MagicField guides

Mechanics

The set’s mechanics with worked examples, then every word on the cards.

Official mechanics ↗·Release notes ↗

Vivid

Vivid abilities count the distinct colors among permanents you control.

How it works

  1. A hybrid permanent has all colors in its cost regardless of how you paid.
  2. Count colors at the time the particular ability instructs you to.

On the card

Shinestriker
Shinestriker
Uncommon · Creature — Elemental · At the table

A green deck can cast a green-white hybrid creature and gain white for vivid without playing Plains.

Watch out

  • A land that produces colored mana is normally colorless; colorless is not a sixth color.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Blight

To blight N, put N -1/-1 counters on one creature you control.

How it works

  1. Choosing the creature does not target it.
  2. You may choose a creature too small to survive the counters.

On the card

Dawnhand Dissident
Dawnhand Dissident
Rare · Creature — Elf Warlock · At the table

An expendable token can absorb the whole blight cost, preserving the attacker you want to keep.

Watch out

  • You cannot distribute one blight payment among multiple creatures.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Changeling

A card with changeling has every creature type in every zone.

How it works

  1. It can support Merfolk, Goblin, Kithkin, Elemental and Elf rewards.
  2. It qualifies for searches and graveyard effects naming a creature type.

On the card

Sizzling Changeling
Sizzling Changeling
Uncommon · Creature — Shapeshifter · At the table

A changeling in hand can satisfy the appropriate behold requirement.

Watch out

  • Changeling does not grant noncreature subtypes such as Food or Island.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Kindred

Kindred lets a noncreature card have creature subtypes.

How it works

  1. A kindred Goblin card can count for an effect that asks for a Goblin card.
  2. Read whether a reward requires a creature rather than just the subtype.

On the card

Boggart Mischief
Boggart Mischief
Uncommon · Kindred Enchantment — Goblin · At the table

Separate “Goblin” counts from “Goblin creature” counts when checking a payoff.

Watch out

  • A kindred enchantment with Goblin on its type line is still not a creature.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Transforming double-faced cards

Cast the front face. A transform instruction changes the battlefield permanent to its other face.

How it works

  1. Transforming keeps counters, attachments and other effects on the same permanent.
  2. These cards’ back faces use the front face’s mana value.

On the card

Ashling, Rekindled // Ashling, Rimebound
Ashling, Rekindled // Ashling, Rimebound
Rare · Legendary Creature — Elemental Sorcerer // Legendary Creature — Elemental Wizard · At the table

Choose whether to pay the first-main-phase trigger with the mana needs of the coming turn in mind.

Watch out

  • These are not modal cards: you cannot simply cast the back face.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Convoke

16 in Cards →

Tap creatures while paying for a spell to pay one generic mana, or one mana of a tapped creature’s color, per creature.

How it works

  1. Newly entered creatures can convoke.
  2. Tap-trigger creatures can reward you for helping cast the spell.

On the card

Protective Response
Protective Response
Uncommon · Instant · At the table

Declare blockers first, then use an untapped blocker to help cast Protective Response.

Watch out

  • You cannot tap the same creature for both a mana ability and convoke.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Behold

12 in Cards →

Choose a matching permanent you control or reveal a matching card from your hand, following the printed requirement.

How it works

  1. Different behold costs may ask for a type, number, or additional action.
  2. Cards that also say to exile the beheld object require that extra payment.

On the card

Silvergill Mentor
Silvergill Mentor
Uncommon · Creature — Merfolk Wizard · At the table

Reveal another Merfolk to cast Silvergill Mentor without paying its extra two mana.

Watch out

  • A token pictured in a spell’s text does not give that spell the token’s creature type.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Evoke

Cast for the alternative evoke cost; when the permanent enters, an ability makes you sacrifice it.

How it works

  1. Its other enter abilities still trigger.
  2. Order your simultaneous triggers deliberately.

On the card

Vibrance
Vibrance
Mythic · Creature — Elemental Incarnation · At the table

Use evoke when the immediate enter effect is more valuable than waiting for the whole creature.

Watch out

  • Paying evoke does not let you keep the creature unless another effect deals with the sacrifice.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

Persist

When a creature with persist dies without a -1/-1 counter on it, return it under its owner’s control with one.

How it works

  1. Check its counters immediately before death.
  2. Removing the counter can allow persist on a later death.

On the card

Watch out

  • A creature that already had a -1/-1 counter when it died does not trigger persist.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed mechanics · Wizards · Lorwyn Eclipsed release notes

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.

55 terms · A–ZComprehensive Rules effective Sep 25 · checked Oct 29

Symbols

A

Affinity

Keyword ability

Reduce 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.

Sapling NurseryIn Cards →
CR 702.41 ↗·

B

C

Charge, quest, and time counters

Counter

These named counters track whatever the card’s abilities say. Their names alone do not give a universal bonus or penalty.

Watch out: For example, vanishing uses time counters as a countdown. Read the particular card before deciding what adding another counter will do.

Door of DestiniesRimefire TorqueAll 2 in Cards →
CR 122.1 ↗·

Curve

Strategy

Enough useful low-cost plays to act before your expensive threats.

D

Double

Keyword action

Follow what is being doubled. Doubling power or toughness adds a modifier based on its current value; doubling counters adds as many of that kind as are already present.

Collective InfernoIn Cards →
CR 701.10 ↗·

E

Equip

Keyword ability

Pay 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.

Barbed BloodletterBark of DoranMirrormind CrownAll 4 in Cards →
CR 702.6 ↗·

F

Flashback

Keyword ability

You 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.

Kindle the Inner FlameIn Cards →
CR 702.34 ↗·

H

I

K

Keyword counters

Counter

A keyword counter grants its named ability, such as trample, to the object it is on.

Watch out: A trample counter is not a +1/+1 counter. The named ability and the creature’s size are separate.

Abigale, Eloquent First-YearIn Cards →
CR 122.1b ↗·

L

Landfall

Ability word

This 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.

Sapling NurseryIn Cards →
CR 207.2c ↗·

M

P

Proliferate

Keyword action

Choose any number of permanents or players that already have counters. Give each chosen one another counter of every kind it already has.

Watch out: You cannot add the first counter of a kind this way. If a chosen permanent has a harmful counter, that kind increases too.

High Perfect MorcantIn Cards →
CR 701.34 ↗·

R

S

Shroud

Keyword ability

This permanent or player cannot be targeted by any spells or abilities, including your own. Effects that do not target can still affect it.

Helix PinnacleIn Cards →
CR 702.18 ↗·

Signal

Strategy · Draft

Repeated useful late cards may suggest an open color; one card is weak evidence.

Support

Strategy

The actual cards and mana that let a payoff work.

T

Tap and untap

Keyword action

Tap 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.

Adept WatershaperAjani, Outland ChaperoneAppeal to EirduAll 93 in Cards →
CR 701.26 ↗·

Typecycling & landcycling

Keyword ability

From your hand, pay the listed cost and discard the card. Search your library for the named kind of card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.

Watch out: Basic landcycling finds a basic land. Mountaincycling finds a Mountain card; Halflingcycling finds a Halfling card. This does not put the found card onto the battlefield.

Kulrath ZealotStratosoarerAll 2 in Cards →
CR 702.29e · CR 702.29f ↗·

V

W

Terms shared across sets: Learn glossary →