| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% Reminder for editors! |
| 3 | %% |
| 4 | %% Do NOT add a double-bullet under an existing single-bullet entry. |
| 5 | %% It's wrong. |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | %% Multiple examples of the same trope are indented at the same level. |
| 8 | %% |
| 9 | %% See the "Example Indentation in Trope Lists" page for details. |
| 10 | %% |
| 11 | |
| 12 | These pages are for tropes that apply to ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering''[='s=] gameplay and mechanics. Tropes which apply to the flavor and story should be placed here instead: MagicTheGathering/FlavorAndStoryTropes. (Some tropes may warrant placement on both, but please be judicious.) |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Main Page]] | '''Tropes A-I''' | [[MagicTheGathering/GameplayTropesJToQ Tropes J-Q]] | [[MagicTheGathering/GameplayTropesRToZ Tropes R-Z]] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ---- |
| 17 | |
| 18 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 19 | |
| 20 | [[folder:A]] |
| 21 | * AbnormalAmmo: |
| 22 | ** Many cards imply the shooting or throwing of odd ammunition, including [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233197 Acorns]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Goblin%20Bombardment Goblins]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=184667 Skulls]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45387 more Goblins]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29755 Chains]], [[https://www.mtgvault.com/card/siege-gang-commander/M10/ Goblin Tokens]]... Naturally, this is especially common among Goblins. |
| 23 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=FLING Fling]] allows you to turn any creature into ammo. |
| 24 | ** It isn't clear exactly ''what'' [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19680 Catapult Master]] fires, but it has to be something more than a big rock. Not even ''[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=429866 Wrath of God]]'' destroys creatures [[DeaderThanDead as thoroughly]] as he does. |
| 25 | * AbstractEater: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3635 Chronatog]] eats ''time''. In gameplay terms, that means beefing it up by skipping your next turn. |
| 26 | * AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: Early versions of the game with the Ante rule in effect. One of the most common "house rules" in the early game was to play without ante because players didn't want to risk losing cards. Wizards quickly dropped the rule both to avert this, as well as to avoid the game being classified as gambling. |
| 27 | * AchillesHeel: Each of the five colors has -- at least in theory -- one or two things that it is particularly bad at compared to other colors, encouraging players to make multi-color decks to cover their weaknesses. |
| 28 | ** Blue generally has the weakest and most mana-expensive creatures; notably, it's the only color not allowed to have "bears" (Creatures with 2 power and 2 toughness for 2 mana; the TropeNamer is the card "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=155 Grizzly Bear]]") without any downside. It also has the worst removal in general of any color, only having access to ForcedTransformation spells which replace a creature with another one, or "bounce" spells which return cards to their owner's hand rather than killing them. (While, at this point, Blue could use a {{counterspell}} to kill the creature as it's re-summoned, this cannot be called an efficient use of resources or mana.) |
| 29 | ** Black is almost entirely unable to remove enchantments and artifacts. Their poor enchantment-removal is particularly punishing as it prevents them from getting rid of their ''own'' DealWithTheDevil enchantments. |
| 30 | ** Red shares black's inability to deal with enchantments. Its reliance on aggressive, small creatures and damage-based removal is also a double-edged sword, as they get less useful as the game goes on and the average toughness of its opponent's creatures grows. |
| 31 | ** Green has the worst creature removal of any of the colors, instead having to rely on using its own creatures in combination with spells that force creatures to fight each other. It's also the only color that doesn't regularly have access to flying creatures, although it has creatures which can block as if they had flying (the "reach" ability typically found on spiders or archers) and various spells which can kill flying creatures. |
| 32 | ** White has an answer to pretty much any threat, but it is by far the worst color at drawing cards, preventing it from reliably having access to those answers. |
| 33 | ** Colorless cards, most often artifacts, can cover all of these weaknesses and don't require another color to be splashed in the deck. However this means that the mana cost of these cards is significantly higher than it would be compared to the same effect in-color, so they can't be relied on too much. |
| 34 | * ActionBomb: Blowing oneself up is a favorite tactic of red cards, particularly among goblins. Examples include but are not limited to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=271222 Mudbutton Torchrunner]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4980 Mogg Bombers]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=87971 War-Torch Goblin]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=208008 Ember Hauler]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=157923 Ib Halfheart, Goblin Tactician's]] suicide troops, and whichever schmuck ends up carrying the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220435 Goblin Grenade]]. |
| 35 | * ActionInitiative: |
| 36 | ** Combat damage between creatures normally occurs simultaneously. Some creatures have an ability called First Strike, which means that their damage happens before the other one can retaliate- if the first strike damage is fatal, the victim doesn't get to deal any damage. |
| 37 | ** There's also the basic 'speeds' of the game. Sorcery and permanent spells can only be cast on one's own turn, during one of the two main phases, while instant spells can be cast and abilities activated at any time, including in response to other spells and abilities—in which case, the last to be played resolves first (resolutions are determined by a zone called the Stack). There are also two special exceptions that exist for purposes of gameplay: lands can be played at sorcery speed, but the land will enter the battlefield before anyone has a chance to respond to this action, and activating mana abilities can be done at any time. Neither of these special actions use the Stack. Finally, there is a special ability called Split Second which means that although they do use the stack, no activated abilities can be activated or spells cast while they are there (triggered abilities still trigger, though). |
| 38 | * ActualPacifist: |
| 39 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190574 Pacifism]] forces this onto a target creature. |
| 40 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193869 Faith's Fetters]] can force this onto any permanent, preventing creatures from attacking or blocking while also stopping abilities. |
| 41 | * ActuallyFourMooks: |
| 42 | ** The Amass ability, which creates a Zombie Army Token and gives it a +1/+1 counter - or puts a +1/+1 counter on an already-present Zombie Army Token. These tokens imply the growth of the Zombie Army, despite only being one "creature". |
| 43 | ** Also present in the [[JokeCharacter Joke Card]] "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=476135 Five Kids in a Trenchcoat]]," which is treated as being five separate creatures under certain circumstances. |
| 44 | * AdaptiveAbility: |
| 45 | ** Creatures with the "Evolve" keyword gain a +1/+1 counter whenever their controller plays a creature that has higher power and/or toughness. In other words, it grows bigger in response to a bigger creature arriving. |
| 46 | ** A trait of the Sliver race, who then share these adaptations with any other Slivers in play, allowing them to negate threats quickly. However, as a drawback, this also includes Slivers under your opponent's control... |
| 47 | * AfterCombatRecovery: At the end of each turn, every surviving creature has all standard damage removed from it. Certain abilities, such as Poison, bypass this with the damage staying (and sometimes getting even worse). |
| 48 | * AggressivePlayIncentive: ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' has a lot of big, scary creatures, many of whom possess the "Annihilator" ability to make attacking with them more advantageous. However, during playtesting, it turned out that less experienced players were hesitant about attacking because they were worried about their creatures dying and wasting the mana they invested in them. The solution was to give one of them, [[https://scryfall.com/card/roe/13/ulamogs-crusher Ulamog's Crusher]], a rider dictating that it must attack if able. This helped players see how good attacking with these creatures could be, and made them comfortable with playing more aggressively. |
| 49 | * AirborneAircraftCarrier: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Parhelion%20II Parhelion II]] is an artifact vehicle with flying which spawns two 4/4 Angel tokens (also with flying) when it attacks. |
| 50 | * AirborneMook: Small creatures with the Flying ability often provide difficulties for opponents who use mostly "ground" creatures. They cannot be blocked unless the blocker has Flying or Reach abilities, but most can still block the "ground" creatures from attacking their owner. Small fliers are usually depicted as birds (typically blue or white) or bats (typically black). |
| 51 | * AllThereInTheManual: The Gatherer Web site includes all rulings on cards. As the game goes on and rules get refined, the company almost constantly changes the way game abilities are printed on cards: |
| 52 | ** Every set introduces new rules terms and long-standing parts of the game may have their names or the related rules changed if necessary. The concept of the "exile" zone, for example, has been in the game since the very first set, but did not receive its current name until 2009. (Exiling cards is a way of removing them from play that's more final than most methods. It used to be called "removed from the game" but was renamed for flavor purposes.) |
| 53 | ** The general rule is to rely on the most recent printed text of a card to determine what it does, even if someone is playing with an older copy on which its abilities are phrased differently. Without that rule, for example, casting [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3842 three versions]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=14593 of exactly]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107278 the same card]] with an ability summed up as "only this card and copies of it can attack" would mean ''none of them'' could actually attack.[[note]]This is because the first card prevents every creature type except for Evil Eyes from attacking. The second is a Horror, not an Evil Eye, so it can't attack. It says only cards called Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore can attack (though it could potentially be read as saying only ''it'' can attack). The first card ''is'' called Evil Eye of Orms-By-Gore, so it can still attack. But wait! The third card says only "Eyes" can attack. The first isn't an Eye, it's an ''Evil'' Eye, and the third isn't an Evil Eye, it's an Eye. Therefore, ''none'' of the three can now attack.[[/note]] |
| 54 | ** Subverted by the [[LethalJokeCharacter joke card]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73967 R&D's Secret Lair]], which explicitly bans using later printed text, errata, or the rules to 'update' cards. It's, naturally, illegal in all competitive play, and rapidly makes friendly games very unfriendly. |
| 55 | * AllTrollsAreDifferent: A common, typically-green creature who usually have Hexproof, Regenerating, or both as abilities. Naturally, these abilities make them challenging to destroy. |
| 56 | * AllYourColorsCombined: |
| 57 | ** Several cards unleash massive power ''if'' you are able to get (at least) one of each mana color into play. Examples include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=109718 Coalition Victory]], which results in an automatic victory; [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135242 Legacy Weapon]], which removes one permanent from the game; [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=288992 Door to Nothingness]], which causes your opponent to automatically lose the game; and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370405 Progenitus]], a 10/10 legendary creature with protection from everything. Naturally, these cards all qualify as AwesomeButImpractical. |
| 58 | ** Sunburst is a keyword ability on artifacts and artifact creatures which allows them to enter play with a number of charge counters or +1/+1 counters (respectively) for each type of mana used to cast the spell. |
| 59 | * AllYourPowersCombined: |
| 60 | ** A number of cards, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107385 Experiment Kraj]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140171 Cairn Wanderer]], can take on the abilities of other cards on the battlefield or in the graveyard, respectively. |
| 61 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89109 Concerted Effort]] allows all of your creatures to combine their powers with each other. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=409770 Odric, Lunarch Marshal]] later came around as a more modern version of it. |
| 62 | ** The Un-set card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=439525 Urza, Academy Headmaster]] takes this up to eleven — the website listed on the card randomly selects an ability from ''any other planeswalker in the game'' when you activate one of Urza's abilities. |
| 63 | ** Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God copies the loyalty abilities from every other planeswalker on the field, on top of having a list of his own. |
| 64 | ** Creatures with the Mutate ability gain the abilities of all creatures they have mutated from/into. |
| 65 | * AlphaStrike: The trope name is used as shorthand for attacking with every creature you have. This doubles as a DeathOrGloryAttack since you won't have any creatures left to defend yourself if your attack fails to take down your opponent. |
| 66 | * AlwaysABiggerFish: [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=!Reef+Worm Reef Worm]] is just a 0/1 creature, but when it dies, it creates a 3/3 Fish token. When the Fish dies, it creates a 6/6 Whale token. When the Whale dies, it creates a 9/9 Kraken token.[[note]]The flavor is that the worm gets eaten by the fish, who gets eaten by the whale, who gets eaten by the kraken.[[/note]] |
| 67 | * AnimalBattleAura: The "Umbra" enchantment auras, for example [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=451086 Bear]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193635 Drake]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=456620 Mammoth]]. These allow you to give any creature such an aura, as well as impart some of the abilities of the aura's shape, along with a one-time protection from destruction. |
| 68 | * AnimalStampede: A specialty of the [[https://scryfall.com/search?q=t%3Aaurochs&unique=cards&as=grid&order=name Auroch]] creature type. They not only have Trample, but also either gain bonuses for each attacking Auroch or have abilities which allow you to find/easily play more Aurochs. (Or sometimes both.) |
| 69 | * AnimatedArmor: [[http://magiccards.info/avr/en/216.html Haunted Guardian]] is a creature that's an empty suit of armor. [[http://magiccards.info/m14/en/212.html Haunted Plate Mail]] goes a step further and can actually be worn by your creatures, only getting up to fight when nobody is looking. |
| 70 | * AnimateDead: A common black effect, present in many cards and abilities but most purely encapsulated in the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 eponymous card]]. Typically, the effect brings a creature back from the graveyard, but with a drawback, such as reduced power/toughness or only for a finite time. |
| 71 | * AnimateInanimateObject: [[http://magiccards.info/arc/en/6.html March of the Machines]], as well as other cards like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19573 Karn's Touch]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=217826 Tezzeret the Seeker]]. |
| 72 | * AnimatingArtifact: The ability of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=karn%2C+silver+golem Karn, Silver Golem]]. It turns artifacts into artifact creatures with power/toughness equal to the artifact's converted mana cost. This can lead to some unusual results, such as turning a [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=253710 Trading Post]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=209044 Mindslaver]] into creatures as powerful as angels or dragons. It also isn't limited to your own artifacts, either, meaning you can use it to neutralize your opponent's artifacts for a turn. |
| 73 | * AntiAir: Typically, creatures with the "Flying" ability can only be blocked by others with Flying. However, creatures with the "Reach" ability are able to do so as well. This, along with spells and enchantments which are particularly effective against creatures with Flying, is a staple of green mana. Several examples: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135186 Femeref Archers]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179543 Deadshot Minotaur]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=253675 Plummet]], and so on. |
| 74 | * AntiFrustrationFeatures: |
| 75 | ** Mechanics that prove too annoying or too complex to explain or track are simply not reprinted or printed on new cards, removing them from most formats. Banding is a famous one which got this treatment. |
| 76 | ** +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters nullify each other entirely, so a creature that has had three +1/+1 counters and one -1/-1 counter placed on it has two +1/+1 counters on it rather than four counters total. While there are a handful of cards that would care about such things, keeping track of multiple types of counters on a single creature is enough of a hassle that it's not worth doing so for the two most common counter types that simply negate each other's effects, just for such cases. (For this reason, Wizards also waits for cards that give +1/+1 counters to rotate out of Standard before printing new ones that add -1/-1 counters, and vice versa.) |
| 77 | ** Some old cards care about the order, not simply the contents, of a player's graveyard. Figuring out what order things that should enter can be irritating, and players might like to be able to e.g. put a card with flashback on top to remind themselves they could play it. Consequently players are given the ability to rearrange their graveyards at will in any format these cards aren't legal, since there's no way the order can be relevant (and in casual play the rule is normally ignored anyway, because the cards that make it matter are rare, unpopular, and not even very good). |
| 78 | ** Playing lands and producing mana are both defined as "Special Actions" which operate outside of the normal timing rules, so that they are impossible to interact with. This prevents players from disrupting them and slowing down the game. Additionally, the ability to destroy lands has been slowly but heavily {{nerf}}ed, to the point where the only formats where land destruction cards are made also include other ways to obtain mana. Land destruction is still a viable strategy with a deck, it's just much less frustrating than it used to be. |
| 79 | * AntiMagic: Protection, various forms of untargetability (such as the Shroud and Hexproof mechanics), and counterspell and anti-counterspell effects often work this way. |
| 80 | * AntiRegeneration: Regenerate is an effect which acts as a SingleUseShield for a creature, allowing it to survive (though become tapped) when it receives damage that would normally destroy it. Numerous spells and creature effects exist which specifically state that the creature "cannot be regenerated" including, for example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=134739 Big Game Hunter]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106636 Disintegrate]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83079 Execute]]. Cards with this effect typically represent methods of death that the target [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill would not logically be able to recover from]]. |
| 81 | * AntidoteEffect: Common for card combos which, if you drew them within the same turn or otherwise close together, could be extremely powerful. However, the odds are so low that it's generally better to swap them out for cards which can individually be more impactful. |
| 82 | * ApeShallNeverKillApe: |
| 83 | ** Common in black spells which can instantly destroy creatures, but only if they aren't black themselves (or are artifacts). Considering Black's domain is death magic, it makes sense that black spells don't work on creatures that aren't living to begin with. |
| 84 | ** Also featured in white spells, which fit the spirit of the trope more directly in their reasoning for not being able to target white creatures. |
| 85 | * AppendageAssimilation: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159730 Goblin Chirurgeon]] can sacrifice a goblin in order to regenerate a creature, the implication being that the sacrificed goblin is being used for... parts. |
| 86 | * ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: |
| 87 | ** The limit of four non-basic land cards per deck. This limit was created after some early tournaments were dominated by players using nothing but the same three cards in mass quantities (20 Black Lotus, 20 Channel, and 20 Fireball) as a reasonable compromise between flexibility and cheese. |
| 88 | ** Players may only have one copy of a "Legendary" permanent on the battlefield under their control at one time. For quite a few sets, the rule instead stated that playing a second copy of that legendary permanent meant that both would be destroyed. This made [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370622 Clone]] a relatively cheap and effective defense against legendary creatures, since if your opponent played one, you could simply Clone it to destroy it. Thus, the current rule was an updated compromise. |
| 89 | * ArmoredButFrail: Mechanics like Regenerate (now deprecated) and keywords like Totem Armor are in this vein if they are applied to creatures with 1 life. These creatures would typically be destroyed by an attack from ''anything'', even the [[CherryTapping cherriest of taps]], but these abilities allow them to survive a hit from almost anything, even the game's ultra powerful {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 90 | * ArmorOfInvincibility: Artifact equipment such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=213749 Darksteel Plate]] and the legendary [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48582 Shield of Kaldra]] make the wearer indestrucable. |
| 91 | * ArmorPiercingAttack: Creatures with the "Trample" ability will deal any unblocked damage to the opposing player. (Normally, any excess damage is wasted if a creature is blocked.) There are also several creatures and spells which can attack opponents directly, regardless of if he has any creatures to block. |
| 92 | * ArmyOfTheAges: The basic premise of the game, with you as the summoner. |
| 93 | * ArtEvolution: |
| 94 | ** The art for the cards has evolved over the years due to both a preference for more detailed, elaborate art, and much more meticulous guidance given to the artists. For example, when the company commissioned the art for the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=70 Lord of the Pit]], they reportedly gave the artist a one-word instruction: "balrog". (This was years before ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies were made.) Under the circumstances, it came out pretty well, but today artists get multi-paragraph descriptions of what the image on the card should look like, generally designed taking into account both exactly what the card itself does and the flavor and description of the world of the current set. Nowadays comprehensive style guides and concept art are made for each set, or a consecutive block of sets that share the same setting: for example, the goblins of the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' block have a large round head with a sharp snout and long pointed ears. |
| 95 | ** The cards' frames themselves have been updated. All frames have become less blocky and are no longer of an equal width all the way around, and the texturing used in each has been changed. |
| 96 | ** Even the "new" frames released in 2003 have changed. For example, the frames used for Artifacts in 8th Edition and ''Mirrodin'' proved too difficult to tell apart from white cards at a glance, and were darkened for ''Darksteel'' in 2004. Subtle tapering was added to two-color multicolor cards for ''Ravnica: City of Guilds'' in 2006 (although, in fairness, only one two-color gold card had existed in the new frames before that) to show ''which'' colors were involved. |
| 97 | ** The first colored artifact in the game was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107362 Transguild Courier]], from ''Ravnica'', which was printed on the normal 3-or-more-color gold card frame. Future colored artifacts, starting with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136212 Sarcomite Myr]] from ''Future Sight'' (which is the first artifact to be colored by actually having colored mana in its cost), introduced a new colored artifact frame that combined the outer frame of an ordinary artifact with a colored inner frame. The first card to use this in the normal modern card frame was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159408 Reaper King]] from ''Shadowmoor''. (Sarcomite Myr was a timeshifted card on a "futuristic" card frame; by the time it was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205339 reprinted on the modern card frame]] in ''Planechase'', the colored artifact frame had made its proper debut in ''Shadowmoor'' and, more extensively, in ''Shards of Alara''.) |
| 98 | ** In addition, white card borders (previously used to distinguish core sets from Expert-level block expansions) have been entirely discontinued. |
| 99 | ** As of the Magic 2015 core set, the frames have changed again, narrowing the borders slightly to allow more focus on the art, changing the font to one that is unique to [=WotC=] and adding a foil dot on rares and mythic rares to help fight counterfeiting. |
| 100 | * TheArtifact: |
| 101 | ** Every card has to be indistinguishable from the back[[note]]not counting the double-faced cards which were released starting in 2011[[/note]]. As a result: |
| 102 | *** The word "Deckmaster" still appears on new card backs, even though the Deckmaster brand ceased to exist in the mid '90s. |
| 103 | *** The word 'Magic' is (and always will be) blue, despite the fact that the official logo has been yellow for years. |
| 104 | *** There's a faint purple line on the back of every card, running through the word Deckmaster. [[http://archive.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/askwizards/0504 Someone made a stray pen mark on the original card backs]], and so now every card needs to have that mark reproduced exactly. (''Vanguard'' cards, being larger and not part of the deck, didn't need to have uniform backs, so the mark is mostly absent on those.) |
| 105 | ** Many card abilities. When the game was new, colors were very ill-defined. Many cards were placed in colors based only on where the creature in question lives or what it does, even if its abilities as a card are completely different from most cards of that color, but cards like that remain in that color now [[GrandfatherClause just because of the earlier ones]]. Look at a list of cards from most sets and compare it to descriptions of the colors and you'll always find a few cards that don't fit the description, but they're there because they are similar or identical to really common or famous or powerful cards that were printed back when the company was still figuring this stuff out. |
| 106 | ** The Gatherer text for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Winter%20Orb Winter Orb]] returned to it an old, old rule; in old editions of ''Magic'', any Artifact could be tapped to "switch off" its effects, a rule intended to emphasize their status as sorcerous machines. |
| 107 | ** Templating changes have made some older cards counterintuitive. For example, when the card "Auramancer" was printed in 2001, the word "aura" was often used to refer to enchantments. In ''9th Edition,'' local enchantments were re-templated to use the subtype, "Aura." This has caused a lot of confusion in more recent printings, since Auramancer can interact with ''any'' Enchantment, not just Auras. |
| 108 | ** Graveyard order: Some old cards care about the specific order of cards in your graveyard. Even though the last such card was printed in 1998, there are still specific rules defining the order that cards are placed in the graveyard, just in case. |
| 109 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122123 Braid of Fire]] was designed and balanced around mana burn, where you would take damage if you had unused mana empty from your mana pool. This meant that the longer you kept Braid of Fire around without the ability to spend the mana it was making, the more damage you would take until you choose not to let it make mana. With the mana burn rule phased out, there is no downside to the card's cumulative upkeep, which left newer players confused over why such a beneficial "upkeep cost" would be printed. The only thing keeping this from being a full-on Game Breaker is that said mana is restricted for use only during your upkeep phase[[note]]Your mana pool automatically empties between phases and steps[[/note]], limiting its use to abilities, instants, or anything with flash. |
| 110 | ** In Commander, you lose the game if you accrue 21 damage from the same commander. Why that number specifically? Because back when the format was created as a GameMod in 1996, only the five Elder Dragons released in ''Legends'' were able to be commanders (hence the format's other name, Elder Dragon Highlander/EDH). Each one had 7 power, and the idea was that nothing short of a god should be able to survive three hits from a dragon with godlike powers (particularly when one of those five dragons was Nicol Bolas, who would go on to become one of the most powerful planeswalkers and villains in the franchise). |
| 111 | * ArtifactOfDeath: |
| 112 | ** Many artifacts qualify. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=208006 Jinxed Idol]] is a good example, which keeps dealing damage to the player who controls it until he or she sacrifices a creature to hand control of it to an opponent. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159266 Nevinyrral's Disk]] is another which, upon use, destroys ALL creatures, artifacts, and enchantments in play, including itself. Similar is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227302 Worldslayer]], an artifact equipment blade. Whenever the equipped creature (i.e. creature wielding the sword) deals combat damage to a player, all permanents other than Worldslayer are destroyed (note that this would include the creature equipping Worldslayer at that moment). |
| 113 | ** While not "artifacts" by the standard ''M:tG'' definition, a number of black cards qualify. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135256 Graveborn Muse]], for example, is a creature but basically functions like an enchantment or artifact that lets you draw extra cards at the cost of losing life — and it's ''not'' optional. If you don't manage to kill your opponent using the extra cards, the Muse will kill you. |
| 114 | * ArtificialStupidity: |
| 115 | ** The AI in ''[[TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering Duels Of The Planeswalkers]]'' generally knows what to do with each of the decks, excepting a few mistakes it'll consistently make. However, in 2013, it has no idea what to do with the Plane cards in Planechase. It'll throw mana at rolling the planar die even when a success won't actually do anything, or when the current plane favors their deck, or when it really ought to attack before doing so, or in a few cases when a success would be actively detrimental (say, bringing them closer to death by milling). |
