Acceptable Losses

Sorcery, 3R (4)

As an additional cost to cast Acceptable Losses, discard a card at random.

Acceptable Losses deals 5 damage to target creature.

Illus. Mike Ploog

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Acid Rain

Sorcery, 3U (4)

Destroy all Forests.

Illus. NéNé Thomas

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Official Reprint Policy (This card is on the reserved list)

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Acidic Soil

Sorcery, 2R (3)

Acidic Soil deals damage to each player equal to the number of lands he or she controls.

Phyrexia had tried to take Urza's soul. He was relieved that Shiv tried to claim only his soles.

Illus. Scott M. Fischer

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/4/2004: This counts the lands on resolution.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Acquire

Sorcery, 3UU (5)

Search target opponent's library for an artifact card and put that card onto the battlefield under your control. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

Sometimes "innovation" means "stealing another's secret before anyone else can."

Illus. Daren Bader

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Act of Treason

Sorcery, 2R (3)

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn.

Each day uncertainty and rumors spread, and each night attendance at the Juri Revue increases.

Illus. Matt Stewart

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/1/2009: Act of Treason can target any creature, even one that's untapped or one you already control.
• 8/15/2010: Gaining control of a creature doesn't cause you to gain control of any Auras or Equipment attached to it.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Extended (Type 1.X)
• Legal in Standard (Type 2)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Advice from the Fae

Sorcery, {2/U}{2/U}{2/U} (6)

({2/U} can be paid with any two mana or with {U}. This card's converted mana cost is 6.)

Look at the top five cards of your library. If you control more creatures than each other player, put two of those cards into your hand. Otherwise, put one of them into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Illus. Chippy

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 5/1/2008: If an effect reduces the cost to cast a spell by an amount of generic mana, it applies to a monocolored hybrid spell only if you've chosen a method of paying for it that includes generic mana.
• 5/1/2008: A card with a monocolored hybrid mana symbol in its mana cost is each of the colors that appears in its mana cost, regardless of what mana was spent to cast it. Thus, Advice from the Fae is blue, even if you spend six black mana to cast it.
• 5/1/2008: A card with monocolored hybrid mana symbols in its mana cost has a converted mana cost equal to the highest possible cost it could be cast for. Its converted mana cost never changes. Thus, Advice from the Fae has a converted mana cost of 6, even if you spend {U}{U}{U} to cast it.
• 5/1/2008: If a cost includes more than one monocolored hybrid mana symbol, you can choose a different way to pay for each symbol. For example, you can pay for Advice from the Fae by spending {U}{U}{U}, {2}{U}{U}, {4}{U}, or {6}.
• 5/1/2008: In a multiplayer game, compare the number of creatures you control with the number of creatures each other player controls. If any single player controls at least as many creatures as you, you get to put only one card into your hand.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Æther Tide

Sorcery, XU (1)

As an additional cost to cast Æther Tide, discard X creature cards.

Return X target creatures to their owners' hands.

The tide of magic brought them here. Now it would take them home.

Illus. Andrew Robinson

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Aftershock

Sorcery, 2RR (4)

Destroy target artifact, creature, or land. Aftershock deals 3 damage to you.

"Every act of destruction has a repercussion."
—Karn, silver golem

Illus. Hannibal King

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Airborne Aid

Sorcery, 3U (4)

Draw a card for each Bird on the battlefield.

"We help our Southern Order comrades as much as we can. But the Cabal's insidious influence spreads, dividing our forces and leaving new arrivals to fend for themselves."
—Commander Eesha

Illus. Bradley Williams

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Allied Strategies

Sorcery, 4U (5)

Domain — Target player draws a card for each basic land type among lands he or she controls.

Each commander looked at the others and wondered who would be first to break the alliance.

Illus. Parente

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/4/2004: You draw one card per basic land type, not for each basic land. This makes it a maximum of 5 cards.
• 2/1/2009: To determine the number of basic land types among lands you control, look at the lands you have on the battlefield and ask yourself whether the subtypes Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest appear within that group. The number of times you say yes (topping out at five) tells you how powerful your domain abilities will be.
• 2/1/2009: How many lands you control of a particular basic land type is irrelevant to a domain ability, as long as that number is greater than zero. As far as domain is concerned, ten Forests is the same as one Forest.
• 2/1/2009: A number of nonbasic lands have basic land types. Domain abilities don't count the number of lands you control -- they count the number of basic land types among lands you control, even if that means checking the same land twice. For example, if you control a Tundra, an Overgrown Tomb, and a Madblind Mountain, you'll have a Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest among the lands you control. Your domain abilities will be maxed out.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Alpha Brawl

Sorcery, 6RR (8)

Target creature an opponent controls deals damage equal to its power to each other creature that player controls, then each of those creatures deals damage equal to its power to that creature.

