While a you control is enchanted by your , it can’t change the target of spells or abilities your opponents control to itself. This follows the theme for this week. The final set of targets must be legal. So it may not be the best choice to use Canopy Cover on your own Spellskite if your […]
Category: Static Abilities
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite’s abilities apply as creatures enter play.
has two abilities that affect the power and toughness of creatures in the battlefield. The first give +2/+2 to all other creatures that you control. (Keep in mind that in a multiplayer game this ability does not affect creatures controlled by teammates.) The second ability that applies to power and toughness gives -2/-2 to all […]
Puresteel Paladin’s Metalcraft ability does not remove or change Equip abilities.
has two abilities, the second of which is a metalcraft ability that changes what you can pay to attach equipment you control to creatures you control. It does so by giving your equipment an additional equip ability that costs zero mana. This ability does not alter the cost of existing equip abilities or remove them. […]
Spinebiter’s ability only lets you damage blocking creatures or the defending player, not both
has an ability that is seen from time to time on green creatures. This ability allows the controller of an attacking Spinebiter to have it deal its combat damage to the defending player even if it is blocked. (Because of the way it mimics trample, this ability is sometimes referred to as ‘super trample.’) There […]
What being ‘poisoned’ means.
A few cards in Scars of Mirrodin block (, , ) refer to a player being poisoned. A player is considered to be poison if he or she has one or more poison counter. In a two-headed giant game an individual player is considered to be poisoned if any member of the team has a […]
You can’t spend life if your life total cannot change
a mythic card from Scars of Mirrodin has an ability that prevents your life total from changing. This ability prevents its controller from spending life as well. Because of this, you cannot spend life to play cards with Phyrexian mana in their mana cost via their alternate costs.
Lifelink is not cumulative.
When initially introduced Lifelink was a triggered ability. If a permanent had multiple instances of lifelink, then each of these separate abilities would trigger independently ultimately causing the controller of of these abilities to gain more life than the damage dealt. However when the Magic 2010 base set was released how Lifelink works was changed. […]
A difference between Shroud and Protection.
Protection from a quality actually has four different effects. One of which deals with auras, which used to be called local enchantments. Permanents with protection from ‘X’ cannot have auras with with quality of ‘X’ attached to them. For example, a cannot be enchanted by a . Another aspect of Protection is that permanents with […]
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 […]