Idol of the Deep King // Sovereign's Macuahuitl
Common · Artifact // Artifact — Equipment · At the table
The Idol deals damage first; later its craft ability turns it into Equipment. An artifact you already used can become material.
Mechanics
The set’s mechanics with worked examples, then every word on the cards.
Craft
Pay the craft cost and exile this permanent plus the specified materials. It returns transformed under its owner’s control.
How it works
- Activate only during your main phase with an empty stack.
- Materials can come from the battlefield or your graveyard as the cost specifies. Exiling is part of the cost.
On the card
Watch out
- A token can be exiled as a permanent, but then ceases to exist. Effects that inspect exiled cards cannot count that token.
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Transforming cards
These cards normally enter front face up. Transform turns the same permanent to its other face unless an effect explicitly exiles and returns it.
How it works
- Use the front face’s characteristics while the card is outside the battlefield or stack.
- Transforming alone does not untap a permanent or remove its counters. Craft exiles and returns it, making a new permanent.
On the card
Clay-Fired Bricks // Cosmium Kiln
Uncommon · Artifact // Artifact · At the table
Find a Plains and gain life on the front. Craft later produces the Kiln, two Gnomes and a team-wide bonus.
Watch out
- A back face that is a land does not use your land play. A transforming card normally keeps its front face’s mana value.
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Descended this turn
You descended when a permanent card entered your graveyard from anywhere this turn.
How it works
- A creature, land, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker or battle card qualifies.
- The card need not stay in the graveyard for you to have descended.
On the card
Broodrage Mycoid
Common · Creature — Fungus · At the table
A traded creature or a milled land can switch on the Mycoid’s end-step reward.
Watch out
- Tokens are not cards. An instant or sorcery going to the graveyard does not make you descend.
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Descend 4, descend 8 and fathomless descent
Descend 4 and 8 check the number of permanent cards currently in your graveyard. Fathomless descent scales with that number.
How it works
- Count permanent cards, not every card.
- Recount when the effect checks; crafting or returning cards can shrink the graveyard.
On the card
Akawalli, the Seething Tower
Uncommon · Legendary Creature — Fungus · At the table
Four permanent cards make Akawalli larger and give it trample. Eight add another bonus and restrict its blockers.
Watch out
- Having descended on four turns is not the same as having four permanent cards in the graveyard now.
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Discover
Discover N exiles cards from your library until you find a nonland card with mana value N or less. Cast it for free or put it in your hand.
How it works
- Put the other exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.
- If you cast, the spell you choose must also have mana value N or less. Pay any mandatory additional costs.
On the card
Geological Appraiser
Uncommon · Creature — Human Artificer · At the table
Casting the Appraiser discovers 3. Keep the discovered card in hand if casting it now would waste an effect.
Watch out
- Returning Appraiser from the graveyard does not trigger its cast-dependent discover ability. An X chosen for a free spell is normally zero.
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Explore
Reveal the top card. A land goes to your hand; otherwise the exploring creature gets a +1/+1 counter and you may put the revealed card in your graveyard.
How it works
- For a nonland, choose whether to keep it on top or mill it.
- The card you reveal need not share a color with the creature.
On the card
Cenote Scout
Uncommon · Creature — Merfolk Scout · At the table
Scout either finds a land or becomes larger. Milling a permanent card also helps descend.
Watch out
- Exploring a land does not normally put it onto the battlefield. Nicanzil supplies a separate triggered ability.
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Map tokens
A Map is an artifact you can spend one mana to tap and sacrifice so a creature you control explores.
How it works
- Choose your creature as the target.
- Use the ability only at sorcery speed.
On the card
Waterwind Scout
Common · Creature — Merfolk Scout · At the table
Scout leaves a Map behind. Keep it as an artifact for other rewards or cash it in when exploration matters more.
Watch out
- Sacrificing a Map token does not make you descend. If the only target becomes illegal, the ability does not resolve.
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Finality counters
If a permanent with a finality counter would go from the battlefield to a graveyard, exile it instead.
How it works
- The counter creates the replacement effect even if the permanent loses its abilities.
- It does not interfere with bouncing or exiling the permanent for another reason.
