When two or more triggered abilities attempt to go on the stack at the same time they go on APNAP order. This stands for Active Player, Non-active Player. It means that those triggers that are controlled by the active player go on the stack in whatever order he or she wants, followed by those triggered […]
Category: Abilities
Cards only do what they specifically say, and not more.
Some cards grant keyword abilities to permanents in play, either to themselves or other permanents. Examples of cards with abilities like these would be and . These abilities can only grant the keyword abilities that they specifically reference. For example, neither of these two abilities can give the Infect keyword ability.
Everything before the colon, is a cost.
One way to recognize activated abilities by the format [cost]: [effect]. Activated abilities are the only ones that use a colon. Everything that appears before the colon is a cost of the ability and must be paid when the ability is played. Abilities that require that you tap the permanent with the ability will have […]
What is the source of the ability.
In most cases the source of an ability is the card itself that has the text that causes the game or players to take some action. Some examples of straight-forard situations like that would be the activated ability of , the triggered ability of or the static ability of . In all of these examples […]
Artifact is a type, not a creature type
‘Artifact’ is a type, not a subtype. When an effect has you choose a subtype, like a creature subtype, you cannot choose artifact. This also applies to effects that depend on or apply to specific creature subtypes. Years ago, it was more common for an artifact creature to exist without a creature type. However that […]
How Deathtouch works.
Deathtouch is a static ability that changes the end result when a source with Deathtouch deals damage to a creature. When an object (which is usually a creature) with Deathtouch deals damage to a creature, that creature receiving the damage is destroyed when state-based actions are applied. A single point of damage from a source […]
‘Becomes blocked’ vs. ‘becomes blocked by a creature’
Many triggered abilities trigger when an attacking creature becomes blocked. However some of them trigger just once regardless of the number of creatures that are blocking the attacking creature and others trigger once per each blocking creature. The difference is in how the trigger condition is written. Abilities that say ‘Whenever ~this creature~ becomes blocked’ […]
Ethersworn Canonist can prevent spells from being cast via alternate methods
‘s ability prevents players from playing more than one non-artifact spell per turn. This limitation applies to playing spells via alternate means; such as Cascade or Hideaway. Even the triggered ability of can be interfered with by the Canonist’s ability. With Ethersworn Canonist and Knowledge Pool in play, if a player casts a non-artifact spell […]
Equipment can target the creature it is on.
While it is generally not necessary, you can target a creature with an equip ability even if that equipment is already attached to that creature. For example, if the only creature you control is equipped by , you can activated the equip ability of the Piston Sledge targeting this same creature and choosing to sacrifice […]