Flash, (not flashback) was introduced as a keyword when TIme Spiral was released. Like Lifelink, Defender and a few other keywords, the mechanic had existed for a long time before it was given an official keyword. Flash appears on permanent cards and changes when you can cast them. Normally you can only cast permanent spells […]
Category: Keywords
How Clash works.
Clash is a keyword ability that appears on cards from Lorwyn and Morningtide. Clash provides an added effect to these spells and abilities if the revealed top card of your library has a converted mana cost that is higher than the revealed top card of your opponents’ library. After these cards are revealed, each player […]
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. […]
How Phasing works.
Phasing is an older keyword that has gone through a few changes over the years in order to keep the ability from being too powerful or just so it would work within the rules. At this point the specifics of how it works is somewhat different from when it was originally introduced, but as a […]
How Hideaway works.
Hideaway it triggered ability that is paired to an activated ability of the same card. The ability has only appeared on five land cards from Lorwyn, but these few cards have seen plenty of tournament play. When a land with hideaway enters the battlefield, the hideaway ability will trigger. When this trigger resolves, the controller […]
How Defender works
Defender is a keyword that has only existed since 2005, but the idea behind defender has existed since the very beginning of Magic. The ability is straightforward, creatures with Defender cannot attack. Prior to the existence of the keyword the concept existed and was represented by creature cards with the creature subtype of walls. It […]
Cycling, landcycling and typecycling.
Cycling is a keyword ability first introduced in Urza’s Saga and brought back multiple times in a variety of ways. To cycle a card means to pay its cycling cost, discard that card and to draw a card. Initially all cards had the cams cycling cost of 2 generic mana. But that was changed when […]
What Changeling means
Changeling is a keyword ability that appears on cards from the Lorwyn block. What it means is pretty straight forward, creatures with Changeling have all possible creature types. Technically speaking, what creature types are given changes as each new set of comes out and new creature types are created. Keep in mind that this only […]
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 […]