Surge – MTG Mechanics Explained

Card KingdomStrategy

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 …

Essential White Commander Cards

Top 20 Essential White Commander Cards

Kristen GregoryCommander, Strategy

If you’re looking to build a white Commander deck, you can’t miss our rundown of 20 essential white cards. These are the most flexible and often best cards in their class, and will fit into pretty much any strategy or archetype. They’re perfect to add to your collection. White is a great color to play with in Commander, and it’s …

Skulk – MTG Mechanics Explained

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Skulk is a evasion ability that appears on creatures, and any creature with it can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power than the skulk creature. And this one is truly simple as that’s really it. The power restriction is determined as blockers are being declared, and multiple instances of it are redundant, and there’s really not too much more …

Undaunted – MTG Mechanics Explained

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Undaunted, from Commander 2016, is a cost-reduction mechanic that gets better the more opponents you have. Any spell with the mechanic costs 1 generic mana less for each opponent you currently have. Yup. That’s it. I mean, here’s a few notes, but it’s pretty simple. While Undaunted does technically function in a game of one-on-one Magic, the spells with it …

For Mirrodin – MTG Mechanics Explained

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For Mirrodin is a hyper-specifically named Equipment mechanic from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. When an Equipment with For Mirrodin! on it enters the battlefield, you create a 2/2 red Rebel creature token and attach the equipment to it. And that’s it! Pretty simple, only a couple of notes here: So here’s the thing: we’ve seen this before in Magic, …

What IS Toxic?!

Toxic – Mtg Mechanics Explained

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Toxic is an update to Infect in Phyrexia: All Will Be One, and works like a mixture of Infect and Poisonous. Toxic will always be written as “Toxic X,” and whenever a creature with it deals any amount of combat damage to a player, that player gets X poison counters. Pretty straightforward, but there are some notes to go over: …

Ingest – MTG Mechanics Explained

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Ingest is a creature based mechanic that states that whenever a creature with it deals combat damage to a player, that player exiles the top card of their library. And…nothing else. Before I give you some context on this, the few rules notes: So, this mechanic existed in Battle for Zendikar, a set which also had a bunch of Eldrazi …

The 10 Best Planeswalkers for Atraxa Superfriends

The 10 Best Planeswalkers for Atraxa Superfriends

Kristen GregoryCommander, Strategy

Atraxa Superfriends is one of the most popular Commander decks for a reason: it’s really badass to assemble a team of Planeswalkers to do battle with. When choosing your squad, it’s important to choose based on synergies, ultimate abilities and win conditions. Kristen has her recommendations of what to include. Ah, Superfriends — it’s an archetype you either love or …

Devoid – MTG Mechanics Explained

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Devoid is a characteristic defining ability that can appear on any card type, and simply makes the card colorless regardless of its mana cost. And that’s entirely it. There’s a couple of notes, but they’re pretty quick; And that’s it. Devoid was not terribly popular, as it seemed like an odd choice to devote a full set mechanic slot to. …