| 116 | ** The '97 game by Creator/MicroProse can be even stupider-occasions abound of the AI committing suicide. Mana Flare being played against a deck that's not built to take advantage of said enchantment (which causes all lands to produce one extra mana of the same type for EACH Mana Flare in play) will result in the AI's slow death from Mana Burn. The AI will play cards like Howl From Beyond and Giant Growth on YOUR creatures and give you free kills/damage for no reason, enchant your creatures for no reason, and generally play like it's drunk. |
| 117 | * ArtisticLicenseStatistics: A common complaint in the online and video game versions of the game is that the algorithm used to shuffle players' decks is flawed and biased. Some say the bias is towards "mana flood", where you get too many mana-producing cards (and not enough spells to actually use that mana with), while others say towards "mana screw", which is the ''exact opposite'' — not getting enough. In reality, the algorithm is completely incapable of either, since it does not consider what type any given card is when performing the shuffle. The reason for the perceived dissonance between physical and online play is that having to physically shuffle a deck enough to provide a truly random distribution every time would be incredibly annoying, particularly given the number of times some decks end up being shuffled in a single game. At the end of a game, most people just take their land cards, which end up all in one pile, and put them into the deck at fairly even intervals to avoid there being giant clumps of nothing but land. For practical reasons, even in tournaments, it's accepted that the deck doesn't have to be truly randomly distributed — it just needs to be random enough that a player can't predict what comes next. |
| 118 | * AscendedFanon: "Mill" has been a longstanding nickname for the act of sending cards from the top of the library to the graveyard, based off of [[https://scryfall.com/card/3ed/265/millstone Millstone]], the first card with that ability. Only in 2020 did it become an official keyword. |
| 119 | * TheAssimilator: A common tactic of the Phyrexians. In terms of game mechanics, this manifests as them turning a target creature into an artifact, and then having their controller assume control of it. |
| 120 | * AsteroidsMonster: |
| 121 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/avr/112/maalfeld-twins Maalfeld Twins]] is a 4/4 conjoined twin zombie. When it dies, it spawns two 2/2 zombie tokens, representing the twins splitting. |
| 122 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/rtr/140/worldspine-wurm Worldspine Wurm]] is a massive 15/15 creature that spawns three 5/5 wurm tokens upon death. |
| 123 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=271195 Mitotic Slime]] takes this a step even further. When it dies, it spawns two 2/2 ooze tokens. When ''they'' die, they spawn two 1/1 ooze tokens. |
| 124 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/me3/50/spiny-starfish Spiny Starfish]] is a non-fatal version. It can regenerate and, whenever it does so, it creates a weak 0/1 starfish token to represent a new starfish growing from a severed limb. |
| 125 | * AsymmetricMultiplayer: The Archenemy format pits a team of three against one, who is designated as the Archenemy. To help even the odds, the Archenemy starts with 40 life instead of 20, and draws from a special Scheme deck at the start of each turn. |
| 126 | * AttackAnimal: |
| 127 | ** All creatures are {{Attack Animal}}s for you, the planeswalker. |
| 128 | ** See also TheBeastmaster for examples of characters who fight with pets. |
| 129 | * AttackAttackAttack: |
| 130 | ** The main (and sometimes ''only'') strategy of weenie decks, especially green and red weenies. ZergRush your opponents with as many cheap creatures as you can muster and hope to overwhelm them before they can set up anything stronger. |
| 131 | ** Certain cards have this as a drawback. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=378471 Impetuous Sunchaser]], for example, must attack every turn if able. |
| 132 | ** Other cards force this mindset onto creatures. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4538 Boiling Blood]] is an instant which forces a target creature to attack. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=456517 Anger Turtle]] is a creature with this ability, while [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430296 Avatar of Slaughter]] not only forces all creatures to attack, but gives them all ''double strike''. |
| 133 | * AttackOfThe50FootWhatever: |
| 134 | ** Implied with the classic card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129568 Giant Growth]], combined with MakeMyMonsterGrow. It gives a creature +3/+3 for one turn. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198172 Gigantomancer]] is a creature with the ability to turn any other creature into a 7/7 for one turn. [[https://scryfall.com/card/zen/162/gigantiform?utm_source=mci Gigantiform]] is an aura enchantment which turns the enchanted creature into an 8/8 with trample. Naturally, these are all green mana cards. |
| 135 | ** ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' features [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194908 some]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220553 of]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198171 the]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194911 largest]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193632 creatures]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193452 EVER]] printed in the history of the game. |
| 136 | ** [[PlayerArchetypes The "Timmy" demographic]] is defined as caring first and foremost about massive creatures that can slam the opponent (or, in a broader sense, any spell with a huge, sweeping effect), and ''Magic'' sure has no shortage. The classic "biggest and baddest" is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108920 Leviathan]]; other notables include the devastating [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=43711 Dragon Tyrant]], the unspeakably large [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135250 Denizen of the Deep]], and the majestic [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=175105 Godsire]]. The single biggest, baddest, most ''monstrous'' monster in the whole game, though? The dread goddess [[http://magiccards.info/cs/en/145.html Marit Lage]], who is so powerful she can't even be summoned by normal means. |
| 137 | ** '''The''' biggest in the whole game is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=9780 the B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)]]. It takes two cards to actually play and costs 15 Black mana. And being from the Unglued set, is not legal in anything but casual joke games. |
| 138 | * AttackReflector: |
| 139 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1718 Reflecting Mirror]], perhaps the oldest example in the game, is an artifact which allows you to redirect spells for twice their mana cost. |
| 140 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45277 Deflect]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=290288 Redirect]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=89087 Reroute]] are all this trope in spell form. Notably, these can also redirect your opponent's beneficial spells to you instead. |
| 141 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386516 Deflecting Palm]] is a martial arts form of this. |
| 142 | * AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=78594 Konda, Lord of Eiganjo]], TheEmperor of most of Kamigawa, is literally indestructible (for plot reasons), and fights as an 8/8. (For comparison, a typical dragon is in the 5/5 range.) |
| 143 | * AutoRevive: |
| 144 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=174818 Lich's Mirror]] allows you to start the game over with 20 life if you die with it in play. Of course, ''you'' start over with nothing in play, but your opponent gets to keep all the cards they already have out. |
| 145 | ** Persist and Undying are keywords, both of which are abilities that return dying creatures to play with a counter on it (-1/-1 and +1/+1 respectively), if it didn't already have one. |
| 146 | * AwesomeButImpractical: Many cards have spectacular, awe-inspiring effects that will almost certainly win you the game -- '''if''' you ever get enough mana to actually cast them before your opponent kills you, '''and''' your opponent doesn't have a counterspell or some other cheap, efficient answer. There are so many specific examples that [[AwesomeButImpractical/MagicTheGathering they have their own page]]. |
| 147 | * AwesomeButTemporary: |
| 148 | ** There are a number of powerful creatures who can be summoned initially for relatively low mana, but require some form of cumulative upkeep in order to keep them in play. A prominent example is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4505 Aboroth]], a 9/9 creature for six mana but who gets -1/-1 cumulatively every turn. So turn one, 9/9, turn 2, 8/8, turn 3, 6/6 and so on. |
| 149 | ** As seen with Aboroth, Age Counters in general accomplish this. Many creatures and artifacts can be summoned for less initial mana relative to their power, but have an age counter added each turn. The cost to keep each permanent in play gets higher each turn, until it is no longer possible to keep it around any longer. |
| 150 | ** Fading and Vanishing achieve the same effect, with the permanent losing a counter each turn until it has to be sacrificed. |
| 151 | [[/folder]] |
| 152 | |
| 153 | [[folder:B]] |
| 154 | * BackFromTheDead: White and black both have versions of this at play. White spells and abilities with this effect tend to be costlier (in terms of mana), more restrictive, and can typically only target your own creatures, but they are also usually true resurrection - the creature is back just as it was before (and sometimes, even stronger). Black resurrection tends to be more in the AnimateDead flavor. The creatures often come back weaker than before (minus counters, lacking their abilities, etc.), are only back temporarily, and/or require the sacrifice of another creature. However, it is usually cheaper (in terms of mana), less restrictive, and not limited to a player's own graveyard... It can be awfully fun and cathartic to bring back one of your opponent's creatures to use against them. |
| 155 | * BackgroundMagicField: Essentially the mechanic behind tapping lands for mana. |
| 156 | * BackStab: The "Prowl" ability of Rogues in ''Morningtide'' functions as one of these. |
| 157 | * BadassNormal: "Human" creatures tend to be this, especially white mana humans. In sets that focus on them, they're usually up against all manner of supernatural and super powered entities (werewolves, vampires, mages, etc.) and are perfectly capable of coming out on top thanks to focuses on teamwork and various means of [[EmpoweredBadassNormal empowerment]]. |
| 158 | * BadassPacifist: It is possible to build "mill" decks which are completely incapable of dealing damage, but still win by "decking" opponents. Generally, these decks are extremely defensively oriented, negating damage and/or gaining life to outlast your opponent while playing things like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129643 Millstone]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=405399 Stroke of Genius]] to bleed your opponent's deck dry. Often crosses over with LethalHarmlessPowers as well. |
| 159 | * BalancingDeathsBooks: The idea behind [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hell%27s%20caretaker Hell's Caretaker]] and similar cards. They allow you bring creatures back from the graveyard at the cost of sacrificing other creatures to "take their place". |
| 160 | * BanishingRitual: There is more than one mechanic that works like this. Summoned creature cards can be, for example, returned to their owner's hand or forced to be shuffled back into the deck. The most permanent one of these is the "exile" mechanic, that removes a card completely from the game. None of these mechanics are, however, limited to any certain type of creatures. |
| 161 | * BatteringRam: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=997 Battering Ram]] is an artifact creature which, while otherwise weak on its own, destroys walls in a single hit. |
| 162 | * BattleBoomerang: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=198395 Razor Boomerang]] which, despite its appearance, is considered one of the worst cards in the game. (Five mana for one damage is pitifully weak.) |
| 163 | * BattleChant: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=270996 Battle Hymn]], which gives you one red mana for each creature you control. The idea behind it is that the more creatures you have doing the "chant", the more powerful it becomes. |
| 164 | * BattleCry: A keyword ability in ''Mirrodin Besieged''. For example, see [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214064 Hero of Bladehold]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=213782 Goblin Wardriver]]. |
| 165 | * BattleOfWits: Is an [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83133 instant-win card]]. Since cards in your library are meant to represent knowledge, in this case, you win by being the most knowledgeable. |
| 166 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: |
| 167 | ** The [[https://scryfall.com/search?as=full&order=name&q=wish+e%3Ajudgment&utm_source=mci Cycle of Wishes]], which each allows you to bring a specific type of card into play that isn't part of your current deck, Subverts it as the only drawback is needing to exile your "Wish" card. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136157 Glittering Wish]] is a simiar call back to the cycle. |
| 168 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Braid%20of%20Fire Braid of Fire]] works on this philosophy. Its mana given/casting cost ratio makes it one of the best mana accelerants ever made. However, it was created during the days of Mana Burn, so if you could not use all of the mana it was generating, you'd take increasing amounts of damage until you lose. Subverted in modern ''Magic'', where Mana Burn is no longer inflicted. |
| 169 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wishclaw%20talisman Wishclaw Talisman]], a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheMonkeysPaw'', lets you get any card you want from your library for a ridiculously cheap mana cost. The downside is that, after you use it, your opponent also gets to use it... |
| 170 | * BerserkerTears: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21293 Tears of Rage]], which power up each of your attacking creatures by an amount equal to the number of attacking creatures. |
| 171 | * BewitchedAmphibians: [[https://scryfall.com/card/ori/81/turn-to-frog Turn to Frog]], which turns a target creature into a 1/1 blue frog with no abilities. |
| 172 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: Insects are a common creature type for black and green, ranging in size from "a little bigger than in real life" weenies ([[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4749 Bayou Dragonfly]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=466841 Blight Beetle]]) to monstrous sizes with power on the level of ''dragons'' ([[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397821 Ant Queen]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=470650 Bane of the Living]]). Perhaps the largest insect is the red [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19731 Lithophage]], a 7/7 creature which ''eats mountains''. |
| 173 | * BigEater: [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/activity/127 There's been some debate]] about which creature in ''Magic'' is the hungriest. Some candidates are [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=292979 Doomgape]] (so hungry it even eats itself!), [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=35056 Worldgorger Dragon]] (immediately eats all of your permanents), and the more traditional BigEater, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74224 Fat Ass]] (whose hunger is contagious, compelling any mages who summon him to become {{Big Eater}}s themselves). |
| 174 | * BigDamnHeroes: Several cards qualify. Some notable examples: |
| 175 | ** The aptly-named instant [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=154003 Dramatic Entrance]] lets you turn [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89096 any]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=109684 given]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191394 massive]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179496 creature]] into your very own {{Big Damn Hero|es}}. |
| 176 | ** There's also [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46617 Avatar of Hope]], which [[YouShallNotPass can block anything]]. What's so big damn heroic about it? It costs only two mana to play when you have three life or less. |
| 177 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=389427 Angel of the Dire Hour]], while expensive, can turn around a game in no time by removing ''every single creature'' that's attacking you. |
| 178 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222774 Angel of Salvation]], which not only makes a sudden appearance to haul you out of trouble, but can also protect you from potential serious harm. |
| 179 | * BiggerIsBetter: |
| 180 | ** Personified in the ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' expansion, where gigantic monsters are the theme of the set. |
| 181 | ** See also SerialEscalation. |
| 182 | * BlackHoleBelly: A staple of the Atog creatures. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Atog The original]] eats artifacts in order to power up, but others added since then eat corpses, enchantments, lands, creatures, cards in hand, and even [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=31834 other Atogs]]. |
| 183 | * BlackKnight: The long-time black staple [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205218 Black Knight]]. In line with the trope not only in appearance, "First Strike" implies his prowess in combat while "Protection from White" hints at his rivalry with the (typically white) KnightInShiningArmor types. |
| 184 | * BlackMage: Many Instant and Sorcery focused decks are in this vein (as opposed to the SummonMagic nature of creature focused decks). Red lends itself best to this build as it is the color with the largest number of direct damage spells. Black has this secondarily, including some other Black Mage staples like poison and life drain. |
| 185 | * BlankBook: |
| 186 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=tome%20scour Tome Scour]] forces your opponent to discard five cards from their deck. The card art features erasing pages from a book to drive the point home. |
| 187 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=230627 Curse of the Bloody Tome]] is similar, enchanting a player who then has to discard two cards form their deck each term. Again, the card art and flavor quote imply a book's pages being blanked out leading to lost knowledge. |
| 188 | * BlessedWithSuck: |
| 189 | ** Many of the extremely mighty creatures ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191312 Darksteel Colossus]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=259706 Serra Avatar]], ...) have an ability that puts them back into the deck every time they hit the graveyard. Sounds great, until you realize that this is a deliberate safety measure to prevent players from discarding and reanimating them, thus circumventing paying their steep cost. |
| 190 | ** Back in the days of Mana Burn, generating a large amount of mana could turn into this if you weren't careful. |
| 191 | * BlindSeer: |
| 192 | ** The eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Blind%20Seer Blind Seer]] card. Despite the implied handicap, it is a 3/3 creature who can change the color of spells and permanents. |
| 193 | ** Similarly, the [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430412 Skyward Eye Prophets]] are showin the card art to be blindfolded, but are a 3/3 creature with Vigilance and the ability to draw an extra card, playing it immediately if it is a land. |
| 194 | * BlindedByTheLight: Light-based attacks in this vein are common in white. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205219 Blinding Mage]] taps a target creature, implying that it is has been blinded and is unable to attack. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83007 Blinding Angel]] can do this to the opposing ''player''. |
| 195 | * BlobMonster: "Ooze" creatures, whose common abilities including splitting into multiple smaller (usually token) creatures, combining to form stronger creatures, absorbing creatures to increase in power and/or gain their abilities. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=460776 Experiment Kraj]] is a particularly famous and powerful example, having the ability to power up your other creatures as well as use their abilities. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=262866 Predator Ooze]] is an homage to ''Film/TheBlob1958'', being indestructable and gaining power/toughness each time it destroys another creature (implying that it is expanding by absorbing them). |
| 196 | * BloodKnight: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130715 Blood Knight]]. There's also his predecessor, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221568 Black Knight]]. |
| 197 | * BloodLust: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201272 Blood Lust]] is an instant which sacrifices a creature's toughness (down to 1) for a +4 increase in power. |
| 198 | * BloodMagic: A specialty of the black Planeswalker [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=238330 Sorin Markov]]. In effect, it takes the form of draining your opponent's life, placing curses, and, at the highest levels, mind control (which is usually more of a blue staple). |
| 199 | * BloodOath: Implied by the sorcery [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205118 Sign in Blood]]. You trade two life to draw two cards...or inflict it onto your opponent instead. |
| 200 | * BloodsuckingBats: [[https://scryfall.com/card/a25/80/bloodhunter-bat Bloodhunter Bat]], which steals two life from your opponent and gives it to you when it enters play. |
| 201 | * BlowYouAway: Wind-based spells and abilities are a staple of green magic. They tend to be especially devastating to creatures with Flying, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Hurricane Hurricane]]. |
| 202 | * BlueMeansCold: While primarily associated with water, blue magic has many icy elements as well. For example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=245283 Ice Cage]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122402 Frozen Aether]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397775 Flashfreeze]] are all blue spells. |
| 203 | * BodyOfBodies: |
| 204 | ** Implied with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214048 Phyrexian Rebirth]], which destroys all creatures and then puts a token on the battlefield with power/toughness equal to the number of creatures destroyed. |
| 205 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=409854 Diregraf Colossus]] gets a +1/+1 counter for each zombie in your graveyard, implying that their corpses are being added to it for greater power. |
| 206 | ** Perhaps most explicit with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Corpse+Cobble Corpse Cobble]], which lets you sacrifice creatures to create a zombie token with their combined power. |
| 207 | * BodySled: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=false&multiverseid=39826 Goblin Sledder]] sacrifices another goblin to gain +1/+1. The card art really drives the idea home. |
| 208 | * BoltOfDivineRetribution: |
| 209 | ** Extremely popular among white magic. Lightning and {{Holy Hand Grenade}}s are the two most common forms, typically destroying creatures outright and sometimes sweeping the board entirely. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=3487 Divine Retribution]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=429866 Wrath of God]] are two prime examples, both depicting lightning in their card art as well. |
| 210 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205227 Lightning Bolt]] itself is an ever-popular red direct damage instant, trading one mana for three damage. |
| 211 | * BoogieKnights: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=9742 Knight of the Hokey Pokey]] gets a bonus if you do the Hokey Pokey! |
| 212 | * BoringButPractical: |
| 213 | ** Specific Cards: |
| 214 | *** If you were to imagine the most powerful (and expensive) cards in ''M:tG'' history, you might picture behemoth creatures stomping everything in their path or board-sweeping spells that can win the game in a single turn...but you'd be wrong. Enter the infamous and legendary "[[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/power-nine-2003-10-15 Power Nine]]" - nine cards consisting of six artifacts, two sorceries, and one instant. The single most powerful, expensive, and most frequently banned/limited card in the game's history is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Black%20Lotus Black Lotus]]: a flower artifact that gives you three free mana, once. This lets you break one of the fundamental rules of the game -- "Since you can only play one land per turn, the amount of mana you have is equal to (or, if you missed a land drop, less than) the number of turns you've had." In other words, this card allows ''absurd'' SequenceBreaking, allowing you to get more powerful spells into the game before your opponent can reasonably defend against them. Zvi Mowshowitz, a tournament player, designer for Wizards of the Coast, and eventual ''Magic'' Hall of Famer, once said there was not a single deck that could be built that could not be improved by adding a Black Lotus to it.[[note]]He was wrong, but this was before someone invented the [[https://articles.starcitygames.com/articles/crushing-vintage-without-power-nine-the-manaless-ichorid-primer/ Manaless Ichorid]] and [[https://strategy.channelfireball.com/all-strategy/home/deck-guide-legacy-oops-all-spells/ Oops All Spells]] archetypes, both of which use LoopholeAbuse to win without getting mana from lands.[[/note]] The other five artifacts, the "Moxen", are each an artifact which can generate one colored mana each turn. Even ''that'' proved to be too powerful[[note]]Remember how "You can only play one land a turn"? The Moxen are Artifacts. They produce mana like Lands, they tap like Lands, and they cost zero mana like Lands... but they're Artifacts, and you can play as ''many'' of them per turn as you darn well please![[/note]], and they had to be banned/heavily restricted in every format. Finally, the instant of the Power Nine, Ancestral Recall, allows you to perform the simple act of drawing three cards for one mana. Again, so simple, yet so powerful that it had to be banned. (Properly-balanced versions of this card cost ''five times'' as much mana, if 0.00005 times the money.) |
| 215 | *** Basic Lands. They give you the mana to cast other spells, and are the most reliable way to get mana. Each basic land gives you one mana of its color and can be used as soon as it's played. There are many varieties of lands that give you life, damage your opponent, or give you a choice of different mana types, but they almost always have some additional disadvantage: life to play, only giving colorless mana, or not being usable on the turn they enter the field. |
| 216 | *** [[https://scryfall.com/card/m20/78/unsummon Unsummon]] and similar cards removes a creature from the game for only one mana, but your opponent can still use that card later. If you use it on a creature with high mana cost, your opponent will have to spend all that mana again, and if you use it on a creature with loads of counters, you've reset them to their base power and toughness. |
| 217 | *** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=79217 Isamaru, Hound of Konda]] is a legendary creature. These types of creatures, which you may only have one of the battlefield at a time, are usually gods or dragons or some other monstrously powerful behemoth, usually with abilities that make it even more of a threat. Isamaru is a mere 2/2, with no abilities... but only costs a single white mana to cast. This has led to Isamaru becoming perhaps the single most used legendary creature in the history of the game, and he gets even better in the EDH/Commander formats. |
| 218 | *** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=2714 Swords to Plowshares]]. For a single white mana, it removes a creature from the game and gives its owner its power in life points. It is the cheapest "removal" spell in the game in terms of mana cost, makes it difficult for your opponent to get that creature back since it [[DeaderThanDead exiles the creature]] rather than destroying it, and has only a very minor downside in giving your opponent some HitPoints back in EquivalentExchange.[[note]]That seems like a poor trade if you're a new player, but think of it this way: What if the creature you got rid of was ''the only thing keeping your opponent in the game in the first place''? Or the CosmicKeystone around which his entire plan revolves? No amount of extra Life is going to save him now.[[/note]] If a player has a source of white mana, expect to this card in their deck. |
| 219 | ** Decks and Strategies: |
| 220 | *** The early metagame had long been dominated by big flashy spells ("Channel Fireball", "Blue Eater", etc.) and powerful creatures (Dragons, Angels, Demons, etc.). Then, in 1996, Tom Chanpheng won a world championship using what he called his "White Weenie" deck. The idea was to build a deck focusing on cheap, easy to summon creatures that most serious players ignored, known as "Weenies." The strategy is that a big, flashy spell which takes a long time to set up is no good if that player has already been defeated by a ZergRush of weenies. A few nearly one-sided tournaments later, the "weenie" archetype that we (Magic players) all know and love was born. |
| 221 | *** Token decks are similar to Weenies. Unlike regular creatures, tokens are, more often than not, designed to just keep coming. And coming. And coming. They seldom have any abilties, and seldom more anything more complex than flying, but when you have an army well into the triple digits, the fact that it's a bunch of tiny [=1/1s=] is hardly relevant. And we didn't even mention empowering this horde... |
| 222 | *** Blue-White control decks take this trope to its most literal meaning. With a slew of cheap blue counterspells and white removal, you effectively render your opponent impotent throughout the entire match while either digging up your own combo or pinging him with consistent yet hard to remove damage. As expected, when your opponent has to face the likes of [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=render+silent&v=card&s=cname Render Silent]] and [[http://magiccards.info/m14/en/35.html Silence]] every single turn, it gets hilariously annoying and boring for them, especially if you just wiped the field (so they don't have any existing stuff to use either). |
| 223 | * BossBattle: |
| 224 | ** Most decks will include at least one (if not a few) extremely powerful creatures which require a lot of mana and/or other difficult-to-meet summoning conditions to use as late-game closers, invoking an idea similar to a boss battle at the end of a match. |
| 225 | ** The Archenemy format pits a team of players against a single opponent. To even the odds, the Archenemy has a larger amount of life and a separate deck of schemes to give himself and advantage or impose a disadvantage on the team. |
| 226 | * BossInMookClothing: There are a number of low mana cost creatures which don't look like particularly powerful at first glance, but can quickly become very difficult to defeat once they hit the board. To note some prominent examples: |
