List of Magic: The Gathering keywords
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of keywords in the trading card game Magic: The Gathering. Each keyword is a one- or two-word summary of a set of common abilities or rules affecting game play. These rules were determined to be common enough that when a player read the keyword, he or she would automatically know what effects would be coming into play. Keywords also have the advantage of taking up a very small amount of space on the card template.
This list is sorted by card sets, with the first appearance of a particular keyword listed under the set it first appeared in. Several keywords were abilities in sets previous to “keywording”; the entry will be listed under the first appearance of the keyword, but also mention the first appearance of the ability. This list also includes pseudo-keywords only used in reminder text, a trend that started in Saviors of Kamigawa. Also, this list ignores the existence of Un- sets.
[edit] Limited Edition
[edit] Banding
Banding is an ability that has two parts. First, a player with banding creatures determines how damage is dealt to his or her creatures in a band (normally, the player dealing the damage determines this). Second, an attacking player may form 'bands' of creatures with banding (one non-banding creature could be included in a band). If one creature is blocked, the whole band is, regardless if the defender could block other creatures in the band.
For example, a black creature without flying could block a band with a creature with protection from black, a creature with flying, and a creature with neither by blocking the latter creature.
Banding was primarily a white ability. Weatherlight was the last set to print cards with banding.
[edit] First Strike
Creatures with first strike deal damage before creatures without first strike in combat. For example, a 3/1 creature with first strike can defeat a 6/3 creature without first strike and survive. This ability is mostly seen on white and red creatures, but appears in all colors occasionally.
[edit] Flying
Creatures with flying can't be blocked except by other creatures with flying. This ability is generally blue, though white has many creatures with flying as well. Black and red have relatively few flying creatures. Very few Green creatures have flying, but often have the ability to block flying creatures.
[edit] Landwalk
This ability is written as (land type)walk. A creature with this ability is unblockable if the defending player controls a land with the printed land type (i.e. a creature with swampwalk is unblockable if the opponent has a swamp in play). This ability is somewhat rare, with swampwalk and plainswalk being the most common and least common, respectively.
Landwalk is not limited to the five basic lands; cards with Legendary landwalk, non-basic landwalk, Snow landwalk, and landwalk for specific land cards have been printed.
[edit] Protection
This ability is written as "Protection from (quality)." A creature with protection from a quality can't be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked, or targeted by anything with that quality (i.e, a creature with protection from red cannot be damaged by red spells or permanents, enchanted by red enchantments, blocked by red creatures, or targeted by red spells and abilities). This ability is most commonly found on white cards. When the ability debuted, only protection from a color was used; it was only expanded to any quality later, such as "protection from artifacts" or "protection from creatures".
[edit] Regeneration
This ability is generally written as "Cost: Regenerate this permanent." When the ability is played, a "regeneration shield" is set up on the permanent. The next time that permanent would be destroyed, instead all damage is removed from it, and it is tapped (if it is untapped) and removed from combat (if it is in combat). This ability is generally for creatures, though any permanent can be regenerated.
This technically is not a keyword, but is instead a "damage replacement effect", much like damage prevention.
[edit] Trample
Creatures with trample may deal 'excess' damage to the defending player if they are blocked. When an attacking creature with trample is blocked, any damage not required to destroy the blocking creature may be chosen to be assigned to the defending player; in a normal situation, the blocking creature would absorb all the damage. For instance, a 5/5 attacker is blocked by a 1/1. Without trample, the blocking creature takes 5 damage, but 4 of that is redundant. If the 5/5 had trample, 1 damage would be dealt to the blocker, and up to 4 to the controlling player.
[edit] Legends
[edit] Bands with Other
This ability is a limited version of Banding, written as "Bands with other (creature type)." A creature with this ability has banding, but can only band with creatures that also have "Bands with other", provided the creature type matches. Creatures with banding can then join the attacking band, and all other banding rules apply.
