Dreadwing Scavenger
Uncommon · Creature — Nightmare Bird · At the table
At seven cards, Inkmage cannot be blocked and Scavenger is larger with deathtouch. Exiling a card before attackers can remove the evasion and immediately shrink Scavenger.
Mechanics
The set’s mechanics with worked examples, then every word on the cards.
Threshold
5 in Cards →Threshold abilities use seven or more cards in your graveyard. Read whether the particular reward is continuous or a triggered ability.
How it works
- A continuous bonus changes immediately when the graveyard count changes. An intervening-if trigger checks its condition when it would trigger and again on resolution.
- Flashback and recursion may remove cards from the graveyard, turning threshold off.
On the card
Cephalid InkmageWatch out
- Dreadwing Scavenger has a continuous bonus, not an intervening-if trigger; graveyard removal can make existing marked damage lethal.
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Raid
Raid rewards you if you attacked during the turn. The attacker need not hit a player, survive combat or be the card with raid.
How it works
- Declare at least one attacker, then use second-main entry rewards such as Goblin Boarders.
- An end-step raid trigger checks the condition as that step begins. A creature put onto the battlefield attacking was not declared as an attacker and does not itself satisfy raid.
On the card
Goblin Boarders
Common · Creature — Goblin Pirate · At the table
Attack with a small creature, then cast Boarders with its counter in your second main phase. Artist can have stayed back and still trigger at your end step.
Perforating ArtistWatch out
- Raid does not require combat damage, and casting an entry-reward creature before your first attack misses its reward.
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Prowess and spell rewards
4 in Cards →Prowess gives its creature +1/+1 for the turn whenever you cast a noncreature spell. Lands are not spells.
How it works
- Instants, sorceries, noncreature artifacts and noncreature enchantments qualify. Artifact creatures and enchantment creatures do not.
- A cast trigger resolves before the spell that caused it; countering that spell does not remove the trigger.
On the card
Elementalist Adept
Common · Creature — Human Wizard · At the table
Burst Lightning triggers prowess and Balmor before it resolves. Casting another Elementalist Adept triggers neither merely because it has flash.
Balmor, Battlemage CaptainWatch out
- Balmor is narrower than prowess: it requires an instant or sorcery rather than every noncreature spell.
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Flashback
7 in Cards →Cast the card from your graveyard by paying its flashback cost, then exile it when it leaves the stack.
How it works
- Obey the card's ordinary timing: flashback does not make a sorcery instant-speed.
- A flashback spell is exiled even if countered or if all its targets become illegal.
On the card
Think Twice
Common · Instant · At the table
Think Twice can draw on an opponent's turn because it is an instant. Self-Reflection still needs sorcery timing even when its graveyard cost is cheaper.
Self-ReflectionWatch out
- Casting with flashback removes the card from the graveyard, which may turn threshold off before the spell resolves.
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Kicker
6 in Cards →You may pay the stated extra cost as you cast the spell to receive its kicked effect. Ordinary kicker is paid at most once.
How it works
- Add the kicker payment to the normal casting cost; it does not change the card's mana value.
- The spell remembers whether it was kicked, even if it resolves into a permanent.
On the card
Burst Lightning
Common · Instant · At the table
Choose an early two-mana Colony to fill the curve or pay five total for two counters later. That choice is made while casting, not after an opponent responds.
Watch out
- Burst Lightning with kicker costs five total mana, not four, and Gnarlid Colony's five-mana mode is still mana value two.
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Morbid
Morbid checks whether a creature died earlier in the turn. Any player's creature can qualify; death means moving from battlefield to graveyard.
How it works
- Arrange a trade or sacrifice before the relevant entry or end-step check. Tokens can die and enable morbid.
- Wardens of the Cycle checks before the end step begins; sacrificing afterward cannot retroactively create its trigger.
On the card
Wardens of the Cycle
Uncommon · Creature — Elf Warlock · At the table
Trade a creature in combat, then cast Tragic Banshee for its larger reduction. If Wardens is present, that same earlier death can enable its end-step choice.