| 227 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=31825 Psychatog]] is a mere uncommon, three mana, 1/2 who can quickly become one of the most devastating creatures in the game. By discarding cards from your hand, removing cards from your graveyard, or a combination thereof, you can beef Psychatog up with +1/+1 counters. Its superb offensive and defensive potential let it assert aggressive pressure all by itself, which frees up space for more reactive cards to shut down an opposing deck before it can get rolling—and since it synergizes well with card draw and mill, it also fits well into decks designed to "go off" very quickly. Further, since it can consume an entire graveyard and hand, it can easily reach 20/20 late in the game. Finally, if all of that power potential alone doesn't do it for you, its abilities to discard and/or remove at will benefit all sorts of decks, including those built around the [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Madness Madness]] keyword or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Animate Dead]], just to name a few. A combo deck featuring Psychatog with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=31852 Upheaval]] (which returns all permanents to their owner's hand, giving plenty more discard options to beef up Psychatog) was ''the'' dominant deck of the 2002 World Championship. |
| 228 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136142 Tarmogoyf]] was thought to be a JokeCharacter, printed in ''Future Sight'' so that its reminder text could be used as {{Foreshadowing}} for the then-unreleased Planeswalker and Tribal card types. However, it turned out to be [[LethalJokeCharacter so effective]] that it's now considered the best pure beatstick creature of all time. For two mana, it's easy for it to become at least a 2/3, which is already ahead of the curve, and can get as big as 8/9 depending on the deck. |
| 229 | * BrainBleach: With the idea that the deck is your sanity and your hand is your memory, any cards which discard from either act as this. This can even be beneficial, as your graveyard is a frequent power source and many cards can be more cheaply summoned from the graveyard than they can be played directly from your hand. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=132229 Bonded Fetch]] is a particularly flavorful example. |
| 230 | * BrainFood: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=279612 Appetite for Brains]] allows you to exile a card from your opponent's hand. The idea behind it, with the idea that a player's hand represents their memory, is that you're eating a portion of their brain. |
| 231 | * {{Brainwashing}}: A staple of blue cards (such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=238572 Mind Control]]) is to gain control of your opponents' creatures (and other permanents). Red features a temporary version of this (e.g. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=398578 Act of Treason]]) that allows you to attack with your opponents's creatures. |
| 232 | * BriarPatching: An Exploited trope in the metagame. Most commonly, it involves leaving lands uptapped with cards in hand at the end of your turn. Your opponent will almost always believe you have an Instant ready to play to counter whatever they are attempting to do. A prime example is the classic blue [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=413585 Counterspell]]. Many players, upon seeing two untapped islands and a card in hand, will be rather hesitant to play a spell, regardless of what you might actually have. |
| 233 | * BribingYourWayToVictory: |
| 234 | ** While it's entirely possible to build decks on a budget, Magic is ''expensive'' for the serious player or collector. Prices for tournament-winning, in-print single cards routinely exceed $20, and sometimes even approach/exceed $100. On top of that, the most popular and common tournament formats rotate new sets in and old sets out each year, serving the dual function of keeping the game fresh and keeping Wizards in business selling new cards. |
| 235 | ** Exaggerated by Dual Lands and Fetch Lands. You can spend a bunch on whatever's dominating the meta right now, but what happens if you just don't draw the right lands you need and can't play the spell? Enter the original [[https://www.mtglands.com/main-trueduals.html Dual Lands]] -- they count as ''two'' types of Basic Land at once, they can tap for either color, and they have with no drawbacks -- as well as the [[https://www.mtglands.com/main-painfetches.html Fetch Lands]] -- you pay 1 life and sacrifice the land to replace it with an ''actual'' land of your choosing. Why are these so powerful? Because the entire Lands system is a NecessaryDrawback that deliberately slows down the game, an AchillesHeel that newer players are intended to exploit against experienced ones... And these lands close that loophole. Believe it or not, really good lands are the ''real'' way of buying victory. ...Which is why the Fetch Lands tend to cost $20 a pop, and original Duals ''$400''. |
| 236 | ** Inverted with the "Limited" tournament format, where the price of entry (around $20) includes several packs of cards, which the tournament participants must then make decks out of (in some versions, the player is limited to whichever packs were given him at random; in others, the players pass the packs around the table and pick a single card). In the end, cards are kept (though rares are sometimes put aside to be handed out, with higher ranking participants getting first pick). Because cards are chosen non-randomly, this is actually a cheaper method of obtaining the cards you want. |
| 237 | ** ''Duels of the Planeswalkers'' and its sequels. While you can unlock any and all of the cards in the game through gameplay, you can also buy DLC that unlocks the thematic decks of the planeswalkers featured in the game. Doing this unlocks all the cards in that deck, meaning you can now use them to customize yours. And since the latest (and now persistent) version is Free to Play, this borders on AllegedlyFreeGame territory. |
| 238 | * BrokeTheRatingScale: The "Storm Scale" is a 10 point system used by head designer Mark Rosewater to determine how unlikely he thinks it is for a particular mechanic to return to Standard format. It is named after the infamously unbalanced [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Storm Storm]] mechanic, which received a 10 ("never say never, but this is pretty close to never".) Receiving an 11 and breaking the scale is the infamous "Bands with Other". |
| 239 | * BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: A trait of the [[EldritchAbomination Eldrazi]]. If even the weakest of their type attacks, you will have to sacrifice a permanent, even if you kill it. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=emrakul%2C+the+aeons+torn Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]], will cost you ''six'' permanents, meaning that even if you're able to kill the creature, you will have lost most if not all of your board presence. |
| 240 | * BrokenAngel: Angels are typically a white specialty, being some of their most powerful creatures. Fallen Angel is a frequently reprinted angel who has turned to black mana. Depending on the card art, she either has [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3844 amputated]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197010 broken]] wings, while still retaining the power of a lesser angel. |
| 241 | * BroughtDownToNormal: |
| 242 | ** Numerous cards exist which remove the abilities of target creatures. For instance, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=96918 Crash Landing]] targets creatures with flying while [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83008 Blood Moon]] turns all non-basic lands (which notably can do things like create more one one type of mana, or have special powerful effects) into basic, mundane mountains. |
| 243 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397614 Humility]] is perhaps the ultimate version of this in the game, as it makes ''every'' creature have base power and toughness 1/1. |
| 244 | * BrownNoteBeing: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=188962 Nemesis of Reason]]. Whenever it attacks, it also forces the defending player to discard the top 10 cards from their deck, which represents their "sanity". |
| 245 | [[/folder]] |
| 246 | |
| 247 | [[folder:C]] |
| 248 | * CallingYourShots: |
| 249 | ** You must do this for every card you play in accordance with the rules. The first step in casting a spell is to announce it which includes naming all its targets, costs, and modes. Not announcing your spells properly is a rules violation since it is considered public information that you need to present to your opponent fully. |
| 250 | ** Several cards reward you for doing this in specific ways, including [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=204982 Conundrum Sphinx]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=75248 Mindblaze]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74304 Mise]], among others. |
| 251 | ** A famous example of a Called Shot is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju_LZGBN5qU Gabriel Nassif's Cruel Ultimatum from the quarterfinals of Pro Tour Kyoto in 2009]]. With no cards in hand and on the brink of losing the game, he picked up the top card of his library without looking at it and arranged his lands to produce two blue, two red, and three black mana: "My [[http://magiccards.info/ala/en/164.html Cruel Ultimatum]] mana." Lo and behold, he flipped the card over to reveal...Cruel Ultimatum, the one card he needed to win the game and advance to the finals. |
| 252 | * CallToAgriculture: Implied in one of the iconic white spells, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=2714 Swords to Plowshares]]. For a single white mana, it removes a creature from the game and gives its owner its power in life points. The implication is that you're sending that creature away to work a farm, removing it from battle while providing your opponent life. (A trade-off most players will gladly accept forcing onto their opponents.) |
| 253 | * {{Caltrops}}: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=25655 Caltrops]] is an artifact card. When in play, it deals one damage to all attacking creatures. |
| 254 | * CameBackStrong: |
| 255 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194940 Tuktuk the Explorer]], combining this trope with MagikarpPower. As a three mana 1/1, Tuktuk is well below the power curve. However, if he is sent to the graveyard, you place a 5/5 token into play called "Tuktuk the Returned". |
| 256 | ** "Undying" is a keyword with this effect. If a creature with "undying" is sent to the graveyard from the battlefield, it returns to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter. (If it is sent to the graveyard again, it stays dead.) [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=262835 Undying Evil]] is a spell which grants any creature "undying". |
| 257 | * CameBackWrong: Common in black spells which can return creatures from the graveyard, often more cheaply than the normal summoning conditions for those creatures, but they are often weaker in some way. (Reduced power/toughness, they cannot use their abilities, they are only able to return temporarily, etc.) |
| 258 | * CanisMajor: [[https://scryfall.com/card/shm/68/hollowborn-barghest?utm_source=mci Hollowborn Barghest]] is a ''massive'' demonic dog, with power on the level of gods and dragons. |
| 259 | * CannibalismSuperpower: |
| 260 | ** Implied with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=228232 Mimeoplasm]]. When it enters play, you exile two creatures from your graveyard. Mimeoplasm becomes a copy of one of the cards (power, toughness, abilities) with a number of +1/+! counters equal to the power of the other card. |
| 261 | ** Unsurprisingly, the card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397631 Cannibalize]] lets you do this to your own creatures or enforce it on your enemy. |
| 262 | ** A large number of black creatures (and some of other colors) let you sacrifice a creature to make it grow in size, most of which is implied if not outright states in the fluff. Examples include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430268 Blood Bairn]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=442089 Phyrexian Ghoul]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=401688 Bloodthrone Vampire]]. |
| 263 | * CaptainObvious: The reminder text in ''Portal'' sets tends to be this way more than in any other card, with cards that draw stating "you draw from your deck", or Last Chance saying "you don't lose if you've already won". |
| 264 | * CardBattleGame: Most video game adaptations, including the Creator/MicroProse ''Shandalar'' game and ''Duels of the Planeswalkers''. |
| 265 | * CardCycling: |
| 266 | ** Mulligans: Replacing the first drawn cards if they're bad, which has gone through multiple versions: |
| 267 | *** The first was "all land/no land", which was single-use per game. If a player drew either none or all lands in their opening hand, they'd reveal that hand to their opponent and shuffle it back, drawing a replacement hand of seven cards. |
| 268 | *** The rules that all other mulligan variants are based on are the "Paris Mulligan": If you are not satisfied with the initial seven cards, you may shuffle them back into the deck and draw a new starting hand, with one fewer card. This option may be repeated until you have no cards in your starting hand. Newer versions involve something like the Scry mechanic. Scry 1 being: "Check the first, a.k.a '''1'''st card of the library, a.k.a pile to draw from, and choose whether to move it to the bottom of the pile.": |
| 269 | *** "Vancouver" style is Scry 1 after finished mulligan-ing. |
| 270 | *** "London" only practically, not functionally, reduces card draw each time. Instead, the mulligan repeatedly draws the same starting number of cards, 7, just that it treats it as if the draw had already been scried for the number of mulligans. having to place the same number of cards from the hand to the bottom of the deck after having concluded the mulligan-ing. |
| 271 | ** The ([Type]-)Cycling mechanic, for a cost, usually some {{Mana}}, to discard the card and draw some amount of (Type) cards, and comes in regular, a.k.a any-type, or Types such as Land or Sliver. Such as Starstorm: "Cycling 3, Discard this card: Draw a card." |
| 272 | * CarnivorousHealingFactor: A card printed as part of a ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' crossover set, [[https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/230/shelob-child-of-ungoliant Shelob, Child of Ungoliant]], is capable of creating copies of creatures that are killed by it or other spiders, except they become Food tokens, artifacts that can be sacrificed to gain three life or trigger other abilities. |
| 273 | * CastFromHitPoints: |
| 274 | ** Aside from the infamous [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202596 Channel]]-[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221550 Fireball]] combo, planeswalkers fall under this as well: Some of their ability require the removal of loyalty counters. These same counters effectively act as their life totals; once they're out of counters, they're gone. Most also invert this trope by having abilities that ''give'' them loyalty counters as well, as well as a few with abilities that do nothing to their counter totals. |
| 275 | ** Phyrexian mana symbols from ''New Phyrexia'': For each Phyrexian mana symbol in a cost, you can pay 1 mana of the specified color, or 2 life. |
| 276 | ** Some spells and abilities work like this by default, or as a way to enhance their effects. |
| 277 | * CastFromMoney: |
| 278 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/bng/73/gild Gild]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/jou/74/king-macar-the-gold-cursed King Macar]], both riffs on the King Midas myth, create "Gold" artifact tokens that can then be sacrificed for mana of any color. |
| 279 | ** The ''Ixalan'' sets have [[https://scryfall.com/card/txln/7/treasure Treasure]] tokens, which are basically the same as the Gold tokens above, except with the ObviousRulePatch that you must tap them ''before'' sacrificing them for mana. |
| 280 | * CastFromSanity: |
| 281 | ** This is the case for decks built around the keyword abilities Hellbent, Madness, and, to a lesser extent, Dredge. Sanity is represented by the cards left in your hand and in your library; an empty hand is unstable, an empty library is when a planeswalker is going to completely lose their mind. Madness allows you to sacrifice short-term sanity to play the card you're discarding cheaply[[note]]in fact, it can only be used when you’re discarding the card ''anyway'', so it’s a case of “use it or lose it”[[/note]]; Hellbent denotes cards that gain an advantage when your hand is empty; and Dredge allows you to affect your long-term sanity to recur things from your graveyard. |
| 282 | ** This idea has gained new life in Commander due to that format's restrictions (100 minimum card deck limit, only one copy of anything besides basic lands). Cards, especially Commanders, that let you cast from your graveyard are infinitely more useful, especially when combined with a "discard" heavy deck. Get as many cards as you can into your graveyard and you can basically use it as an extra large "hand" thanks to the abilities of Commanders like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=503331 Muldratha, the Gravetide]] (which regularly makes "top Commander" lists for this reason) and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464155 Kess, Dissident Mage]] allowing you to cast directly from it. The downside and, hence, biggest risk, is that it makes you more vulnerable to "decking out" (ie, in terms of flavor, "going insane") if your opponent can force you to mill. |
| 283 | * CastingAShadow: Lies within black's purview, examples including [[https://scryfall.com/card/som/65/grasp-of-darkness?utm_source=mci Grasp of Darkness]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/vis/52/blanket-of-night?utm_source=mci Blanket of Night]]. |
| 284 | * CatapultToGlory: Common among goblins, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4821 Goblin Bombardment]], as well as giants who sometimes [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140183 act as the catapault]]. |
| 285 | * CatchAndReturn: |
| 286 | ** Blue has a number of spells in this vein, including [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=290288 Redirect]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121243 Commandeer]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5209 Rebound]]. |
| 287 | ** Red also has a few, but befitting the color's nature, they tend to emphasize the "catch" part less and the "return" part more. Examples include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205038 Reverberate]] (which copies and returns the spell) and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376588 Wild Ricochet]] (which catches, copies, and returns). |
| 288 | * CaveMouth: |
| 289 | ** The card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129598 Howling Mine]] looks like this most of the time, DependingOnTheArtist. |
| 290 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121234 Mouth of Ronam]] is a more literal version of this, being a cave that can be activated to crush another creature in its jaws. |
| 291 | * CCGImportanceDissonance: |
| 292 | ** [[http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Gerrard_Capashen Gerrard Capashen]] is the hero of the ''Weatherlight'' saga, which spanned across years of the storyline. When he was eventually printed as a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=209157 card]], it was laughably underpowered. |
| 293 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=44263 Karona, False God]], who emerges in Onslaught block as a [[PhysicalGod physical manifestation of Dominaria's mana]] formed from the [[FusionDance fusion]] of the powerful and iconic legends [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106427 Phage the Untouchable]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106645 Akroma, Angel of Wrath]], is far less useful than she has any right to be as well--so much so that head designer Mark Rosewater [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr232 publicly apologized]] for how lame she was: |
| 294 | --->That card is an embarrassment to card design. I actually had zero to do with the card and I'm still embarrassed. We took two iconic beloved cool legends and combined them into a pile of, well a word I'm not allowed to use on this site. Of all the balls dropped with the design of legendary characters, this is one near the top of the list. My humblest apologies. |
| 295 | ** Yawgmoth, ''the'' BigBad of ''Magic'' and, as ruler of Phyrexia, the equivalent of {{Satan}}, has never gotten his own card, at least until the Modern Horizons set... though the [[https://scryfall.com/card/dmr/110/yawgmoth-thran-physician card]] he got there depicts him prior to his ascension to godhood. |
| 296 | * ChainLightning: |
| 297 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201126 Chain Lightning]] itself is an interesting example in that the spell's first target (or the target's owner) gets to choose the next target. As long as each player is willing and able to spend [[ElementalRockPaperScissors red mana]] on the spell, the process repeats itself. |
| 298 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386478 Arc Lightning]] allows the caster to spread a set amount of damage to multiple targets. The card art shows a lightning bolt arcing from one target to the next. |
| 299 | * ChangelingTale: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=143380 Crib Swap]] exchanges a creature for a 1/1 changeling. |
| 300 | * CharacterNameLimits: The card name Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar was so long that it would not fit unless the designers removed the mana symbols which would go next to the name. |
| 301 | * ChargedAttack: Planeswalker cards. They can use one ability a turn, some of which increase loyalty, while the more powerful ones decrease it, and with very few exceptions, must 'charge' for several turns before they can use their 'ultimate' ability. |
| 302 | * ChekhovsGun: |
| 303 | ** You know those useless snow-covered lands from ''Ice Age''? Not so useless as of ''Coldsnap'' -- 11 years later! |
| 304 | ** Poison counters. Nearly pointless at first, given a bit more '''oomph''' in ''Future Sight'', then turned into a powerful threat (and plot point!) in ''Scars of Mirrodin''. |
| 305 | ** In an example that borders on BrickJoke: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136151 Steamflogger Boss]] references Riggers and Contraptions, but no other such cards were printed (barring one that was retconned to have the Rigger subtype)... until the ''Unstable'' joke set, which was released '''ten years''' after Steamflogger Boss's debut! |
| 306 | * CherryTapping: |
| 307 | ** The entire damage-dealing strategy behind Weenie and Token decks. Attacking with a 1/1 creature/token is about as pitiful as it gets...but when you're {{Zerg Rush}}ing with more of them than your opponent has life remaining, it doesn't really matter. |
| 308 | ** The interplay of certain decks can lead to this quite easily: |
| 309 | *** One early tournament, before the rule placing a four card limit on everything but basic lands, was won by a player who loaded up his deck with nothing but [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=271 Swords to Plowshares]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=166 Llanowar Elves]], Plains, and Forests. Eventually, his opponents would be out of creatures and at a ridiculous life total. Then in went the elves...60...59...58...57... |
| 310 | *** One tournament match had a player with a [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3857 Lord of the Pit]] based deck square off against a player with a [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83525 Clone]] based deck. The Clone player was basically stuck either allowing his opponent to drain his life with direct attacks from Lord of the Pit, or he Clone it, but wouldn't be able to pay its sacrifice upkeep, and would then be killed by his own cloned Lord of the Pit... |
| 311 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Starke%20of%20Rath Starke of Rath]]. Merely tapping him allows him to destroy creatures and artifacts...but then he switches to the controller of that permanent's control. |
| 312 | * CirclingVultures: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=4452 Circling Vultures]] is a one black mana 3/2, but requires you to exile the top creature from your graveyard each turn. If you can't, Circling Vultures is destroyed. The idea is that Circling Vultures is feeding on the creature's corpse, and starve to death if there isn't one. |
| 313 | * ClamTrap: A speciality of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108816 Giant Oyster]]. It can clamp onto a tapped creature and keep it tapped (which prevents it from doing much) while also slowly killing it by putting a -1/-1 counter it each turn. It can also release the creature, which removes all -1/-1 counters from it. The idea is that the clamped creature slowly drowns, but is able to swim back to the surface for air if released. |
| 314 | * {{Claustrophobia}}: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=235601 Claustrophobia]] is an enchantment which taps a target creature and prevents them from untapping. The idea is that you're trapping the creature in a tiny space. |
| 315 | * ClimacticBattleResurrection: |
| 316 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=5629 Yawgmoth's Will]] allows you to bring back anything from your graveyard, and potentially ''everything'' if you have the mana required. |
| 317 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23058 Twilight's Call]] brings back every creature from the graveyard for both players. If you play something like the cheap [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tormod%27s%20Crypt Tormod's Crypt]] to clear your opponent's graveyard first, this has no downside. |
| 318 | * ClingyCostume: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2787 Living Armor]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=50927 Grafted Wargear]] are artifact equipment which, once applied, cannot be removed without killing the creature. |
| 319 | * ClockOfPower: |
| 320 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202414 Armageddon Clock]]" is a 6-mana Colorless DoomsdayClock artifact that will deal damage to each player the more it has Doom counter on it. Each player can try to destroy it or remove the Doom counter to prevent damage inflicted to them. |
| 321 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=84709 Blood Clock]]" is a 4 mana Colorless artifact that allow each player to return a permanent they control to its owner's hand. |
| 322 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=288877 Clock of Omen]]" is a 4 mana Colorless Artifact that allow you to tapped two untapped artifact you control to untap another artifact you control. |
| 323 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383261 Grindclock]]" is a 2 mana Colorless Artifact that allow you to mill cards from your or your opponent's deck whenever you untap it. |
| 324 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=633325 Midnight Clock]]" is a 2 Colorless 1 Blue mana artifact that after 12 Counters are put on it, shuffle your hand and graveyard into your deck, and then you can draw seven cards. |
| 325 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=634571 Trenzalore Clocktower]]" is a Legendary Land that allow you to allow you to shuffle your hand and graveyard into your deck, and then you can draw seven cards if you remove 12 counters on it and control a Time Lord. |
| 326 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=586611 Unwinding Clock]]" is a 4 Colorless Mana artifact that allow you to untap all artifacts you control during each other player's untap step. |
| 327 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3601 Sand of Time]]" is a 4 Colorless mana hourglass artifact that skip each player's untap step but then will untap all other spells and permanent on that player's turn, thus countering some of the effects that trigger during that step. |
| 328 | ** "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=489896 Time Sieve]]" is a 2-cost Blue and Black mana hourglass artifact that will tap itself to sacrifice five artifacts to take an extra turn. |
| 329 | * ClockworkCreature: "Clockwork" is a common artifact creature type which tend to come in two flavors. One come onto the battlefield with counters, and each time they attack or block, a counter is removed. Once all of the counters are gone, they are sent to the graveyard with the idea being they "unwound" while moving. The other come onto the battlefield with no power but some toughness, and can be "wound up" via tapping or spending mana to add +1 counters. |
| 330 | * CloneByConversion: |
| 331 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=254133 Essence of the Wild]], once in play, causes any other creatures you play to become copies of it. |
| 332 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=447196 Metamorphic Alteration]] is an enchantment which allows you to turn the enchanted creature into a copy of any other creature. While this main use is to copy the strongest creature on the field, you can also cripple your opponent by turning their strongest creature into a copy of the ''weakest''... |
| 333 | * ClownCarGrave: Common in black decks, with their enchantments giving them option to turn their own creatures into zombies as well as some of their creatures being able to return from death/being cast from the graveyard on their own. For example, it is possible to play something like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426789 Doomed Dissenter]], sacrifice it to summon a zombie token, which activates its ability creating another zombie token (which is ''stronger'' than Dissenter itself), then bring it back from the graveyard through one of a plethora of means, giving you three creatures out of one body (and potentially more if you repeat the process). |
| 334 | * CollectibleCardGame: TropeMaker, TropeCodifier, and GenrePopularizer. |
| 335 | * ColorCodedItemTiers: It eventually coded the card rarities. Black means common, silver means uncommon, gold means rare, and orange means mythic rare. |
| 336 | * ColorCodedWizardry: The players themselves with their "color" being determined by the primary mana of the deck they're using. [[AliceAndBob Alice]] might be referred to as a "blue/white" player, while Bob is "red/black", and Charlie is "mono-green". The players don't ''usually'' dress exclusively in these colors, however. |
| 337 | * CombatByChampion: |
| 338 | ** The "Exalted" keyword ability is based on this idea. It gives power boosts to creatures which attack alone. |
| 339 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=25438 Dueling Grounds]] enforces this. While the enchantment is active, only one creature may attack per turn, and only one creature may block per turn. |
| 340 | ** The Archenemy scheme [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=212581 Choose Your Champion]] functions like this, allowing only one of your multiple opponents to cast spells and attack with creatures until your next turn. |
| 341 | * CombatMedic: |
| 342 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=1971 Combat Medic]] itself is a solely defensive card, able to be used for damage prevention and blocking only. |
| 343 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39430 Battlefield Medic]] is a creature that can tap in order to prevent damage to other creatures. |
| 344 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366460 Frontline Medic]] is a creature with more emphasis on the "combat" portion of the trope. If it and two other creatures attack, all are indestructable for that turn. It can also be sacrificed to block an opposing spell. |
| 345 | ** Most "Cleric" type creatures qualify, at least Downplaying the trope. Many are associated with damage prevention and life gain. |
| 346 | * CombinedEnergyAttack: Employed in numerous ways: |
| 347 | ** Affinity: The card's cheaper for every X you control, where the card has affinity for X. A variant exists with three cards in Urza's Saga where they count a particular card type. |
| 348 | ** Domain: There are five basic land types. Control 1, you get an effect of 1. Control 2, you get the effect of 2. Et cetera. |
| 349 | ** Spells with Evoke let your creatures combine to help pay the cost of those spells. |
| 350 | ** Last Stand (and similar): These cards count the number of a given basic land type. (Last Stand counts all five.) |
| 351 | ** Exalted: Like the aforementioned cards, only it only applies when [[CombatByChampion exactly one creature attacks]], and it gets stronger for every other creature. |
