Cards with silver borders are among the craziest in all of Magic: The Gathering. It’s pretty much their main selling point. Coming from what are known as “Un-sets”, silver-bordered cards are aimed at a casual, kitchen-table...
Read moreIf you think that math is for blockers, absorb is guaranteed to make blockers’ brains explode. Let’s take a look at how this keyword ability works, how it fares against multiple sources of damage, and how the MTG designers came up...
Read moreAmplify is part of the legion of creature-focused mechanics unleashed during the Onslaught block, which was THE creature block. Let’s take a deep dive into what this keyword ability does, how it works, its history, and exactly what type of...
Read moreToday we’re taking a look at bloodrush, the Gruul mechanic for 2013’s Gatecrash. It isn’t necessarily the most powerful mechanic, but it’s probably the mechanic that best catches the Gruul aspect of attacking and making your creatures very big...
Read moreI have to be honest with you, folks. Lorwyn block is one of my largest knowledge gaps when it comes to familiarity with Magic sets. I’ve always loved the aesthetic, but I’ve never really sat down and engaged with everything the block has to...
Read moreManipulating the top card of an opponent’s library is very powerful. Fateseal was created as a mechanic that lets you “negative scry”, that is, scry your opponent’s library instead of your own.
Read moreBetween 2003-2010, MTG had an era of design where sets had to fit into a pre-chosen mechanical theme, with a world and cards that were shaped to satisfy that idea. In this way, Shadowmoor, the color-matters set was created, and one of the set’s...
Read moreReady for some Sleight of Hand to keep your opponents on their toes? For a bit of “aura-justu”, if you will, since aura swap was inspired by the ninjas from Kamigawa?
Read moreHello Planeswalkers! There are a few definitions for the word graft that could make sense as a mechanic in MTG. Graft can mean a way to get sap from a tree, gain a business advantage through nefarious ways, or transplant living tissue surgically...
Read moreIn the midst of the Masques block was Nemesis, a 143-card set that introduced the fading keyword to Magic. Step through the veil with me back to the turn of the century and welcome the ephemeral permanents of Nemesis.
Read moreKilled, destroyed, buried, sacrificed. Almost all of these terms in MTG relate to a creature ending its lifespan, so to say, and thus going to the graveyard. Bury is a flavorful match since MTG’s already have the graveyard as a game zone, so it...
Read moreMagic consistently tries out new keyword mechanics. Some of these are successful and go on to become evergreen mechanics, while others prove too difficult to understand or sometimes even too powerful to continue getting printed. Then there are...
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