Magic how does extort work

Michael Snook explained how this isn't useless. This post is mostly about correcting your understanding of triggered abilities. Each one triggers, and then your friend may pay for the first, for the second, and so on. He cannot pay for multiple triggers with just one mana.

That said, I wouldn't call it useless. It's a repeatable ping for one mana at a time. It's life loss, so it can't be prevented by damage prevention effects. It hits each opponent, so it scales in multiplayer. Late game it provides a nice mana sink. I've played against it in Commander and it's a fairly consistent threat. It's probably better in Commander than last standard or modern because of those: longer games with higher mana bases and scaling with opponents help the ability out.

Yes he would have to pay for each trigger but I wouldn't say it is useless because if he would only have one creature with extort he could only pay one mana at most. If he has three creatures with extort he can pay up to three mana. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? The Dimir are cunning spies, secretive brokers of information throughout Ravnica.

Cipher is a new ability found on instants and sorceries that allows you to cast them turn after turn by encoding them on one of your creatures. It represents two static abilities, one that functions while the spell is on the stack and one that functions while the card with cipher is in the exile zone. The card remains encoded on that object even if it changes controller or stops being a creature, as long as it remains on the battlefield.

The red-green guild is the Gruul Clans. Loosely organized and fiercely aggressive, the savage clans of the Gruul crave battle. Bloodrush is an ability word that appears in italics at the beginning of abilities of creature cards you can discard to give an attacking creature a bonus.

An ability word has no rules meaning. The red-white guild is the Boros Legion. The Boros are the most formidable military force on Ravnica. Battalion is an ability word that appears in italics at the beginning of abilities that trigger whenever you attack with that creature and at least two other creatures.

The green-blue guild is the Simic Combine. The Simic are Ravnica's stewards of nature and the wild. Evolve is a new ability that allows a creature to grow when a larger creature enters the battlefield under your control. Hybrid mana symbols represent a cost that can be paid with either of two colors. For example, can be paid with either or. It's both a blue and a black mana symbol. A card with the mana cost is both blue and black, and its converted mana cost is 1.

Visually, the symbol is a circle divided in half: the upper left looks like a blue mana symbol and the lower right looks like a black mana symbol. There are five nonbasic lands in the Gatecrash set that each have two basic land types. These lands were originally printed in the Ravnica block. The Gatecrash set includes a cycle of nonbasic lands with the subtype Gate, introduced in the Return to Ravnica set.

Each guild has a Gate card with Guildgate in its name that taps for mana of either of that guild's colors. Each guild has a Keyrune, an artifact that taps for mana of either of that guild's colors and can become a creature. This FAQ has two sections, each of which serves a different purpose. The first section "General Notes" explains the mechanics and concepts in the set.

Returning Themes: Guilds and Guildmarks The original Ravnica block introduced the plane of Ravnica, a world dominated by cityscape and controlled by ten guilds, each centered around two colors.

If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life. The official rules for extort are as follows: Extort You may pay a maximum of one time for each extort triggered ability. You decide whether to pay when the ability resolves. The amount of life you gain is based on the total amount of life lost, not necessarily the number of opponents you have.

For example, if your opponent's life total can't change perhaps because that player controls Platinum Emperion , you won't gain any life. The extort ability doesn't target any player. The spell with cipher is encoded on the creature as part of that spell's resolution, just after the spell's other effects.

That card goes directly from the stack to exile. It never goes to the graveyard. You choose the creature as the spell resolves. The cipher ability doesn't target that creature, although the spell with cipher may target that creature or a different creature because of its other abilities.

If the spell with cipher is countered, none of its effects will happen, including cipher. The card will go to its owner's graveyard and won't be encoded on a creature. If the creature leaves the battlefield, the exiled card will no longer be encoded on any creature.

It will stay exiled. If you want to encode the card with cipher onto a noncreature permanent such as a Keyrune that can turn into a creature, that permanent has to be a creature before the spell with cipher starts resolving. You can choose only a creature to encode the card onto. The copy of the card with cipher is created in and cast from exile.

You cast the copy of the card with cipher during the resolution of the triggered ability. Ignore timing restrictions based on the card's type. If you choose not to cast the copy, or you can't cast it perhaps because there are no legal targets available , the copy will cease to exist the next time state-based actions are performed.