| 352 | ** Allies: Allies have abilities that activate when an ally comes into play, count your allies, or both. |
| 353 | ** "Lords" invert this, granting more power to each creature of the same tribe, or something similar. |
| 354 | * CombiningMecha: |
| 355 | ** The four Chimerae of ''Visions'' ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3594 Iron-Heart]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3590 Brass-Talon]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3596 Lead-Belly]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3605 Tin-Wing]]) emulate the "expansion pack" variety. You can sacrifice one to add its stats and abilities to another Chimera. Amusingly, this includes Changelings and ''Theros'''s biological Chimerae. |
| 356 | ** Artifact creatures with the modular ability are 0/0 creatures that enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters. When they die, they can transfer those counters to another artifact creature to power it up. |
| 357 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=548562 Mechtitan Core]] can fuse with four other artifact creatures or Vehicles to form its namesake [[https://scryfall.com/card/tneo/14/mechtitan Mechtitan]], a 10/10 token of all colors with flying, vigilance, trample, lifelink, and haste. Its showcase alt art even shows the Core combining to form its full body! |
| 358 | * ComebackMechanic: |
| 359 | ** The randomness inherent in a shuffled deck of cards provides a natural comeback mechanic when combined with the mana system: it's always possible for your opponent to hit a string of unlucky draws. |
| 360 | ** The "Fateful Hour" mechanic gives cards additional, usually powerful, effects which only kick in when their controller has 5 life or less remaining. |
| 361 | * ComMons: A good portion of the historically "[[JokeCharacter bad]]" cards are all Common rarity. Almost all of them are creatures that would have been fair at half their mana cost, and most never see any significant use unless a player is looking for a challenge. That said, many have found new life thanks to the Limited "Booster Draft" tournament format, in which players "draft" new decks from previously unopened booster packs. As "Common" rarity cards make up the bulk of these packs, players have no choice but to try and use them. |
| 362 | * CompetitiveBalance: Keeping this has been an ongoing issue for the series since its very inception. To note: |
| 363 | ** "[[PowerEqualsRarity Balance by Rarity]]" was the initial plan for the series. When the game was first released, it was known that cards such as Black Lotus, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister, and the Moxes were game-breakingly powerful if present in sufficient quantities. However, they believed that since most players would only buy a starter deck and a couple of boosters, their power would never become an issue. This is especially evident when you look at the initial deck construction rules: 40-card minimum for decks, and no maximum for any individual cards. The deck of nothing but Black Lotus/Channel/Fireball was 100% legal, and that's not even the most powerful deck you could build. Constructed tournament later evolved to have a 60 card minimum limit and a maximum of 4 individual non-land cards, thus effectively removing the imbalance. |
| 364 | ** Modern ''Magic'' still has balance by rarity as a rarity level above rare, called mythic rare, was added in the Shards of Alara expansion. (One in eight booster backs has its one rare replaced by a mythic rare). It should be noted that rarity balance exists in limited formats, such as booster draft and sealed deck, where certain powerful cards could easily help the player to win but they may well not get one of these cards, let alone multiple copies, but does not exist in constructed play where people will [[SeriousBusiness spend whatever it takes to win]]. |
| 365 | ** In limited formats, there is the ''[[http://www.essentialmagic.com/em2/Doc.aspx?hdocid=239 BREAD]]'' principle, which describes what card to draft - Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Advantage, and Dregs. While Removal, Evasion, Advantage, and Dregs cards are available in every rarity, Bombs are usually in the rare slot. A deck with a good amount of bomb and removal cards usually has a considerable upper hand. Whether a player obtained those cards by luck or by skills is something that is often discussed in [=MTG=] boards. Large amounts of removal can make up for a lack of bombs by ensuring you can always get rid of whatever overpowering creature is thrown out by your opponent. The greatest of bombs tend to be cards which are immune to removal, either non-creatures which thus naturally evade anti-creature removal spells, creatures which are somehow immune to removal due to protection, shroud, regeneration, or similar effects, or bombs which act as removal themselves. On occasion, some uncommons can be bombs as well, the most common example being spells which deal X damage to target creature or player, making them both removal and potentially capable of finishing off an opponent in the late game out of nowhere; Fireball is perhaps the most infamous such example, due to its ability to split up its damage, allowing it to act as mass removal as well. |
| 366 | ** A cause of "Situational Advantage" also frequently arises. As cards "rotate" (new ones are printed, older made illegal in most common formats) for a good portion of environments, there will arise one or two "Dominant" decks that prompt development of counter-decks aimed to specifically combat these dominants. Said "counter" decks are less powerful overall, so any (semicompetent) deck ''but'' the dominant actually has a good chance against it. A third category are "Rogue" decks, which will beast the highly specialized "counter" decks, but still fall to the "dominant" decks. The resulting rock-paper-scissors deck choice process is known as metagaming. |
| 367 | ** The "Luck-Based" balance gets a bit worse when one considers cards like Enlightened Tutor, which lets you reshuffle your deck, with the artifact or enchantment of your choice on top. When you consider that many of the big game breakers are artifacts or enchantments, and Enlightened Tutor costs one white mana and can be played just before you draw, yeah. Enlightened Tutor, by the way, is legal in Legacy. |
| 368 | ** Early [=MTG=] was characterized by overestimating the power of creatures. Because, naturally, you had to kill people with creatures, it was assumed they would be the dominant force in the card game. Because of this, creatures were relatively overcosted, meaning that in the earliest "fair" tournaments (that is, cards printed with "organized card game" in mind as opposed to "limited product experiment"), "control" decks, which featured heavy counter-spells and removal, all of which cost much less mana than the creatures they destroyed, dominated the game. |
| 369 | ** Another infamous case of "Underestimated Power" occurred when players realized that no matter how much life they lost, they could still win as [[CriticalExistenceFailure long as they didn't hit 0]]. Enter [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=NECROPOTENCE Necropotence]]. When they designed this card, they thought that players would value their each life point they had and was expected that you'd balance out the life loss with life-gaining cards, never overuse them. Players, on the other hand, realized that 1 life for 1 card is a hilariously good trade, especially since you could use Necropotence's ability indefinitely and draw an obscene amount of cards, digging out complex combos whose lack of consistency (due to needing to draw them one by one) was their only real flaw. Wizards has since learned from this and any subsequent cards that gave you draws had either obscene mana costs, required some other cost (such as sacrificing creatures), or could only give you one extra card per turn. "Life payment" as a drawback in general has seen a massive decrease in the stuff it allows you to do, as any effect that is triggered by it is also usually tied to some other cost (mana, sacrifices, or discards) or generally are not that game-changing. |
| 370 | ** The power of drawing cards and free mana were also comically "Underestimated" in early game design. For Drawing, Wizards originally released a cycle (a set of 5 cards with an overarching theme across all five colors) called "boons" that granted you 3 things for the cost of 1 mana. The blue one gave you 3 draws while the others only did damage, buff creatures, a little extra mana, or gave life. To this day, Ancestral Recall (the blue boon) remains the only one to have never been reprinted and is part of the infamous Power Nine. As for free mana, the most well known example is the Black Lotus, but even attempts at balancing it have been met with failure; Lion's Eye Diamond, a heavily {{Nerf}}ed version of the Black Lotus that was intended to be completely unusable due to making you discard your entire hand, was still heavily restricted in the formats where it was legal. Wizards has since given up trying to make a balanced version of the thing. |
| 371 | * ComplexityAddiction: |
| 372 | ** The "Johnny/Jennie" player "psychographic" is defined by this. They are motivated by a desire to see their convoluted deck concept or some AwesomeButImpractical card actually win something, even if picking up a [[BoringButPractical tried-and-true cookie-cutter meta deck]] would have a higher success rate. |
| 373 | ** This (referred to as "Complexity Creep") is someting that Wizards actively tries to avert with the cards themselves. The rules needed to deal with thousands of different cards make for an [[DoorStopper imposing document]]. The spiraling increases in complexity put the game at risk of being impossible for any potential customer to understand. To combat this, they created the Type 2 (or Standard) format, which is theoretically immune to complexity creep as only the last two years of cards are allowed, so the complexity relative to older cards doesn't matter. |
| 374 | * TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: |
| 375 | ** The boss characters in the ''Duels of the Planeswalkers'' games often have decks that are ''considerably'' stronger than the default characters' decks (most of them can't be unlocked either). [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214350 Karn]] in particular uses several cards that are outright banned in nearly every format in the physical card game and is capable of killing you on turn 3 in a game where most games tend to go more than 10 turns. If you manage to win against him, it's likely because you got lucky. |
| 376 | ** The encounters in ''Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013'' take it even further. Given that the opponents in these games follow a certain pattern, you can expect them to have more than four copies of a card in their deck. In some cases, their decks literally only consist of basic lands and one type of creature card. |
| 377 | * ConfusionFu: |
| 378 | ** A common Red tactic. Casting from the top of its library, transforming creatures into other, random creatures, and gaining boosts based on random effects, such as coin flips, are all within the Red arsenal. |
| 379 | ** On the metagame level, this is intrinsic to "Rogue" decks. Every deck has certain things it struggles to deal with, so there's a 'sideboard' of 15 cards that can be swapped into the deck between games to help deal with the opponent's deck in any given match. A good Rogue deck user can devastate a tournament by using new strategies that players don't have a way to counter even with their sideboard. |
| 380 | * ConservationOfNinjutsu: In a weird way, the Exalted effect can become this. Cards with exalted give +1/+1 to attacking creature the player controls, but only when it's attacking by itself. Many cards with this ability are mere 1/1s — not very scary by themselves, but get a handful and you can attack with a nice big 10/10 in no time. |
| 381 | * ContinuingIsPainful: |
| 382 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Lich%27s%20Mirror Lich's Mirror]] effectively allows you to have a fresh start to the game. Emphasis on "you", because however nice the new hand and 20 life is, you've removed ''all'' of your resources from the battlefield. Unless you planned ahead and eliminated your opponent's resources beforehand, expect them to crush you in a couple of turns. |
| 383 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=214350 Karn Liberated]] Inverts the trope. His ultimate ability literally restarts the game. However, instead of causing an endless loop of the same thing, he puts anything he exiled under your control, including other people's creatures, enchantments, artifacts, and so on. If you did a good job of protecting him while he was exiling things, you can end up with anything from a decent advantage to an army that can win the game in one turn. |
| 384 | * ContinuityCavalcade: The ''Time Spiral'' block brought back and/or referenced dozens of old, often famous cards from ''Magic''[='s=] earlier days, including cards and mechanics which had been out of print for years. Its sequel, ''Planar Chaos'', instead focused on alternate universe cards with similar though ultimately different functions. The final set in the block, ''Future Sight'', gave a taste of cards and mechanics which would get much more focus in future blocks. |
| 385 | * ContinuityDrift: as Wizards' understanding of the game is refined, some classic spells are retired and replaced by (generally) less-powerful versions. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202437 Counterspell]] has been phased out in favor of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=208217 Cancel]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234704 Lightning Bolt]] for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129732 Shock]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202486 Terror]] for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247322 Doom Blade]]. (In the case of the final two, it's hard to answer which is strictly worse, because one has versatility and the other permanence.) In some cases this can even result in cards ''moving color''--[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201162 Disenchant]] (formerly a signature White spell) to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=207336 Naturalize]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221111 Prodigal Sorcerer]] for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205231 Prodigal Pyromancer]]. |
| 386 | * ContinuityNod: |
| 387 | ** ''Every'' card from the ''Time Spiral'' set has at least one. Some are obvious, like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=113528 Wheel of Fate]] revisiting [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202558 Wheel of Fortune]]; some are downright oblique, like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=110510 Plated Pegasus]], which combines [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3479 an obscure card from Mirage]] with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4861 an obscure card from Tempest]]. |
| 388 | ** The ''Dominaria'' set is an extensive love letter to many of Magic's earlier blocks, and the set's filled with callbacks to earlier sets. [[http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=14629&writer=Craig+Wescoe&articledate=5-11-2018 This article]] lists off some of the more obvious ones. |
| 389 | * ControllableHelplessness: Certain older cards had an issue colloquially known as "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190188 Sage Owl]] Syndrome. These cards, including the owl, let you look at the top few cards of your deck and let you rearrange them as you see fit. Unfortunately, older versions forced you to keep all the cards on top, so if literally none of them could help you (often by not being lands that you need to cast your spells, both in your hand and coming up in your deck) you knew you had several turns coming where you can do absolutely nothing. Sure, you could determine the exact useless cards you draw, but you had no hope for actually useful cards. For this reason, newer versions of this effect let you put some or all of the cards in your graveyard or the bottom of your deck. |
| 390 | * CoolGate: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73559 Door to Nothingness]] takes this form. It is certainly "cool" in that, if you can [[AwesomeButImpractical afford its steep ability cost]], you'll automatically win the game. |
| 391 | * CoolOfRule: Naturally, given the game's strict (though not without the occasional [[LoopholeAbuse loophole to abuse]]) rules, any "outside the box" winning deck can be this. [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Hulk_Flash Hulk Flash]], which can grant a ''Turn 0'' win, and [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Caw-blade Caw-Blade]], one of the few truly "unbeatable" decks, both qualified. Of course, in order to keep a semblance of competitive balance, the rules are usually changed to ban or restrict cards from such decks once they become dominant. |
| 392 | * CosmeticAward: ''Arena'' has "card style" reward cards given for participating/winning certain low-value/free special events. All these do is alter the artwork on the cards and have no actual in game effect at all. Some of the "differences" in cart art are quite substantial, while in other cases they barely count as differences at all. |
| 393 | * {{Counterspell}}: |
| 394 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=102 Counterspell]], the TropeNamer, is the oft-reprinted, classic, somewhat infamous yet always iconic, blue mana spell which counters anothers spell. It is the "strictly better" predecessor the functionally identical [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=447184 Cancel]], which costs one more mana. |
| 395 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383006 Mana Drain]] became an even better version of Counterspell, which not only counters the target spell, but adds its mana cost to your mana pool. Due to the Mana Burn rule in effect at the time of its first printing, this was considered a substantial drawback. However, that rule was removed for ''Magic 2010'', unleashing Mana Drain drawback-free. |
| 396 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370354 Pact of Negation]] allows you to counter a spell for zero mana...on the current turn. Next turn, must pay ''five'' or else lose the game. It sounds like a bad trade, but has become a popular "combo protection" card. You don't have to worry about paying that five mana if your ultimate combo goes off and wins you the game on ''this'' turn... |
| 397 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=50929 Last Word]] is a counterspell which cannot be countered by other counterspells...expect to see it show it up a lot in any blue vs. blue match. |
| 398 | ** Counterspell heavy decks have earned the nickname "Permission Decks" on the metagame level. They are so called because any time an opponent casts a spell, the Permission deck player almost always has the option of countering it, so if they decide it's not worth it, they are granting their opponent "permission" to cast it. |
| 399 | * CowardlySidekick: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=113512 Norin the Wary]] was quoted in several flavor texts as this sort of character before getting his own card with a very appropriate ability - he "runs away" whenever either player does anything. Originally a JokeCharacter, ''Magic'' players characteristically found a way to make him [[LethalJokeCharacter lethal]] by combining him with something that triggers as cretures enter or exit play. Since he's all but guaranteed to enter ''and'' exit every turn, playing him along with something like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=49528 Confusion in the Ranks]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Purphoros,%20God%20of%20the%20Forge Purphoros, God of the Forge]] makes him legitimately dangerous. And because his ability is so easy to trigger, he is extremely difficult to deal with permanently. (It takes something so situational that most serious players won't be running it, like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106657 Pull from Eternity]]. He also makes for a hilarious and frustrating Commander in that format. |
| 400 | * CrackIsCheaper: ''Magic'' is ''expensive''. Prices for tournament-winning, in-print single cards routinely exceed $20, and sometimes even approach/exceed $100. On top of that, the most popular and common tournament formats rotate new sets in and old sets out each year, serving the dual function of keeping the game fresh and keeping Wizards in business selling new cards. Finally, the most expensive ''Magic'' cards, the overpowered legends from the game's early days, can easily sell [[https://successstory.com/spendit/most-expensive-mtg-cards for over $1000]]. A mint condition Black Lotus from the Alpha set sold for a record price of ''[[https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/5/18251623/magic-the-gathering-black-lotus-auction-price $166,100]]'' at auction in March 2019. |
| 401 | * CranialPlateAbility: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=51184 Cranial Plating]] is an artifact that applies this to a creature. The equipped creature gains +1/0 for every artifact you control, meaning you can get a very strong creature in any artifact-heavy deck. |
| 402 | * CrazyCatLady: Three cards represent Crazy Squirrel Men: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=12458 Deranged Hermit]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29987 Nut Collector]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24672 Squirrel Wrangler]]. Each has the potential to put numerous 1/1 Squirrel tokens into play. |
| 403 | * CreatorCameo: Richard Garfield himself [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74250 has a card]] in ''Unhinged''. Former art director Jeremy Cranford has one too, albeit [[http://magiccards.info/uh/en/11.html less flattering.]] |
| 404 | * CreepyDoll: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Creepy+Doll Creepy Doll]] is a card and a ShoutOut to the trope-naming Music/JonathanCoulton song. Mechanically, it is an indestructable artifact creature which has a 50/50 chance of destroying any creature it damages. |
| 405 | * CripplingOverspecialization: Many combo decks can fall prey to this. Each is generally built to set up one specific combination of cards, but if one of those cards is destroyed, they are left with a sub-par deck. Combo decks are strong vs. "raw power/aggro" decks because comboed cards will dismantle an equal number of individual cards without synergy (even though said cards tend to be stronger individually), and are vulnerable to control decks that systematically block or remove the components of a combo. Extreme examples are more popular among casual players, who don't care nearly as much about a reliable win/lose percentage as about the fact that it's absolutely hilarious to use a finishing attack featuring, for example, an unblockable attacker whose power and toughness grow by a factor of 32 every turn. |
| 406 | * CriticalExistenceFailure: A common adage among players is that the only life point that matters is your last one. It was this revelation that made [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194977 Necropotence]] decks powerful. |
| 407 | * CriticalStatusBuff: |
| 408 | ** The ''Dark Ascension'' expansion has some cards with the Fateful Hour mechanic. These cards have additional effects which activate if you have 5 or less life remaining. |
| 409 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=416752 Near Death Experience]] automatically wins you the game...''if'' you start your turn with exactly one life remaining. |
| 410 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46617 Avatar of Hope]] is a powerful creature who can be played very cheaply (just two white mana) if you have three or less life remaining. |
| 411 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425889 Death's Shadow]] is a creature which grows stronger as your life total gets lower. If you have 13 or more, it dies as soon as it is cast. At 12, it is a mere 1/1...get down to just one life, however, and it becomes a 12/12 behemoth that costs just one black mana to cast. And since it is a black mana creature, and black mana has the most cards which trade life points for various, it is easy to set up such a situation. |
| 412 | * CrutchCharacter: |
| 413 | ** All but the most gimmicky decks tend to have a few weaker, low-mana cost creatures that can be played in the early game as a first line of defense and to chip away at the opponent's life if they do not have such creatures. "Bears" are extremely popular, an archetype named after the ever-popular original Green [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129586 Grizzly Bears]], they are two-mana 2/2 creatures with no abilities which offer a great mana/power balance for this purpose. Creatures in this mold now exist for every color except Blue. As the game progresses, they fall well behind the power curve, but still have their uses as chump blockers and sacrifices. |
| 414 | ** Weenie and Token decks are built almost entirely around these "crutch" creatures. The goal is to get as many of them into play as quickly as you can and ZergRush your opponent. If you fail to do so before they can get more powerful creatures or spells into play, you can expect a decisive defeat. |
| 415 | * CrystalPrison: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3240 Amber Prison]], which "traps" a target permanent and does not allow them to untap. |
| 416 | * CueCardPause: The wording on the card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=35891 Book Burning]] caused a rules snafu in line with the trope. The first line reads "Unless a player has Book Burning", which could be a clause in itself, leading some players to insert a nonexistent comma between that and the other half of the clause "deal 6 damage to him or her". Some players argued that the card damaged a target player ''and'' did the other clause (put the top 6 cards of their deck into their graveyard) unless they could produce a copy of Book Burning, instead of its actual effect of "milling" 6 unless someone takes 6 damage. The official wording was changed quickly, but that version of the card is the only one that was ever printed... |
| 417 | * CursedWithAwesome: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247201 Skullclamp]] was originally +1/+2 and "When equipped creature dies, draw two cards." Then it became +1/+1. Then it became +1/-1, meaning you can turn any creature with one toughness into two cards. [[GoneHorriblyRight Players took notice.]] |
| 418 | * CuteIsEvil: PlayedForLaughs with the ''Un-'' set joke cards [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=9779 Infernal Spawn of Evil]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73981 Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=479433 Infernius Spawnington III, Esq.]], which were released set by set. As a bonus, it's also a joke about [[ActorAllusion card artist Ron Spencer only drawing hideous monsters]]. |
| 419 | * CuteMachines: Most Myr creatures are cute, miniature artifact creatures. Don't let that fool you however, as most have tap effects which do things like boost your other creatures, give you extra mana, or even directly damage your opponent, making them potentially lethal. |
| 420 | * CuttingTheKnot: The credo of Zvi Mowshowitz, multi-time ''Magic'' tournament winner and hall of famer, fits quite nicely. He tends to live up to it as well, as many of his winning decks have been hyper-aggressive "Aggro" decks, with some of them winning on turn 3 or 4. |
| 421 | --> ''"If brute force doesn't solve your problem, you're not using enough. Why not use more?"'' |
| 422 | * CyberneticMythicalBeast: The game is positive ''rife'' with "artifact" versions of mythological creatures. Some notable examples: |
| 423 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221103 Dragon Engines]] are the bio-mechanical Phyrexians' answer to classic dragons. Though weaker than virtually any other true dragon, as artifact creatures, they can be powered up with extra mana. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=433296 Ramos]] is a legendary dragon engine reprogrammed to serve as a protector. It is significantly stronger and can be powered up with +1/+1 counters merely by playing spells. Its ability allows it to exchange five counters for ''two of every mana type''. Very much DifficultButAwesome, as it then allows you to play many otherwise AwesomeButImpractical spells. |
| 424 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=2901 Clockwork Gnomes]] are artifact creatures which can repair other artifact creatures. |
| 425 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106537 Platinum Angel]] is an artifact angel whose ability prevents you from losing the game while she is in play. |
| 426 | * CyberneticsEatYourSoul: |
| 427 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159110 Ashnod's Transmogrant]] powers up a target creature by permanently transforming it into an artifact creature. |
| 428 | ** ''Unstable''[='s=] Order of the Widget engage in heavy, often ridiculous cybernetics projects. If you've ever wanted to attack someone with a [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=439391 toaster]], now is your chance. |
| 429 | [[/folder]] |
| 430 | |
| 431 | [[folder:D]] |
| 432 | * DamageIncreasingDebuff: Plenty of cards, including [[http://magiccards.info/shm/en/81.html Wound Reflection]] and [[http://magiccards.info/dka/en/85.html Curse of Bloodletting]], which double your opponents' pain. |
| 433 | * DamageOverTime: Several cards deal damage during a player's "Upkeep" step, in contrast to most cards which can only deal damage once at a time. |
| 434 | * DamageReduction: The "Absorb" mechanic allows creatures which have it to simply ignore a certain amount of damage they receive. |
| 435 | * DamageTyping: The game features numerous types, including: |
| 436 | ** Normal damage, which is dealt by standard attacking creatures and most direct damage spells, is removed from creatures at the end of the turn as long as it is not lethal. |
| 437 | ** Creatures with the "Wither" ability deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters. These remain unless cleared by a special effect or ability. |
| 438 | ** Creatures with the "Deathtouch" ability automatically destroy any creature they damage, no matter how much damage is done. |
| 439 | ** Some creatures and abilities add "Poison" counters to their opponent. If you acquire 10 poison counters, you lose. Early the game's history, this was a fairly useless ability as, unless you built your entire deck around shooting for this win condition, such decks tended to be suboptimal compared to doing straight-up normal damage. Poison became much more effective with the introduction of the "Infect" ability, which causes creatures to deal wither damage to other creatures and poison damage to players. |
| 440 | ** Each of the five mana colors can be considered its own damage type, as many cards exist which give you and your creatures protection from damage of certain colors. |
| 441 | * DamnYouMuscleMemory: Slight changes to similarly functioning cards between sets can lead to this effect on the metagame level. For example, plenty of blue players used to saving two mana at the end of their turn so that they can play a [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=413585 Counterspell]] during their opponent's turn only remember too late that the current set features [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Cancel Cancel]] instead, the same effect but requiring one more mana. |
| 442 | * DangerousForbiddenTechnique: |
| 443 | ** Applies to quite a few combo decks, especially combos that are CastFromHitPoints. (Channel-Fireball is a good old-school example: you pay all of your life, but the resulting fireball kills your opponent in one shot.) What makes them so dangerous is the likelihood that if they fail to kill the opponent dead then and there, the [[CherryTapping Cherriest of Taps]] will be your doom. |
| 444 | ** The aptly named "Suicide Black" decks are the epitome of this trope. Flavor wise, it is the color that most often deals in {{Necromancy}}, BlackMagic, and [[DealWithTheDevil Deals with the Devil]]. Mechanically, these show up as sacrificing creatures, discarding cards, and paying in life points to acquire and/or beef up your other spells. Flooding the field with creatures like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397570 Carnophage]] is a staple of such decks. Win quickly, or else your own creatures and spells will drain your life. Wizards has referred to it as "tearing your arm off and beating your opponents to death with it before you bleed out". |
