The Card Breakdown
The Order of Abilities
By: Lee Sandow
This article should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I have no life.
I was bored today, and since I have nothing better to do with my life than look at my Duel Masters cards, I came up with a challenge for myself. I decided to see if there was a specific order that abilities such as “power attacker”, “double breaker”, and “when this creature attacks…” appear on cards, and to my surprise, I found one! Today, I’m here to share my findings with all of you. Aren’t you all so lucky?!?
In my boredom, I began comparing card abilities and their orders to see if any noticeable patterns appeared. Several did, but some cards blew these theories out the window. Garkago Dragon gave me the most problems of anyone (stupid Armored Dragons…). Spells got sort of ticky as well, but creatures gave me the most difficulty. Anyhow, the list below explains the order that card abilities are listed on the card.
Does that make any sense to you? No? Well don’t worry, cause it shouldn’t. I’m going to go through each one with examples below.
We all know what a blocker is. It is a creature that can intercept other attacks and help preserve your life. On ALL cards that had this ability, this card came first. If a creature has blocker, this WILL be the first ability printed on the card. Want proof? Look on Ladia Bale the Inspirational, Bloody Squito, and Syforce, Aurora Elemental.
Shield Trigger creatures were recently introduced in the Shadowclash of Blinding Night set, and this ability will appear on the top the abilities list, UNLESS the creature also has Blocker. The only example of this is Hunter Cluster. Other examples of shield trigger being atop of other abilities can be found on Kolon, the Oracle and Magmarex, just to name a few. I personally believe that Blocker and Shield Trigger are the same priority, and were simply placed on Hunter Cluster in alphabetical order.
Like the Blockers and Shield Trigger creatures, I believe all three of these attributes are on the same level, and would simply appear in alphabetical order if a card were to have more than one of these abilities. No card in the current English game does, though, so I’ll simply break them down one by one.
Evolution is the VERY first thing to appear on an evolution creature other than blocker or shield trigger. Look at Ladia Bale again if you want proof. There hasn’t been a shield trigger evolution yet (and I highly doubt there ever will be), but I’m willing to bet it would appear above this as well.
Slayer would logically appear next, and all cards with slayer currently have this as their first ability. Scratchclaw is currently the only slayer to have more than one ability, but slayer IS first on him.
Finally, we come to survivor, which I currently have no knowledge of whatsoever. This part is purely assumption by me. I’ll update this after Survivors of the Megapocolypse comes out and I know for sure.
What is this, you ask? These are abilities that read “When you put this creature in the battle zone…” All of these abilities appear beneath the aforementioned abilities, some prime examples being Ballom, Master of Death, and Locomotiver. Examples of normal activation effects include Aqua Hulcus, Bronze-Arm Tribe, and Galklife Dragon.
This is the big category, because it includes so many things. All of them have to do with the creature’s ability to attack, and they all MUST occur in a specific order for a card to function properly. You read the list of things above, and now I’ll explain them one by one, along with examples of where you can see these abilities. No one card has all of these abilities, so you’ll just have to look at the bits and pieces for yourself.
What this basically means is that this ability will in some way dictate how this creature can attack, and what it can attack (if it can attack at all). This includes such abilities as “This creature can’t attack”, “This creature can’t attack players”, and things of that nature. The first said ability appears on most water and darkness blockers, whereas the second one appears on nearly every light blocker. Another effect that falls into this category is Vashuna, Sword Dancer’s, which prohibits it from attacking if the opponent has no shields left. Another example is Snip Striker Bullraizer, who can’t attack if your opponent has more creatures than you. Finally, the last example of this is “This creature must attack each turn if able”, which restricts you from NOT attacking. This can be found on Mini Titan Gett, for example.
This includes abilities that give your creature extra power, but that doesn’t include “double breaker”. Some creatures, like Scratchclaw and Leaping Tornado Horn, only target themselves, while other cards like Uberdragon Jabaha and Armored Blaster Valdios give the extra power to other creatures
This ability prohibits the attacking creature from being blocked, but it also includes abilities that prevent your OTHER creatures from being blocked. One example of this is Crystal Lancer, which prohibits itself from being blocked. Some creatures are more specific, and can only be blocked by certain power levels or higher. Xeno Mantis is a good example of this. An example of the second Block ability would be Legendary Bynor, which allows all of your other water creatures attack without being able to be blocked. (Note: King Depthcon is a notable exception to this rule. I cannot for the life of me figure out why “double breaker” came before this ability in his case).