You won't get a chance to cast the copy at a later time. The exiled card with cipher grants a triggered ability to the creature it's encoded on. If that creature loses that ability and subsequently deals combat damage to a player, the triggered ability won't trigger.

However, the exiled card will continue to be encoded on that creature. If another player gains control of the creature, that player will control the triggered ability. That player will create a copy of the encoded card and may cast it. If a creature with an encoded card deals combat damage to more than one player simultaneously perhaps because some of the combat damage was redirected , the triggered ability will trigger once for each player it deals combat damage to.

Each ability will create a copy of the exiled card and allow you to cast it. The three attacking creatures don't have to be attacking the same player or planeswalker. Once a battalion ability has triggered, it doesn't matter how many creatures are still attacking when that ability resolves. The effects of battalion abilities vary from card to card.

Read each card carefully. When comparing the stats of the two creatures, you always compare power to power and toughness to toughness. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, check its power and toughness against the power and toughness of the creature with evolve. If neither stat of the new creature is greater, evolve won't trigger at all. If evolve triggers, the stat comparison will happen again when the ability tries to resolve.

If neither stat of the new creature is greater, the ability will do nothing. If the creature that entered the battlefield leaves the battlefield before evolve tries to resolve, use its last known power and toughness to compare the stats. If multiple creatures enter the battlefield at the same time, evolve may trigger multiple times, although the stat comparison will take place each time one of those abilities tries to resolve.

When the second ability tries to resolve, neither the power nor the toughness of the new creature is greater than that of the creature with evolve, so that ability does nothing. When comparing the stats as the evolve ability resolves, it's possible that the stat that's greater changes from power to toughness or vice versa. When the evolve trigger tries to resolve, its power is greater.

Hybrid mana symbols appear only in costs, such as the mana cost in the upper right corner of a card or the cost to activate an activated ability. A card with hybrid mana symbols in its mana cost is each color that appears in its mana cost, regardless of what mana was spent to cast it. For example, the Deathcult Rogue above is blue and black, even if you cast it with only blue mana.

As you cast a spell or activate an activated ability with hybrid mana symbols in its cost, you choose which color of mana you will spend for each hybrid mana symbol. You do this at the same time you would choose modes or choose a value for an X in a mana cost. For example, you choose whether you'll cast Deathcult Rogue by paying , , or. Although these cards have basic land types, they are not basic lands. For example, you couldn't find one of these cards if an effect told you to search your library for a "basic land card.

For example, forestwalk cares if the defending player controls a land with the land type Forest such as Stomping Ground , not just lands named Forest. If another effect instructs you to put one of these lands onto the battlefield tapped, it will enter the battlefield tapped whether you pay 2 life or not.

If more than one of these lands are entering the battlefield at the same time, you'll decide whether to pay 2 life for each one individually, then put them all onto the battlefield. For example, if you have 3 life and two Stomping Ground s are entering the battlefield at the same time, you could pay 2 life for only one of them, not both. The subtype Gate has no special rules significance, but other spells and abilities may refer to it.

Gate is not a basic land type. Until the ability that turns the Keyrune into a creature resolves, the Keyrune is colorless. For example, say you activate the last ability of Gruul Keyrune. After it resolves, you cast Giant Growth targeting it.

Act of Treason can target any creature, even one that's untapped or one you already control. Gaining control of a creature doesn't cause you to gain control of any Auras or Equipment attached to it.

An "attacking creature" is one that has been declared as an attacker this combat, or one that was put onto the battlefield attacking this combat. Unless that creature leaves combat, it continues to be an attacking creature through the end of combat step, even if the player it was attacking has left the game, or the planeswalker it was attacking has left combat. There's no such thing as an attacking creature outside of the combat phase.

Only Agoraphobia's controller can activate its last ability, no matter who controls the creature Agoraphobia's attached to. Agoraphobia's last ability can be activated only while it's on the battlefield.

Players don't have priority to cast spells and activate abilities between combat damage being assigned and being dealt. Multiple instances of lifelink are redundant. If a creature that had lifelink already is blocking or blocked by Alms Beast, the controller of that creature won't gain extra life. You choose which ability creatures you control will gain when Angelic Skirmisher's ability resolves. This happens before attacking creatures are declared.