| 445 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Final%20Fortune Final Fortune]] gives you an extra turn after your current one, but if you fail to win the game by the end of that turn, you automatically lose the game. As ''Magic'' players are wont to do, they quickly found ways to lessen the "danger", such as by playing it with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Platinum%20Angel Platinum Angel]], who prevents you from losing the game as long as it is in play. Another is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sundial%20Of%20The%20Infinite Sundial of the Infinite]], which if you play it during that second turn, exiles Final Fortune and prevents the "turn losing" from happening while you still get the bonus turn. |
| 446 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Demonic%20Pact Demonic Pact]] gives you relatively cheap access to three abilities, which you get to play once each at the start of your upkeep - deal four damage and give you four life, force your opponent to discard two cards, and draw two cards yourself. Each turn, you ''must'' apply one of its effects. Once you've applied those three, the fourth is "lose the game". Better hope you've won it before then (or have found a way to transfer it to your opponent...) |
| 447 | * DarkestHour: |
| 448 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5622 Darkest Hour]] is an enchantment which turns all creatures in play black. |
| 449 | ** [[https://media.wizards.com/2017/hou/en_8Dtc89JMF5.png Hour of Devasation]] removes the Indestructable ability from creatures that have it and then proceeds to deal five damage to every creature in play. It can destroy literal gods. The portion of the story from which it gets its flavor is very much in line with the trope. |
| 450 | * DeadMansSwitch: A number of cards "activate" when the opponent performs a certain action, often destroying that card in the process but inflicting something even worse onto the opponent. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29936 Standstill]], for example, allows you to draw three cards if your opponent casts a spell. Since playing any card other than a land counts as "casting a spell", this can really make them hesitate. |
| 451 | * DeadWeight: Most zombies are relatively "small" creatures, meant to be summoned quickly and easily, and thus highly disposable. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=84064 Gluttonous Zombie]] is an exception, being a 3/3 with Fear (meaning it can only be blocked by other black creatures). [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108910 Corpulent Corpse]] is its close cousin. |
| 452 | * DeaderThanDead: |
| 453 | ** Early versions had the "removed from the game" zone, which was supposed to this trope compared to simply being "dead" in the graveyard. It was far easier to interact with the graveyard than this zone, but players still found ways. The ''Unhinged'' card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74231 AWOL]] lampshaded this fact by introducting the "absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever zone". |
| 454 | ** A rules change finally addressed this, and created the "Exile" zone to replace the "removed from the game" zone. While they exist, means to return a card from exile are very few and far between. Usually, once something is exiled, it is deader than dead. One exception are cards which cause ''temporary'' exile, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Necropotence Necropotence]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397760 Oblivion Ring]]. |
| 455 | ** Some cards, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74546 Eradicate]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Deicide Deicide]], take exiling even further. Not only is the target exiled, but you get to search your opponent's deck, graveyard, and hand for any ''copies'' of that target card and exile those as well. It's less about those cards being ''dead'' and more about having their very concept [[CessationOfExistence deleted from existence]]. |
| 456 | ** A somewhat less extreme example is the difference between "destroy" and "destroy; can't be regenerated" or "buried." [[HealingFactor Regeneration]] allowed a creature that would be destroyed to survive, to account for the kinds of damage where it wouldn't matter how potent a healing factor a creature had, the "can't be regenerated" rider was added. This was later streamlined to "buried," a card that "destroyed" something allowed regeneration, a card that "buried" something did not. Regeneration ultimately became too clunky and complicated a mechanic, and was phased out, taking with it the difference between destroyed and buried. |
| 457 | * DeadlyDodging: |
| 458 | ** An ability of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24556 Shield Dancer]], which can block an attack creature and then deal the damage it would have done back to that same creature. |
| 459 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107310 Carom]] allows you to reflect incoming damage onto a new target, while also allowing you to draw a card. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89087 Reroute]] is very similar. |
| 460 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24554 Mirror Strike]] allows you to redirect unblocked damage onto your opponent instead. |
| 461 | * DeathActivatedSuperPower: |
| 462 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194940 Tuktuk the Explorer]], as a three mana 1/1, is well below the power curve. However, if he is sent to the graveyard, you place a 5/5 token into play called "Tuktuk the Returned", implying that he died and CameBackStrong. |
| 463 | ** Though certainly not exclusive to them, this is a trademark trait of Phoenix type creatures. Virtually all of them have abilities activated upon death. |
| 464 | * DeathOfAThousandCuts: While damage is removed from creatures during each turn's cleanup step, it is possible to destroy a creature with multiple instances of 1 damage over the course of a turn. The same is true of dealing with players or planeswalkers, which don't recover their HitPoints (life and loyalty, respectively) each turn. The card [[http://magiccards.info/sok/en/64.html Death of a Thousand Stings]] references this trope almost verbatim, dealing 1 point of damage per use but recyclable potentially infinitely. |
| 465 | * DeathOrGloryAttack: |
| 466 | ** Attacking with all of your creatures in a single turn (referred to by players as an AlphaStrike), especially late in the game. Either you defeat your opponent, or you leave yourself defenseless. |
| 467 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370354 Pact of Negation]] is a zero mana instant which acts as a {{Counterspell}}. However, on your next turn, you must pay ''five'' mana or lose the game. It sounds like a bad deal, but it has become a popular blue "combo protector". You won't have to worry about paying that mana if your ultimate combo goes off and wins you the game on ''this'' turn... |
| 468 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=12970 Final Fortune]] is similar, giving you an extra turn but causing you to lose the game at the end of that turn if you don't win it before. |
| 469 | * DeckClogger: |
| 470 | ** There are two major categories of cards: lands and spells. Lands generate mana, which you need to cast your spells. You hope to draw a good balance of them -- if you get too many of one category, extras won't be useful, and only serve to waste draws. At worst you end up mana screwed (you have plenty of spells, but not enough mana to cast much) or flooded (you have plenty of mana, but lack spells to use it for). The game's creators argue that this is a feature, not a bug, as it means a beginner can get an occasional win against a stronger opponent who was screwed/flooded. With that said, they don't want the game to be outright unplayable for the screwed/flooded player either. |
| 471 | ** The game has several {{Luck Manipulation Mechanic}}s, e.g. scry letting you manipulate the top cards of your deck, to keep you from drawing cards you don't need at that point in the game. |
| 472 | ** Some ManipulatingTheOpponentsDeck effects, such as the [[https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Fateseal Fateseal mechanic]], aim to make the opponent draw cards that won't help them much. Cards that return stuff to the top of an opponent's deck also disrupt the opponent's next draw. |
| 473 | ** While the normal, black-border rules don't allow you to put undesired cards into your opponent's deck, some supplementary cards feature such mechanics: |
| 474 | *** The SelfParody set ''Unhinged'' introduces [[https://scryfall.com/card/unh/122/letter-bomb Letter Bomb]], which shuffles itself into an opponent's deck. It not only shuts down a draw, but deals 19.5 damage when someone is unfortunate enough to draw it. Since the starting life total is 20 and Letter Bomb is too expensive to be cast early, this will probably kill them immediately. |
| 475 | *** The playtest card [[https://scryfall.com/card/cmb1/43/gunk-slug Gunk Slug]] shuffles three Gunk cards into an opponent's deck. All you can do with one of them is pay 4 to discard it and draw a new card. |
| 476 | * DefeatMeansPlayable: In each edition of Duels Of The Planeswalkers, you unlock each deck by defeating an AI opponent using it in campaign mode, except two starting decks. |
| 477 | * DefenseMechanismSuperpower: A common trait of white mana cards. For example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191341 Righteousness]] massively and cheaply boosts a blocking creature by +7/+7. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366456 Smite]] similarly destroys a blocked creature. |
| 478 | * DefendCommand: [[https://magiccards.info/nph/en/34.html Defensive Stance]], an enchantment which adds -1/+1 to the target creature. |
| 479 | * DemBones: Skeletons of all sorts are, rather unsurprisingly, a common black creature type and are often tied to the "regenerate" mechanic. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=393885 Drudge Skeletons]] is the classic example, though there are many others. |
| 480 | * DenserAndWackier: Elder Dragon Highlander AKA Commander, as compared to Standard and the Eternal formats. This is defined almost entirely through card count limits. In most formats, the minimum size of your deck -- and, for the sake of efficiency, the ''maxiumum'' size of your deck -- is 60 cards, and you can have up to 4 copies of anything that isn't a basic land. Therefore, a deck can be 24 lands and (4 copies of) ''nine'' spells; and if your deck relies on one of those spells to work, you have about a 50% chance of getting it in your opening hand. Commander, on the other hand, is 100 minimum deck size and ''only one copy'' of any non-basic-land card (hence "Highlander" -- "[[TagLine There can be only one]]").[[labelnote:So why "Elder Dragon"?]]The "Elder Dragon" part is what is today called the "Commander" -- a single Legendary creature whom you can cast at all times, and whose color identity determines which colors you can use in your deck. Originally, this Commander could only be one of the five Elder Dragons from the "Legends" expansion, but this rule was dropped for greater gameplay freedom.[[/labelnote]] As a result, the format is more of a bells-and-whistles-and-the-kitchen-sink experience, where games take longer and silly things are more likely to happen. |
| 481 | * DependingOnTheWriter: Or rather, Depending On The Design Team. For entire sets. The company is always struggling to deal with GameplayAndStorySegregation, and exactly how the game is supposed to represent an actual wizards' duel. At the moment they seem to have settled on a balance the company likes, but it still changes a little with every new set, partly as they iron out tiny details and partly as another potential way to add variety to the game. A few examples of the ways this goes back and forth: |
| 482 | ** Early in the game, many big blue creatures (like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3939 Sea Serpents]]) could attack players that didn't control any islands only with difficulty, if at all, to symbolize that they were natural aquatic monsters and therefore couldn't leave the water. That effect still appears occasionally, but is much rarer now, partly because designers have decided it's less fun to have creatures with such severe restrictions on attacking and partly because the idea that lands actually represent physical terrain on which creatures are fighting [[VoodooShark raises more questions than it answers]]. (For a time, ''Merfolk'' were taken out of the game for this flavor reason, until they decided to use [[OurMermaidsAreDifferent the Fredericka Bimm Method of merfolk shapeshifting]].) |
| 483 | ** Creature types have come and gone and been standardized several times. At the moment, humans are the JackOfAllStats: represented more or less equally in all colors, but with no Human-specific racial bonuses. Most colors have one characteristic race[[note]]Merfolk for blue, zombies and vampires for black, goblins for red, and elves for green[[/note]] full of small, cheap, quick and/or utility creatures, each color has one iconic race[[note]]Angels for white, sphinxes for blue, demons for black, dragons for red, and hydras for green[[/note]], and a few other creature types are much more common in one or two colors than the rest. The thing is, this leaves many creature types from fantasy stories or previous Magic sets unused just because that design space is already taken. Orcs, for example, appeared in early sets, but they eventually fell into the niche of "like goblins, just a little taller" and stopped being used soon after that. Merfolk didn't appear for a long time for the same reason that sea monsters' inherent weakness was dropped, but as soon as designers figured out that they could be bipedal — sort of like FishPeople, but not as ugly — they were brought back. |
| 484 | * DePower: Numerous cards exist which weaken creatures and/or remove their abilities. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=HUMILITY Humility]] is an especially notable one, as it reduces all creatures to 1/1 and strips their abilities. |
| 485 | * DesperationAttack: |
| 486 | ** The ''Dark Ascension'' expansion has some cards with the Fateful Hour mechanic. These cards have additional effects which activate if you have 5 or less life remaining. |
| 487 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193467 Near Death Experience]] allows you to win the game if you have exactly one life left when you play it. |
| 488 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=80246 Soulblast]] destroys every creature you control but then deals damage equal to the total power of the creatures sacrificed. With enough creatures, it can be a OneHitKO...unless your opponent has some cheap way to block or redirect it. At that point, you'll be defenseless. |
| 489 | * DetachmentCombat: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2073 Tetravus]] invokes this idea. It enters with three +1/+1 counters, which can be turned into 1/1 creature tokens. The idea being that Tetravus detaches into four separate creatures. It later received updates in [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=244251 Pentavus]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247519 Triskelavus]] (whose tokens get Flying). |
| 490 | * DexterityChallenge: Cards that require physical actions from players are referred to as [[https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Dexterity_card dexterity cards]]: |
| 491 | ** The game's EarlyInstallmentWeirdness period had two cards featuring dexterity challenges: [[https://scryfall.com/card/2ed/236/chaos-orb Chaos Orb]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/leg/145/falling-star Falling Star]], which you flip onto the battlefield from a height of at least one foot, after which they destroy every nontoken thing they touch (Orb) or tap and deal damage to every creature they touch (Star). However, these cards turned out to cause rule and logistical issues[[note]]There wasn't a clear rule whether players could move their cards when Orb/Star is activated to minimize the potential damage. Alternatively, a player could just spread their cards out from the get go, making the game unwieldy.[[/note]], and they also make the game less accessible for disabled players. For these reasons, R&D quickly stopped making black-border dexterity cards, and banned both Chaos Orb and Falling Star from all formats. |
| 492 | ** Dexterity cards live on the SelfParody acorn cards intended for casual play, where their goofiness makes more sense. They offer all sorts of mini-challenges, such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/unh/54/eye-to-eye a staring contest with your opponent]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/unf/10/get-your-head-in-the-game balancing a card on your head]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/ust/149/handy-dandy-clone-machine using your own hands as game components]]. |
| 493 | * DifficultButAwesome: Combo decks, especially ones you've devised yourself. They can very easily be hampered by CripplingOverspecialization if something goes wrong, but if it works out, you can expect a quick and decisive victory. |
| 494 | * DigitalTabletopGameAdaptation: The free-to-play ''Magic: The Gathering Arena'' implementation. There's also the older ''Magic: The Gathering Online'', which is ''not'' free-to-play, but has a redemption policy for collections of virtual cards. |
| 495 | * DinosaursAreDragons: Averted. They are distinct creature types with their own traits. Cards which affect creatures with the type "dragon" do not affect dinosaurs creature types, and vice-versa. |
| 496 | * DirtyCoward: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=113512 Norin the Wary]] "runs away" whenever any player does anything. |
| 497 | * DisadvantageousDisintegration: Decks which involve the [[RiseFromYourGrave heavy use of the graveyard]] are best served avoiding cards which "exile" targets instead of destroying them for this reason. The eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106636 Disintegrate]] is one such example. |
| 498 | * DiscardAndDraw: The TropeNamer, providing numerous examples. Some of the more prominent are below: |
| 499 | ** From a metanarrative perspective, your deck is all the spells in your memory, while your hand is what spells you've brought to mind right at that moment. Spells that force a person to discard cards strongly imply elements of MindRape, and are named accordingly. ([[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129645 Mind Rot]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201311 Mind Twist]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425902 Mind Shatter]], etc.) Black tends to be very effective at this. |
| 500 | ** "Cantrips" are spells which, in addition to their primary effect, also allow you to draw a card, effectively replacing themselves after you cast them. |
| 501 | ** Out of Magic's five colors, two opposing colors stand out as being the experts of this: blue and red. Due to their opposing nature, their take on this trope are also opposites from both flavor and mechanics stand-point: Blue, the analytical, usually draws first, chooses the best cards for the situation, then discards the unwanted ones (example: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=389467 Compulsive Research]]). Red, the impulse-driven, however, usually abandons whatever's on its mind while chasing novel ideas (examples: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383151 Wheel of Fortune]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=88982 Mindmoil]]). As a special note, the Izzet (a Blue/Red aligned faction on Ravnica) naturally also excel at this, though they usually draw before discarding. In fact, they love their discard and draw so much that some cards weaponize it (like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=368985 Blast of Genius]] and the "Jump-start" mechanic, seen [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=452904 here]]). |
| 502 | * DiscOneNuke: |
| 503 | ** Throughout the game's history, cards like [[http://magiccards.info/us/en/330.html Tolarian Academy]], [[http://magiccards.info/cmd/en/261.html Sol Ring]], and [[http://magiccards.info/cedi/en/234.html Black Lotus]] that allow you to play other, more powerful spells in the early turns have been consistently dominant, comprising a large portion of the game's banned cards. |
| 504 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=413679 Kird Ape]] is an infamous red mana 1/1 who gains +1/+2 as long as you control at least one forest. Its infamy comes from a dominant green/red deck that combined it with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202528 Giant Growth]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194969 Berserk]] (which also gives it Trample), and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202493 Fork]] to give you a 20/6 trampling behemoth for just four mana, far too early in the game for your opponent to conjure an appropriate defense. (Even if you could only get Kird Ape and ''one'' of the other cards, it still made for a significant early game advantage). Berserk and Fork were both heavily resticted for nearly a decade after while Kird Ape was banned for several years as well. |
| 505 | * DishingOutDirt: |
| 506 | ** A highly destructive specialty of red magic. Take for example [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Earthquake Earthquake]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83281 Stone Rain]]. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=212238 Koth of the Hammer]] is a red-aligned planeswalker who can literally make your mountains attack. |
| 507 | ** White magic is a secondary user, often crossing over with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=84533 marble]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=124343 dust]]. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=389612 Nahiri, the Lithomancer]] is a white-aligned planeswalker being capable of manipulating rocks in all forms, and is particularly efficient at melting them to forge weapons from the ore within. |
| 508 | * DisintegratorRay: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106636 Disintegrate]] is a classic red mana spell. Its damage is limited only by how much mana you have, allowing you to either nuke a big creature (while also preventing it from being resurrected) or simply obliterate your opponent. |
| 509 | * DispelMagic: "Disenchanting" (destroying enchantments and artifacts) is a standard effect seen often on green and white spells. Just about every expansion has a [[http://magiccards.info/m15/en/185.html Naturalize]] and [[http://magiccards.info/m12/en/13.html Demystify]] variant. |
| 510 | * DittoFighter: |
| 511 | ** A standard ability often seen with the Shapeshifter creature type. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205220 Clone]] is a classic example, allowing you to copy an opponent's creature or double up on one of your own. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193582 Renegade Doppelganger]] is similar, but can only copy a creature entering the battlefield under your control. |
| 512 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=195630 Rite of Replication]] allows you to create a copy of any creature on the battlefield. For five extra mana, you can create ''[[CloneArmy five]]'' of them. |
| 513 | * DoomTroops: |
| 514 | ** Creatures with the "Intimidate" keyword can only be blocked by creatures of the same color or by artifact creatures. It replaced the much older mechanic, "Fear", which was the same ability but keyed specifically to black or artifact creatures. |
| 515 | ** "Menace" is similar. Creatures with Menace are too scary to be faced alone, and can only be blocked by at least two defending creatures. |
| 516 | * DoomsdayDevice: Plenty to go around: |
| 517 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83556 Plague Boiler]]. Three turns after it's played, everything in play that's not a land is destroyed. |
| 518 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=37 Nevinyrral's Disk]] is an artifact which likewise destroys everything in play other than lands, including itself. |
| 519 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=34901 Oblivion Stone]] can be tapped to put "fate" counters onto target permanents. When its second ability is activated, it destroys everything without fate counters. |
| 520 | ** Even the joke set ''Unhinged'' gets one with the [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74334 World-Bottling Kit]]. |
| 521 | * DoubleKnockout: |
| 522 | ** It is possible for a game to end in a draw if both players are simultaneously reduced to zero life. |
| 523 | ** Happens very frequently with creatures. If a 2/2 attacking creature is blocked by another 2/2 creature, both are destroyed. Many abilities and effects can get around this, however. For example, if the attacking creature has First Strike, its damage will be dealt "first", destroying the blocking creature without taking damage itself. |
| 524 | * DoppelgangerAttack: |
| 525 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130588 Nacatl War-Pride]], which when it attacks makes a temporary copy of itself for each creature the defending player controls. |
| 526 | ** The Myriad ability, designed for the four-player "Commander" format, causes creatures that have it to create token copies of themselves when they attack; these copies, and the original creature, each attack a different player. The tokens go away at the end of combat regardless, but the original creature will stick around, assuming it wasn't killed by combat or another effect. |
| 527 | * DoubleEdgedBuff: |
| 528 | ** This is part of Black's PowerAtAPrice ethos -- buff your creatures, while paying some sort of ghastly penalty. While this often takes the form of CastFromHitPoints, examples of other "tradeoffs" include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Animate Dead]], where you can bring a creature back from any graveyard (even your opponent's) for just two mana at the cost of that creature having -1 power, and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=574384 Summon Undead]], where you discard three cards in order to place a creature from your graveyard back onto the battlefield. |
| 529 | ** White magic tends to be the exact opposite of Black. Instead of increasing power, it often sacrifices power in order to increase toughness in creatures it controls (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3217 Sworn Defender]]), making them more durable. It can also eliminate enemy creatures as threats for far less mana that the "creature destruction" cards of other mana colors, but instead gives something else ''positive'' to the controller of that player. (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=517560 Swords to Plowshares]], which exiles a target creature but gives its controller life equal to that creature's power.) |
| 530 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=12970 Final Fortune]], the caster takes another turn after the current one, but at the end of that turn, they will automatically lose the game. |
| 531 | ** In the Vanguard variant of the game, each player starts with a special character card that grants the player with a special ability but alters their starting/maximum hand size and their starting life. The better the ability, the less cards and/or life the character begins with. It is possible to get a better hand size or life to start with, but that means that the ability given is rather weak compared to others. |
| 532 | * DoWellButNotPerfect: A strategy strongly advised in the in free-for-all multiplayer formats. Since you have multiple opponents to worry about, appearing to be the strongest player is a good way to get them to gang up on you and eliminate you first. Holding back creatures and pieces of your combo until you have a means to counter multiple opponents is commonplace. |
| 533 | * {{Dracolich}}: Undead dragons — generally represented as creatures with both the Dragon type and either the Zombie or Skeleton types — are not uncommon. Several prominent examples: |
| 534 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=438759 Bladewing the Risen]] is a classic example who is not only a powerful legendary creature, but can bring another dragon back to the battlefield from the graveyard and/or power up other dragons. |
| 535 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=212249 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon]] is another who comes with Infect, can gain Haste, and can be Regenerated. |
| 536 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220578 Vampiric Dragon]] is a vampire variant. Whenever it destroys a creature, it gains a +1/+1 counter. |
| 537 | * DraconicAbomination: |
| 538 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Worldgorger%20Dragon Worldgorger Dragon]] isn't typed as "Nightmare Dragon" for nothing. When it comes into play, all other permanents you control are exiled for as long as it remains in play. Essentially, ''nothing else can exist'' alongside it as long as it is there. |
| 539 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=433289 The Ur-Dragon]] is a massively powerful draconic EldritchAbomination. While its flavor really drives the point home, it qualifies mechanically as a 10/10 with flying, allows you to play other dragons more cheaply, while also allowing you to draw a card whenever a dragon under your control attacks. |
| 540 | * DraftingMechanic: The Booster Draft format, where eight players open a pack of cards, take a card, pass the rest and repeat until out of cards. Then they do the same two more times before making a deck out of the cards they picked (and any number of basic lands). |
| 541 | * DragonHoard: |
| 542 | ** The eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=447369 Dragon's Hoard]] is an artifact which accumulates "gold counters" every time a dragon enters the battlefield under your control. You can then remove the gold counters in order to draw cards. Additionally, Dragon's Hoard can be tapped to add one mana of any color. |
| 543 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=covetous+dragon Covetous Dragon]] requires that you have a hoard (in the form of controlling artifacts) in order to ''exist''. If you do not control at least one artifact, it is sacrificed. |
| 544 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=438700 Hoarding Dragon]] allows you to search your deck for an artifact, which is then exiled. When Hoarding Dragon leaves the battlefield, you may then add the exiled artifact to your hand. The idea being that the dragon hoarded the artifact, which can now be recovered since the dragon is gone. |
| 545 | * DragonRider: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193482 Kargan Dragonlord]] uses the "leveling" mechanic to achieve this. He starts off as a simple 2/2 human warrior, who then upgrades to riding a small dragon, becoming a 4/4 with flying. At max level, he gains a monstrously powerful dragon, becoming an 8/8 with flying and trample. |
| 546 | * DrawExtraCards: Most card draw effects cost more than just mana to use. In order of cost: |
| 547 | ** Accumulated Knowledge: Instant spell costing 1 blue mana and 1 other mana to: |
| 548 | ---> Draw a card, then draw cards equal to the number of cards named Accumulated Knowledge in all graveyards. |
| 549 | ** Ancestral Recall: Instant spell costing 1 blue mana to have any player draw three cards. |
| 550 | ** Slay is an instant spell costing 1 black mana and two other mana and a green creature to destroy before it can draw a card. |
| 551 | ** Phantom Strike costs 1 black mana and 1 other mana and the presence of a Spirit in hand to reveal or trading 3 more other mana to remove the reveal cost, along with a creature to destroy, before drawing a card. |
| 552 | ** Dregs of Sorrow costs 1 black mana and 4 other mana, and a player-selected amount from 0 and up. That amount is an additional other mana cost, a requirement of non-black creatures to destroy, and also the number of cards to be drawn after all the destruction. |
| 553 | * DreamStealer: The eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=430752 Dreamstealer]] card. Whenever it deals damage, it "steals dreams" in the form of forcing the opponent to discard cards. |
