#keyword abilities

[strixhaven-star]

Yes, the enchantment has nothing to do with the Gravestorm keyword, but it's nice to be included.

However, should the Gravestorm keyword be used in a Standard set or not since it's been reused in commander sets twice in two years?

[deckmaniacs]

Amonkhet Deck Ideas

By Ben Williams

The release of the Amonkhet set is now imminent, the spoilers are out in the wild already meaning it’s time to start thinking builds and combos based on the new cards. Whilst it can be a little daunting to build a deck without it being live, there can be no interplay with others for minor tweaking or evaluation of the new meta, some pre-release build ideas and combos are ideal for building excitement and bedding in the new keywords.

As always these are just some of the ideas I feel work best or adaptations found by other users suited more to my play style, feel free to leave any comments you feel would improve these. Do remember these are first drafts to just get a feel for the new cards.

New Cards, New Style!

With the introduction of this new set is a whole host of keyword abilities that work around the theme of Gods, the living and the dead. The dead are breathed new life (excuse the pun) in Amonkeht with Embalm, an ability which is activated when the card is in the graveyard which will bring them back to life as a zombie.

Looking at the living, we have Exert, where the card makes full use of being alive. Exert allows your creature to put in that extra bit of effort for an extra bonus, the downside being that the card won’t untap on your next turn, extra effort is tiring after all!

Finally, Aftermath brings back the fantastic split cards, with a whole new twist. The card is effectively two in one, which lets instants and sorceries in on the graveyard party with a new twist on split cards. For instance, here you play Destined and it resolves in the usual way and ends in the graveyard like any other instant. 

Then, from the graveyard you can play Lead, which again resolves in the usual way and becomes exiled. What’s useful is you can play both the same turn, or space them out depending on how you want to play it. What I particualrly like is the 90 degree orientation, which means that you can have the castable half poking out waiting for you to play it.

Mono-Black Zombie

With the introduction of Amonkhet it looks like a mono-black zombie deck may be creeping its way back into play, it will likely be something seen more frequently in standard play going forward.

4 Cryptbreaker

4 Diregraf Colossus

4 Doomed Dissenter

4 Dread Wanderer

4 Fatal Push

4 Grasp of Darkness

1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

4 Lord of the Accursed

4 Metallic Mimic

4 Relentless Dead

23 Swamp

Now, I appreciate there’s nothing particularly jaw-droppingly amazing about the above deck but it’s a solid curve, with some removal and a good build of power. Cryptbreaker is discarding your cards and filling the graveyard with Zombies, Diregraf Colossus then feeds on these to buff it up and then to buff your ranks you can return Dread Wanderer to the game, even if Cryptbreaker sent him to the graveyard, finally Lord of The Accursed is there to buff any Zombies you own in play. 

If Mono-Black is not your thing, it’s easy to move from this deck to a more uB (Minor Blue-Black) Zombies deck, swapping out the Doomed Dissenter for Prized Amalgram and Gisa and Geralf for example.

Mono-Red Aggro

With Amonkhet there’s now potential for some great pure beat down decks with some aggressive haste creatures and vicious curve without worrying about having to build a multi-colour mana base.

4 Bomat Courier

4 Flameblade Adept

4 Furyblade Vampire

3 Hazoret the Fervent

4 Incorrigible Youths

4 Insolent Neonate

2 Ravenous Bloodseeker

2 Stromkirk Occultist

2 Avacyn's Judgment

4 Fiery Temper

2 Incendiary Flow

2 Lightning Axe

3 Looming Spires

20 Mountain

This deck tries to play on existing red synergy cards with a couple of new cards from Amonkhet that work well here. Hazoret is going to be at its best in a deck that can dump its hand quickly, and landing the god as a creature on turn four is pretty great. Beyond that, Hazoret the Fervent is a way to deal those last couple points of damage. It is going to be crazy good in this type of deck, so players will have to try to play more removal that exiles creatures. Gods have a high ceiling, because they take a little work to turn into a creature, but the indestructibility makes them difficult to remove from play. A four-mana, five-power creature with haste and indestructibility is a force to be reckoned with. This is the type of card that works well with cheap spells. You you can cast them early and play Hazoret the Fervent at the top of the curve when your hand doesn't have much left in it. Hazoret also works well as a way to discard cards at will to make sure your hand size is low.

The other new card here is Flameblade Adept, which also happens to work great alongside discard cards! This creature can be pumped up a significant amount in a single turn alongside a card like Ravenous Bloodseeker. The other factor is that Flameblade Adept is a one-mana spell, which works alongside the concept of having lots of cheap spells with Hazoret as a top end. It is possible you could add some of the cycle lands, like Smoldering Crater to this deck as another way to pump Flameblade Adept.

This is just a brief look at a few potential decks using the new cards from Amonkhet. What did you think of these decks and what are you excited to be building over the next few weeks?