Tragic BansheeWatch out
- Exiling or returning a creature to hand is not a death, and a sacrificed noncreature artifact does not enable morbid.
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Life-gain events and counters
A life-gain trigger usually cares about each event, not the number of life points in that event. Separate lifelink creatures create separate events.
How it works
- Gaining three life from one Food is one event. Two separate creature-entry life triggers produce two events.
- State-based actions remove lethally damaged creatures before life-gain counter triggers resolve.
On the card
Fiendish Panda
Uncommon · Creature — Bear Demon · At the table
Several creatures entering with Dazzling Angel can grow Panda through several life-gain events. Lethal simultaneous combat damage still kills Panda before those new counters arrive.
Dazzling AngelWatch out
- Fiendish Panda's death return uses last battlefield power and cannot return a Bear, including another Panda.
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Combat damage without blocker order
When several creatures block one attacker, combat damage is assigned without announcing a blocker damage-assignment order. Players make their final normal responses before damage.
How it works
- The attacker may distribute its damage among blockers without following an ordered queue. Blockers still deal their own combat damage normally.
- Trample still requires lethal damage assigned to every blocker before assigning excess to the defending player.
On the card
Gnarlid Colony
Common · Creature — Beast · At the table
After blockers, choose tricks using the possible damage distributions. Felling Blow is a sorcery and cannot be held as a combat-step damage trick.
Felling BlowWatch out
- Do not teach the old ordered-blocker trick or promise a response after the damage distribution is chosen but before it is dealt.
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Planeswalkers and loyalty
Planeswalkers use loyalty counters. Activate one loyalty ability of each planeswalker per turn, normally during your main phase with an empty stack.
How it works
- Adding or removing loyalty is a cost. An opponent can respond to the ability, but cannot undo that paid cost.
- Attacking creatures can attack a planeswalker, and damage removes loyalty. A planeswalker with zero loyalty goes to the graveyard.
On the card
Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator
Mythic · Legendary Planeswalker — Kaito · At the table
Kaito can make a Ninja to defend itself or make one of your creatures unblockable. Choose the ability for the current board before planning around a distant emblem.
Watch out
- Removing a planeswalker after its ability was activated does not remove that ability from the stack.
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Glossary
Every word on the cards and in the deck plans, defined once. Find a term, read its wording, then see it on a card.
56 terms · A–ZComprehensive Rules effective Sep 25 · checked Oct 29
Symbols
+1/+1 and −1/−1 counters
CounterA +1/+1 counter adds one power and one toughness; a −1/−1 counter subtracts one of each. These counters stay until removed or the object changes zones.
Watch out: If a permanent has both kinds, matching pairs are removed as a state-based action. A temporary +1/+1 effect is not a counter.
Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Ajani's Pridemate
Alesha, Who Laughs at FateA
Affinity
Keyword abilityReduce the generic part of this spell’s cost by one for each permanent of the specified kind you control.
Watch out: It does not reduce the colored mana symbols. Check exactly what the card has affinity for.
Claws OutC
Combat damage without blocker order
Card mechanicWhen several creatures block one attacker, combat damage is assigned without announcing a blocker damage-assignment order. Players make their final normal responses before damage. Do not teach the old ordered-blocker trick or promise a response after the damage distribution is chosen but before it is dealt.
Akroma's Memorial
Ashroot AnimistCounter a spell or ability
Keyword actionTo counter a spell or ability is to remove it from the stack without its effects resolving. A countered spell normally goes to its owner’s graveyard.
Watch out: This use of “counter” is different from placing a marker such as a +1/+1 counter on a card.
An Offer You Can't Refuse
Cackling Prowler
Curator of DestiniesCurve
StrategyEnough useful low-cost plays to act before your expensive threats.
D
Deathtouch
Keyword abilityAny positive amount of damage this source deals to a creature is enough to make that damage lethal.