| 554 | * {{Druid}}: A common green mana creature type. They commonly have abilities which generate mana or power up your other creatures. |
| 555 | * DualWielding: |
| 556 | ** The flavor behind the Double-Strike keyword ability, which allows a creature to attack twice - once as First Strike and again as a standard attack. |
| 557 | ** There is generally no limit to the amount of artifact equipment you can pile onto one creature. Equip two weapons onto them, and it becomes this trope. Or three, or four, or... |
| 558 | * DynamicEntry: The aptly named [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=154003 Dramatic Entrance]], an instant which allows you to put a green creature from your hand directly into play. |
| 559 | [[/folder]] |
| 560 | |
| 561 | [[folder:E]] |
| 562 | * EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Alpha'' and the first few expansions contained... |
| 563 | ** ...some truly bizarre mechanics that either weren't followed up upon or were dropped early. Examples include [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=603 flipping cards over in the air]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=813 dividing creatures into two different groups that can't ever meet]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=980 subgames]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1147 playing for ante]]. |
| 564 | ** ...cards with effects which are now considered uncharacteristic of their color, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108812 blue direct damage]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=957 red damage prevention]]. |
| 565 | ** ...issues with balance; cards tended to be either [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=692 insanely powerful]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1345 extremely weak]]. |
| 566 | ** ...[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202586 rather informal wording]] which seems strange when contrasted with modern cards. |
| 567 | ** ...cards based on {{Public Domain Character}}s and stories, with flavour text quoting things like Literature/TheBible or Creator/WilliamShakespeare plays, as opposed to creating an original story and basing the cards around that. Even the first expansion was based entirely off of characters and themes from ''Literature/ArabianNights''. |
| 568 | ** Many rules and keywords have been added, altered, or removed over time. For example, the ability of Regeneration (a complicated scenario in which a permanent is tapped and removed from combat instead of dying) has been largely replaced by Indestructible (if the a permanent would be destroyed this turn, it doesn't instead). Banding was a keyword since the very first set, and the first rulebook's explanation on Combat even had a section dedicated to how it works, but it proved so unpopular that it was removed entirely in 1999. |
| 569 | ** Cards in the Alpha set are ''physically different'' from every set printed after due to their card corners having a rounder shape that was adjusted for Beta. |
| 570 | ** Generally speaking, there are a number of specific points where rules or thematic conventions were revised, making everything from before that time stand out as dated. With a game over 25 years old and still going, cards from the game's 12th year and earlier can still feel the force of this trope. A few examples: |
| 571 | *** ''Mirage'' saw set releases formalized into a "block" structure of a large set followed by two sets that expanded on it. ''Mirage'' was also the first set designed with Booster Draft in mind. |
| 572 | *** ''Classic Sixth Edition'' massively overhauled the rules. It eliminated the card types of Interrupt and Mana Source, changed Summon cards to Creature cards (so that the card type of the spell and the game object they create matched), formalized card templating to be less conversational, and created "the stack," the centerpiece of the game's modern rule set. |
| 573 | *** ''8th Edition'' changed the game's default frames to be completely different from previous cards. The frames would be slightly revised again in ''Magic 2015'' to incorporate anti-counterfeiting measures like a holofoil stamp and a proprietary font. |
| 574 | *** ''Magic 2010'' changed how card rarities worked, making Rare cards more common and adding Mythic Rare cards at Rare's previous rarity. |
| 575 | *** ''Battle for Zendikar'' changed the block model to 2 sets, rather than 3. |
| 576 | *** ''Dominaria'' removed the idea of blocks from the game entirely. |
| 577 | ** During the first decade game, White and Black both had access to revival spells, with the idea being that White used "true resurrection" (revival with no strings attached) while Black used necromancy to revive creatures with some drawbacks (the creature dies again if the enchantment is removed, or it comes back as a zombie, etc). Over time, revival became one of the defining aspects of Black, which led Black revival cards slowly losing their drawbacks over time, while White revival cards became much rarer and also more expensive than their Black counterparts. Other examples of color-dissonance in old cards include Black cards that could destroy Artifacts (like Phyrexian Tribute), and Red cards like Anarchy and Apocalypse that could affect all permanents (including Enchantments which Red isn't supposed to touch). |
| 578 | ** Artifacts changed a lot from the early game both from a flavour and a gameplay aspect. Artifacts were initially conceived as magical items created by wizards, with their casting cost being the energy required to start them up. Continuous Artifacts needed to be untapped to apply their effects, as being tapped would "turn them off", early White cards like Demystify could destroy both Enchantments and Artifacts because Artifacts were by definition enchanted, and the distinction of being an Artifact Creature fell solely on artificial beings like golems which are moved by magic. From a gameplay design perspective, Artifacts were the only cards that did not require colored mana so that they could be splashed into any deck, and their effects were either unique or costed more than equivalent effects from colored cards, and they were also divided into Mono (need to be tapped to activate their abilities), Poly (require a cost other than tapping to activate to activate their abilities), and Continuous (exert a continuous effect while untapped).\ |
| 579 | \ |
| 580 | Over time, Artifact simply became the game's term for any inanimate object, even those that are entirely mundane, and the flavour of them being magical items became lost. White generally lost the ability to remove them and instead became "friendly to artifacts" like Blue, the rule about Artifacts needing to be untapped to work was removed in 1995 along with the Mono, Poly, and Continuous subtypes, and the introduction of colored Artifacts made the distinction between Artifacts and Enchantments something based purely on flavour rather than gameplay. |
| 581 | * EatTheSummoner: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464039 Feaster of Fools]] has both Convoke, which allows you to tap other creatures to help pay its casting cost, and Devour, which allows allows you to sacrifice other creatures in order to power it up with 1/1 counters. The DCI later made a ruling to clarify that yes, Feaster of Fools can devour the creatures that convoked it. |
| 582 | * EldritchAbomination: So, so many. Mechanically, they tend to be copiously mana heavy to summon, and even then likely have other casting costs associated (pay life, sacrifice creatures, etc.) They often have "Horror" or "Nightmare" in their creature type, and often have keywords like Indestructable (cannot be destroyed by normal means) and Annihilator (defending player must sacrifice creatures when the creature attacks). The Eldrazi are perhaps the purest example in the series, and comprise some legendarily powerful creature cards. |
| 583 | * ElementalBarrier: The six "Circles of Protection", one for each color as well as a sixth covering artifacts. These are enchantments which can protect their controller from damage from any cards of the corresponding color. |
| 584 | * ElementalRockPaperScissors: The Color Wheel is probably the most well-known non-traditional version in gaming. The game has five colors associated with land forms, creatures, and most importantly a style of play. Adjacent colors tend to share strengths and play styles (red and black are both great at killing creatures, for example), but are opposite/opposed to the two other colors (white likes to prevent damage, red likes causing it, while black will simply bring a dead unit back to unlife). |
| 585 | * ElementNumberFive: |
| 586 | ** The Eldrazi. They were the first non-artifact spells to be colorless and contain some of the most expensive and powerful creatures in the game. They are also effective against all colors through spells like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193658 All Is Dust]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193452 Emrakul]]'s protection from colored spells, showing that they defy the usual rock/paper/scissors system. |
| 587 | ** During development of ''Planar Chaos'', a sixth color was proposed - purple. The element would represent cities and urbanization, and would be situated between blue and black, opposite of green. Its mechanics would have included counterspells which only delay rather than cancel, among other things. Downplayed in that it would have been presented as equal (rather than superior in the spirit of the trope) to the other colors, having always been there. |
| 588 | * ElephantGraveyard: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=988 Is a card]]. Ironically, [[InvertedTrope it keeps them from dying]]. |
| 589 | * EliteZombie: Zombies are a creature type almost exclusively associated with black and are meant to be easy-to-summon, very expendable minions. However, some zombies pack enough punch to qualify as elite, for example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Balthor%20the%20Defiled Balthor the Defiled]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159298 Dakkon Blackblade]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=180595 Thraximundar]]. |
| 590 | * EmotionsVsStoicism: The primary conflict between red and blue mana, respectively, and secondarily with green and white. Mechanically, this shows up with red gaining power from "emotional" outbursts like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=16622 Fit of Rage]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=24644 Avatar of Fury]] while blue gains power from remaining stoic, such as with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=212703 Stoic Rebuttal]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=183053 Controlled Instincts]]. |
| 591 | * EmpathicShapeshifter: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4740 Unstable Shapeshifter]], who automatically becomes a copy of each creature entering play. |
| 592 | * EmpoweredBadassNormal: |
| 593 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130614 Muraganda Petroglyphs]] from the ''Future Sight'' expansion grants a large bonus to [[BadassNormal creatures without abilities]]. |
| 594 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249368 Woolly Thoctar]] is a 5/4 for a mere 3 mana.[[note]]That's partially balanced by each of those 3 mana being of a different color; the only deck that can play this card at ''any'' time, much less on Turn 3, is one that was designed specifically to do so.[[/note]] |
| 595 | ** Common among white mana humans in sets which focus on them, such as ''Innistrad''. Individually, they tend to be weaker than all of the threats they are up against, but have access to some of the cheapest means of empowerment as well. (For example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220642 Sharpened Pitchfork]], which can only be equipped by humans, and the classic [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=226880 Wooden Stake]], which allows any equipped creature, no matter how weak, to destroy vampires.) |
| 596 | * EmptyLevels: Cards with the "Level Up" keyword can be "leveled up" by spending mana. These usually have a small gap (usually 1 or 2, and rarely 3) for the first effect, and large gaps (sometimes reaching 12 or more) for the second ability. Everything else in-between does nothing but chew up your mana for the turn, and since these creatures are very rarely immune to creature removal and it's blatantly obvious to your opponent when you'll get the final level-up that matters, they can save their removal until you've wasted as much mana as possible. |
| 597 | * EnemySummoner: Any creature your opponent plays which can generate tokens or copies of itself qualifies. |
| 598 | * EnemyToAllLivingThings: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?name=Phage+the+Untouchable Phage the Untouchable]]. Whenever she deals damage to a creature, it is destroyed. If she deals direct damage to a player, they automatically lose the game. |
| 599 | * EnergyBall: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=191393 Ball Lightning]] is an interesting example in that it's actually a ''creature'', but plays more like a spell. It has both [[LightningBruiser trample and haste]], which allows it to hit ''hard'' with its 6 power on the turn you play and the damage can't be negated with a chump block. However, [[GlassCannon it has only one toughness]], and even if it survives its attack, it is sacrificed at the start of your next turn. |
| 600 | * EntropyAndChaosMagic: Black and red mana, respectively. Black has numerous "power at a price" and withering/decay sorts of effects in line with entropy. Red meanwhile has the most "chaos" at its disposal, ranging from blowing things up (including its own creatures quite often) to using luck to determine success (coin flips, dice rolls, etc.). |
| 601 | * EquippableAlly: Many cases: |
| 602 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Artillerize Artillerize]] involves basically turning a creature into a missile (in-game, this translates as sacrificing a creature to fuel a direct-damage spell). |
| 603 | ** Another way to invoke this trope involves [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218055 Bludgeon Brawl]], which causes all non-creature artifacts to be treated as equipment. When combined with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=212709 Liquimetal Coating]], which turns a non-artifact permanent into an artifact, it's possible for a creature to literally pick up a [[PhysicalGod Planeswalker]] and smash things with him/her. |
| 604 | ** There's also the Living Weapon mechanic from the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' block, where Equipment cards with the ability enter the battlefield already attached to a newly-created 0/0 Germ token. Moving the Equipment "kills" it (that is, causes the Germ token attached to it to die). With the current policy that creatures can't be Equipment, this mechanic is the closest we're likely to get. |
| 605 | ** The Theros block, based on Myth/ClassicalMythology, has introduced the "Bestow" mechanic. Creatures with Bestow can be "hard-cast" as {{mooks}}, ''or'' bestowed as a StatusBuff on a pre-existing mook, who gains the bestow-creature's power, toughness and abilities. This can result in a totem-pole of enchantments riding around on a single creature. And, if that creature is killed, all the bestow guys "fall off" and [[AsteroidsMonster become creatures in their own right]]. |
| 606 | ** ''Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty'' does this with the Reconfigure mechanic. These are artifact creatures which enter play like any other creature, but can later be "reconfigured" for a certain mana cost to attach them to another creature and bestow effects upon it similarly to equipment, and "fall of" whenever their host dies, similar to Bestow above. |
| 607 | * EquivalentExchange: A key part of the game, every spell you cast or ability you activate has some sort of exchange going on. Even the most simple of cards require you to generate mana and fill precious deck slots with the given cards to work. Some more elaborate spells ask for more tangible costs such as [[CastFromHitPoints life payments]], discarding cards, or sacrificing permanents. Most of the game's problems have come from cards doing far more in return for what you paid for them... |
| 608 | * EveryManHasHisPrice: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=185811 Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer]] can "bribe" creatures you do not control, preventing them from attack or blocking. This can even include ancient horrors and full blown {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. |
| 609 | * EvilCounterpart: |
| 610 | ** The entire ''Shadowmoor'' block is this to the preceding ''Lorwyn'' block. As a result, several cards from the former are darker versions of cards from the latter (as an example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=147433 Incremental Blight]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=146777 Incremental Growth]]). |
| 611 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=229965 Evil Twin]] copies a creature on the battlefield and has the ability to kill the original. |
| 612 | * EvilEvolves: A hat of the Phyrexians, who are constantly making improvements to their mechanical fighters while they use the flesh of fallen enemies to create new soldiers. Mechanically, they've been expanding in every set in which they are included, growing past a mono-black race to have factions of every color and expanding their access to abilities exponentially. |
| 613 | * EvilIsNotAToy: A speciality of the "demon" type creatures, who are often quite powerful but have significant drawbacks or trade-offs to their use. Some prominent examples: |
| 614 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3857 Lord of the Pit]] is perhaps the oldest example in the game, going all the way back to the Alpha set. A 7/7 with Flying and Trample, it requires that you sacrifice a creature each turn or else it deals 7 damage to ''you''. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227405 Archdemon of Greed]] is mechanically identical, though it is a 9/9 creature and deals 9 damage to you if you cannot make a sacrifice. |
| 615 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Bloodgift%20Demon Bloodgift Demon]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425897 Griselbrand]] both have abilities which allow you to trade life for knowledge (in the form of drawing cards). |
| 616 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=438644 Abyssal Persecutor]] is a 6/6 with Flying and Trample for a mere four mana...though as long as it is in play, its controller cannot win the game and the opponent cannot lose. |
| 617 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107438 Rakdos the Defiler]] forces the opponent to sacrifice half their non-demon creatures in play when it deals damage. However, it requires its controller to make the same sacrifice in order to get it to attack in the first place. |
| 618 | * EvilKnockoff: Common among the Phyrexians. They can do this rather directly with things like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214375 Phyrexian Metamorph]], or, as seen most prominently in ''Scars of Mirrodin'' and ''Mirrodin Besieged'', Phyrexian versions of classic creatures of other types (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214060 Hydra]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=213724 Black Knight]]) which have extra abilities (can replace some mana with life in its casting cost, the Infect ability, respectively). |
| 619 | * EvilLuddite: Green's dark side tends to function in this vein. Green is the color that most reveres nature and tradition, and thus tends to oppose significant change and rejects technology. Mechanically, this manifests as green having by far the most artifact destruction spells and abilities. |
| 620 | * EvilPlan: The casual format "Archenemy" has one player as the, well, [[EvilOverlord Archenemy]] who sets [[EvilPlan Schemes]] in motion, against a coalition of players. |
| 621 | * EvilSorcerer: Blue and black mana play deeply into this trope's archetypes. Blue's spells take the form of MindRape, manifesting mechanically as the cancellation of opponent's spells, forcing them to skip their turn or playing it for them (mind control), forcing them to discard from their hand (memory), and forcing them to discard from their deck (sanity). Black tends to be of the more visceral BodyHorror variety, manifesting mechanically as draining the opponent's life, forcing them to sacrifice creatures, bringing their own creatures back to life to use against them, etc. |
| 622 | * EvilTaintedThePlace: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=131005 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth]] is the final resting place of the game's original BigBad. The card turns every single land in the game into a black mana-powering Swamp. |
| 623 | * EvilTwin: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=229965 Evil Twin]] is a creature which enters as a copy of any other crature on the battlefield, with the added ability of being able to destroy the creature it copies at any time. This allows you to double up on a strong creature of your own, or copy one of your opponent's creatures, then destroy it. |
| 624 | * ExactWords: The game practically runs on this trope. Many rules depend on exactly how things are worded, and slight changes will completely change the effect of the card. Expect tons of LoopholeAbuse if the wording on the card is vague enough to be open to any sort of interpretation. Some prominent examples: |
| 625 | ** Indestructible permanents can't be destroyed...but they can still be exiled (a stronger effect that pushes the card into the 'exile zone', outside the normal game), bounced back into the player's hand, and (in the case of creatures) weakened with minus effects applied to toughness to the point that they die on their own. |
| 626 | ** Hexproof creatures can't be targeted by spells or abilities an opponent controls...but their controller may be forced to sacrifice them. Likewise, an effect may be untargeted, affecting all creatures on the battlefield indiscrimiately. |
| 627 | ** Similarly, there are effects that deal damage and those that cause loss of life. An effect protecting from damage won't help against loss of life. There are also effects that reduce a creature's stats, potentially even fatally, but these aren't considered to be damage and so won't activate corresponding effects, such as Deathtouch. |
| 628 | ** Many, many of the creative combo decks and lockdowns are result of this trope combined with a lack of creator's foresight. |
| 629 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194275 Myr Superion]] is a two mana 5/6. However, those two mana must be generated by other creatures. However, if you reduce its casting cost to zero (there are many, many possible means available), you don't need any other creatures to play it, removing its only drawback. |
| 630 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=chaos+orb Chaos Orb]], now permanently banned in every format, is a prime example from the game's early days. To note some of the ways in which its wording has been twisted: |
| 631 | *** Players were using it to take out their opponent's ''lands'', which could be much more crippling than its intended use on permanents as it deprived them of mana. Errata was issued stating that it only affected permanents. |
| 632 | *** Players were dropping it onto opponent's graveyards and even ''decks'', leading to an instant loss by decking when the opponent next needed to draw a card. Cue errata: "Cards that are in the game but not on the battlefield, such as those in the Library and Graveyard, can't be affected." |
| 633 | *** There is the (likely apocryphal) tale of the player in an early tournament who tore his Chaos Orb into tiny pieces and then scattered them across his opponent's side of the battlefield. This, of course, led to the ''Unglued'' card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5712 Chaos Confetti]]. |
| 634 | *** Even the errata got the "Exact Words" treatment. Wizards issued the following: "If you have sleeves on cards, they count as the cards." Cue players putting their cards into [[RefugeInAudacity the largest sleeves they could find]] in order to increase Chaos Orb's surface area. |
| 635 | * ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: |
| 636 | ** The enchantment cards [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fear Fear]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lifelink Lifelink]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vigilance Vigilance]], and [[http://magiccards.info/m10/en/17.html Indestructibility]] give the enchanted creature the abilities ''Fear'', ''Lifelink'', ''Vigilance'', and ''Indestructible'', respectively. |
| 637 | ** Fear is a special case, as the ability was originally unnamed -- when the designers decided to create a keyword for the common "this creature can only be blocked by artifact and/or black creatures" ability, they named it after the original card that granted the ability. |
| 638 | * ExpansionPack: A new expansion set is released every three months or so. |
| 639 | ** From 1996 with ''Mirage'' to 2015 with ''Dragons of Tarkir'', three of these expansions took place in the same setting and built somewhat on the mechanics of the previous ones, forming a "Block" of one large expansion and two smaller ones (usually). The fourth was a "core set" released in the summer designed to introduce new players to the rules and reprint certain mainstay cards to keep them in circulation. |
| 640 | ** From 2015 with ''Battle for Zendikar'' to 2018 with ''Rivals of Ixalan'', they followed a two-block paradigm that replaced the Core Set with an additional expansion, and did two blocks of two sets per year instead of just one. However, this rapidly proved unpopular, leading to... |
| 641 | ** The three-and-one model, with three large-set expansions and the reintroduced core set, which continues into the present (though the core set was later removed again in favor of another expansion). There have still continued to be several expansions that tie into each other unofficially, like the year-long buildup to ''War of the Spark'' that included elements of the previous two blocks (as they all took place on Ravnica); the double-feature of Innistrad sets ''Midnight Hunt'' and ''Crimson Vow''; the Dominaria focused sets ''Dominaria United'' and ''The Brother's War'', and the New Phyrexia sets ''Phyrexia: All Will Be One'' and ''March of the Machine''. |
| 642 | ** Naturally, this doesn't include the various supplemental sets that aren't always legal in all formats or attempt to introduce new ones. Usually these come in the form of a large, draftable set in the summer that ties directly into commander or modern formats, like the ''Horizons'' or ''Masters'' sets, or major Universes Beyond sets like ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings,'' ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'', and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}''. |
| 643 | * ExpansionPackWorld: |
| 644 | ** The game's early sets almost all took place within the plane of Dominaria, with each new set being in previously unmentioned regions. |
| 645 | ** The game has now settled into "Expansion Pack Multiverse" territory. Most tend to feature new planes, though some revisit old planes as well. |
| 646 | * ExplosiveBreeder: |
| 647 | ** A trait of Slivers, a {{Hive Mind}}ed race which can share their abilities with other nearby Slivers. In particular, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=397585 Sliver Queen]] can pump out 1/1 Sliver tokens with ease. |
| 648 | ** A trait of Goblins as well, who are born in "litters". This explains their tendency toward suicidal tactics, since they have plenty to spare. Exemplified by cards like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=109735 Empty the Warrens]], whose 1/1 Goblin tokens are implied to be ''children''. |
| 649 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=180455 Scute Mob]] is one green mana 1/1 that takes the form of a swarm of beetle-like creatures. If you control five or more lands, they "explode" to a 5/5 creature. |
| 650 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=491851 Scute Swarm]] generates a generic 1/1 insect token on landfall. However, if you control six or more lands, it creates a copy of ''itself'', including its effect to replicate itself. Left unchecked, the swarm can multiply exponentially with each land that you play. |
| 651 | * ExponentialPotential: With over 10,000 unique spells/permanents to use in deckbuilding, and new ones created every time a new Expansion Set is released, there's always some new spell or permanent that does something unique to change the face of the metagame, whether overtly like a Power card, or subtly like some of the more common-yet-effective cards. Sometimes, new cards are introduced which, when combined with older cards in Legacy and Vintage formats, lead to game-wrecking results. A few prominent examples: |
| 652 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425810 Grindstone]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=146022 Painter's Servant]] combine to form an instant decking win combo. Use Painter's Servant to turn all not-in-play cards to one color, then use Grindstone, choose that color, and watch as your opponent draws and discards their entire deck. |
| 653 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?name=Dark+Depths Dark Depths]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=192232 Vampire Hexmage]] combine to give you 20/20 Flying and Indestructable creature, potentially as early as ''your first turn'' if you have some complementary set-up cards. Play Dark Depths and then Vampire Hexmage. Use the Hexmage's second ability to remove all of the counters from Dark Depths. Since your opponent will lack the mana at such an early stage to disrupt the combo, you'll waltz to a decisive victory. |
| 654 | * ExtraOreDinary: Extremely common among artifact creatures. While they tend to cost more mana than colored creatures of equivalent power/toughness, that mana cost can be paid by any type of land. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Metalwork%20Colossus Metalwork Colossus]] is a prime example, who can also be summoned for less mana if you control other artifacts. |
| 655 | * ExtraTurn: |
| 656 | ** A staple of blue mana. Most infamously this includes [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=728 Time Walk]], a member of the banned "Power Nine", which gives an extra turn for a piddly two mana. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=439354 Time Warp]] is the same basic ability, but is more balanced by costing three additional mana. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129677 Time Stretch]] gives you ''two'' extra turns, but is balanced by requiring a whopping 10 mana. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=110517 Walk the Aeons]] is basically Time Warp with the added bonus of "Buyback", meaning it could theoretically be played an unlimited number of times, though the sacrifice of three islands for each use is pretty hefty. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193590 Lighthouse Chronologist]] uses the Leveling mechanic, and at max level, gives you an extra turn at the end of every turn. (Though being a creature without any special protections, it is difficult to get him to this point.) |
| 657 | ** Red gets in on this as well with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=12970 Final Fortune]]. An extra turn for just two mana is what got Time Walk banned...but Final Forture's balance comes in its drawback - you lose the game at the end of that extra turn if you haven't won it before then. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=438494 Relentless Assault]] (and other, similar, mostly red cards) Downplay it by give you extra ''combat'' steps rather than full turns. |
| 658 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=96928 Stitch in Time]] is cheaper to cast than all but the original Time Walk, though this is balanced by only having a 50/50 chance of working. |
