Cipher – MTG Keywords Explained

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Cipher is a little strange, and appears on instants and sorceries. When you cast a spell with Cipher, if you are casting the actual card (more on this weird clause in a minute), you may exile the card encoded on a creature you control. When a card with Cipher is encoded on a creature and that creature deals combat damage …

Unleash – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Unleash appears solely on creature cards, and gives you a choice when a creature with it enters the batlefield. As the creature enters the battlefield, you may have it enter with a +1/+1 counter on it. As long as the creature has a +1/+1 counter on it, it cannot block. Easy! A simple choice: have a bigger creature that can’t …

Scavenge – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Most creature based graveyard mechanics (like Unearth, for example) tend to revolve around somehow getting that creature back on the battlefield, but scavenge is different. It appears only on creatures, and can only be activated when that card is in the graveyard. At sorcery speed (on your turn in your main phase with nothing else on the stack), you may …

Overload – MTG Keywords Explained

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Overload exists on instants and sorceries, and is actually two static abilities. The first says that as you go to cast the spell, you may instead pay the overload cost. The second says that if you do that, you then replace all instances of the word “target” on the card with “each.” If don’t pay the overload cost, the spell …

Soulbond – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

There’s a lot here, so let’s get to it. First, soulbond is actually two triggered abilities; the first triggers as the creature with it enters the battlefield, and states that you may pair it with another unpaired creature you control – more on that in a minute. The second states that whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, …

Read Ahead – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Read Ahead is a mechanic that appears only on Sagas. Sagas normally get a lore counter when they enter the battlefield, and then another lore counter at the beginning of your precombat main phase, triggering the appropriate chapter each time. Once it has as many lore counters as it does chapters and the final chapter trigger resolves, the Saga gets …

Enlist – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Enlist is a combat mechanic that involves two creatures. When a creature with it attacks, you may tap a non-attacking creature you control that has already gotten over its “summoning sickness.” In other words, a creature with haste or that you’ve controlled since at least when your turn began. When you tap a creature this way, the creature with Enlist …

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Miracle – MTG Keywords Explained

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Miracle appears on instants and sorceries and provides an alternative cost for casting the spell…if you can jump through one little hoop. This is technically two abilities; the first states that you may reveal the card if it’s the first card you draw in a turn. The second is a triggered ability that goes off when you reveal the card …

Undying – MTG Keywords Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

Undying is creature-based recursion mechanic that is essentially the mirror of persist. If a creature with it dies, it will return to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. If it already had a +1/+1 counter, it will stay dead in the graveyard. So yes, it is very much like persist, but with +1/+1 counters instead of -1/-1 counters. …