Power attacker gives your creature extra power while it is attacking, and it can be found on many different types of cards. It can be found on many creatures, such as Deathblade Beetle, Astrocomet Dragon, and Brawler Zyler, just to name a few.
When
This Creature Attacks (Pre-Attack)
This is where the card text gets really picky. These are effects that read “When this creature attacks” that would prohibit the creature from attacking if the condition is not met. The single best example of this is General Dark Fiend, who requires you to give a shield for her, lest she can’t attack.
These are the abilities that allow one creature to break more than one shield with one attack. This ability can be found on many powerful creatures, like the legendary Bolshack Dragon and Hanusa, Radiance Elemental.
When
This Creature Attacks (After Effect)
These are “When this creature attacks” effects that trigger AFTER the creature has attacked, such as those that return creatures to it’s owners hand (King Neptas), allow you to return cards from your graveyard (Gamil, Knight of Hatred), and all other effects that trigger after you attack. The only card that has this ability in this place that seems like a pre-attack cost is Earthstomp Giant, whose mandatory effect seems more like a cost than not.
What the heck is this category? This includes other battle abilities, such as the ability to attack untapped creatures. Gattling Skyterror and Garkago Dragon are most well known for this ability.
A constant effect is somebody whose effect remains on the field all the time, even during your opponents turn. Prime examples of this are Alcadeias, Lord of Spirits (who prevents non-light spells from being cast) and Mongrel Man (which allows the controller to draw a card whenever a creature dies).
This is that funny italicized text that appears on the bottom of most cards. Even if the card has no effect at all, the flavor text will STILL be at the bottom of a card. It is also worth noting that a card will either have at least one effect, a flavor text, or an ability(s) and flavor text.
See, that wasn’t so difficult, now was it? And now that we’ve taken care of creatures, let’s move on to spells, which are MUCH simpler (thank god).
That’s all there is to spell cards. Still, this can be confusing as well, so I’ll explain this in detail as well.
This is pretty much the same as for creatures. Any spell that has the shield trigger ability has this ability on top. Terror Pit, Holy Awe, and Natural Snare are the most well known examples of this.
What do I mean by this? This applies to spell cards that have specific activation requirements. Blaze Cannon, which can only be cast if all your mana are fire mana, is currently the only example of this. Cards that require sacrifices for their abilities to activate fall into this category also. Cards like Eldritch Poison, which requires a darkness creature for sacrifice, are examples of this. These abilities MUST be activated before the rest of the spell can be used, and that is why they fall under this category.
If you were paying ANY attention in the creature category, you already know what order these will come in. They are in the same order as creature abilities, but will sometimes be in the same sentence (Magma Gazer). You can read Magama Gazer, for instance, to see that “power attacker” is indeed mentioned before “double breaker”. Some other cards list each effect out individually (Rumble Gate), but they still list them in the order listed under creatures (attack bonus and extra goodies respectively). Even Diamond Cutter follows this pattern, by LIFTING restrictions on attacking, but then enforcing a new one (allows the attacking of players, and prohibits the attacking of creatures).
Every spell worth using has an effect. These effects include discarding cards (Ghost Touch), spawning extra mana (Ultimate Force), killing creatures (Terror Pit and Burst Shot, for instance). All abilities that are not an activation cost or that modify a creatures attack power are in this category. If I explain all cards that are in this category, I’ll be typing well into next week, so I’m just going to skip on down to our last category.
This is the place where evil effects occur AFTER you do the main effect. Cards like Searing Wave and Volcanic Arrows, which require you to sacrifice a shield AFTER the abilities kick in, fall into this category. Another card that has this ability is Chains of Sacrifice, which requires you to destroy one of your own creatures AFTER you destroy your opponents.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the order that card effects are printed on cards. Have I convinced you yet that I have no life? If this article doesn’t convince you, I’ll write more until I do. Anyways, if you find any discrepancies with what I’ve found here, or would just like to talk anyways, feel free to E-mail or AIM me. Till next time, I am Lee Sandow, wishing you all good duels!
Lee Sandow
AIM: skywalker1187