| 659 | * ExtremeOmniGoat: Though reptilian in appearance, the Atog creature type (an anagram of "Goat") is well known for "eating" things in order to power up. These include artifacts (ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202463 Atog]], the original), enchantments [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106665 Auratog]]), lands (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=31770 Lithatog]]), the dead (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4464 Necrotog]]), ''time'' (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3635 Chronatog]]), and even other Atogs (Ex. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=31834 Atogatog]]). There is very little in the game that some form of Atog doesn't eat. |
| 660 | [[/folder]] |
| 661 | |
| 662 | [[folder:F]] |
| 663 | * FactionCalculus: |
| 664 | ** The five colors of the standard color wheel rather neatly fit along a spectrum. Green, the color with by far the most large creatures, is on the Powerhouse extreme, then White, then Red in the middle as the most Balanced. The "Subversive" swing then starts with Black and then reaches Blue, the most spell-heavy/creature-weak color, on the opposite end of the spectrum. |
| 665 | ** The allied color pairs can be fitted into five factions rather neatly: |
| 666 | *** '''White-blue''' is the Powerhouse. Among the allied color pairs, it's the one most inclined towards Control, a strategy that focuses on slowing the game down and not summoning units or attacking until mid to late game. Moreover, the units these decks do summon tend to look like what would be called "elite" in other games: since the units these decks use are few in numbers, the said units are usually either large or hard to stop, often both. |
| 667 | *** '''Blue-black''' is the Subversive. They're the colors most associated with evasive creatures, and they're also the sole colors capable of messing with their opponents' hands and libraries. As a result, they are able to undermine their opponents' plans in ways that no other color can. |
| 668 | *** '''Black-red''' is the GlassCannon. They're the colors that frequently power up their spells and abilities via paying life or sacrificing stuffs. This gives them incredible firepower at times, but the fact that their spells and abilities often damage themselves can markedly reduce their longevity. |
| 669 | *** '''Red-green''' is the Horde in a sense. They're the color combo that favors Aggro the most: Aggro can be summed up as a strategy where the player just says "I'll throw all of my spells and creatures out as quickly as possible and overwhelm my opponent. This will probably screw up my late games, but that doesn't matter if I've already overwhelmed my opponent." Because of this, they tend to lose if they fail to leave their opponents dead (or at least close to dead) within the first five turns. |
| 670 | *** '''Green-white''', situated between White-blue and Red-green, is the Balanced. They tend to put out lots of creatures, and have many spells and enchantments that buff or protect those creatures. They can't go fast like Red-green, but are certainly nowhere as sluggish as White-blue. There's a reason why mid-range decks are so strongly associated with these two colors. |
| 671 | ** Each enemy color pair, meanwhile, tends to in some way resemble the allied color pair that opposes its shared ally, but does what the said allied color pair does in a different way: |
| 672 | *** '''White-black''' has blue as their common ally, and tends to be like blue - slow and subversive. Being the faction pair with some of the strongest lifegain also allows them to establish a "grinder" style by way of LifeDrain effects. It ''can'' be aggressive like Red-green, but while Red-green goes Aggro via lots of damaging spells (Red) and creature pumps (Green), White-black goes aggressive... mainly via ''Weenie'', a ZergRush style strategy that involves summoning lots of small creatures to overwhelm opponents. |
| 673 | *** '''Blue-red''' has black as their common ally, and is often subversive and cannon-ish. Much like Green-white, it can go Balanced and play the game of "let's focus on putting my stuffs onto the board and protect/buff them". For Green-white, the "stuffs" in question are usually creatures and supportive enchantments, while for Blue-red, the "stuffs" tend to be weak creatures (that have good abilities) plus artifacts backed with spells, and often with the goal to set off unstoppable combos. |
| 674 | *** '''Black-green''' has red as their common ally. Like red, it's often self-destructive and overly aggressive, which tends to result in lots of its cards ending up in the graveyard very quickly. Unlike red (and like White-blue), it ''is'' capable of a good Powerhouse strategy... since they're the colors most able to exploit the cards that got sent to the graveyard earlier, not to mention all the black or green creatures that grow as their controller gets more cards in graveyard. |
| 675 | *** '''Red-white''' has green as their common ally. It, utterly unlike Blue-black, loves combat (while blue and black prefer to just bypass defense using their evasive abilities). Unlike green, who prefers to pump up its creatures' stats to overpower its opponents, Red-white favors combat tricks: It's no coincidence that first strike is mainly a red-white ability. Of course, red and white both seem to have a love for equipment... |
| 676 | *** '''Green-blue''' has white as their common ally. It is, in a way, much like Black-red, having a lot of powerful units and effects (for starters, green and blue are the colors that, on average, have the most oversized creatures). But while Black-red prefers to access its powerful things by paying its life and sacrificing stuffs, Green-blue accesses its powerful things using green's ability to gain extra mana and blue's ability to draw extra cards. Result? Green-blue has access to spells and abilities powerful like Black-red's, but unlike Black-red, it doesn't cut its own arm off while accessing them. |
| 677 | * FakeUltimateMook: |
| 678 | ** Anything really big has AwesomeButImpractical written all over it, though this just makes for players finding ways to cheaply get it into play (AnimateDead is popular method). |
| 679 | ** Mana cost aside, there are numerous ways of having a creature turn into this. Many potentially powerful creatures are ruined by drawbacks like echo (pay their casting cost again on the turn after you play them or sacrifice them), cumulative upkeep (pay an increasing cost every turn or sacrifice them), and many, many more. |
| 680 | ** Creatures also have the built-in disadvantage of being killable. Most creatures, whether they cost one mana or nine, can be killed with a removal spell that only costs two or three mana. This is why the most successful creatures in ''Magic'' are either relatively cheap, resistant to removal, or have an impact on the board even if they're killed right away. |
| 681 | ** There are also creatures that have intimidating-looking ''art'' but are subpar in terms of stats. [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129591 Hill Giant]] is a good example. |
| 682 | ** A zig-zagged example is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=2182 Segovian Leviathan]], a card whose artwork shows it being [[RentAZilla so large,]] its eyes dwarf nearby ''whales''. Its statline? 3/3, the same as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201843 a mundane elephant]] and completely unremarkable, especially compared to most Leviathans. A later expansion would reveal that, in fact, Segovia is [[{{Lilliputians}} about 1/100 the size of most planes]], and the Segovian Leviathan is indeed roughly the same size as an elephant - it only looks big because it's next to whales the size of goldfish. |
| 683 | * FallenAngel: |
| 684 | ** While still being white mana and having the creature type of "angel", the "[[BodyHorror Phyrexianized]]" angels of New Phyrexia (formerly Mirrodin), such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=233059 Shattered Angel]], qualify. |
| 685 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414304 Bruna]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414319 Gisela]] both became currupted by the Eldrazi, and can even become a full [[FusionDissonance Eldrazi Angel]] by combining into [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=414305 Brisela]] |
| 686 | * {{Familiar}}: The creatures that you, essentially a planeswalking wizard, summon qualify. They are under your command (though though some have drawbacks to this arrangement). |
| 687 | * FanSpeak: Magic players have created an extensive vocabulary of slang terms and technical jargon. [[UsefulNotes/MagicTheGathering This]] Useful Notes pages has some examples. |
| 688 | * FantasticNuke: Plentiful examples. To note some of the more prominent: |
| 689 | ** White magic has the most of these, often crossing over with HolyHandGrenade and BoltOfDivineRetribution. Examples include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129808 Wrath of God]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=441994 Armageddon]]. |
| 690 | ** Red gets a few as well, including [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=416753 Obliterate]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4802 Apocalypse]]. It also gets [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=WORLDFIRE Worldfire]], which doesn't just destroy, but ''[[DeaderThanDead exiles]]'' everything but each player's deck while also reducing both to one life. |
| 691 | ** Black gets [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122423 Damnation]], which is alternate universe version of Wrath of God. |
| 692 | * FantasyMetals: Darksteel. Anything made of it or equipping it (as is the case for Darksteel artifact equipment) tends to be Indestructable, removing the most standard method of destroying it. Flavor wise, it can't even be forged. It requires {{Retconjuration}} to warp reality so that the item just so happens to have been in the desired shape all along. |
| 693 | * FastballSpecial: |
| 694 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=279856 Stone Giant]], among others, can be tapped to hurl a creature into the air to attack your opponent directly or block an enemy flyer. This is generally not a survivable experience for the creature. |
| 695 | ** This is the entire concept behind [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426834 Fling]] and similar cards. |
| 696 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=439511 Slaying Mantis]] combines this with a DynamicEntry as ''you'' throw it onto the battlefield from at least 3 feet away. Any enemy creature it touches on the way down, it fights -- potentially a suicide mission, but it can really make a dent on a crowded board. |
| 697 | * FauxFlame: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136044 Ghostfire]] is not unlike the classic Fireball, even including a red mana in its casting cost, but is explicitly "colorless". This means it can get around "Protection from Red" abilities. |
| 698 | * FearfulSymmetry: Common on the competitive scene, especially at the start of sanctioned tournaments, where many players may be using identical decks that did well in previous tournaments. As such, many players keep "silver bullets" (cards which are strong against their own deck) in their side-deck to swap in for mirror-matches. |
| 699 | * FearlessUndead: The "Fear" keyword, which almost exclusively appears on black creatures, means that creatures with it cannot be blocked except by artifact creatures (who don't feel fear) and other black creatures (who either can't feel fear or simply wouldn't be afraid). |
| 700 | * FeedItWithFire: |
| 701 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45441 Fungusaur]] gets stronger (in the form of adding +1/+1 counters) every time it survives taking damage. As highlighted in its flavor text, this damage doesn't have to come from the opponent...you can beef it up by damaging it yourself. |
| 702 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Phytohydra Phytohydra]] converts damage directly into power and toughness. Like above, this damage doesn't have to come from the opponent... |
| 703 | * FesteringFungus: Thallid is a fungal creature type, mostly green and sometimes black. Their mechanical hat tends to be that you can add one "spore" token to them each turn. You can then remove these tokens once they've reached a certain number (most commonly three) in order to deal damage or create Thallid spawn tokens. For example, take the classic [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370352 Thallid]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=184527 Thallid Devourer]]. |
| 704 | * FieldPowerEffect: Dozens of such spells which boost and debuff creatures, most often based on color or creature type. |
| 705 | * FiendishFish: |
| 706 | ** Fish are a distinct creature type in-game, and many grow huge and monstrous -- the [[https://scryfall.com/card/leg/50/devouring-deep Devouring Deep]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106631 Dandan]], and [[https://scryfall.com/card/xln/57/fleet-swallower Fleet Swallower]] are all good examples of this. |
| 707 | --->''"Catch good today. Start replacing crew tomorrow."'' '''Faysal al-Mousa, fisher captain''', FlavorText for Dandan. |
| 708 | ** While leviathans -- some of the largest monsters in the seas -- are a distinct creature type, some, such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/war/58/kioras-dambreaker Kiora's Dambreaker]] and the [[https://scryfall.com/card/m15/80/stormtide-leviathan Stormtide Leviathan]], resemble monstrous fish of immense size. |
| 709 | * FierySalamander: Naturally, a distinct red creature type. Examples include [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=6117 Scalding Salamander]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3458 Pyric Salamander]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4817 Flowstone Salamander]]. |
| 710 | * FightLikeACardPlayer: As the cards basically represent wizards dueling with spells, summoning and attacking with monsters, and drawing power from the land. |
| 711 | * FightingAShadow: A trait of the Eldrazi Titans. The cards representing them which can be summoned to the battlefields are merely "physical shadows" they use to operate within a plane. If destroyed (difficult but not impossible), they are shuffled back into the owner's deck, meaning they will return if the game goes on long enough. However, this ability is sneakily used as a drawback, since they don't leave behind [[AnimateDead a corpse to reanimate]]. |
| 712 | * {{Fireballs}}: The ''iconic'' [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221550 red direct damage card]]. It has been reprinted in some form in most sets and was part of one of ''Magic''[='s=] earliest game-breaker combos - the CastFromHitPoints based [[https://www.mtgvault.com/superdave644/decks/channel-fireball/ Channel Fireball]] Deck. |
| 713 | * FireKeepsItDead: Red (the color representing fire) creature destruction spells tend to include this by not merely destroying the target, but preventing it from being regenerated and/or exiling it so that it cannot be brought back to life. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234075 Incinerate]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=106636 Disintegrate]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23077 Scorching Lava]] all provide examples. |
| 714 | * FirePurifies: |
| 715 | ** Red gets a number of spells in this vein, such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/cma/78/cleansing-beam?utm_source=mci Cleansing Beam]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/mbs/59/burn-the-impure?utm_source=mci Burn the Impure]]. |
| 716 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/soi/5/archangel-avacyn-avacyn-the-purifier?utm_source=mci Archangel Avacyn]] starts off in a protective role, with ability that makes your other creatures indestructible. However, when one dies, she transforms into Avacyn the Purifier, gaining +2/+1 and immediately dealing 3 damage to every other creature and opponent. |
| 717 | * FirstPlayerAdvantageMitigation: To mitigate the first player's tempo advantage, Wizards eventually added the rule that the starting player skips the draw step of their first turn. |
| 718 | * FishPeople: Merfolk are the classic blue standard creature. They have scales all over their bodies and typically have humanoid legs instead of fins. In gameplay terms, they're relative in power and toughness to equivalent human creatures, though frequently more magical. |
| 719 | * FixItInPost: Parodied in the ''Unhinged'' card [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Granny%27s%20Payback Granny's Payback]], in which the art depicts an elderly woman slaughtering people despite the actual effect of the card being life-gaining. The flavor text is a snippet from development notes simply stating: "We'll fix it in the flavor text." |
| 720 | * FlamingMeteor: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=star%20of%20extinction Star of Extinction]]. Mechanically, it destroys a land and deals 20 damage to everything other than the players, typically killing everything in play. |
| 721 | * FlamingSword: Numerous artifact examples which typically increase the power of the equipping creature, sometimes with other effects as well including First Strike, Protection from Red, forced discards when striking a player, and more. Examples include the classic [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19613 Flaming Sword]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46429 Sword of Fire and Ice]], and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386545 Ghostfire Blade]] (which is an ''invisible'' flaming sword well suited for colorless creatures). |
| 722 | * FlavorText: Famous for it. |
| 723 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: The game has actually had numerous examples. |
| 724 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136142 Tarmogoyf]] gets stronger for every type of card in your graveyard. The card explicitly pointed out that "Planeswalker" and "Tribal" cards would count... At least, once cards of those types were actually published. |
| 725 | ** Speaking of which, Tarmogoyf came from the "Future Sight" set, which -- as suggested by its name -- included cards that hinted at the game's future. Though released in 2007, {{Chekhovs Gun}}s planted in the set are still firing as of 2021. |
| 726 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=48583 Sword of Kaldra]], [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48582 Shield of Kaldra]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=47449 Helm of Kaldra]] can be combined to summon someone named Kaldra. They were published in that order, with the Shield explicitly mention the as-yet-unreleased Helm. |
| 727 | ** Similarly, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=391905 Renowned Weaponsmith]] has an ability that references two specific other cards from the ''Tarkir'' block. At the time of release (''Fate Reforged'' was in between ''Khans of Tarkir'' and ''Dragons of Tarkir''), Vial of Dragonfire didn't exist. |
| 728 | * FlechetteStorm: Numerous examples including [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45198 Rain of Blades]] which damages each attack creature, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45835 Wing Shards]] which forces an opponent to sacrifice a create and can be repeated, and implied with [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202280 Serrated Arrows]] which adds up to three -1/-1 counters to target creatures. Cards in this vein are popular "anti-weenie" measures as they can destroy a large number of small creatures quite easily. |
| 729 | * FleetingDemographicRule: Mechanics which are heavily used in one set are often slowly phased out of the next several, sometimes disappearing from the current metagame entirely, before being brought back again several sets down the line. A notable example is multi-color cards, which will be the main focus of certain sets (2005's ''Ravnica: City of Guilds'', 2008's ''Shards of Alara'', and 2012's ''Return to Ravnica'', for example) while sometimes disappearing entirely in between. Justifed for game balance purposes, since a common format for sanctioned tournaments allows only cards from a certain number of the most recent releases to be used, about two years or so. Older cards are periodically rotated out of the whitelist, so one of the easier ways to maintain balance is to make sure some newly-released cards fill similar niches to ones that were recently rotated out. |
| 730 | * FleshGolem: Common in Black and sometimes Blue. Some notable examples: |
| 731 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1734 Frankenstein's Monster]] is virtually this, since the concept behind the card is that the creature is being stitched together from any number of various creatures from your graveyard, [[NonHumanUndead not necessarily humans]]. |
| 732 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220157 Sutchered Ghoul]] is similar, exiling creatures from the graveyard when it enters play and gaining power/toughness equal to the number of creatures exiled, implying that it was stiched together out of them. |
| 733 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=262701 Skaabs]] are a blue-aligned version native to Innistrad, which require a creature to be exiled from the graveyard in addition to their mana casting cost. |
| 734 | * {{Flight}}: The Flying ability. Flying creatures can only be blocked by other creatures with Flying or those with the Reach ability. Dragons and Angels typically possess flying and are among the most powerful creatures in the game. Many lesser Blue and White creatures also have it. Green has by far the fewest creatures with Flying throughout the series, but they also have the most creatures with Reach (Spiders, Archers, etc.) as a counter. |
| 735 | * FlowerMotifs: "Lotus" cards produce mana, and exist in just about every type possible. The most famous is the legendarily overpowered Black Lotus, creating three free mana at no cost. |
| 736 | * FlunkyBoss: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=438492 Krenko, Mob Boss]] as the commander in the Commander format. He creates a 1/1 goblin token for each creature of the goblin-type you have in play. Since Krenko himself is a goblin, you're always guaranteed to create one, and they grow exponentially from there as the goblin tokens qualify as well. Combined with plenty of other goblins in support, you'll be able to ZergRush your opponent(s) in short order. |
| 737 | * FoeTossingCharge: The implication of the "Trample" ability. Normally, any Power of an attacking creature beyond the Toughness of a defending creature is simply lost. However, if the attacker has Trample, the excess damage is applied to the defending player. |
| 738 | * ForcedTransformation: |
| 739 | ** Forced transformations are the basis for a number of spells. For example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=126212 Ovinize]] turns a target create into a 0/1 sheep for the rest of the turn. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=157401 Snakeform]] turns the target into a 1/1 snake for the rest of the turn. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5702 Humble]] is similar in effect, without actually transforming the target. |
| 740 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=204977 Mass Polymorph]], effectively, turns all of the creatures you have on the battlefield into other creatures from your deck at random. With some luck, you can turn a handful of "chumps" into much more powerful creatures. |
| 741 | * ForestRanger: Elves, typically Green, fill this niche. Mechanically, the after have the Reach ability (implying archery skills) and some, like the classic [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189878 Llanowar Elves]], can produce Green mana, implying a connection with nature. |
| 742 | * FountainOfYouth: The eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135273 Fountain of Youth]] card. It is an artifact which can be tapped to gain life. |
| 743 | * TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou: [[https://scryfall.com/card/ust/127/baron-von-count Baron von Count]] has an ability that reads "Destroy target player". However, since he comes from one of the "Un-" sets, he's not tournament legal. |
| 744 | * FragileSpeedster: Some "weenie" decks, particularly Green Weenies. ZergRush your opponent to win quickly or else bear witness to how fragile your deck really is. |
| 745 | * FreakyFridayFlip: Some spells and abilities can inflict this effect, exchanging players' cards-in-hand, permanents-in-play, or even life totals, the last one being a popular trick in combo decks. |
| 746 | * FungusHumongous: Sporoloths are a large Green fungus creature type. Their typical ability is to be able to create "spore" tokens which can be removed to create Saproling (smaller fungus creature) tokens. |
| 747 | * FusionDance: A number of cards can be "fused" together to create other, more powerful creatures. ''Visions'' has a notable cycle of four mechanical chimeras -- [[https://scryfall.com/card/vis/142/brass-talon-chimera Brass-Talon Chimera]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/vis/146/iron-heart-chimera Iron-Heart Chimera]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/vis/148/lead-belly-chimera Lead-Belly Chimera]], and [[https://scryfall.com/card/vis/157/tin-wing-chimera Tin-Wing Chimera]] -- each possessing a unique ability. Each chimera can be sacrificed to give its ability and a stat boost to one of the other three, representing the chimeras fusing into a single combined monster. The background of each card's art shows a sketch of the combined entity they can become. |
| 748 | * FusionDissonance: The "Meld" mechanic fuses creatures and can lead to some particularly disturbing results. For example, the angels [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=414304&type=card Bruna]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=414319&type=card Gisela]] meld to form the [[EldritchAbomination Eldrazi Angel]] [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=414305&type=card Brisela]]. |
| 749 | [[/folder]] |
| 750 | |
| 751 | [[folder:G]] |
| 752 | * GaiasVengeance: Very common with Green creatures and spells. Some notable examples: |
| 753 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?name=Naturalize Naturalize]] is an oft-reprinted classis which destroys a target artifact or enchantment. |
| 754 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1054 Gaea's Avenger]] is a treefolk creature which grows in power/toughness equal to the number of artifacts your opponent has in play. |
| 755 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205033 Gaea's Revenge]] is a massive treefolk creature with a number of powerful abilities, including outright immunity to non-Green spells. |
| 756 | ** [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/archenemy-trample-civilization-underfoot-2010-06-08 Trample Civilization Underfoot]] is the name of a Green/White Archenemy deck with this trope as its theme. |
| 757 | * GambitPileup: Due to the nature of the stack, players can find themselves fighting a mini battle in which they're undoing each other's move, for example: |
| 758 | -->'''Player 1:''' Shock on Player 2's [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220179 Merfolk Looter]].\ |
| 759 | '''Player 2:''' [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=265715 Unsummon]] on Player 2's Merfolk Looter.\ |
| 760 | '''Player 1:''' [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=185820 Counterspell]] on Player 2's Unsummon.\ |
| 761 | '''Player 2:''' Counterspell on Player 1's Shock.\ |
| 762 | '''Player 1:''' Counterspell on Player 2's Counterspell. |
| 763 | ::: And so on. If they do this by piling the cards onto each other (or playing online), then the trope is being played literally. |
| 764 | * GameBreaker: {{Invoked}}. %%NOTE TO EDITORS: Yes, there is a separate page for GameBreaker/MagicTheGathering, but please DON'T link to it here, as the examples on it are subjective. You can find it linked on the YMMV subpage. The section on this page is for IN-UNIVERSE and PLAYED WITH examples only. |
| 765 | ** {{Lampshaded}} on [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=32237 Deep Analysis]], whose art depicts the famously powerful (in its heyday) [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=13087 Masticore]] with the flavor text "The specimen seems to be broken." |
| 766 | ** {{Exploited}} with "From The Vault: Exiled", a boxed set of specially-foiled versions of famous {{Game Breaker}}s. |
| 767 | * GameBreakingBug: Happens in spirit with typos on cards and in the online version of the game. To note some examples: |
| 768 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=hostage+taker Hostage Taker]] is missing the vitally important word 'other' in its rules text, meaning if there were no other targets in play it was required to take itself hostage, triggering an endless loop that, per the rules for inescapable loops, ended the battle in a draw. This was corrected in the online rules text before the card hit even hit stores. |
| 769 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Fatespinner Fatespinner]] is a fairly mundane card which calls on the opponent to pick a handicap each time they get a turn. The problem? When the card was first added to the online version of the game, ''it didn't provide them with a way to resolve that decision'', and they could do nothing but wait for their time to run out and automatically lose. Needless to say, decks built around doing nothing but getting that card into play became wildly popular over the next few days to the point that they had to ban the card online until they could fix it. |
| 770 | ** The original wording for the ability of [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=1527 Floral Spuzzem]] reads that that the Floral Spuzzem itself (not the player) got to decide which card got targeted by its effect. Guess how long you'd have to wait until a piece of cardboard spoke up to give you its opinion on the matter? |
| 771 | * GameLobby: ''Magic The Gathering Online'' works with a lobby. Since it's relatively popular, and only up to two players can play a single game (so far), this is a pretty good way to work. |
| 772 | * GameplayAndStoryIntegration: |
| 773 | ** Early sets tried to enforce this to a degree with mechanics such as islandhome, which stopped sea-based creatures from attacking opponents who don't control an island, and causing them to cease to exist if their controller controls no islands. |
| 774 | ** The evolution of block and block design has also begun to reflect this. Later blocks may introduce new mechanics ([[DesperationAttack Fateful Hour]]) to reflect the plot (FromBadToWorse), or for that matter remove them (Devotion going largely absent from the third Theros set to reflect {{muggles}}' growing disaffection with their pantheon of gods). Heck, "Rise of the Eldrazi" completely changed the environment and is intended to be drafted as a stand-alone set! |
| 775 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=479403 Flavor Judge]], a joke card from the "Unsanctioned" set, enforces this by allowing you to counter an opponent's spell or ability targeting your creature if, as determined by someone outside the game, the interaction does not make sense story-wise. |
| 776 | * GameplayAndStorySegregation: |
| 777 | ** Islandhome is gone. First off, they decided they didn't want it keyworded and would prefer just to spell out the sentences. Secondly, it was a rather clumsy and unpopular mechanic, and Wizards' current policy is to ignore moments of FridgeLogic in favour of gameplay. (After all, [[AWizardDidIt you are a wizard!]]) |
| 778 | ** Another common example are Equipments, a subtype of Artifacts that can be, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin equipped]] to your creatures. Sometimes it works well, but at others it results in humongous axes being wielded by a little bird, or a creature wading into battle wearing a chair, or magical armor being worn by a ''tree''. Indeed, under the right circumstances you can put Cranial Plating on a mountain. |
| 779 | * GamerChick: |
| 780 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=439458 Spike, Tournament Grinder]] is an ''Unstable'' set card representing a female ''Magic'' player. |
| 781 | ** As the game has grown over the years, so has the number of female players. In response, Wizards has expanded the names of their "Player Archetypes" to include female versions of each name: Timmy/Tammy, Johnny/Jenny, and Melvin/Melanie. (Spike and Vorthos are considered unisex.) |
