Assist is a multiplayer mechanic that lets other players help you cast your spells. Might sound a little odd, but for now, here’s how it works.
Assist is a static ability that changes the steps of casting the spell – specifically, when you get to the part where you pay costs. You then choose another player, and then before you pay anything, that player can pay any amount of the generic mana cost of the spell. After that, you pay any remaining costs, and then the spell is cast.
Pretty straightforward, if a little strange, but there are just a few notes about how this works in practice:
- The assisting player can only pay generic mana costs – they cannot pay for a colored mana costs or specifically colorless mana costs.
- You choose a player, you do not target one, so even if a player has hexproof, you can still choose them to help Assist.
- You choose all modes and targets before you choose the other player.
- If the other player chooses not to Assist, you may then choose not to cast the spell, in which case it just goes back to your hand.
Now, you may have had the question, why would someone else help me cast a spell? Well, ignoring political games for the moment, a lot of assist come with a bonus for the assisting player. This mechanic also comes from Battlebond, a set built for Two-Headed Giant, where this all makes a ton more sense. That said, this mechanic is all but guaranteed not to show up outside of supplemental sets, and even then, only under very specific circumstances.
If you want to Assist your collection, head over to cardkingdom.com!