Sunburst is a fairly unique ability. As a permanent with Sunburst enters the battlefield, Sunburst checks to see what mana was paid when casting the spell, regardless of what the cost was for. So if you want to cast when your opponent controls , you can choose any value for X, pay 1 additional for […]
Category: Keywords
When you copy a double-faced card, you get the side that is showing at that moment.
When you copy a double-faced card with a clone effect, you get an exact copy of the currently showing side. Anything that isn’t a double-faced card can’t transform. So if you copy a with a , you end up with an exact copy of the Chalice of Death. The game doesn’t acknowledge or care that […]
When creatures “fight,” some abilities matter, and others don’t.
When a creature “fights” another creature, that means each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to the other creature. It’s important to know that fighting isn’t considered combat damage and won’t trigger any abilities that look for combat damage being dealt. However, the creatures are still dealing the damage directly, so fighting […]
A blocked creature stays blocked for the rest of combat, no matter what happens to the blocker.
The first thing that happens in the declare blockers step is that the defending player chooses which creatures will block and how they’re blocking. Once that happens, the blocks are locked in. Attackers that had a blocker declared become “blocked” creatures, and nothing can change that (aside from a few obscure effects that specifically say […]
Tragic Slip checks for Morbid when it resolves, not when you cast it.
normally gives target creature -1/-1, but it gives that creature -13/-13 instead if a creature died this turn. This means that this can send just about any creature to the graveyard if a creature already died this turn. Note that Tragic Slip only checks whether a creature died this turn when it resolves, and not […]
How Fateful Hour works
Fateful Hour is an ability word. While the comprehensive rules do govern how these abilities work, there are not dedicated rules in the comprehensive rules about Fateful Hour. The specific workings of this mechanic are printed on the cards themselves. However, some additional rules knowledge about the mechanic can be useful. Fateful Hour ‘works’ when […]
How Undying works.
A common theme in the horror genre is of a monster that was just defeated coming back stronger than ever. Undying is the keyword mechanic equivalent of just that. A creature with undying will be returned to play with a +1/+1 counter on it after it dies, as long as it did not have a […]
What sacrifice means
To sacrifice a permanent is to take it and put it into its owner’s graveyard. The concept is pretty simple, but there are obviously interactions with other aspects of the game that can cause confusion. Sacrificing a permanent is not the same as destroying that permanent, so a permanent that is sacrificed cannot be regenerated. […]
What targets and what does not.
While technically not a keyword ability or a keyword mechanic, ‘target’ is definitely a key word in Magic, and one that can confuse players. It is important to know which spells and abilities target because of the interactions with actual keyword mechanics like protection, shroud and hexproof, and for other rules issues like determining if […]