There are also quite a few cards that activate when they’re in your graveyard like Narfi, Betrayer King and Cobbled Lancer.īy far the weirdest activated ability I know of is Lightning Storm, the card that used to be the win condition in Modern Ad Nauseam decks. Channel and cycling are examples of activated abilities that activate in your hand. While you may think of activated abilities as something that cards on the battlefield use, like lands tapping for mana or planeswalkers using their abilities, there’s actually no reason why we can’t have abilities that activate from other zones. Among that enormous pool of cards are some really weird examples. There are around 6,500 cards in the game that either have or reference activated abilities. The loyalty abilities of planeswalkers are also activated abilities. It’s that easy to identify an activated ability.
What Things Count as Activated Abilities?Īny paragraph on a Magic card that has a colon is an activated ability. Patrol has an activated ability that says “, Tap: Tap target creature.” Its ability has two costs listed before the colon (paying three generic and one white mana and tapping itself), and the effect you get is to tap a creature. It looks something like this:Īs an example, let’s look at a recent card from Neon Dynasty: Mothrider Patrol. It’s that simple.Īctivated abilities are structured as a list of costs that you have to pay, each separated by a comma, followed by a colon, and then the effect that the ability gives you. All activated abilities in Magic have a colon (“:”). Ready to get technical and use some English punctuation skills? We don’t use them all that often in regular speech, but what you need to look for is a colon. Target creature gains double strike until end of turn.Reap What Is Sown | Illustration by Cynthia Sheppard
Up to three target lands don't untap during their controller's next untap step.Įach player shuffles their graveyard into their library. Create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.Įach opponent chooses a creature they control. Injury deals 2 damage to target creature and 2 damage to target player or planeswalker.Īll creatures able to block target creature this turn do so.Įach player shuffles their hand and graveyard into their library, then draws seven cards.Įxile target card from a graveyard. Target creature you control fights target creature an opponent controls.Īs an additional cost to cast Finish, sacrifice a creature. Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.ĭraw a card for each creature you control with power 3 or greater. Until end of turn, creatures you control gain menace and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card."Įxile any number of target creatures that have -1/-1 counters on them.Įarth deals X damage to each creature without flying. Return all creature cards with power 2 or less from your graveyard to your hand. Until your next turn, your opponents can't cast spells with the chosen name.Ĭopy target instant or sorcery spell. If you don't, put it into your hand.ĭiscard any number of cards, then draw that many cards.Ĭhoose a card name. You may put it onto the battlefield if it's a creature card. Creatures you control gain vigilance until end of turn.
Tap up to two target creatures your opponents control. The mana cost of a card with Aftermath (split card) is the combined mana costs of its two halves - except on the Stack where only the half that was cast counts towards the cost.Īftermath cards are all named to that they can be referred to as "first half to "last half", for example Commit to Memory or Onward to Victory.Īftermath was introduced into Magic Arena with Amonkhet (closed beta).Īftermath can often be found on Sorcery and Instant cards in all five colors.Īftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. It doesn't matter how the card gets into the graveyard this can happen by regularly casting the first half or other effects/mechanics like discarding from the hand.
Mtg card ablities quickcast full#
Once the Aftermath part is cast, the full split card is exiled. The first half can be cast as a regular spell while the second (Aftermath) part can be cast exclusively from the graveyard. Cards with Aftermath are one half of a split card.