Those of you who were playing Magic during Shards of Alara block may remember Exalted, the feature mechanic of the shard of Bant. For the rest of you, let’s break it down step by step. ʺWheneverʺ signifies a triggered ability, that goes on the stack when a condition is met. ʺa creature you control attacksʺ […]
Category: Abilities
Thundermaw Hellkite will tap your opponent’s flying creatures even if the damage is prevented.
is a creature that got me really excited when I first saw it, because it comes into play and takes all of your opponent’s flying blockers out of the way. This was before I saw that was being reprinted. 🙁 Anyway, there’s one thing that might be confusing about his third ability, and that’s ʺwhat […]
The order you put permanents into play with Primal Surge can matter.
Seems like I have a tendency to get the Commander questions lately! So, what’s the main difference between and (besides how easily Surge can whiff)? Mainly, the order of things coming into play. When you Genesis Wave for X=10, any and all permanents you hit will come in simultaneously, all at once, together. With Surge, […]
If you cast and flicker Stonehorn Dignitary, the next two combat phases will be skipped.
Each time ‘s ability resolves, it sets up a replacement effect that is extremely patient. It does not immediately decide “It’s currently turn X, so that means you skip combat in turn X+1.” Instead, it sets up a delayed effect and waits for the next time the specified event would happen. Right before your opponent […]
Chalice of Life doesn’t transform when you gain life from something else.
has an ability that causes it to transform if your life total is at least ten points higher than your starting life total when it resolves. In most games of magic, your starting life total is 20, which means that it can transform if you have at least 30 life. It is not a triggered […]
How Demonic Rising really works.
‘Intervening if’ clauses! Fun times. These are handy little things that can stop stuff from happening before it happens. They’re always written as “When/whenever/at…, if SOMETHING IS TRUE, do something.” These abilities check for “something is true” at two times: when the ability would trigger, and when it would resolve. The ability needs something to […]
Redirect can’t change the target of Oblivion Ring.
Oblivion. Such a fun word. I use to send your permanent into OBLIVION! It’s only natural to want to protect your permanents from this very popular enchantment. While there are lots of -style ways to get your toys back, wouldn’t it be more fun to simply use and send THEIR permanent into OBLIVION? Let’s look […]
What happens when Requiem Angel dies at the same time as other creatures.
Whenever a creature dies, the game has to “look back in time” to see if any leaves-the-battlefield abilities triggered. Sometimes you’ll have an instance where multiple creatures die at the same time; when this occurs, all of them will “see” each other leave the battlefield. This can allow a creature like Requiem Angel to trigger […]
Two paired Stern Mentors can only mill a total of 4 cards each turn.
Ah, this one reminds me of when Slivers were Standard-legal! This one’s pretty easy, actually. If you pair a to something, both creatures gain the ability to tap to mill 2. So what happens when you pair two Mentors together? Well, not much. A lot of people might think that the abilities ‘combine’ to mill […]