Stave Off

Instant

Target creature gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn. (It can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, or enchanted by anything of that color.)

Steady Progress

Instant

Proliferate. (You choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of a kind already there.)

Draw a card.

"More of that strange oil . . . It's probably nothing."

Steam Augury

Instant

Reveal the top five cards of your library and separate them into two piles. An opponent chooses one of those piles. Put that pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.

Keranos is a fickle god, delivering punishment as readily as prophecy.

Steel Sabotage

Instant

Choose one - Counter target artifact spell; or return target artifact to its owner's hand.

"You are hopelessly obsolete, my brothers. Come and join the Great Work."
-Rhmir, Hand of the Augur

Stifle

Instant

Counter target activated or triggered ability. (Mana abilities can't be targeted.)

"If I wanted your opinion, I'd have told you what it was."
-Pemmin, Riptide survivor

Stir the Pride

Instant

Choose one - Creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn; or until end of turn, creatures you control gain "Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life."

Entwine (Choose both if you pay the entwine cost.)

Stoic Rebuttal

Instant

Metalcraft - Stoic Rebuttal costs less to cast if you control three or more artifacts.

Counter target spell.

Obsessed with the pursuit of knowledge above all else, vedalken can appear to be cold and emotionless.

Stoke the Flames

Instant

Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for or one mana of that creature's color.)

Stoke the Flames deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Stone Idol Trap

Instant - Trap

Stone Idol Trap costs less to cast for each attacking creature.

Put a 6/12 colorless Construct artifact creature token with trample onto the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of your next end step.

Stonefury

Instant

Stonefury deals damage to target creature equal to the number of lands you control.

Akoum can make any intruder look small.

Strangling Soot

Instant

Destroy target creature with toughness 3 or less.

Flashback (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

"What good is your blade without your breath?"
-Greht, Gathan warlord

Street Spasm

Instant

Street Spasm deals X damage to target creature without flying you don't control.

Overload (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each.")

Strength of the Tajuru

Instant

Multikicker (You may pay an additional any number of times as you cast this spell.)

Choose target creature, then choose another target creature for each time Strength of the Tajuru was kicked. Put X +1/+1 counters on each of them.

Stroke of Genius

Instant

Target player draws X cards.

After a hundred failed experiments, Urza was stunned to find that common silver passed through the portal undamaged. He immediately designed a golem made of the metal.

Stubborn Denial

Instant

Counter target noncreature spell unless its controller pays .

Ferocious - If you control a creature with power 4 or greater, counter that spell instead.

The Temur have no patience for subtlety.

Stymied Hopes

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays . Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)

When a god's will is against you, the day never ends well.

Sudden Reclamation

Instant

Put the top four cards of your library into your graveyard, then return a creature card and a land card from your graveyard to your hand.

"There is no secret buried so deep that we will never find it."
-Kurtar, Sultai necromancer

Sudden Shock

Instant

Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.)

Sudden Shock deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

Arc mages aren't known for their patience.

Sudden Spoiling

Instant

Split second (As long as this spell is on the stack, players can't cast spells or activate abilities that aren't mana abilities.)

Until end of turn, creatures target player controls lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 0/2.

Sudden Storm

Instant

Tap up to two target creatures. Those creatures don't untap during their controllers' next untap steps. Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)

No matter how big and strong you are, the sea is bigger and stronger.

Suffer the Past

Instant

Exile X target cards from target player's graveyard. For each card exiled this way, that player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.

Ulamog's tentacles, their touch like burning ice, rummaged through his soul and stung his memories one by one.

Sulfurous Blast

Instant

Sulfurous Blast deals 2 damage to each creature and each player. If you cast this spell during your main phase, Sulfurous Blast deals 3 damage to each creature and each player instead.

The Keldons used the toxic vents in the cracked earth to bolster their home's defenses.

Sultai Charm

Instant

Choose one -

• Destroy target monocolored creature.

• Destroy target artifact or enchantment.

• Draw two cards, then discard a card.

"Strike," the fumes hiss. "Raise an empire with your ambition."

Summoner's Bane

Instant

Counter target creature spell. Put a 2/2 blue Illusion creature token onto the battlefield.