Only creatures you control when the ability resolves will gain the chosen ability. Creatures that come under your control later in the turn will not gain the ability. An "attacking creature" or "blocking creature" is one that has been declared as an attacker or blocker this combat, or one that was put onto the battlefield attacking or blocking this combat.

Unless that creature leaves combat, it continues to be an attacking or blocking creature through the end of combat step, even if the player it was attacking has left the game, the planeswalker it was attacking has left combat, or the creature or creatures it was blocking have left combat, as appropriate. Arrows of Justice may be cast during the end of combat step, after combat damage has been dealt.

If Assemble the Legion isn't on the battlefield when its ability resolves, use the number of muster counters it had when it was last on the battlefield to determine how many Soldier tokens to put onto the battlefield. You untap all creatures you control, including ones that aren't attacking. You don't have to attack with any creatures during the additional combat phase. If Aurelia is put onto the battlefield attacking, the triggered ability won't trigger.

You announce the value of X and how the damage will be divided as part of casting Aurelia's Fury. Each chosen target must receive at least 1 damage. Aurelia's Fury can't deal damage to both a planeswalker and that planeswalker's controller. If damage dealt by Aurelia's Fury is redirected from a player to a planeswalker he or she controls, that player will be able to cast noncreature spells that turn.

If you want to stop a player from casting noncreature spells this turn, you can't choose to redirect the damage to a planeswalker he or she controls. If Aurelia's Fury has multiple targets, and some but not all of them are illegal targets when Aurelia's Fury resolves, Aurelia's Fury will still deal damage to the remaining legal targets according to the original damage division. If all of the targets are illegal when Aurelia's Fury tries to resolve, it will be countered and none of its effects will happen.

No creature or player will be dealt damage. If the target player has no land cards in his or her library, all cards from that library will be revealed and put into his or her graveyard. If Bane Alley Broker's first ability resolves when you have no cards in your hand, you'll draw a card and then exile it. You won't have the opportunity to cast that card or do anything else with it before exiling it. Due to a recent rules change, once you are allowed to look at a face-down card in exile, you are allowed to look at that card as long as it's exiled.

If you no longer control Bane Alley Broker when its last ability resolves, you can continue to look at the relevant cards in exile to choose one to return.

Bane Alley Broker's second and third abilities apply to cards exiled with that specific Bane Alley Broker, not any other creature named Bane Alley Broker.

You should keep cards exiled by different Bane Alley Brokers separate. If Bane Alley Broker leaves the battlefield, the cards exiled with it will be exiled indefinitely. If it later returns to the battlefield, it will be a new object with no connection to the cards exiled with it in its previous existence.

You won't be able to use the "new" Bane Alley Broker to return cards exiled with the "old" one. Even if not all players can look at the exiled cards, each card's owner is still known. Keyword Abilities. Keyword Actions. Backbone Conjure Perpetually Seek Unstoppable. Ante Divvy Rhystic. Bury Landhome Substance. List of obsolete terminology List of deprecated mechanics List of silver-bordered mechanics List of unreleased mechanics Storm Scale.

Cancel Save. Universal Conquest Wiki. Extort Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life. Forecast Detain Addendum. Of course, tapping artifacts is especially useful since they can be accessed as soon as they arrive, ensuring your opponent will have to wait to employ "Sol Ring" and other mana-producing relics.

However, he only needs one black mana, offers extort, and lets you add an additional black resource whenever you tap a swamp for mana. Thus, in addition to Ghast's lifegain potential, he offers a rare ramping tactic for the black faction; run him in decks that emphasize swamps over other land types to make good use of his ability.

Alternatively, play the legendary land "Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth" to grant the swamp type to all terrains on the field. As useful an ability as extort is, note that having the extort symbols makes a card count as both black and white even if its casting cost is mono-colored.

Thus, in commander matches where you can only use hues that your commander possesses , you'll need a legendary creature who is both black and white to include extort spells in your deck I recommend " Athreos, God of Passage ". Extort remains a surprisingly rare trait among this popular color pairing, and I hope to see it expand in future sets. But for now, as we eagerly await Wizards of the Coast's next batch of life-sapping spells, vote for your favorite card and I'll see you at our next MTG countdown!

Party Games. Drinking Games. Lawn Games. Creative Writing. Card Games. Magic: The Gathering. Comic Books. Harry Potter.