[deckmaniacs]

A guide to keyword abilities

By Ben Williams

In an attempt at an almost beginners guide (or just a refresher for those who’ve been away too long) we will be taking a look at some of the keyword abilities that have been in the game for a long time, and some that have been introduced with Aether Revolt this year.

A keyword ability is the term that refers to the piece of text below the image that explains what the card can do, the other text is usually called flavour text, and add a little story to the card. 

Since its release in 1993(!) Magic the Gathering has continued to expand on what cards can do, even adjusting older ones to better meet the terms of the game or the theme of certain expansions. For example, when I first started playing, over half my lifetime ago, we had Walls as a creature type, and a bit of text that said Walls can’t attack. However, as it was a creature there was all sorts of rules that governed how it could be played making it significantly more complicated. In 2004, the Kamigawa expansions came out and Wall creature types all changed to a keyword ability, in this instance defender, the ability simply states this creature cannot attack. Now, every Wall from before Kamigawa just has defender and the rules associated with it.

There is a long list of keyword abilities and to avoid rambling, we will just look at a few found on some of my favourite cards. The first few abilities are “Evergreen” which means they can appear in any core sets.

Trample

This ability allows any creature with trample to deal "excess" damage to the defending player if they are blocked. For example, under normal circumstances, if a 6/3 attacker is blocked by a 1/1 creature, the attacker's 6 damage is all directed at the defending creature, despite it being only able to take 1 damage before being killed. If, however, the attacker has trample, the attacking player may choose to have the difference (in this case, 5) between the attacker's power and the defender’s total toughness "trample over" and can be assigned to the defending player. It’s an ability usually found in green or red decks and conveys a sense of size of the creature, like Force of Nature.

Vigilance

This keyword can be found on one of my favourite white cards (mostly for the artwork and flavour text) Serra Angel.

Creatures with vigilance do not tap when attacking meaning they can still be used during the opponent's turn to block. It’s mainly used on white cards, and I’ve always felt the feel of the ability fits well with the structure of white decks i.e. peace, law, structured, selflessness and equality.

Deathtouch

Another old favourite of mine is deathtouch, an ability that causes a creature to be destroyed as a result of having been dealt damage by a source with deathtouch. It appears mostly on black cards and green cards. Prior to the introduction of the keyword, similar abilities have appeared mostly on green and black cards and effectively means If a 15/15 was blocked by a 1/1 with deathtouch, both would die. A truly devastating way I feel to clear the playing area of a big threat, without sacrificing your own heavy hitters. 

Revolt

Finally, a look at what Aether Revolt brings us. In keeping with its back story of the people on Kaladesh revolting against an oppressive regime, unsurprisingly we have the ability revolt.

Revolt abilities simply look back throughout the current turn and see if a permanent left the battlefield while under your control. If they did, then you can activate the ability in the text. It doesn't matter where that permanent went or even who owns it. Did a creature die while under your control? Revolt! It doesn't really take much to rile up the inhabitants of Kaladesh.

Improvise

We also have improvise, working closely with the current meta for artifacts, and more specifically vehicles. Cards with improvise allow you to help pay for the card by tapping artifacts to act as a colourless mana. So for example Sweatworks Brawler is a 3 colourless and 1 red cost, if you tap three artifacts, you would only need to pay the 1 red. However, if you get a card with improvise with only colourless mana, you can use artifacts to pay its entire cost..

There we go, a brief and simple (-ish) look at some of the keyword abilities  both old and new. Depending on your preferred builds, you may have your own favourites, if so let me know, I’d love to see how others play and what abilities and preferences you’ve built your decks around.

[magicjudge]

I really don't understand Odric, Lunarch Marshal. So say I have Sylvan Advocate, Seige Rhino, and Linvala The Preserver alongside Odirc, Entering combat my creatures would have Vigilance, Trample, Flying and First Strike?

Yes. That’s exactly how he works.

Note that Odric ONLY works for the keywords that he lists. He doesn’t work for other abilities like Prowess, shroud, fear, protection, landwalk, etc.

[magicjudge]

Hi! Is Forecast technically an ability word or a keyword ability? MTGSalvation lists it as a keyword ability, but it doesn't seem to fit the normal pattern.

Forecast is a keyword ability.

Forecast looks an awful lot like an ability word, but it has a bit of rules baggage to facilitate being able to activate it from your hand and to make sure it’s only activated once each turn.

702.56. Forecast

702.56a. A forecast ability is a special kind of activated ability that can be activated only from a player’s hand. It’s written “Forecast — [Activated ability].”

702.56b. A forecast ability may be activated only during the upkeep step of the card’s owner and only once each turn. The controller of the forecast ability reveals the card with that ability from his or her hand as the ability is activated. That player plays with that card revealed in his or her hand until it leaves the player’s hand or until a step or phase that isn’t an upkeep step begins, whichever comes first.