"I don't need to have the perfect plan. My foe just has to have an imperfect one."
-Jace Beleren

Summoner's Pact

Instant

Search your library for a green creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

At the beginning of your next upkeep, pay . If you don't, you lose the game.

Summoning Trap

Instant - Trap

If a creature spell you cast this turn was countered by a spell or ability an opponent controlled, you may pay rather than pay Summoning Trap's mana cost.

Look at the top seven cards of your library. You may put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

Sundering Growth

Instant

Destroy target artifact or enchantment, then populate. (Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

"One day every pillar will be a tree and every hall a glade."
-Trostani

Supplant Form

Instant

Return target creature to its owner's hand. You put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of that creature.

"Ice can be shaped to any form, even the whisper of a memory."
-Mytha, Temur shaman

Sure Strike

Instant

Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.

To survive imminent doom, it sometimes takes a foolhardy soul who acts first and fears later.

Surge of Righteousness

Instant

Destroy target black or red creature that's attacking or blocking. You gain 2 life.

Though she stood alone, she struck with the force of an army.

Surgical Extraction

Instant

( can be paid with either or 2 life.)

Choose target card in a graveyard other than a basic land card. Search its owner's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with the same name as that card and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

Swan Song

Instant

Counter target enchantment, instant, or sorcery spell. Its controller puts a 2/2 blue Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.

"The most enlightened mages create beauty from violence."
-Medomai the Ageless

Sweep Away

Instant

Return target creature to its owner's hand. If that creature is attacking, you may put it on top of its owner's library instead.

The Roil takes many forms. It also takes many victims.

Swell of Growth

Instant

Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. You may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield.

"Nissa is not the only one with a deep connection to Zendikar's primal elements."-Kiora

Swerve

Instant

Change the target of target spell with a single target.

"We can't beat the necromancers in numbers or raw power. We must beat them with ingenuity and timing."
-Rannon, Vithian holdout

Swift Justice

Instant

Until end of turn, target creature gets +1/+0 and gains first strike and lifelink.

"Having conviction is more important than being righteous."
-Aurelia

Swift Kick

Instant

Target creature you control gets +1/+0 until end of turn. It fights target creature you don't control.

Shintan sensed the malice in his opponent, but he did not strike until the orc's muscles tensed in preparation to throw the first punch.

Swords to Plowshares

Instant

Exile target creature. Its controller gains life equal to its power.

Sylvan Bounty

Instant

Target player gains 8 life.

Basic landcycling (, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)

Some who scouted new lands chose to stay.

Syncopate

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays . If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard.

"Patience, mage. Killing you now would be too easy."

Tail Slash

Instant

Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control.

"Kneel before a dragon and you will be spared when it turns to leave."
-Yikaro, Atarka warrior

Tainted Strike

Instant

Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains infect until end of turn. (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.)

"Welcome to perfection."
-Sheoldred, Whispering One

Take Up Arms

Instant

Put three 1/1 white Warrior creature tokens onto the battlefield.

"Many scales make the skin of a dragon."
-Abzan wisdom

Tandem Tactics

Instant

Up to two target creatures each get +1/+2 until end of turn. You gain 2 life.

In times of infestation and war, Zendikar favors the blades that strike in unison.

Tanglesap

Instant

Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn by creatures without trample.

"The blood of the forest is beholden to no one."
-Nissa Revane

Tar Snare

Instant

Target creature gets -3/-2 until end of turn.

The amorphous, magically animated residue known as the Fathom Sludge lurks in the Hagra Cistern, attacking its prey with pseudopods and dragging it down to be digested.

Tear (Wear/Tear)

Instant

Destroy target enchantment.

Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

Tears of Valakut

Instant

Tears of Valakut can't be countered by spells or abilities.

Tears of Valakut deals 5 damage to target creature with flying.

When Kozilek destroyed Sea Gate, distant Valakut could not contain its grief.

Tel-Jilad Defiance

Instant

Target creature gains protection from artifacts until end of turn.

Draw a card.

The Viridian elves had purged their culture of the trolls' traitorous influence. In times of strife, however, the ancestral memories returned.

Tempest of Light

Instant

Destroy all enchantments.

"Let everything return to its true nature, so that destiny may take its course."

