Fortress Kin-Guard
Common · Creature — Dog Soldier · At the table
If Fortress Kin-Guard is removed before its entry trigger resolves, choose the 1/1 Spirit so the trigger still supplies a body.
Mechanics
The set’s mechanics with worked examples, then every word on the cards.
Endure
Choose either that many +1/+1 counters on the enduring creature or a white Spirit token with that power and toughness.
How it works
- Choose on resolution. If the creature left, you can still choose the Spirit.
- Endure zero does nothing: it does not create a 0/0 token.
On the card
Warden of the GroveWatch out
- Do not count only +1/+1 counters for Warden of the Grove; its text counts all counters on itself.
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Flurry
Flurry abilities reward casting your second spell in a turn. Creatures and other spell types both count; playing a land does not.
How it works
- The payoff itself can be your first spell. Cast another spell afterward to trigger its flurry ability.
- For Effortless Master’s entry bonus, its own casting counts: it can be the second spell.
On the card
Jeskai Devotee
Common · Creature — Orc Monk · At the table
Cast a cheap spell, then Effortless Master as your second spell. Its entry bonus does not require two spells before it.
Effortless MasterWatch out
- You need two spells cast, not two earlier spells resolved.
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Renew
Activate the printed ability from your graveyard at sorcery speed. Exile that card and pay its costs to give the target its listed counters or effect.
How it works
- The card is exiled as a cost, before anyone can respond.
- Removing the targeted creature can stop the counters; targeting the already-exiled renew card with graveyard removal is too late.
On the card
Champion of Dusan
Common · Creature — Human Warrior · At the table
Trade Champion of Dusan in combat, then renew it onto an evasive attacker on a later main phase. Keep the extra mana and an appropriate target.
Qarsi RevenantWatch out
- Renew is an activated ability, not casting another spell, so it does not itself count for flurry.
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Mobilize
When this creature attacks, create the printed number of 1/1 red Warrior tokens tapped and attacking. Sacrifice those tokens at the next end step.
How it works
- The tokens were not declared as attackers, so they do not trigger their own attack abilities.
- After combat, surviving tokens can pay sacrifice costs before the end-step sacrifice.
On the card
Shock Brigade
Common · Creature — Goblin Soldier · At the table
Attack with Shock Brigade, then use Hardened Tactician after combat to turn a surviving Warrior into a card before it expires.
Hardened TacticianWatch out
- Tokens still leave at the next end step even if the mobilize creature is gone.
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Harmonize
Cast this card from your graveyard for its harmonize cost. You may tap one untapped creature to reduce the generic cost by its power.
How it works
- Tapping is optional and is a casting cost. A newly entered creature can help.
- The spell is exiled when it leaves the stack, including if countered. Removal after casting does not undo the paid reduction.
On the card
Unending Whisper
Common · Sorcery · At the table
A five-power creature can reduce Unending Whisper’s harmonize cost to one blue mana. A creature with four power leaves one generic plus one blue.
Mammoth BellowWatch out
- Harmonize cannot remove colored requirements. Mammoth Bellow still needs green, blue and red mana.
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Omens
An Omen is an alternative spell on a creature card. Cast it using its own cost and spell characteristics; after it resolves, shuffle the card into its owner’s library.
How it works
- If countered, or if every target is illegal, it goes to the graveyard without shuffling.
- In the graveyard the card has its creature characteristics, not its Omen instant or sorcery characteristics.
On the card
Twinmaw Stormbrood // Charring Bite
Uncommon · Creature — Dragon // Sorcery — Omen · At the table
A red deck can cast Charring Bite without being able to cast the white Twinmaw Stormbrood. If the Omen is countered, instant or sorcery recursion cannot retrieve that creature card.
Watch out
- An Omen does not exile the card for later casting like an Adventure does.
Rules detail & sourcesWizards · Tarkir: Dragonstorm mechanics · Wizards · Tarkir: Dragonstorm release notes
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Behold
6 in Cards →To behold a Dragon, choose a Dragon you control or reveal a Dragon card from your hand, following the spell’s instructions.
How it works
- A Dragon card may qualify even when you cannot cast its creature side in your colors.
- Once the additional cost is paid, removing a beheld Dragon does not undo the improved spell.
On the card
Dispelling Exhale
Common · Instant · At the table
Dispelling Exhale keeps its larger tax if the Dragon you chose is destroyed in response.
Watch out
- Dragon-themed artwork and a Dragonstorm enchantment do not make a card a Dragon.
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Monocolor hybrid mana
A symbol such as {2/G} can be paid with one green mana or two mana of any type. Make the choice separately for every symbol.
How it works
- Paying with generic mana does not change the card’s colors or mana value.
- Budget the total mana actually needed by your two-color deck.
On the card
Gurmag Nightwatch
Common · Creature — Human Ranger · At the table
A blue-black deck can cast Gurmag Nightwatch for {U}{B}{2}. It remains a three-color card with mana value six.