"Bands with Other" appears only in Legends. The only creature that natively has the ability are Wolves-of-the-Hunt tokens created by the card Master of the Hunt. Bands with Other is called "possibly the worst keyworded ability of all time" by current Magic rules manager Mark Gottlieb in the article Absurd or Ridiculous? You Decide, implying that the mechanic has likely been retired for good.
[edit] Legends
Introduced as a creature type, "Legends" were later expanded out to encompass card types other than creatures and lands. See Legendary Permanents for more information.
[edit] Rampage
This ability is written as "Rampage X", with "X" being a number. When a creature with rampage becomes blocked, the creature gains "+X/+X until end of turn" for each creature beyond the first assigned to block.
5th Edition was the last set to print new cards with Rampage. One card with Rampage was reprinted as a "timeshifted" card in Time Spiral.
[edit] Ice Age
[edit] Cumulative Upkeep
This ability is written as "Cumulative Upkeep Cost". For each full turn the permanent remained in play, an 'age counter' was added to the card, and the player would have to pay the Cumulative Upkeep cost multiplied by the number of age counters, or sacrifice the permanent. The ability was originally designed to represent an ever-climbing cost, eventually forcing the player to sacrifice the card and lose its benefits, although later incarnations provided a benefit for the number of age counters on the card when it was placed in the graveyard.
The ability first appeared on a single card in The Dark, but was first keyworded in Ice Age. The mechanic was used in both the Ice Age and Mirage blocks (with Weatherlight offering a number of twists on the upkeep cost). Cumulative upkeep was used in Coldsnap as well.
[edit] Mirage
[edit] Flanking
When a creature with this ability is blocked by a creature without this ability, the blocking creature gains "-1/-1 until end of turn". The effect is cumulative; multiple instances of flanking will provide a multiplied penalty.
Flanking appears throughout the Mirage block (Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight) and in Time Spiral block.
[edit] Phasing
This ability introduced a new zone to the game, the phased-out zone. At the beginning of each player's turn, all permanents in play with phasing were moved to the phased-out zone, along with any auras played on the phasing cards. Any cards which had spent the previous turn in the phased-out zone were returned to play at the same time.
Phasing appears in the Mirage block (Mirage, Visions, and Weatherlight).
[edit] Tempest
[edit] Buyback
This ability, limited to instants and sorceries, is written as "Buyback (cost)", representing an additional and optional cost when playing the card. If the buyback cost was paid, the card would return to the player's hand upon resolving, instead of going to the graveyard.
Buyback appears in the Tempest block (Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus) and in Time Spiral.
[edit] Shadow
Creatures with this ability can only block or be blocked by other creatures with the shadow ability.
Shadow appears in the Tempest block (Tempest, Stronghold, and Exodus) and in Time Spiral.
[edit] Urza's Saga
[edit] Echo
Cards with echo require an additional cost, their echo cost, to be paid in their controller's following upkeep phase after being cast. If the echo cost is not paid, then the card is sacrificed.
In the Urza block, this ability was written only as "Echo" with the casting cost always being the second payment. The rules were altered for Echo's return in Time Spiral to be written as "Echo cost" instead, and all previous Echo cards errataed to have their echo cost be equal to their casting cost. Additionally, all Echo cards in Time Spiral had echo costs equal to their casting costs. Planar Chaos introduced permanents with echo costs different from their mana costs.
[edit] Cycling
This ability is written "Cycling (cost)". A player with a card with Cycling in hand may pay the Cycling cost, discard the card, and draw a new card.
A variant of this keyword is landcycling, appearing solely in Scourge. The player may pay the cycling cost and discard the card from their hand, then search the deck for a land of the type specified by the cycled card. For instance, a Twisted Abomination could search out a basic Swamp, a Godless Shrine, or a Snow-Covered Swamp, and so on.
Cycling cards appeared in the Urza block (Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy, and Urza's Destiny) and the Onslaught block (Onslaught, Legions, and Scourge). One card with swampcycling also appeared in Time Spiral as a timeshifted card.
[edit] Urza's Destiny
[edit] Haste
Creatures with this ability are able to attack and tap to activate abilities on the turn they are cast, instead of waiting until the casting player's next turn (an effect dubbed "summoning sickness"). Haste is an example of a retroactive keywording, as cards from almost every earlier set have possessed "may attack the turn [they] come into play" or "unaffected by summoning sickness," which haste replaced.