On the card
Intrepid Paleontologist
Rare · Creature — Human Druid · At the table
A Dinosaur returned through Paleontologist gets a finality counter, so its next would-be death normally exiles it.
Watch out
- This is not a delayed sacrifice at end of turn. The creature can remain on the battlefield indefinitely.
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Caves
Cave is a land subtype. Each Cave does only what its own text says; other cards can reward controlling or milling Caves.
How it works
- Read whether an effect counts Caves on the battlefield, in the graveyard, or both.
- Account for lands entering tapped when building your curve.
On the card
Bat Colony
Uncommon · Enchantment · At the table
Caves can improve the Colony’s reward. Count its stated zones rather than treating every nonbasic land as a Cave.
Watch out
- A Cave has no built-in mana ability merely because it is a Cave.
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Restless lands
These dual lands enter tapped and can temporarily become creatures when you pay their activation cost.
How it works
- They remain lands while animated.
- A land you just played cannot attack as a creature unless it has haste.
On the card
Restless Anchorage
Rare · Land · At the table
When Anchorage attacks as a Bird, it makes a Map. You still need mana available to animate it before attacking.
Watch out
- A creature land can die to creature removal. Tapping it for mana may leave it unable to attack.
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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.
57 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.
Abuelo's Awakening
Adaptive Gemguard
Amalia Benavides AguirreA
Adventure
Card mechanicYou may cast the Adventure half instead of the permanent half. If the Adventure resolves, exile the card; you may later play its permanent half from there, paying the normal cost and following its timing.
Watch out: If the Adventure is countered or all its targets become illegal, it does not resolve and normally goes to the graveyard. You can also cast the permanent half directly.
Kellan, Daring Traveler // Journey OnB
Battle Cry
Card mechanicWhen this creature attacks, each other attacking creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn. The creature with battle cry does not give itself the bonus.
Sanguine EvangelistC
Caves
Card mechanicCave is a land subtype. Each Cave does only what its own text says; other cards can reward controlling or milling Caves.
Calamitous Cave-In
Cavernous MawCharge, quest, and time counters
CounterThese 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.
Ojer Pakpatiq, Deepest Epoch // Temple of Cyclical Time
The Millennium CalendarCounter 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.
Cavern of Souls
Chimil, the Inner Sun
Confounding RiddleCraft
Card mechanicPay the craft cost and exile this permanent plus the specified materials. It returns transformed under its owner’s control.
Braided Net // Braided Quipu
Dire Flail // Dire BlunderbussCrew
Keyword abilityTap other untapped creatures you control with enough total power to turn this Vehicle into an artifact creature until the turn ends.
Watch out: The crew creatures do not become the Vehicle’s attackers. A newly played Vehicle still needs haste to attack that turn.
Careening Mine Cart
Magmatic Galleon
Spring-Loaded Sawblades // Bladewheel ChariotCurve
StrategyA mix of costs that lets you use your mana on early and late turns.
Cycling
Keyword abilityFrom your hand, pay the cycling cost and discard this card to draw a card.
Watch out: Cycling is an activated ability, not casting the card. Typecycling searches for a specified kind of card instead.
Marauding Brinefang
Nurturing Bristleback
Rampaging SpiketailD
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.
Deathcap Marionette
Grasping Shadows // Shadows' Lair
Hunter's BlowgunDefender
Keyword abilityThis creature cannot attack.
Watch out: It can still block and use its abilities unless something else prevents that.
Shipwreck SentryDescend 4, descend 8 and fathomless descent
Card mechanicDescend 4 and 8 check the number of permanent cards currently in your graveyard. Fathomless descent scales with that number.
Basking Capybara
Brass's Tunnel-Grinder // Tecutlan, the Searing RiftDescended this turn
Card mechanicYou descended when a permanent card entered your graveyard from anywhere this turn.
Canonized in BloodDestroy
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
Bitter TriumphDiscard
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.
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
Ancestral ReminiscenceDiscover
Card mechanicDiscover N exiles cards from your library until you find a nonland card with mana value N or less. Cast it for free or put it in your hand.
Buried Treasure
Caparocti SunbornDouble
Card mechanicDoubling counters adds as many of that kind as are already there. Doubling power gives a modifier based on the creature’s power when the effect resolves; it does not necessarily change base power or add counters.