Watch out: It works with a fight or other noncombat damage. Indestructible still prevents destruction.
Bloodthirsty Conqueror
Gutless PlundererDefender
Keyword abilityThis creature cannot attack.
Watch out: It can still block and use its abilities unless something else prevents that.
Crystal Barricade
Gleaming Barrier
Rune-Sealed WallDestroy
Keyword actionMove a permanent from the battlefield to its owner’s graveyard because an effect or lethal damage destroys it.
Watch out: Indestructible stops destruction. Sacrificing, exiling, and reducing toughness to 0 are different ways for a creature to leave.
Abrade
Bake into a Pie
Broken WingsDiscard
Keyword actionMove a card from your hand to your graveyard.
Watch out: Discarding is not casting. It does not pay the card’s mana cost or produce its normal spell effect.
Arbiter of Woe
Burglar RatDouble
Keyword actionFollow what the card doubles: power adds a matching power increase, counters add as many of each named kind as already exist, and a damage replacement changes that damage event. Doubling zero counters still adds zero.
Bulk Up
Mossborn Hydra
Twinflame TyrantDouble strike
Keyword abilityThis creature deals combat damage in the first-strike damage step and again in the normal damage step if it is still in combat.
Watch out: If its blocker dies in the first step, a blocked attacker does not hit the player in the second step unless an ability such as trample allows it.
Embercleave
Kellan, Planar TrailblazerE
Enchant
Keyword abilityAn Aura’s enchant line tells you what it may be attached to.
Watch out: An Aura cast as a spell targets what it will enchant. If it later becomes illegally attached, it normally goes to the graveyard.
Blanchwood Armor
Imprisoned in the Moon
Twinblade BlessingEquip
Keyword abilityPay the equip cost to attach this Equipment to a target creature you control. Normally, activate equip only in your main phase when the stack is empty.
Watch out: The Equipment usually stays on the battlefield when the creature leaves. Moving it to another creature normally costs another equip activation.
Adventuring Gear
Celestial ArmorExile
Keyword actionMove the object to the exile zone. It is separate from the graveyard.
Watch out: A card in exile cannot normally be played. You need a rule or effect giving permission, such as a resolved Adventure.
Abyssal Harvester
Ambush Wolf
Angel of FinalityF
Ferocious
Ability wordThis label points to an ability that cares about controlling a creature with power 4 or greater.
Watch out: The timing and benefit come from the rest of the printed ability. The word itself adds no rules.
Flamewake PhoenixFight
Keyword actionThe two creatures each deal damage equal to their power to the other at the same time.
Watch out: This is not combat. First strike and double strike do not add damage steps; deathtouch and lifelink still affect damage.
Affectionate Indrik
BushwhackFirst strike
Keyword abilityThis creature deals combat damage in an earlier step, before creatures without first strike or double strike.
Watch out: A creature killed in that early damage step usually cannot deal its normal combat damage.
Inspiring PaladinFlash
Keyword abilityYou may cast this spell when you could cast an instant, including during another player’s turn when you have priority.
Watch out: Flash changes when you may cast it. It does not let you cast from a different zone or avoid its costs.
Brineborn Cutthroat
Cathar CommandoFlashback
Keyword abilityYou may cast this instant or sorcery from your graveyard by paying its flashback cost.
Watch out: Follow its normal timing. A spell cast with flashback is exiled when it leaves the stack, even if it is countered.
Electroduplicate
Inspiration from BeyondFlashback
Card mechanicCast the card from your graveyard by paying its flashback cost, then exile it when it leaves the stack. Casting with flashback removes the card from the graveyard, which may turn threshold off before the spell resolves.
Flying
Keyword abilityAn attacking creature with flying can be blocked only by creatures with flying or reach.
Watch out: A flying creature can block a creature without flying.
Food
TokenA standard Food token is an artifact with an ability costing two mana, tapping it, and sacrificing it to gain 3 life.
Watch out: Food is also an artifact type. Turning a card into a Food follows that effect’s text; the type alone does not grant an ability.
