Improvise is a static ability that can appear on any nonland card. When a card has it, it means that for each generic mana (mana written as a number in a gray circle) in that card’s mana cost, you can tap an untapped artifact to pay for one of that mana. So like a version of Convoke that works off …

Fabricate is a triggered ability that technically could appear on any permanent type, but so far is only on creatures. Written as “Fabricate N,” when a creature with it enters the battlefield, you get a choice: create N 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens, or put N +1/+1 counters on the creature with Fabricate. The way that it’s worded, if …

Compleated is a static ability found only on Planeswalkers, making it a bit unique. Every Planeswalker with Compleated will have at least one Phyrexian Mana symbol, in its mana cost (a topic we’ve covered previously). For each of those symbols for which you chose to pay life instead of mana as you cast the Planeswalker, the Planeswalker will enter the …

Backup is a triggered ability that appears on creatures, and goes off when they enter the battlefield. It is always written with a number next to it, and it means that when a creature with it enters the battlefield, a target creature gets that many +1/+1 counters. Now, that can certainly be the original creature that just entered the battlefield. …

Incubate is an ability that could appear on any card type, and will always be written with a number – so, “Incubate N.” When an effect or ability tells you to Incubate, you create a colorless artifact token named Incubator, and put a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the Incubate number. Incubator tokens are predefined, like food …

Battle is a new card type in Magic, something that hasn’t happened since Planeswalkers came out in Lorwyn. For now, every Battle that’s coming out in March of the Machine has the subtype Siege. In the future, different subtypes could work differently, but we’ll cross that bridge later. For now, here’s what we’re working with.  All Siege battles are double faced …

Melee is a combat mechanic that appears on creatures. Whenever a creature with Melee attacks, it gets +1/+1 until the end of the turn for each different opponent being attacked that turn. So in one-on-one Magic, this will always be +1/+1. In a four-player Commander game, this could be +3/+3 if you send attackers at each opponent. It is possible …

Escalate appears on Instants and Sorceries. Specifically, modal instants and sorceries, where you have a choice of several possible effects when you cast the spell. When you cast a spell with the mechanic, you chose a mode for its normal cost. You could then choose additional modes by paying the Escalate cost, adding another effect each time you paid that …

Emerge is an alternate cost that appears (so far) on large colorless creatures (I mean, Eldrazi) from Shadows Over Innistrad. To pay the emerge cost for a creature (which was always a discount, but included colored mana where the normal cost did not), you sacrifice a creature and pay an amount of mana equal to the emerge cost minus generic …

Surge can appear on any non-land card, and represents an alternate casting cost that you can use if you or a teammate has already cast a spell that turn – the spell is cheaper if you’ve already cast something else. As you may be able to tell from the word teammate there, this is a mechanic that can function quite …