Temur Battle Rage

Instant

Target creature gains double strike until end of turn. (It deals both first-strike and regular combat damage.)

Ferocious - That creature also gains trample until end of turn if you control a creature with power 4 or greater.

Temur Charm

Instant

Choose one -

• Target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn. It fights target creature you don't control.

• Counter target spell unless its controller pays .

• Creatures with power 3 or less can't block this turn.

Tendrils of Corruption

Instant

Tendrils of Corruption deals X damage to target creature and you gain X life, where X is the number of Swamps you control.

Darkness doesn't always send its minions to do its dirty work.

Terminate

Instant

Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated.

"I've seen death before. My mother succumbing to illness, my comrades bleeding on the battlefield . . . But I'd never seen anything as dreadful as that."
-Taani, berserker of Etlan

Terrifying Presence

Instant

Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by creatures other than target creature this turn.

Elmut had slaughtered vampires, slain werewolves, and destroyed hordes of zombies. Sadly, he never got over his fear of spiders.

Test of Faith

Instant

Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn, and put a +1/+1 counter on that creature for each 1 damage prevented this way.

Those who survive the test bear a mark of power anyone can recognize.

Thassa's Rebuff

Instant

Counter target spell unless its controller pays , where X is your devotion to blue. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to blue.)

To resist Thassa is to deny the rising tide.

Think Twice

Instant

Draw a card.

Flashback (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

"Either I know just the spell I need, or I'm about to."

Thirst for Knowledge

Instant

Draw three cards. Then discard two cards unless you discard an artifact card.

Lymph, the fluid essence of blinkmoths, is prized by wizards for the rush of intellect it provides.

Thought Scour

Instant

Target player puts the top two cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

Draw a card.

"As you inject the viscus vitae into the brain stem, don't let the spastic moaning bother you. It will soon become music to your ears."
-Stitcher Geralf

Thoughtflare

Instant

Draw four cards, then discard two cards.

"If this is thinking, I don't know what I was doing before."

Throttle

Instant

Target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn.

"The best servants are made from those who died without a scratch."
-Sidisi, khan of the Sultai

Thunder Strike

Instant

Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn. (It deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.)

Lightning reflexes, thunderous might.

Thunderbolt

Instant

Choose one - Thunderbolt deals 3 damage to target player; or Thunderbolt deals 4 damage to target creature with flying.

"My next aerial design will use less metal."
-Hadaken, alchemist of Nephalia

Thunderous Wrath

Instant

Thunderous Wrath deals 5 damage to target creature or player.

Miracle (You may cast this card for its miracle cost when you draw it if it's the first card you drew this turn.)

Titan's Presence

Instant

As an additional cost to cast Titan's Presence, reveal a colorless creature card from your hand.

Exile target creature if its power is less than or equal to the revealed card's power.

Dust and memory are all that remain in Ulamog's wake.

Titan's Strength

Instant

Target creature gets +3/+1 until end of turn. Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom of your library.)

Titanic Growth

Instant

Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

The pup looked over the treetops, eyeing the man who just yesterday had kicked her. Suddenly, her hunger was infused with pure delight.

Tomb Hex

Instant

Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.

Landfall - If you had a land enter the battlefield under your control this turn, that creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn instead.

Torrent of Stone

Instant - Arcane

Torrent of Stone deals 4 damage to target creature.

Splice onto Arcane-Sacrifice two Mountains. (As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)

Tortoise Formation

Instant

Creatures you control gain shroud until end of turn. (They can't be the targets of spells or abilities.)

At sea, the Jhessian fleet strikes swiftly and decisively. On land, facing the elite cavalry of Valeron, its marines must rely on more cautious strategies.

Totally Lost

Instant

Put target nonland permanent on top of its owner's library.

Fblthp had always hated crowds.

Tower Defense

Instant

Creatures you control get +0/+5 and gain reach until end of turn.

"The drakes are practice. We may one day need to bring down a sky swallower, or maybe even Rakdos himself."
-Korun Nar, Rubblebelt hunter

Tragic Slip

Instant

Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.

Morbid - That creature gets -13/-13 until end of turn instead if a creature died this turn.

Linger on death's door and risk being invited in.

Trap Essence

Instant

Counter target creature spell. Put two +1/+1 counters on up to one target creature.