Cat Collector
Eager TrufflesnoutFood
TokenA standard Food token is a colorless artifact with “{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this token: You gain 3 life.” The whole payment produces one life-gain event, not three separate triggers.
H
Haste
Keyword abilityThis creature may attack and use abilities with the tap or untap symbol even if you have not controlled it since your turn began.
Watch out: It still needs to be untapped to attack or pay a tap cost.
Axgard Cavalry
Brazen ScourgeHexproof
Keyword abilityA permanent with hexproof cannot be targeted by spells or abilities its controller’s opponents control.
Watch out: Its controller may target it. Effects that do not target can still affect it.
Elenda, Saint of DuskHexproof from
Keyword abilityHexproof from a stated quality prevents targeting by opposing spells and abilities of sources with that quality. Hexproof from instants does not stop a sorcery or a creature ability merely because it is used at instant speed.
Hybrid mana
Mana symbolEach split mana symbol can be paid using either half. For example, {W/U} costs one white or one blue mana; {2/B} costs two mana of any type or one black mana.
Watch out: Choose separately for each symbol. A {W/U} card is both white and blue even if you use only one color to cast it.
Fiend ArtisanI
Indestructible
Keyword abilityThis permanent cannot be destroyed by lethal damage or an effect that says “destroy.”
Watch out: It can still be exiled or sacrificed. A creature with toughness 0 or less still goes to the graveyard.
Divine Resilience
Inspiring CallK
Kicker
Keyword abilityAs you cast the spell, you may pay its extra kicker cost. The card tells you what changes if you do.
Watch out: You decide and pay while casting. You do not get to add kicker after the spell has resolved.
Kicker
Card mechanicYou may pay the stated extra cost as you cast the spell to receive its kicked effect. Ordinary kicker is paid at most once. Burst Lightning with kicker costs five total mana, not four, and Gnarlid Colony's five-mana mode is still mana value two.
L
Landfall
Ability wordThis label groups abilities that reward a land entering under your control. The rest of each card tells you its effect.
Watch out: A land entering from a spell can trigger landfall too. The label itself adds no rules; read the actual ability.
Elfsworn Giant
Grappling KrakenLife-gain events and counters
Card mechanicA life-gain trigger usually cares about each event, not the number of life points in that event. Separate lifelink creatures create separate events. Fiendish Panda's death return uses last battlefield power and cannot return a Bear, including another Panda.
Exemplar of LightLifelink
Keyword abilityWhen this source deals damage, its controller gains that much life at the same time.
Watch out: This also works for noncombat damage. It uses the damage actually dealt, not simply the creature’s printed power.
Felidar Savior
Guarded HeirLoyalty counters
CounterA planeswalker’s loyalty is the number of loyalty counters on it. Its loyalty costs add or remove counters, and damage removes that much loyalty.
Watch out: A planeswalker with 0 loyalty goes to the graveyard. Adding more counters does not let you activate it a second time in the same turn.
Chandra, FlameshaperM
Menace
Keyword abilityThis attacking creature cannot be blocked by just one creature; at least two blockers are needed.
Watch out: It can still go unblocked. Losing one blocker after blocks are declared does not undo the original block.
Battlesong Berserker
Courageous Goblin
Crypt FeasterMill
Keyword actionPut the stated number of cards from the top of the named player’s library into that player’s graveyard.
Watch out: Milling is not drawing. An empty library makes you lose when you must draw from it, not merely when its last card is milled.
Billowing Shriekmass
Sphinx's TutelageMorbid
Card mechanicMorbid checks whether a creature died earlier in the turn. Any player's creature can qualify; death means moving from battlefield to graveyard. Exiling or returning a creature to hand is not a death, and a sacrificed noncreature artifact does not enable morbid.
Needletooth Pack
Slumbering CerberusP
Planeswalkers and loyalty
Card mechanicPlaneswalkers use loyalty counters. Activate one loyalty ability of each planeswalker per turn, normally during your main phase with an empty stack. Removing a planeswalker after its ability was activated does not remove that ability from the stack.
