When your opponent casts a spell in Magic: The Gathering, you get the chance to respond with one of your own spells or abilities. But what happens if their spell is so fast that you can't react? In an instant, your creatures may be destroyed, your artifacts obliterated, and your opponent could win the game.

Split second cards occupy a unique space in terms of difficulty when trying to interact with them, but contrary to some opinions, they don’t just force the stack to resolve immediately. We’ll walk through what you can and cannot do when facing these kinds of spells.

What Is Split Second?

Split second is a keyword ability first introduced in 2006's Time Spiral set and occasionally appears in Commander- and Modern-oriented sets. While a spell with split second is on the stack, no player can cast spells or activate abilities.

Because of this, interacting with split second spells becomes very challenging. You won't be able to cast Counterspell or use Untimely Malfunction while it’s on the stack, nor can you sacrifice a creature targeted by it to Goblin Bombardment. For most forms of interaction, you must wait until the spell resolves before taking any action.

How To Use Split Second

Split second spells function nearly identically to regular spells, except for how they dramatically restrict your opponent's ability to respond. They cannot be countered or redirected using normal instants or activated abilities, meaning the only way your opponent can interfere is through permanents already in play.

The Best Cards With Split Second Spells that have split second often cost slightly more mana than similar effects, so the best ones are either uniquely designed spells or effects that absolutely must resolve without interference.

Shadow The Hedgehog

Shadow the Hedgehog is the only card that grants other spells split second, which can disrupt your opponents' plans. Along with near immunity to counterspells, red and black offer many artifact and creature removal options. With Shadow granting split second to those, you can bypass many protective tricks from other colors.

Provided you're using mana rocks or Treasure tokens for mana generation, Shadow can make playing Magic feel significantly easier, as you rarely need to worry about responses from your opponents.

Krosan Grip

Krosan Grip functions like a more powerful version of Naturalize, especially when you really need to destroy an artifact or enchantment. It's particularly effective at shutting down combo decks that rely on one or two key artifacts, because your opponent typically won't be able to activate their combo in response.

Since it costs only one more mana than Naturalize and green has the strongest mana acceleration, Krosan Grip can easily replace Naturalize in almost all mono-green decks, and you won't notice much difference—until split second helps you win.

Inventory Management

Inventory Management is unlike anything else in Magic, and a staple in Boros (red/white) Voltron decks. If an opponent tries to eliminate the creature carrying all your Auras and Equipment, for just two mana you can transfer everything to another creature or distribute it among multiple creatures.

It also doubles as a combat trick, letting you spread your Equipment and Auras among creatures, then move them to unblocked attackers, or even save a critical creature by shifting Lightning Greaves to one being targeted by removal.

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