second and kill everybody at the table at split second speed.
Yeah, so really the centerpiece of this conversation is going to be split-second spells.
The things that you can do while a split-second spell on the stack are pretty much limited to mana abilities and resolving triggers.
And so being able to use these spells on a deck like Raga Shai, which has access to so much control element, is really, really powerful.
I mean, again, no one is saying that no one has used split seconds falls in CDH before, but I, I personally have never seen something to this degree where we're seeing, I believe you guys are on four or five, five, five, possibly six if, Yeah.
But why don't you tell me kind of about how the split second thing started and what it's evolved to now and we'll dive into them one by one.
So, I mean, like I said, me, Zee and Jack have played a lot of games together.
And so we all play this Ragashy deck, and we were playing a bunch of mirrors with it, and the games were getting taken forever, three, five hours long, you know what I mean? And you just can't resolve those reasonably in even top-cut games where we have three-hour time limits or whatever.
Which is a lot of times where you run into these double or triple really sloppy decks.
You run into Kinnans, Ragashys, or slower-style decks that are making top cuts, and And so you have the time and then the games go to time or whatever.
And so we were looking for ways to win the game in the allotted amount of time.
Zerda player who said to us, he's like, why don't you guys run this Molten Disaster card? You guys keep getting into these games with Smothering Tide.
You can give it split second and kill everybody at the table at split second speed.
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