POISONOUS

Poisonous – MTG Keywords Explained

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Poison counters are an alternate win condition that has been around since the early days of Magic. Instead of dealing 20 damage to your opponent, you could give them 10 poison counters and win the game. But the keyword “poisonous” didn’t appear until Future Sight, where it codified the mechanic and gave tribal Sliver decks an even more powerful angle …

Phyrexian Mana – MTG Keywords Explained

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Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty marks the return of fan-favorite mechanics like ninjutsu, as well as a powerful mechanic from the faraway plane of New Phyrexia! What is Phyrexian Mana? Phryexian mana denotes a mana cost that can be paid in one of two ways: You can either pay one mana of the appropriate color, or you can pay two life. Take …

Reconfigure – MTG Keywords Explained

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Reconfigure is a new mechanic in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty for “Artifact Creature – Equipment” cards. If those seem like some incompatible card types, you’d normally be right, as creatures can’t be equipped to other creatures. But that’s where our new mechanic comes in. Reconfigure represents several different abilities. First, it functions as an Equip stand-in. You can pay the reconfigure …

GRAVESTORM

Gravestorm – MTG Keywords Explained

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Future Sight produced a lot of one-off mechanics, but you never know when one could crop up in Magic again. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a variation on storm called gravestorm! What is Gravestorm? Only appearing on Bitter Ordeal from Future Sight, Gravestorm lets you copy a spell as you cast it. However, instead of counting the number …

FRENZY

Frenzy – MTG Mechanics Explained

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Future Sight produced a lot of one-off mechanics, but you never know when one could crop up in Magic again. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a combat-focused mechanic that will get your Slivers in a frenzy! What is Frenzy? At time of writing, frenzy has only appeared on the aptly named Frenzy Sliver from Future Sight and on …

FORTIFY

Fortify – MTG Keywords Explained

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Future Sight produced a lot of one-off mechanics, but you never know when one could crop up in Magic again. Today, we’ll be taking a look at fortify, which allows you to equip your lands! What is Fortify? The fortify mechanic will be familiar with you if you’re played with Darksteel Garrison. It’s basically equip, but for lands instead of …

DELVE

Delve – MTG Keywords Explained

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Get ready to turn your trash into treasure with this powerful mechanic! What is Delve? Delve is technically a graveyard mechanic, though it functions differently than most. Rather than reuse or repurpose the cards in your graveyard, delve lets you exile cards from your graveyard to pay the costs of spells. Each card you exile pays for one generic mana …

AURA SWAP

Aura Swap – MTG Keywords Explained

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Future Sight produced a lot of one-off mechanics, but you never know when one could crop up in Magic again. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the enchantment-based mechanic aura swap! What is Aura Swap? At time of writing, aura swap has appeared exclusively on the card Arcanum Wings. On its face, it’s a pretty standard enchantment: for two …

Absorb – MTG Keywords Explained

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Future Sight produced a lot of one-off mechanics, but you never know when one could crop up in Magic again. Join us today as we take a look at absorb, a mechanic that protects creatures from damage! What is Absorb? At time of writing, absorb has only appeared on one card: Lymph Sliver. Absorb, written as “absorb N,” prevents N …

mtg recover

Recover – MTG Keywords Explained

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This week, we’re taking a look at a recursive mechanic from Coldsnap that will help you get more out of your graveyard. Learn how to use recover! What is Recover? Recover is an ability that triggers when a creature with the ability dies and goes to that graveyard. When that happens, you have a choice: if you pay the recover …