[edit] Portal Three Kingdoms
[edit] Horsemanship
Creatures with horsemanship can only be blocked by other creatures with horsemanship. Horsemanship is functionally identical to flying.
Horsemanship is unique to the Portal Three Kingdoms set.
[edit] Nemesis
[edit] Fading
This ability is written as "Fading X", where X is a number. A permanent with fading comes into play with X fade counters on it. Every upkeep, a fade counter is removed. If a counter cannot be removed, the card is sacrificed .
Fading is exclusive to Nemesis. It is extremely similar to the Planar Chaos keyword Vanishing, which Wizards of the Coast has said will replace Fading.[1] Vanishing uses time counters instead and requires sacrifice upon removal of the last counter, rather than one upkeep later.
[edit] Invasion
[edit] Kicker
This ability was written "Kicker (cost)". The kicker cost represented an additional and optional cost that could be paid when the card was put into play. If the cost is paid, an ability printed on the card is activated. Some cards have multiple kicker abilities, of which any or none can be activated.
Kicker cards are found in the Invasion block (Invasion, Planeshift, and Apocalypse). Several cards with Kicker were reprinted as "timeshifted" cards in Time Spiral and as regular cards in Planar Chaos .
[edit] Odyssey
[edit] Flashback
This ability was written "Flashback — Cost". When a card with this ability is in a player's graveyard, that player may pay its flashback cost and play the card from the graveyard. Then, instead of the card going to the graveyard, it's removed from the game. This allows a player to get a second use from a card. Cards with Flashback, as well as any card with an ability that acted from the graveyard in the Odyssey block, have small headstone markers in front of their names.
Flashback appears in the Odyssey block and in Time Spiral (though without the headstone marker).
[edit] Threshold
This ability was originally written "Threshold — ability". Whenever a player has seven or more cards in his graveyard, his or her cards gain any threshold abilities they might have. A player can't play an activated ability tied to threshold unless he or she has seven or more cards in their graveyard.
With the release of Time Spiral, Threshold ceased to be a keyworded mechanic. It was instead errataed to a psuedo-keyword with no meaning attached to it. For instance, Nomad decoy was originally written:
- W, Tap: Tap target creature.
- Threshold — WW, Tap: Tap two target creatures. (Play this ability only if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.)
And was errataed to:
- W, Tap: Tap target creature.
- Threshold — WW, Tap: Tap two target creatures. Play this ability only if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.
Not all shifts were as simple as changing the reminder text to rules text; Centaur Chieftain required more tinkering to preserve the original way the card worked, for example. The article Too Cool For Rules covers this in more depth.
Threshold appears in Odyssey block and on some timeshifted cards in Time Spiral.
[edit] Torment
[edit] Madness
This ability is written "Madness (cost)". At the time a player discards a card, he or she may pay its madness cost and play the card. On all cards printed so far, the madness cost is cheaper than the normal casting cost of the card. The rules for how Madness works were subtly shifted for Time Spiral (see Too Cool for Rules).
Madness appears in Torment, Time Spiral, and Planar Chaos. In Torment, Madness appeared in two cycles that spanned each color, one of 5 commons and one of 5 uncommons. In the Time Spiral block, the vast majority of Madness cards have been Black, with the only exceptions being two timeshifted Red cards.
[edit] Onslaught
Onslaught block saw the return of Cycling as a major block theme, originally seen in the Urza block.
[edit] Fear
Fear is another keyword of an ability that had existed long before it was keyworded; its eponymous card, Fear, was in the original Limited Edition. Creatures with Fear can't be blocked except by black creatures and artifact creatures. Fear has almost always appeared on black creatures, with the only exceptions being Dust Elemental and Squealing Devil, the latter of which requires black mana to stay in play as a creature.