Being an alpha means proving it every full moon.

Illus. Randy Gallegos

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 1/22/2011: The two parts of Alpha Brawl's effect happen sequentially: first the targeted creature deals damage, then the other creatures deal damage. State-based actions aren't checked in the middle, so creatures that are dealt lethal damage by the targeted creature will still deal damage.
• 1/22/2011: None of the damage dealt due to Alpha Brawl is combat damage.
• 1/22/2011: Combat abilities like first strike, double strike, and trample don't apply and will have no impact on Alpha Brawl's effect.
• 1/22/2011: Abilities like lifelink and deathtouch that care about any kind of damage are taken into account.
• 1/22/2011: If the targeted creature has infect or wither, the damage it deals will result in -1/-1 counters being put on each creature it deals damage to. The power of those creatures will be reduced when they deal damage back to the targeted creature.
• 1/22/2011: The damage dealt by the targeted creature is not divided in any way. For example, if a 3/3 creature is targeted, it will deal 3 damage to each other creature controlled by its controller.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Extended (Type 1.X)
• Legal in Standard (Type 2)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Amass the Components

Sorcery, 3U (4)

Draw three cards, then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library.

"I knew I'd find a use for all that newt spittle!"

Illus. Matt Stewart

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 5/1/2012: If you cast Amass the Components with fewer than three cards in your library, you'll draw the remaining cards in your library, put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library, then lose the game for drawing a card from a library with no cards in it the next time state-based actions are performed.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Extended (Type 1.X)
• Legal in Standard (Type 2)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Amnesia

Sorcery, 3UUU (6)

Target player reveals his or her hand and discards all nonland cards.

"When one has witnessed the unspeakable, 'tis sometimes better to forget." —Vervamon the Elder

Illus. Mark Poole

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/4/2004: If cast targeting yourself, you do have to reveal your hand.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Anarchy

Sorcery, 2RR (4)

Destroy all white permanents.

"The Shaman waved the staff, and the land itself went mad."
—Disa the Restless, journal entry

Illus. Phil Foglio

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Ancestral Memories

Sorcery, 2UUU (5)

Look at the top seven cards of your library. Put two of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."
—Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass

Illus. Rebecca Guay

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/4/2004: If there are less than 7 cards in the library, look at all of them. Put two into your hand, and the rest in the graveyard.
• 10/4/2004: This is not considered a draw or a discard.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Ancestral Vision

Sorcery
(Color Indicator: Blue)

Suspend 4—{U} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay {U} and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)

Target player draws three cards.

Illus. Mark Poole

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/15/2006: This has no mana cost, which means it can't normally be cast as a spell. You could, however, cast it via some alternate means, like with Fist of Suns or Mind's Desire.
• 10/15/2006: This has no mana cost, which means it can't be cast with the Replicate ability of Djinn Illuminatus or by somehow giving it Flashback.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Banned in Modern

Apocalypse

Sorcery, 2RRR (5)

Exile all permanents. You discard your hand.

"There is a future in which I can see only mist and a single shadow."
—Oracle en-Vec

Illus. L. A. Williams

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Official Reprint Policy (This card is on the reserved list)

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander

Aquitect's Will

Tribal Sorcery — Merfolk, U (1)

Put a flood counter on target land. That land is an Island in addition to its other types for as long as it has a flood counter on it. If you control a Merfolk, draw a card.

There is nowhere on Lorwyn that the Merrow Lanes cannot go.

Illus. Jeff Easley

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Arc Blade

Sorcery, 3RR (5)

Arc Blade deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Exile Arc Blade with three time counters on it.

Suspend 3—{2}{R} (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay {2}{R} and exile it with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)

Illus. Shishizaru

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander
• Legal in Modern

Arc Lightning

Sorcery, 2R (3)

Arc Lightning deals 3 damage divided as you choose among one, two, or three target creatures and/or players.

Rainclouds don't last long in Shiv, but that doesn't stop the lightning.

Illus. Andrew Goldhawk

Gatherer Card Rulings?, Legality?

• 10/4/2004: Each target must receive at least 1 damage. You can't choose a target to take zero damage.
• 10/4/2004: You can't choose zero targets. You must choose at least one target.

• Legal in Vintage (Type 1)
• Legal in Legacy (Type 1.5)
• Legal in Classic (MTGO)
• Legal in Commander