Modified in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Sky Mason (darthjacen) July 10, 2023 Collecting, MTG Cards, MTG Rules

Last updated on March 26, 2024

Thundering Raiju | Illustration by Xavier Ribeiro

We’ve had to redefine terms of commonly occurring conditions of cards in Magic over time. Things like “historic” meaning artifacts, anything with the legendary subtype, and sagas or “party” referring to a specific subsection of creature types.

These shorthand definitions allow for more design space. Today I’m looking at the latest of these terms introduced in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty: modified.

Table of Contents show

How Does Modified Work?

Flame Discharge | Illustration by Joshua Raphael

“Modified” refers to any creature that’s equipped, enchanted by their controller’s aura, or has counters on them. It’s important to note that since modified only applies to creatures, the answer will be no if a permanent were a noncreature when checking if something is modified. An example of this is if Heliod, Sun-Crowned had a +1/+1 counter on it but didn’t have enough devotion to be a creature, it wouldn’t be considered modified.

The History of Modified in MTG

Modified first debuted on the Mystery Booster test card Louvaq, the Aberrant. For traditional set releases the mechanic debuted in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

Modified is evergreen, much like historic and party. And while some sets won’t deal with using modified as a resource, creatures are still considered modified if they meet the requirements.

Are Enchantment Creatures Modified?

Enchantment creatures aren’t inherently enchanted by an aura. The “enchantment” portion of being modified specifies that the creature has to have an aura controlled by its controller enchanting it.

Are Artifact Creatures Modified?

Much like enchantment creatures, artifact creatures aren’t modified by default. They have to meet one of the requirements (equipped, enchanted, or have a counter) to be considered modified.

Is My Creature Modified if My Opponent Enchants It?

A creature has to be enchanted by an aura controlled by the creature’s controller to be considered modified, not one controlled your opponent.

Does a -1/-1 Counter Count for Modified?

Modified doesn’t care how a creature received a counter or what kind of counter is on the creature, only that the creature has a counter on it.

Gallery and List of Modified Cards

Best Modified Cards

Since modified is a new mechanic we haven’t seen a whole lot of powerful effects yet, but over time there will be more cards printed to support modified. For now, these are the best we have.

Upriser Renegade

Seeing fringe play in humans decks in Pioneer, Upriser Renegade has the potential to get massive quickly if you have effects that can give your creatures +1/+1 counters en masse.

Thundering Raiju

Thundering Raiju is a solid haste flier that can make your creatures bigger and modified, and it deals extra damage to opponents equal to the number of modified creatures you control not including itself. Hitting each opponent helps push this card as a quick finisher in go wide decks with modified creatures.

Wrap Up

Guardians of Oboro | Illustration by Anna Steinbauer

With this latest update to the terminology of Magic we can easily classify a pretty common occurrence for creatures. This opens design space to reward players for doing things they were already doing.

It makes for fun and entertaining gameplay when players get rewards just for doing the things they already want to do. I hope we see more modified payoffs in the future and continue to streamline categorizing common things like historic and modified do.

What kind of modified cards or payoffs are you looking forward to in future sets? Let me know in the comments below or on Draftsim’s official Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and stay safe!

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Sky Mason (darthjacen)

Sky Mason has been playing Magic since Dark Ascension and plays Standard, Modern, Pioneer, and Limited. With a Grand Prix win in 2015 and an SCG Team Top 4 in 2019, he continues to pursue competitive Magic at every turn. You can follow him on Twitch and Youtube. Book a coaching session with Sky here.