[edit] Morph
This ability was written "Morph (cost)". A creature with morph may be played face-down by paying 3 colorless mana. While face-down, the creature is a colorless, nameless and typeless 2/2 creature. At any time, a player may pay the creature's Morph cost and turn the creature face-up. Only creatures with Morph may be played face-down. At the end of the game, or whenever a face down creature would leave play, it is revealed to all players. In addition to providing information to players, this ensures that players don't cheat by playing cards without morph face-down.
Morph appears in the Onslaught block and Time Spiral block.
[edit] Legions
[edit] Amplify
This ability is written "Amplify X", where X is a number. As a creature with Amplify comes into play, its controller may reveal any number of creature cards in his or her hand that share a creature type with the creature. That creature comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it for each card so revealed.
Amplify only appears in Legions.
[edit] Double Strike
A creature with Double Strike deals both first strike and normal combat damage, effectively doubling its power. For instance, a 1/2 creature with double strike such as Boros Swiftblade would defeat a 3/1 creature in combat and survive, due to destroying it with first strike damage. It would also destroy a 2/2 creature, though be destroyed itself in the process due to letting the creature survive to deal its own damage.
Double Strike has been used across a number of sets and appears primarily on red cards.
[edit] Provoke
When a creature with Provoke attacks, its controller may have a creature the defending player controls untap and block that creature if it is able to do so. This is a targeted ability, so it can't choose a creature that can't be targeted by the ability. The ability can choose a creature that can't block the creature that has it; this is useful against creatures with "pinning" abilities (that may remain tapped to give an effect as long as they are tapped). However, there is a period of time after the Provoke trigger resolves and the Declare Blockers step. This means that if the provoked creature has a "tap" ability and is not summoning sick, it can tap for its ability afterwards, and therefore not be required to block. Provoke is cumulative, though no creature has more than one instance of it.
Provoke only appears in Legions. Provoke is mostly green, though red and white also have creatures with the ability.
[edit] Scourge
[edit] Landcycling
Landcycling is a variant of Cycling that is worded "(land type)cycling (cost)". A player with a card with landcycling can pay its cost and discard it to search his library for a land with the same land type as the landcycling ability and put it in his hand. Anything that is affected by Cycling is affected by landcycling as well. See Cycling.
[edit] Storm
When a player plays a spell with Storm, they put a copy of that spell on the stack for each spell played before the Storm spell this turn. For example, if the Storm spell was the fifth spell played in the turn, four copies of the spell are put on the stack, so the player gets five instances of the spell. Generally, these spells have expensive casting costs. One Storm spell, Mind's Desire, has been restricted in Vintage formats.
Storm appears in Scourge and Time Spiral.
[edit] Mirrodin
[edit] Affinity
This ability is written "Affinity for (quality)." A card with affinity costs 1 generic mana less to play for each permanent with that quality in its controller's play. For instance, a Frogmite would be free if its controller possessed 4 or more artifacts in play.
Affinity appeared throughout the Mirrodin block, usually for artifacts. A cycle of 5 cards in Darksteel had affinity for each of the basic land types.
[edit] Entwine
This ability is written "Entwine (cost)". All cards with Entwine are modal spells with two choices. Normally, a player chooses one effect or the other. If the card's Entwine cost is paid in addition to its regular cost, both effects are played.
Entwine appears in the Mirrodin block.
[edit] Equip
This ability is written "Equip (cost)". It is found only on Equipment, a subtype of Artifacts new to Mirrodin. A player pays the Equip cost as a sorcery (only during their own main phase when the stack is empty) and attaches it to a creature he or she controls. That creature becomes the Equipment's equipped creature. The player may pay the Equip cost even if the Equipment's already attached to another creature.
Equipment is a cross-set type that has been reprinted in Core Sets.
[edit] Imprint
This ability is written "Imprint (text)". The text can be either an activated (Cost:Ability) or triggered (When something happens, ability) ability. In this case, the ability is usually removing a card from the game and imprinting it on the card with Imprint. These cards have other abilities that make use of the Imprinted cards.
In the Mirrodin block, Imprint is only found on artifacts.