"Meat sustains the body. The spirit requires different sustenance."
-Arel the Whisperer

Trapmaker's Snare

Instant

Search your library for a Trap card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

"Trapmaking is an art. The trap is a corporeal riddle, a battle of wits between its creator and whatever it lures inside."

Traumatic Visions

Instant

Counter target spell.

Basic landcycling (, Discard this card: Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)

Tread Upon

Instant

Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains trample until end of turn.

"Boasting impenetrable defenses only draws the most tenacious of attackers."
-Yikaro, Atarka warrior

Tribute to Hunger

Instant

Target opponent sacrifices a creature. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness.

Marella was delighted. The ball had attracted so many suitors for her daughter, including that handsome stranger. She wondered where the two were now . . . .

Tribute to the Wild

Instant

Each opponent sacrifices an artifact or enchantment.

"You may enter, but leave those lifeless things of your world behind."
-Modruni, maro-sorcerer

Triton Tactics

Instant

Up to two target creatures each get +0/+3 until end of turn. Untap those creatures. At this turn's next end of combat, tap each creature that was blocked by one of those creatures this turn and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

Trostani's Judgment

Instant

Exile target creature, then populate. (Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

"Some cannot be saved as they are, but all can serve the Worldsoul."
-Trostani

Trumpet Blast

Instant

Attacking creatures get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Keldon warriors don't need signals to tell them when to attack. They need signals to tell them when to stop.

Turn (Turn/Burn)

Instant

Target creature loses all abilities and becomes a 0/1 red Weird until end of turn.

Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

Turn Against

Instant

Devoid (This card has no color.)

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

"No, don't! Nal, it's me-"

Turn Aside

Instant

Counter target spell that targets a permanent you control.

"It's not my job to ask our leaders about their experiments at the Knowledge Pool. It's my job to make sure they can continue performing them."

Turn the Tide

Instant

Creatures your opponents control get -2/-0 until end of turn.

"Let their mindless armies come and face the might of genius."
-Varil, Neurok partisan

Turn to Frog

Instant

Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a blue Frog with base power and toughness 1/1.

"Ribbit."

Twin Bolt

Instant

Twin Bolt deals 2 damage divided as you choose among one or two target creatures and/or players.

Kolaghan archers are trained in Dakla, the way of the bow. They utilize their dragonlord's lightning to strike their target, no matter how small, how fast, or how far away.

Twincast

Instant

Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.

Imitation is the most dangerous form of flattery.

Twisted Image

Instant

Switch target creature's power and toughness until end of turn.

Draw a card.

"True strength is in the mind, for the body is too malleable a form."
-Politus, vedalken emisar

Twitch

Instant

You may tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land.

Draw a card.

"The flow is diverted. Your path is clear. What are you waiting for-the cave to bid you welcome?"
-Maizah Shere, Tazeem lullmage

Ulcerate

Instant

Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn. You lose 3 life.

"If it were merely lethal, that would be sufficient. The art, however, is in maximizing the suffering it causes."
-Liliana Vess

Ultimate Price

Instant

Destroy target monocolored creature.

"Let him be an example to others who would default on their debts to us."
-"The Cozen," Orzhov assassin

Uncanny Speed

Instant

Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.

"To survive, we must embrace the savagery we knew in our race's infancy."
-Edgar Markov

Undying Evil

Instant

Target creature gains undying until end of turn. (When it dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)

"Is it true the evil that people do follows them into death? Let's find out."
-Liliana Vess

Unexpectedly Absent

Instant

Put target nonland permanent into its owner's library just beneath the top X cards of that library.

Once you've been dragged down the currents of time, you'll never quite trust your own permanence again.

Unified Will

Instant

Counter target spell if you control more creatures than that spell's controller.

"We're glad to be of service-to be an audience to your failure."
-Maizah Shere, Tazeem lullmage

Unity of Purpose

Instant

Support 2. (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two target creatures.)

Untap each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it.

Faced with the novel problem of inspiring an army, Jace asked himself: "What would Gideon say?"

Unmake

Instant

Exile target creature.

A gwyllion's favorite trap is the vanity mirror. A bewitched piece of glass traps the looker's soul and does away with the body.