| 782 | * GatheringSteam: Under normal circumstances, each player is only allowed to play a single Land card per turn, and your most powerful spells might even take multiple combinations of multiple mana to perform. |
| 783 | * GeniusLoci: "Manland" is the slang term for a land which can turn itself into a creature. Examples include [[https://scryfall.com/card/2xm/311/blinkmoth-nexus?utm_source=mw_MTGWiki Blinkmoth Nexus]], [[https://scryfall.com/card/c20/281/hostile-desert?utm_source=mw_MTGWiki Hostile Desert]], and many more. |
| 784 | * GentleGiant: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=9847 Karn, Silver Golem]] is massive enough to kill giants and even some dragons...but is a pacifist who refuses to harm any other living thing. Mechanically, this is represented by his power becoming zero and his toughness becoming eight whenever he blocks or is blocked, essentially negating all but the most powerful opponents. |
| 785 | * GeoEffects: |
| 786 | ** Basic Lands enable you to play virtually all other spells in the game via drawing the magic used out of them, represented mechanically via "tapping". |
| 787 | ** Certain creatures of one color gain additional powers if you control lands of another. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=174989 Wild Nacatl]] (a one Green mana 1/1 who gains +1/+1 for each mountain or plain you control) and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=413679 Kird Ape]] (a one Red mana 1/2 who gains +1/+2 if you control a forest) are potent examples which were each banned for a time. |
| 788 | * GiantEnemyCrab: Several examples as large Blue creatures, including the eponymous [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=4703 Giant Crab]]. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=34927 Wormfang Crab]] is another, being so large it can step over mountains. This represented mechanically by it being unblockable. |
| 789 | * GiantEyeOfDoom: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=107278 Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83811 Evil Eye of Urborg]]. When in play, non-"Eye" creatures you control cannot attack, but the former is virtually unblockable while the latter destroys any creatures who block it. |
| 790 | * GiantFlyer: Anything "big" with the Flying ability qualifies, but a few examples stand out: |
| 791 | ** Merit Lage, summoned from [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121155 Dark Depths]], is the largest flyer in the game to date at 20/20. |
| 792 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193452 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn]] is a flying EldritchAbomination. At 15/15 and with the ability to take an extra turn after it is played, it usually ends the game when it is played. |
| 793 | * GiantFootOfStomping: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=143384 Crush Underfoot]] gives any "giant" creature you control the ability to destroy a target creature in this fashion. |
| 794 | * GiantSpider: |
| 795 | ** The standard Green [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370781 Giant Spider]] is a classic, having been printed in every set from the game's start until ''Magic 2013'' and still holds the record for the longest continuous run of any non-basic land card. It is a 2/4 with [[AntiAir Reach]]. |
| 796 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=88959 Goliath Spider]] is the largest spider in the game at 7/6. |
| 797 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=423512 Dragonlair Spider]] is a 5/6 which spawns Insect tokens. Those insects are not spawns of the spider; they're scavengers eating the bits of ''dragons'' that the spider discards. |
| 798 | * GlassCannon: |
| 799 | ** Many combo decks, as well as many linearly-focused decks like the Affinity deck of the ''Mirrodin'' era, are incredibly powerful if the opponent has no way to interact with them, but vulnerable to being completely shut down by a single "hoser" card that can disrupt them in the proper way. |
| 800 | ** Lots of creatures have large power, but only one toughness. There's also a literal [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83719 Glass Golem]]. (While not exactly one toughness, most direct damage cards deal 2 or more damage, and it's not uncommon to see a 1 mana creature have enough attack to take a Glass Golem down). |
| 801 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130713 Force of Savagery]] Has a whopping 8 power but 0 toughness, meaning it dies as soon as it enters the battlefield unless it is buffed in some way (such as something like [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Leyline%20of%20Vitality Leyline of Vitality]]. |
| 802 | * GlorySeeker: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222736 Is a card.]] |
| 803 | * GodsNeedPrayerBadly: The Gods of ''Theros'' block only unleash their full power as long as you maintain sufficient "devotion" to that God's colors. |
| 804 | * GoldenSnitch: Alternate win condition cards can be sprung without warning. Even decking can be considered this, if the winner was at 1 life and the loser was at a whole lot more. Many of these alternate wins are hilariously impractical and for all the time and resources you spend setting one up it's usually just easier to win the old-fashioned way, but RuleOfCool means people love these things anyway and will often bend over backwards to pull one off. A partial list of individual cards that create alternate win conditions can be seen below under InstantWinCondition. |
| 805 | * GraveRobbing: Reanimating creatures from the graveyard in this fashion is a staple of Black. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Animate Dead]] is the classic example, but there are many other means as well. Emphasis on the "robbing" part as well, as often, the creatures don't need to be from ''your own'' graveyard... |
| 806 | * TheGreatExterminator: You can become this with the [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=580942 Exterminatus]] card from the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' set. Based on that series' act of so utterly destroying a habitable planet as to render it a "Dead World" (typically to prevent the spread of infection or heresy), it destroys all non-land permanents and even strips the "Indestructable" effect from opponent(s) cards to ensure they are destroyed as well. |
| 807 | * {{Griefer}}: The ''New Phyrexia'' expansion was [[IntendedAudienceReaction intentionally designed with Griefing in mind]], and contains many cards that are intended to make your opponent feel bad. For example, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=247341 Shattered Angel]] takes something they normally feel happy about (getting more mana) and makes them feel bad about it (by making you gain life every time they play a land); there's a similar dynamic with cards like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214063 Consecrated Sphinx]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=217981 Suture Priest]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233067 Invader Parasite]], and so on.\ |
| 808 | \ |
| 809 | And while most sets have spells that kill or disable your opponent's stuff, in ''New Phyrexia'' they have added effects that rub your victory in their face, as with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218040 Numbing Dose]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227549 Victorious Destruction]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218016 Psychic Barrier]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194171 Glissa's Scorn]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233060 Enslave]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214384 Phyrexian Ingester]], etc.\ |
| 810 | \ |
| 811 | Or, as development team member Tom [=LaPille=] [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/140 puts it]]: |
| 812 | -->Our vision of ''New Phyrexia''--as created by Aaron Forsythe and Ken Nagle, the two players in R&D with the strongest griefing tendencies--is one of all-upside [[{{Griefer}} griefing]] that leaves your opponent not knowing what they're supposed to do and feeling a little bit violated. Phyrexia doesn't destroy all the creatures on the battlefield; it destroys all the creatures on the battlefield and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Life%27s%20Finale rips some out of your library to boot]]. Phyrexia doesn't just exile a permanent. It [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Exclusion%20Ritual disallows the opponent from casting every other copy]]. |
| 813 | * GrievousHarmWithABody: A staple ability of "giant" type creatures, which typically reads something like "sacrifice a creature: [This Card] deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to target creature or player". The implication being that the giant either throws the other creature or uses them as a club. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=279856 Stone Giant]] is a classic example, having been around since Alpha. Others include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=140217 Brion Stoutarm]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45387 Bloodshot Cyclops]]. |
| 814 | |
| 815 | [[/folder]] |
| 816 | |
| 817 | [[folder:H]] |
| 818 | * HandsLookingWrong: The card art for [[https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/39/ghostly-flicker Ghostly Flicker]] shows a soldier looking at his hands as his body becomes ghost-like. |
| 819 | * HarmlessFreezing: Ice-related cards, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=245283 Ice Cage]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370678 Frost Breath]], tend to paralyze creatures without harming them, and the effect is usually temporary. |
| 820 | * HeadsOrTails: ''Magic'' has [[https://scryfall.com/search?as=full&order=name&q=o%3Aflip+o%3Aa+o%3Acoin&utm_source=mci dozens]] of cards which require a coin flip, primarily in Red and with artifacts. However, these tend to be some of the least popular cards in given sets as players shy away from their inherent randomness. Mark Rosewater explains more [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/37 here]]. |
| 821 | * HealingPotion: Life gaining effects frequently take the form of potions or elixirs. Examples include the [[https://magiccards.info/5e/en/279.html Alabaster Potion]] and the [[https://magiccards.info/mr/en/265.html Elixir of Vitality]]. |
| 822 | * {{Hellfire}}: |
| 823 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201141 Hellfire]] itself is a card. It wipes out all non-black creatures (being a black spell, it's assumed that most if not all of your own creatures will be exempt) [[CastFromHitPoints at a price]]. |
| 824 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189229 Demonfire]] is in the same vein. If it kills a creature, that creature is rendered DeaderThanDead. |
| 825 | * HerdHittingAttack: |
| 826 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=603 Chaos Orb]] is a classic. After playing it, you flip it over in the air over the battlefield and destroy anything it lands on. It was so hated and abused (targeting the opponent's lands, their graveyard, their ''deck''...) that it remains one of the few cards to be permabanned in all formats. |
| 827 | ** Cards which can spread out a small amount of damage in this vein are popular anti-Weenie measures. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202280 Serrated Arrows]] is an example which adds up to three -1/-1 counters to target creatures. |
| 828 | * HeroKiller: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23321 Tsabo Tavoc]] has both Protection from Legendary Creatures and an ability which allows her to destroy legendary creatures. |
| 829 | * HeroicResolve: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4879 Hero's Resolve]] massively boosts a target creature's toughness. |
| 830 | * HeroicRROD: Cards like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=382865 Berserk]], which make a creature stronger for one turn, then destroy it at the end of that turn. |
| 831 | * HighlySpecificCounterplay: ''Magic'' has several pretty narrow counter cards. However, note that some of these are/were less narrow in specific environments. For instance, Melira's anti-Infect abilities were not Highly Specific in the card's home block ''Scars of Mirrodin'', where Infect and poison counters were major mechanics. |
| 832 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=904 City in a Bottle]] prevents all players from casting cards from the ''Arabian Nights'' expansion. Now that there are more than 200 non-''Arabian Nights'' sets, this is Highly Specific. Similarly, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1007 Golgothian Sylex]] gets rid of all ''Antiquities'' cards (including itself), and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2900 Apocalypse Chime]] destroys all ''Homelands'' cards. |
| 833 | ** ''Legends'' brought us the cycle of basic landwalk hosers. Each of these enchantments turns off one type of basic landwalk and does nothing else. All of them are Highly Specific, as even the most common type only appears on 40 creatures, and only a handful of cards can grant landwalk. Landwalk as a whole has been obsoleted, so the basic landwalk hosers will only get more specific with time. However, even within this cycle, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1615 Great Wall]] stands out. It's the one that lets you block creatures with plainswalk, of which there are only ''four'', only ''one'' of which was around when Great Wall was released (and it was weak). |
| 834 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1544 Shelkin Brownie]] has the ability to remove "bands with other" abilities from creatures. At the time it was printed, there were literally ''zero'' creatures with printed "bands with other" abilities -- only a creature that can create tokens with a "bands with other" ability, and a cycle of lands that can grant your Legendary creatures "bands with other legends". The only creature that was ever printed with the ability was a JokeCharacter card from the set ''Unhinged'', and those SelfParody cards aren't usable in any but the most casual formats. |
| 835 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194274 Melira, Sylvok Outcast]] protects you from Infect and poison counters, which are mentioned by about 70 (out of over 20,000) cards. |
| 836 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=26590 Ertai's Trickery]] can only counter spells that were kicked. Less than 200 spells can be kicked, and even then, the opponent has to choose to kick them. |
| 837 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=50439 Hisoka's Defiance]] can only counter Spirit or Arcane spells. There are 93 Arcane spells and a few hundred Spirit spells -- not as rare as some of the other examples, but still pretty specific. |
| 838 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=380395 Deicide]] is designed to counter Gods who are enchantment creatures, of which there are 22. At least it can also exile regular enchantments, even though it does less if you use it for that. |
| 839 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Goatnapper Goatnapper]] lets you control target Goat until the end of the turn. There were only two Goat creature cards at the time of its release. The block also introduced changeling, which makes a creature count as every creature type -- including Goat. This made the card a bit more versatile, but it's still not much. Goat creatures and creatures with changeling are very rare. |
| 840 | ** Creatures with horsemanship can only be blocked by other creatures with the ability. There are only 36 of these, which effectively makes them Highly Specific Counters to each other. |
| 841 | * HistoryRepeats: Literal example in the ''Time Spiral'' block, which brought back lots of old cards and themes as part of its "time" gimmick. |
| 842 | * HitPoints: |
| 843 | ** 20 for each player to start, though it can get very low, very high, and some cards even let the player [[{{Determinator}} keep going]] [[OnlyMostlyDead with 0 or less]]. |
| 844 | ** Creatures have these in the form of toughness, which resets each turn as long as they take less-than-fatal damage. |
| 845 | ** Planeswalkers have Loyalty points which work a lot like the player's hit points. |
| 846 | * HiveMind: |
| 847 | ** The sliver race. Slivers don't just have Haste, their abilities generally read like "All Slivers have Haste"; there is at least one sliver for every ability with a name and even some slivers with no ability, they just exploit others'. Naturally there was also the [[HiveQueen Sliver]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5233 Queen]], to which succeeded the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45166 Sliver Overlord]], to which succeeded the HiveMind itself, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?id=136146 with its newfound consciousness]]. |
| 848 | ** The Selesnya Conclave apparently also has a weak Hive Mind of some sorts. Hinted at by the Convoke mechanic. |
| 849 | ** The [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190556 Hive Mind]] card causes players to share spells. |
| 850 | * HoldTheLine: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=79144 Hold the Line]] gives all block creatures a massive +7/+7 boost until the end of the turn. |
| 851 | * HollywoodPrehistory: The plane of Muraganda pulls heavily from this aesthetic with dinosaurs, classic cave men, and wooly mammals. Mechanically, it has stronger than usual connections to Red and Green mana. [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=130614 Muraganda Petroglyphs]] are cave art like symbols which grant +2/+2 to creatures without abilities. |
| 852 | * HolyHandGrenade: A signature of white mana, along with HolyIsNotSafe. To note: |
| 853 | ** The creators went full blown [[Literature/TheBible Old Testament]] when it comes to white direct damage and mass removal. To note some specific examples: |
| 854 | *** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=true&multiverseid=1809 Fire and Brimstone]] deals equal damage to both players. |
| 855 | *** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=441994 Armageddon]] destroys all lands. |
| 856 | *** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129808 Wrath of God]] destroys all creatures. |
| 857 | ** Several white "spot removal" spells also qualify, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=383224 Devouring Light]] (which exiles a target creature) and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=366456 Smite]] (which destroys an attacking creature when it is blocked). The card art really drives the connection home. |
| 858 | * {{Homage}}: |
| 859 | ** The subjects of the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29945 Repentant Vampire]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=28755 Gallantry]] cards from ''Odyssey'' are ''Series/{{Angel}}'' and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', respectively. |
| 860 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4737 Time Warp]] has the flavor text "[[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow Let's do it again!]]" |
| 861 | ** The ''entirety'' of Theros, based as it is on Myth/ClassicalMythology. |
| 862 | * HotPotato: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=88821 Measure of Wickedness]] must be handed off by the end of the controlling player's turn or else it costs them 8 life. |
| 863 | * HPToOne: |
| 864 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Worldfire Worldfire]] does this to each player, in addition to exiling their hands, permanents, and graveyards. |
| 865 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=368981 Master of Cruelties]], if unblocked, has this effect on the opposing player. |
| 866 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=435388 Vraska]]'s final ability does this to the opponent. |
| 867 | ** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?multiverseid=193467 Near Death Experience]] turns this into a good thing to have happen to you. If you have one life point left during your Upkeep step, you [[InstantWinCondition automatically win]]. |
| 868 | * HumanSacrifice: |
| 869 | ** The five "Heralds" of Alara, who sacrifice three creatures to bring forth a great monster. Of course, ''Magic'' being what it it is, most of the sacrifices probably won't be strictly ''human''... |
| 870 | ** The ''Dark Ascension'' set includes cards which get bonuses from specifically sacrificing humans. Examples include [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227417 Ravenous Demon]] and [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=262667 Skirsdag Flayer]]. |
| 871 | * HumansAreAverage: [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] by the game designers. Humans tend to be the most basic race, appearing in all colors, having average power and toughness, having weaker or no inherent abilities while costing relatively less mana compared to similar "sized" non-human creatures, etc. |
| 872 | * HumansAreSpecial: |
| 873 | ** There are far more human Planeswalkers than any other race. |
| 874 | ** Humans are one of the very few races to exist in meaningful numbers across all five colors, giving them unparalleled diversity and adaptability. |
| 875 | * HumongousHeadedHammer: [[https://scryfall.com/card/m20/223/colossus-hammer Colossus Hammer]] is an equipment that gives a creature a massive +10/+10 buff, but is so heavy that it prevents the creature from flying. The artwork depicts a dwarf carrying a warhammer with a head alone that's bigger than his entire body. |
| 876 | * HumongousMecha: "Colossus" creatures are typicaly artifact creatures taking the form of massive automatons. They usually have immense power and toughness, sometimes are indestructable, but have high mana costs which can frequently be reduced if you control a good number of other artifacts. [[https://scryfall.com/card/m10/208/darksteel-colossus?utm_source=mci Darksteel Colossus]] and [[https://scryfall.com/card/kld/222/metalwork-colossus?utm_source=mci Metalwork Colossus]] are notable examples. |
| 877 | * HydraProblem: A staple of "big" Green mana creatures. Mechanically, this shows up in several ways such as the hydras becoming stronger by surviving damage, or splitting into smaller Hydra Tokens when killed. |
| 878 | [[/folder]] |
| 879 | |
| 880 | [[folder:I]] |
| 881 | * IFightForTheStrongestSide: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2832 Ghazban Ogre]] switches to the control of the player with the most life at the start of every turn. |
| 882 | * ImAHumanitarian: |
| 883 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222903 Village Cannibals]], a Human creature which gets a +1/+1 counter when another Human creature dies, "eating" their corpse. |
| 884 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=6092 Spike Cannibal]], which eats all the other Spikes when it enters the battlefield. |
| 885 | * ImmortalBreaker: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=380426 Godsend]], Elspeth's sword (and later spear), accomplishes this mechanically by [[DeaderThanDead exiling]] any creatures who block or are blocked by the equipped creature. Further, the opponent cannot play any copies of any creatures exiled in this fashion, either. |
| 886 | * ImmortalityInducer: |
| 887 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/5ed/372/fountain-of-youth?utm_source=mci Fountain of Youth]] is a cheap method to increase a player's life, and can be used repeatedly. |
| 888 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/m14/209/elixir-of-immortality?utm_source=mci Elixir of Immortality]] works on two levels. First, it gives five life when tapped. Second, it allows you to shuffle your graveyard back into your deck, averting a loss by decking. |
| 889 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/zen/200/eternity-vessel?utm_source=mci Eternity Vessel]] essentially gives an "immortality by stasis" version. It enters play with a number of charge counters equal to your life total. Whenever you play a land, you have the option of resetting your life total to the number of counters. |
| 890 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/som/193/platinum-emperion?utm_source=mci Platinum Emperion]] is an artifact creature which allows you to ignore life loss for as long as it is in play. |
| 891 | ** [[https://scryfall.com/card/v15/13/platinum-angel?utm_source=mci Platinum Angel]] prevents you from losing the game for as long as it is in play, with a loss by concession being the sole exceptions. |
| 892 | * ImmunityDisability: The "Shroud" ability prevents permanents from being targeted. This is useful protection from enemy spells...but also prevents them from being buffed as well. |
| 893 | * ImpossiblyCoolWeapon: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=227302 Worldslayer]] is a humongous sword which destroys all permanents on the battlefield whenever it used. |
| 894 | * ImprobablePowerDiscrepancy: Countless examples with respect to a creature's stats being disproportionately high or low in relation to other cards. To note a few specific examples: |
| 895 | ** The simple [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129596 Horseshoe Crab]] is a 1/3 creature. Compare that to the 1/1 [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221892 Llanowar Elves]] (armed and trained elven warriors) or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10537 Yellow Scarves Cavalry]] (an entire cavalry regiment). |
| 896 | ** The 1/1 [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=373578 Akroan Crusader]], essentially a generic soldier of AncientGrome, would be destroyed by [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sanctuary%20cat Sanctuary Cat]], a 1/2 simple ''house cat''. |
| 897 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=373512 Traveling Philosopher]], an explicitly non-magical human advisor, has the same power and toughness as a ''[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=129586 Grizzly Bear]]''. |
| 898 | * ImprovisedArmor: The [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=41163 eponymous card]] grants surprisingly effective protection. |
| 899 | * ImprovisedWeapon: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=218055 Bludgeon Brawl]] allows your creatures to use any non-creature artifact as improvised weapons. |
| 900 | * IncendiaryExponent: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=240002 Guise of Fire]] allows you to set a creature on fire, increasing its power at the cost of toughness. |
| 901 | * IncreasinglyLethalEnemy: |
| 902 | ** Since as a game goes on players tend to have more and more mana, cards with activated abilities that only require mana can become problematic if the game drags on. A common example are shades, which can be pumped for mana. |
| 903 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=253670 Primordial Hydra]] has power and toughness that double every turn, and after it has been on the field long enough to get 10 power, it has trample, making it impossible to chump block. |
| 904 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=420771 Kalonian Hydra]] doubles the number of +1/+1 counters on it and every other creature you control whenever it attacks, potentially applying this trope to your entire board if it keeps attacking unhindered. |
| 905 | * InfernalRetaliation: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=26837 Deadapult]] allows you to sacrifice a zombie creature in order to deal direct damage to a target creature or player. The card art implies that you do so by setting it on fire and sending it at them. |
| 906 | * InstantWinCondition: |
| 907 | ** While there's plenty of combos and such that can win in one good punch, there's [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3A%22you+win+the+game%22 a fair amount of individual cards]] that provide you with alternate win conditions. |
| 908 | ** "Decking" is the original instant win condition. If a player must draw a card but has an empty library, they lose. Under most circumstances, this is harder to accomplish than simply getting your opponent's life to 0, so "decking" is a rare occurrence. However, there are plenty of ways to set up your deck to deliberately cause this for your opponent (a tactic generally known as "milling"). Cards such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=millstone Millstone]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197129 Halimar Excavator]], [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193441 Rise of the Eldrazi's Keening Stone]], and any other Ally card are all useful unless your opponent has a card that allows them to shuffle their graveyard back into their hand. (Even if they do, the original [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=109694 Feldon's Cane]] has to be exiled from the game after use, and the fancy mythic rare Eldrazi that can do this for free are, well, mythic rare.) |
| 909 | * {{Intangibility}}: |
| 910 | ** Creatures with the "shadow" keyword. In function, they can only block and be blocked by other creatures with shadow. |
| 911 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=158752 Turn to Mist]] is a spell which causes a temporary version of this to an attacking creatures. The creature is exiled and returned to play on its controller's next turn. |
| 912 | * IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: |
| 913 | ** The name of the game itself. You can either call it "Magic" (and risk confusion) or "Magic: The Gathering" (which is harder to say). The reason it's called "The Gathering" is for trademark reasons; the word Magic is too generic to be trademarked, and magic card tricks are pretty common, so the name was to apply to the ''Alpha/Beta/Unlimited'' sets. Richard had planned sequels named "Magic: Ice Age" (which was eventually released as ''Ice Age'' block) and "Magic: Menagerie" (which was released as ''Mirage'' block). However, the game was so popular that the company demanded an expansion pack much earlier than expected, resulting in ''Arabian Nights'' and, eventually, the "sets" we know and love today; the requirement that every card have identical back sides means that we're still stuck with "Magic: The Gathering" as the full name. ([[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Not to mention a million angry fans would descend upon Wizards' offices in hordes if they ever changed it.]]) |
| 914 | ** The one time that there was an actual "gathering" in ''Magic'' canon in reference to the title was in the ''Scourge'' novel, where Karona gathered godlike figures representing the five colors of mana in a five-point circle reminiscent of the game's logo. |
| 915 | * InterfaceScrew: |
| 916 | ** The preview of the [[http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/396 Rise of the Eldrazi]] set did this to your browser! |
| 917 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2530 Reality Twist]] creates a version of this in-game by switching the colors of mana produced by lands, making it difficult or impossible to cast spells. |
| 918 | * InvincibleMinorMinion: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376297 Darksteel Mutation]] turns a target creature into an indestructable 0/1 beetle. This can be used defensively to turn one of your creatures into an unkillable blocker, or offensively to turn an opponent's powerful creature into a harmless little bug. |
| 919 | * {{Invisibility}}: |
| 920 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=INVISIBILITY Invisibility]] is a card itself, and in function, it enchants a creature so [[InvisibleMeansUndodgeable that it cannot be blocked]] by anything except for Walls. |
| 921 | ** Other already "invisible" creatures exist, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=220041 Invisible Stalker]], who come with the "hexproof" keyword for the same basic effect. |
| 922 | * InvisibilityCloak: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3329 Cloak of Invisibility]] is an enchantment which makes a target creature unblockable except by walls. |
| 923 | * InvoluntaryShapeshifting: Numerous cards exist which turn creatures into other, usually less threatening, things. A classic example is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Turn%20to%20Frog Turn to Frog]]. |
| 924 | * IShallTauntYou: [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370674 Goblin Diplomats]] can be tapped to force all of your opponent's creatures to attack if possible. The implication (furthered by the card art) being that they essentially taunt them into doing so. |
| 925 | [[/folder]] |
| 926 |
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