[edit] Darksteel
[edit] Indestructible
This ability is written "This permanent is indestructible". A permanent which is indestructible can't be destroyed, either by spell effects or lethal damage. Such a permanent can still be removed from the game, returned to a player's hand, put into the graveyard due to having 0 toughness, or be removed because it's one of two legendary permanents with the same name. A creature that is indestructible still receives damage, and so a 3/3 indestructible that has taken 7 damage will remain in play as a 3/3 with 7 damage on it.
Indestructibility appears most prominently in Darksteel and Champions of Kamigawa (where it was used to represent divine beings). It has seen occasional usage since in other sets such as Betrayers of Kamigawa, Coldsnap, and Time Spiral, as well as in errata of a few older cards such as Guardian Beast and Consecrate Land.
[edit] Modular
This ability is written "Modular X," where X is a number. A creature with Modular comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. When a Modular creature is put into a graveyard, its controller may put all the +1/+1 counters on that creature onto another artifact creature. The second ability is targeted, so the counters can't be put on an artifact creature that can't be targeted. Note that this applies to all counter, not merely the counters granted by the Modular ability; thus, +1/+1 counters from previous dead Modular creatures or the abilities of cards like Arcbound Ravager or Arcbound Crusher would also be transferred.
Modular appeared in Darksteel and one card in Fifth Dawn (Arcbound Wanderer). It has only appeared on Artifact creatures so far and is extremely unlikely to ever appear on a normal creature due to its flavor.
[edit] Fifth Dawn
[edit] Scry
This ability appears on instants and sorceries as "Scry X," where X is a number. This effect always takes place after the main effect of the spell. That player looks at the top X cards of his library, puts any number of them on the bottom of his library and the rest on top of his library in any order.
Scry appears in Fifth Dawn and is limited to Scry 2.
[edit] Sunburst
A permanent with Sunburst comes into play with a +1/+1 counter (if it's a creature) or a charge counter (if it's not a creature) for each color of mana spent to pay its mana cost.
Sunburst appears in Fifth Dawn and only on artifacts, though the card Emblazoned Golem from Apocalypse is similar in flavor.
[edit] Champions of Kamigawa
[edit] Arcane
Arcane, like snow-covered, has no abilities on its own. Spells with Arcane can enhance other cards, and can be Spliced upon (see Splice, below). Some cards have abilities that trigger when you play an arcane spell.
Arcane appears in the Kamigawa block.
[edit] Bushido
This ability was written "Bushido X," where X is any number. When a creature with Bushido blocks or becomes blocked, it gets +X/+X until end of turn. Unlike Rampage, this happens only once, no matter how many creatures block it. The ability is on all Samurai in the Kamigawa block, and only on Samurai. An earlier card, Chub Toad, has the same ability, though it was not given errata to have Bushido.
Bushido appears in the Kamigawa block.
[edit] Defender
Creatures with Defender can't attack. This is a keyword of an ability that was formerly associated with Walls. Now, all Walls have Defender, though the keyword isn't restricted to Walls.
[edit] Legendary Permanents
The Legend creature type (introduced in Legends) was changed to a supertype in the Kamigawa block. Like Defender, this was to ensure that no creature subtypes had rules hanging on them. Also, a small rules change was given to the Legendary type. Before the change, when two or more Legendary permanents with the same name were in play, all but the oldest one were put into the graveyard. After the change, all of them are put into the graveyard.
[edit] Soulshift
This ability is written "Soulshift X," where X is a number. When a creature with Soulshift is put into a graveyard from play, its controller may return a Spirit card with a converted mana cost X or less from his graveyard to his hand. This, however, is rare due to the fact that most creatures with Soulshift had a Soulshift number one less than their converted mana cost. Almost all cards with Soulshift are Spirits (the only non-spirit is Promised Kannushi). One card, Forked-Branch Garami, was printed with two different instances of Soulshift 4; these triggered separately (thus, two spirits of casting cost 4 or less could be retrieved, but a spirit with casting cost 8 could not be). Another card, Kodama of the Center Tree, had a variable Soulshift number, and could conceivably retrieve itself if enough Spirits were in play.
