Pointed Discussion

Masterful card. Too deadly to be used by a novice mage. The flavor matches the play text, art and card name perfectly. I wish the quote was attributed to whoever that demon is in the art. My first wish, however, is that this card didnt have such an unfair draw back compared to Burning Wish.

versatile, dangerous, cheap

This card is deadly because you don't have to reveal the card you take. Sure, you loose half your life, bur that's just how black works. You pay life to get power, but for all you know, you might be tutoring a Platinum Angel, or maybe one of your powerful black cards, that you couldn't choose between when making the deck, and decided to put the Death Wish in thair slot instead.

Burning wish doesn't work for ANY card so there needs to be some drawback. ANY card, ANYthing, seems like it could be worth it, a Perish vs an elf deck for example.

I run four of these in my Lich deck. Because half of zero is still zero!

@ Gilgamesh3000 I'm pretty sure thats a genie like Juzam Djinn instead of a demon. And appropriate that it deals you damage too.

@Alan13: No, that's Charles Bronson :P

Also, with Children of Korlis on the battlefield, you won't have to worry about playing this card early. That being said, the life loss isn't all that damaging late game and is well worth whatever card you'd be putting into your hand.

''The victim nearly killed himself while playing Magic the Gathering.''
Well, I guess you could say...
*puts shades on*
He had a Death Wish

YEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Is the flavor text implying that he should have wished for immortality instead?

@htgtmd: If he'd wished for immortality, the flavour text would probably be something like "He wished for immortality, but not for the means to enjoy it."

Is it possible to add a card from a different card game entirely? I do apologize if this is to much off topic.

@Kyonshee
Looking forward to casting Death Wish five times to assemble Exodia the Forbidden One?

Player with a Death Wish: Platinum Emperion does what, exactly?

Opponent playing "I Hate Artifacts".dec: Do you have a Death Wish or something?

Player with a Death Wish: well, actually... :)

ProTip: Use this to fetch your credit card. You may now buy Magic cards for your deck in the middle of the game. No, it actually works: Use your credit card to buy Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is now a card you own outside the game. Reverberate Death Wish.

*Sunglasses*
Screw the Rules I Have Money!

5/1/2007 If you fail to find something, you still exile this.
5/1/2007 If you fail to find something, you still lose half your life, rounded up.

Friend: I cast death wish! You're doom is at hand!

Me: Meh.

Friend: Why are you so unimpressed? . . . wait, where are my other cards?

Me: I don't know what you're talking about :-)

Most flavorful wish if you ask me, because it is true to its flavor text. You really get power, but at the price of half your life.

Could be a vintage/legacy tutor if you leave a copy of what you need in sideboard. Consider using lot of very specific hate if you can stand the {1}{B}{B} cost tacked onto it. This would probably be a good helper in a Tendrils of Agony deck. Keep a copy of Tendrils + some other combo pieces (Yawgmoth's will being a great example in vintage) and then you can get it out of sideboard for free plus you get to pretend you have 4 copies in the deck.

Half your life doesn't matter if you just won the game.

You need Mind Over Matter, a land enchanted with Fertile Ground, a Vedalken Orrery, and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage's Emblem on the field, and a Pull From Eternity and Death Wish in your hand.
Tap your land for {B}{B}, then discard a card to untap it. The discarded card comes back to your hand (this means infinite mana of any colors). Tap again for {W}{W}, cast Death Wish for something to keep your life up, like Children of Korlis, Platinum Emperion, or Healing Salve. Use Pull From Eternity to put Death Wish back into your hand via the graveyard. Use infinite mana to cast the wished card (at instant speed). Repeat with any card you own.
You can even play lands instantly by wishing Fervor and Walking Atlas, perhaps with Amulet of Vigor.

So what do you do with your newly acquired infinite power?

While they're Mindslavered, use Boomerang, Wit's End, Pull From Eternity, and Reminisce to put their hand, graveyard and exile zone into their library. Then have them cast infinite Hive Minded Researches until their whole collection is in their deck. Wish for Rebirth and cast it until they ante their library. Donate them a Sorrow's Path and keep tapping and untapping it with Mind Over Matter, unless you have a better way of winning (you don't). You have just assimilated your opponent.

This was a hotly debated card when it was released. The majority consensus at the time seemed to be that it wasn't quite worth it to lose that much life for one card, even if it's any card in the world. Of course at this website it's rated highly since paying ANY amount of life for something is acceptable around here.

My own take on this card: It's probably worth it in a good number of situations... just barely. 3.75/5

Stick this onto a Panoptic Mirror and have any card out to negate life loss. You figure out the rest.

I wonder why no one used this in place of burning wish in long.dec (a vintage storm deck developed by pro player mike long that used burning wish to effectively run 4 Yawgmoth's will, and use that to build up a storm count of 10 and kill with a lethal tendrils of agony with a disgusting amount of consistency) i don't think the double black in the cost is restrictive, so it has to be the life loss, but why does that matter if your winning that turn? There must be a reason.

@Lazrbeams
Actually Death Wish was used as the primary replacement after the restriction of Burning Wish (now lifted). The derivatives of Burning Long were referred to as GrimLong or DeathLong, relying on Grim Tutor and Death Wish to find the then-recently-restricted Lion's Eye Diamond.

The main reason for using Burning Wish over Death Wish is the mana cost. Since your wishboard is made up of sorceries anyway, and you can often be wishing two to four times per turn during your combo, the extra mana you save over Death Wish can be used to casting your other business spells, such as Yawgmoth's Will, Tendrils of Agony, or more Burning Wishes to find them. Death Wish also severely restricts the number of cards you can draw with Necropotence or Yawgmoth's Bargain, though this is a secondary concern.

Really, it all comes down to pure efficiency. Even though Death Wish has the advantage of being cast off of a single Dark Ritual, the extra mana you save on using Burning Wish tends to be more useful in most circumstances.