Reputable MerchantWatch out
- A three-color twobrid card can be cast in two colors, but three ordinary colored symbols still require all three colors.
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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.
55 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.
Adorned Crocodile
Aegis Sculptor
Agent of KotisA
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.
Salt Road PackbeastB
Behold
Keyword actionShow a card of the specified kind from your hand, or choose a permanent of that kind you control.
Watch out: Beholding does not cast the card or sacrifice the permanent. Read the spell to see why the choice matters.
Caustic Exhale
Molten ExhaleBehold
Card mechanicTo behold a Dragon, choose a Dragon you control or reveal a Dragon card from your hand, following the spell’s instructions.
C
Charge, 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.
Stalwart Successor
Taigam, Master OpportunistCounter 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.
Dirgur Island Dragon // Skimming StrikeCurve
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.
Alesha's Legacy
All-Out Assault
Avenger of the FallenDecayed
Keyword abilityThis creature cannot block. When it attacks, a trigger makes you sacrifice it at the end of combat.
Rot-Curse RakshasaDefender
Keyword abilityThis creature cannot attack.
Watch out: It can still block and use its abilities unless something else prevents that.
Krotiq Nestguard
Temur DevoteeDestroy
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.
Awaken the Honored Dead
Coordinated ManeuverDiscard
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.
Focus the Mind
Glacial DragonhuntDouble
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.
Dragonclaw Strike
Roar of Endless Song
Sage of the FangDouble 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.
Equilibrium Adept
Jeskai Brushmaster
Rediscover the WayE
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.
Fire-Rim Form
Fresh Start
Ringing Strike MasteryEndure
Card mechanicChoose either that many +1/+1 counters on the enduring creature or a white Spirit token with that power and toughness.
Anafenza, Unyielding Lineage
Descendant of Storms
Dusyut EarthcarverEquip
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.
Cori-Steel Cutter
Dragonfire Blade
Stormbeacon BladeExile
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.
F
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.
Finality 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.
Hundred-Battle VeteranFirst 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.
Bearer of GloryFlash
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.
Fangkeeper's FamiliarFlurry
Card mechanicFlurry abilities reward casting your second spell in a turn. Creatures and other spell types both count; playing a land does not.
Cori Mountain Stalwart
Devoted DuelistFlying
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.
Armament Dragon
Betor, Kin to AllH
Harmonize
Card mechanicCast this card from your graveyard for its harmonize cost. You may tap one untapped creature to reduce the generic cost by its power.
Channeled DragonfireHaste
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.
Craterhoof BehemothHexproof
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.
Dragonologist
Karakyk GuardianHybrid 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.
Defibrillating CurrentI
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.
Call the Spirit Dragons
Duty Beyond DeathK
Keyword counters
CounterA 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.
Alchemist's Assistant
Kheru GoldkeeperL
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.
Dragonback AssaultLifelink
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.
Dragonbroods' Relic
Kin-Tree NurturerLoyalty 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.
Elspeth, Storm Slayer
Ugin, Eye of the StormsM
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.
Gurmag Rakshasa
Hollowmurk SiegeMill
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.
Ainok Wayfarer
Glacierwood SiegeMobilize
Card mechanicWhen this creature attacks, create the printed number of 1/1 red Warrior tokens tapped and attacking. Sacrifice those tokens at the next end step.
Bone-Cairn Butcher
Dalkovan PackbeastsMonocolor hybrid mana
Card mechanicA symbol such as {2/G} can be paid with one green mana or two mana of any type. Make the choice separately for every symbol.
O
Omens
Card mechanicAn Omen is an alternative spell on a creature card. Cast it using its own cost and spell characteristics; after it resolves, shuffle the card into its owner’s library.
Bloomvine Regent // Claim Territory
Disruptive Stormbrood // Petty RevengeP
Protection
Card mechanicProtection from a quality prevents damage from sources of that quality and stops their targeting, blocking, enchanting and equipping. It does not stop untargeted destruction or sacrifice effects.
Ureni, the Song UnendingProwess
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.
Jeskai RevelationR
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.
Dragon Sniper
Jade-Cast SentinelRenew
Card mechanicActivate the printed ability from your graveyard at sorcery speed. Exile that card and pay its costs to give the target its listed counters or effect.
S
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.
Abzan Monument
Arid MesaSaga & 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.
Revival of the AncestorsScry
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.
Mardu Devotee
Poised PractitionerSignal
Strategy · DraftRepeated useful late cards may suggest an open color; one card is weak evidence.
Storm
Card mechanicWhen you cast this spell, copy it for every other spell already cast this turn by any player. You may choose new targets for the copies. Countering the original spell does not remove its separate storm trigger.
Stormscale ScionStun 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.
Ambling Stormshell
Constrictor Sage
Magmatic HellkiteSupport
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.
Boulderborn Dragon
Corroding Dragonstorm
Cruel TruthsT
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.
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.
Attuned HunterTreasure
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.
Meticulous Artisan
Sarkhan, Dragon AscendantV
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.
W
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.