Soulshift appears in the Kamigawa block.
[edit] Splice
This ability is written "Splice onto (quality) (cost)." During the Kamigawa block, the quality was limited to Arcane. As a player plays a spell with the given quality, he may reveal a card with Splice of that quality and pay its Splice cost. If he does, the splicing card's effects are added to those of the played spell. This effect is placed after the played spell's effects. One card, Evermind, has no mana cost (meaning it can't be played normally, as opposed to a card with a mana cost of 0, which can be played for free), but it does have a splice cost.
Splice appears in the Kamigawa block.
[edit] Vigilance
Vigilance is a keyword of an ability that already existed before it was keyworded, as far back as Limited Edition with Serra Angel. Creatures with Vigilance do not tap to attack.
[edit] Betrayers of Kamigawa
[edit] Ninjutsu
This ability was written "Ninjutsu (Cost)." The ability is on all Ninja in Betrayers of Kamigawa, and only on Ninja. If a player has a Ninja in hand, he or she may pay its ninjutsu cost and return an unblocked attacking creature they control to their hand to put the Ninja into play tapped and attacking. (A creature is only unblocked if no creatures are blocking it after the declare blockers step has been completed.)
Ninjutsu appears only in Betrayers of Kamigawa and only in the colors blue and black.
[edit] Offering
This ability is written "(creature type) offering." A cycle of five Patron Spirits in Betrayers has the Offering ability. A player may play a creature with the offering ability as if it were an instant (see Flash) if they sacrifice a creature with the type of the offering, then pays the difference in mana costs between the sacrificed creature and the creature to be played. For example, Patron of the Orochi has Snake offering and a mana cost 6 generic and 2 green mana. If the player with this in his hand were to sacrifice a snake with a mana cost of 2 colorless and 1 green mana, they could play the Patron as an instant by paying the additional 4 generic and 1 green mana. Only one creature may be sacrificed during this offering.
Offering appears in Betrayers of Kamigawa.
[edit] Saviors of Kamigawa
[edit] Channel
Channel is a psuedo-keyword; it appears in italicized reminder text and merely denotes the ability of some cards in this set. All cards with channel have the ability to be discarded for a cost to yield a specified effect.
Channel appears in Saviors of Kamigawa, where it only appears on creatures with the "Spirit" type. Wizards has stated that the mechanical reason to only use Spirits was to interact better with soulshift.[2]
[edit] Epic
Epic is an ability that only appears on spells. It has two effects: first, when a player plays a card with Epic, he or she can no longer play spells. However, at the beginning of each upkeep phase for the rest of the game, the player puts a (new) copy of the epic spell on the stack. This doesn't count as "playing" it (so it doesn't become a useless ability) and no mana cost is required.
A cycle of five rare sorceries in Saviors have the Epic keyword.
[edit] Sweep
Like Channel, Sweep is a pseudo-keyword. Spells with sweep allow a player to return a number of basic lands of a single type to their owners' hands for an effect that gets stronger the more lands returned.
Sweep appears on four cards in Saviors. Wizards of the Coast has said that making this a keyword was "a mistake."[3]
[edit] Ninth Edition keywords
[edit] Aura
A revamping of the enchantment system turned all "local" enchantments into Auras. When in play, Auras must always be attached to a permanent. If at any time an Aura isn't attached to a permanent, it's put into its owner's graveyard.
[edit] Enchant
This ability is written "Enchant (quality)". All Auras have this ability, and only Auras have this ability. An Aura comes into play attached to a permanent with the quality of its Enchant ability. An Aura can only be attached to a permanent with that quality, and becomes unattached from a permanent that loses that quality. Like Protection, the quality can be almost anything, but it normally has a permanent type associated with it (most commonly creatures.) This ability was formerly seen in the type line instead of "Aura".
[edit] Ravnica: City of Guilds
[edit] Convoke
Convoke is the ability associated with the Selesnya Conclave, a guild of Ravnica. As a player plays a card with Convoke, he may tap any number of creatures he controls. Each creature tapped reduces the card's mana cost by 1 generic mana or 1 mana of the tapped creature's color. For example, a player may pay for a spell with Convoke and a mana cost of 3 generic and 1 white mana by tapping four creatures, at least one of which must be white.
