Alchemy has been around on MTG Arena for some time now, and it’s started to settle into its little niche as the digital-only format where digital-only mechanics go to die. One of the mew mechanics, “boon,” is reminiscent of planeswalker emblems...
Read moreMagic has a string of cards and mechanics that allow you to durably alter a creature after it’s already been cast. Cipher is one of those experiments that seems to have exhausted its narrow design space between under- and overpowered.
Read moreIn Magic you’ll find yourself mana-flooded a fair amount, and buyback gives you a way to sink that extra mana into spells that can bury your opponent. There are also other means of paying buyback besides just extra mana, so let’s delve into this...
Read moreOne turn they’re here, and then poof they’re gone! Magic’s vanishing mechanic puts a time limit on your permanents and forces you to use time as a resource. But what makes vanishing unique, and how did it come about?
Read moreEvery time we return to Ravnica, it seems like one of the guilds gets the short end of the stick, as far as effective and thematic mechanics go. Forecast isn’t bad, per se. It just lacks a certain splashy-ness that other mechanics have, and...
Read moreSoulbond is a keyword that caused a bit too much confusion, taking its place alongside abilities like flanking or banding. What is soulbond, how does it work, and are any of the cards worth playing still? Let’s take a look at the mechanic, its...
Read moreOffering lets you cast big bad creatures at flash speed… but, as it turned out, it wasn’t exactly a smash-hit of a mechanic, and there are only about half a dozen cards with offering. It’s a cool keyword ability, so let’s find...
Read moreUniverses Beyond allows WotC to introduce different franchises to MTG. With The Brothers’ War and its artifact theme, the Transformers IP got its own Beyond treatment on 13 new cards.
Read moreMagic is well-known for designing creatures that fall into one of two camps: either the weaker, more expensive card with a great ability, or the cheaper, over-statted creature with a drawback. Decayed falls into that latter category...
Read moreRecover probably belongs to that group of Magic: The Gathering mechanics that sounded better in the designers’ minds. It’s still a quintessentially Magic-al mechanic, though, since it’s all about using your graveyard as a resource.
Read moreWith the Odyssey block, of which Torment is the second set, Wizards of the Coast tried to break new ground in many ways, from the game mechanics to a new focus for the storyline.
Read moreIf you ask an MTG player if the liked a random MTG set or not, chances are that they’ll tell you about the set’s mechanics. “Sure, I remember Ravnica. Populate was cool, and cipher was total garbage.” In this example, cipher is a keyword ability...
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