Protection
Keyword abilityProtection prevents targeting, damage, attachment and blocking from the stated quality. Protection from everything still does not stop an untargeted instruction to destroy all creatures.
ProgenitusProwess
Keyword abilityWhenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until the turn ends.
Watch out: Lands are not spells. The prowess trigger can resolve even if the spell that triggered it is countered.
Drake Hatcher
Heartfire ImmolatorProwess and spell rewards
Card mechanicProwess gives its creature +1/+1 for the turn whenever you cast a noncreature spell. Lands are not spells. Balmor is narrower than prowess: it requires an instant or sorcery rather than every noncreature spell.
R
Raid
Card mechanicRaid rewards you if you attacked during the turn. The attacker need not hit a player, survive combat or be the card with raid. Raid does not require combat damage, and casting an entry-reward creature before your first attack misses its reward.
Gorehorn RaiderReach
Keyword abilityThis creature may block creatures with flying.
Watch out: Reach does not give it flying or make its own attacks harder to block.
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen
Sire of Seven DeathsS
Sacrifice
Keyword actionMove a permanent you control from the battlefield to its owner’s graveyard.
Watch out: Sacrifice is not destruction: indestructible does not stop it. You cannot sacrifice a teammate’s permanent unless an effect specifically permits it.
Signal
Strategy · DraftRepeated useful late cards may suggest an open color; one card is weak evidence.
Stun counters
CounterIf a permanent with a stun counter would untap, remove one stun counter instead and leave it tapped.
Watch out: The counter does not tap an untapped permanent by itself. Several stun counters can stop several separate untaps.
Support
StrategyThe actual cards and mana that let a payoff work.
Surveil
Keyword actionLook at the stated number of cards from the top of your library. Put any number into your graveyard and the rest back on top in your chosen order.
Watch out: Surveil does not draw a card. Unlike scry, unwanted cards go to the graveyard instead of the bottom.
Lightshell DuoT
Tap and untap
Keyword actionTap means turn a permanent sideways; untap means return it upright. A tap symbol in a cost means you must tap that permanent to pay.
Watch out: Being tapped by another effect does not activate an ability or produce mana. Creatures normally cannot pay their own tap-symbol costs until you have controlled them since your turn began.
Apothecary StomperThreshold
Ability wordThis label groups abilities that care about having seven or more cards in your graveyard.
Watch out: Count cards in your own graveyard. Read the ability to see when it checks the condition and what it changes.
Threshold
Card mechanicThreshold abilities use seven or more cards in your graveyard. Read whether the particular reward is continuous or a triggered ability. Dreadwing Scavenger has a continuous bonus, not an intervening-if trigger; graveyard removal can make existing marked damage lethal.
Trample
Keyword abilityAn attacking creature can assign excess combat damage to what it is attacking after assigning lethal damage to every blocker.
Watch out: It does not automatically send all damage past a small blocker. Trample on a blocking creature does not send damage to the attacking player.
Treasure
TokenA standard Treasure token is an artifact you can tap and sacrifice to add one mana of any color.
Watch out: A Treasure is not a land. Using it spends the token; it does not remain for another turn.
Brass's Bounty
Fake Your Own DeathV
Vigilance
Keyword abilityAttacking does not tap this creature.
Watch out: It must still be untapped to be declared as an attacker. Vigilance does not remove summoning sickness.
Armasaur GuideVivid
Ability wordAn ability word for effects that count colors among permanents you control. Bloom Tender produces one mana of each color represented, not one for each permanent; colorless is not a color.
Bloom TenderW
Ward
Keyword abilityWhen an opponent’s spell or ability targets this permanent, ward triggers. That spell or ability is countered unless the opponent pays the ward cost.
Watch out: Ward is not hexproof: the opponent can target it and choose whether to pay. An effect that does not target does not trigger ward.
Koma, World-Eater