[edit] Dredge
Dredge is the ability associated with the Golgari guild of Ravnica. It is written "Dredge X," where X is any number. Any time a player would draw a card, if he has a card with Dredge in his graveyard, he may instead put the top X cards of his library into his graveyard and return the Dredge card to his hand. A player can't do this if he doesn't have at least X cards in his library.
[edit] Radiance
Radiance is the pseudo-ability (like Channel and Sweep) associated with the Boros Legion. It denotes abilities that target one permanent, but affect all permanents of the same type that share a color with the target.
[edit] Transmute
Transmute is the ability associated with House Dimir. It is written "Transmute -- Cost". Depending on the color of the card, the cost can be one generic and two blue mana, one colorless and two black mana, or one generic, one black, and one blue mana. A player who has a card with transmute in his hand may, as a sorcery, pay its transmute cost and discard it to search his library for a card with the same converted mana cost as that card and put it in his hand. Note that it is the converted mana cost of the card, not the Transmute cost, that is used when finding another card.
[edit] Guildpact
[edit] Bloodthirst
Bloodthirst is the ability associated with the Gruul Clans. It is written "Bloodthirst N", where N is any number. A creature with Bloodthirst N comes into play with N +1/+1 counter on it if, at the time it came into play, an opponent had been damaged during that turn. One creature, Petrified Wood-Kin, has "Bloodthirst X". It comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the total amount of damage all opponents have been dealt this turn.
[edit] Haunt
Haunt is the ability associated with the Orzhov Syndicate. It is placed on creatures and instant and sorcery spells with an ability that happens twice: Once when the spell is played (or the creature comes into play), and once when the creature it "haunts" is put into a graveyard. When a haunt creature or spell would be put into a graveyard, instead it's removed from the game "haunting" a creature.
[edit] Replicate
Replicate is the ability associated with the Izzet League. It is written "Replicate--Cost". When a player plays a spell with Replicate, he may play the Replicate cost any number of times. He puts a copy of the spell on the stack for each time he paid the Replicate cost.
[edit] Dissension
[edit] Forecast
Forecast is the ability associated with the Azorius Senate. It is written "Forecast--Cost:Ability" where the cost always involves revealing the card from the player's hand. A player with a card with Forecast in his hand during his upkeep may pay the Forecast cost (revealing the card from his hand until the end of the upkeep) to play its Forecast ability. He can only do this once per turn per Forecast card in his hand.
[edit] Graft
Graft is the ability associated with the Simic Combine, very similar to Modular, although different in that Modular can only give the counters to an artifact creature, and Graft moves counters one at a time, rather than all at once. It is written "Graft X", where X is any number. All creatures with Graft are 0/0 creatures. They come into play with X +1/+1 counters on them. Whenever another creature comes into play, a player may choose to put one +1/+1 counter from each creature with Graft he controls onto that creature. These creatures have abilities pertaining to +1/+1 counters. One such creature, Cytoplast Manipulator, can gain control of any creature that has a +1/+1 counter on it.
One notable non-Graft creature, Experiment Kraj, is able to use the abilities of any creature that has a +1/+1 counter on it.
[edit] Hellbent
Hellbent is the pseudo-ability associated with the Cult of Rakdos. Cards with the Hellbent pseudo-ability have greater effects if their controller has no cards in his or her hand. Many other cards pertaining to the Cult function better the fewer cards in hand their controller has.
[edit] Coldsnap
Coldsnap continued mechanics from Ice Age, notably Cumulative Upkeep. It also revamped the rules for Snow permanents, creating a new Snow supertype and retroactively giving it to the Snow-Covered lands.
[edit] Recover
Recover is a triggered ability that triggers when a card is in its owner's graveyard. It is written "Recover (Cost)". Whenever a creature card is put into a graveyard from play, all cards with Recover in that player's graveyard trigger. That player may then pay each card’s Recover cost; if the cost is paid, the card in put back into their hand. If it is not paid, the card is removed from the game.