The Skullspore NexusDouble 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.
Huatli, Poet of Unity // Roar of the Fifth People
Kinjalli's DawnrunnerE
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.
Dead Weight
Eaten by Piranhas
Etali's FavorEquip
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.
Bloodthorn Flail
Deconstruction Hammer
Diamond Pick-AxeExile
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.
Abuelo, Ancestral Echo
Bonehoard Dracosaur
Breeches, Eager PillagerExplore
Card mechanicReveal the top card. A land goes to your hand; otherwise the exploring creature gets a +1/+1 counter and you may put the revealed card in your graveyard.
Brackish Blunder
Cartographer's CompanionF
Fight
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.
Malamet Battle GlyphFinality counters
CounterIf a permanent with a finality counter would go from the battlefield to a graveyard, exile it instead.
Watch out: It does not die when this replacement sends it to exile, so ordinary “dies” abilities do not trigger.
Queen's Bay Paladin
Soulcoil ViperFinality counters
Card mechanicIf a permanent with a finality counter would go from the battlefield to a graveyard, exile it instead.
First 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.
Ancestors' AidFlash
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.
Cogwork Wrestler
Fungal FortitudeFlashback
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.
Self-ReflectionFlying
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.
Forestcycling
Card mechanicPay the cycling cost and discard this card to find a Forest card, reveal it, put it in your hand and shuffle. This is an activated ability, not casting a creature.
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.
Corpses of the Lost
Cosmium Confluence
Disturbed SlumberHexproof
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.
Bedrock Tortoise
Deeproot Pilgrimage
Family ReunionI
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.
Vanguard of the RoseIslandcycling
Card mechanicPay the cycling cost and discard this card to find an Island card, reveal it, put it in your hand and shuffle. This is an activated ability, not casting a creature.
L
Lifelink
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.
Deep-Cavern Bat
Echo of DuskLoyalty 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.
Quintorius KandM
Map tokens
Card mechanicA Map is an artifact you can spend one mana to tap and sacrifice so a creature you control explores.
Fanatical OfferingMenace
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.
Deep Goblin Skulltaker
Dinotomaton
Restless VentsMill
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.
Another Chance
Inverted Iceberg // Iceberg TitanP
Plainscycling
Card mechanicPay the cycling cost and discard this card to find a Plains card, reveal it, put it in your hand and shuffle. This is an activated ability, not casting a creature.
Soaring SandwingR
Reach
Keyword abilityThis creature may block creatures with flying.
Watch out: Reach does not give it flying or make its own attacks harder to block.
ColossadactylS
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.
Abyssal Gorestalker
Acolyte of AclazotzSaga & lore counters
Card mechanicA Saga normally enters with a lore counter and gains another as your first main phase begins. Reaching chapter numbers triggers those chapter abilities.
Watch out: The new lore counter is not added during upkeep. When its final chapter ability is no longer on the stack, you normally sacrifice the Saga.
Scry
Keyword actionLook at the stated number of cards from the top of your library. Put any number on the bottom and the rest back on top, choosing their order.
Watch out: Scry does not draw a card. Cards you move to the bottom do not go to the graveyard.
Attentive Sunscribe
Cavern Stomper
Greedy FreebooterSignal
Strategy · DraftRepeated useful cards arriving late may indicate 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.
Lodestone Needle // Guidestone Compass
Pugnacious Hammerskull
Waylaying PiratesSurveil
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.
Starving RevenantSwampcycling
Card mechanicPay the cycling cost and discard this card to find a Swamp card, reveal it, put it in your hand and shuffle. This is an activated ability, not casting a creature.
Synergy
StrategyCards helping each other do a useful job.
T
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.
Acrobatic LeapTrample
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.
Belligerent Yearling
Child of the VolcanoTransforming cards
Card mechanicThese cards normally enter front face up. Transform turns the same permanent to its other face unless an effect explicitly exiles and returns it.
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.
Typecycling & landcycling
Keyword abilityFrom 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.
V
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.
Gishath, Sun's Avatar
Hermitic Nautilus
Might of the AncestorsW
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.
Dusk Rose Reliquary