Recover appears in Coldsnap.
[edit] Ripple
Ripple is a triggered ability that triggers when a card is played. It is written "Ripple X" where X is a number. When a spell with Ripple is played, its controller may reveal the top X cards of his or her library. If any of them are copies of the Ripple spell that was played, then he or she can play those copies without paying their mana costs (this triggers their ripple abilities, so a player can ripple again.) Any cards not played are then put on the bottom of that player's library. One card, Thrumming Stone, gives all spells a player plays Ripple 4.
Ripple appears in Coldsnap, where all cards printed with it have Ripple 4.
[edit] Snow
This supertype doesn't do anything on its own; however, several cards in the Ice Age block interact with snow permanents, similar to how Arcane interacted with other spells in Kamigawa.
Coldsnap also introduced snow mana. Mana produced from a snow permanent is Snow mana in addition to whatever types it already is. The fact that the mana is snow doesn't change anything else about it. For example, a Snow-Covered Forest produces green snow mana.
[edit] Time Spiral
Time Spiral brought back many old mechanics, including Buyback, Echo, Flashback, Flanking, Madness, Morph, and Shadow. Many of these mechanics were reworked slightly to reflect changes in philosophy of the Rules Department.
[edit] Flash
Flash is the keywording of an ability that has existed as far back as Mirage[4]. Cards with Flash may be played any time its controller could play an instant. Cards with that ability have been updated via errata to have Flash; this allows them to work with cards such as Mystical Teachings.
[edit] Split Second
Split Second is a static ability for spells. As long as a spell with Split Second is on the stack, players can't play spells or non-mana activated abilities. Triggered abilities, as well as effects that don't use the stack that can be played at instant speed (like Morph), can be played as normal while the spell is on the stack. Split Second is similar to the defunct Interrupt spell type, except that one card with Split Second cannot be played on the stack on top of another card with Split Second, whereas one Interrupt card can be played in response to another.
Split Second appears in the Time Spiral block.
[edit] Suspend
Suspend is a combination ability for spells. It is written "Suspend N (cost)". Any time a player could play a spell with suspend, he may remove it from the game for its suspend cost. (This takes normal spell-playing restrictions into account, like whether or not the spell is a sorcery, or whether a player is prohibited from playing spells by another ability). When the spell is removed from the game, its controller puts N counters on it. One counter is removed from the spell card during that player's upkeep. When the last counter is removed, the spell is played with no need to pay its mana cost. (Here, timing restrictions don't apply, but effects that forbid a player from playing spells can.)
Suspend appears in the Time Spiral block.
[edit] Planar Chaos
[edit] Vanishing
This ability is written as "Vanishing X", where X is a number. A permanent with vanishing comes into play with X time counters on it. Every upkeep, a time counter is removed. When the last counter is removed, the card is sacrificed .
Vanishing is an updated version of an older mechanic, Fading. Vanishing uses time counters to interact with Time Spiral cards and induces sacrifice at the removal of the final counter.
[edit] Notes
Two cards from Unhinged use many of these mechanics, complicating many statements about when a mechanic is used. These are Old Fogey and Blast from the Past.
[edit] References
- Gatherer, the official Wizards of the Coast Magic card database
- Magic Comprehensive rules
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2007-01-15). Utter Chaos. Retrieved on February 24, 2007. “It’s fading 2.0. It’s how we wish fading had always worked and it’s what we plan to move forward with in the future.”
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2005-05-23). Choosing a Channel. Retrieved on February 26, 2007. “The mechanical reason was to tie the cards into soulshift. By being spirits, the cards could be brought back when soulshift creatures were put into the graveyard.”
- ^ Rosewater, Mark (2005-06-06). One with One With Nothing. Retrieved on February 26, 2007. “Sweep fails as a keyword on a number of levels... keywording sweep was a mistake.”
- ^ Gatherer search for cards with the text 'any time you could play an instant', MTG.com, accessed 26 September, 2006
