Heroic

Heroic
Ability Word
Introduced	Theros
Last used	Journey into Nyx
Typical Text	Heroic — Whenever you cast a spell that targets this card, …
Statistics	41 cards 32% 24% 15% 15% 9% 3% 3%
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keyword:"Heroic"

Heroic is an ability word introduced in Theros. A creature with heroic gives the controlling player powerful benefits every time they cast a spell that targets it. Heroic also featured in the rest of the Theros block.

Rulings

• A heroic ability triggers only when the creature's controller casts a spell that targets it, not when any other player does.
• A heroic ability triggers whenever a player casts any spell that targets the heroic creature, including a spell that also targets another creature.
• If a spell targets multiple creatures with heroic abilities, all of them trigger.
• Activated abilities, such as equip, do not cause heroic abilities to trigger.
• An instant or sorcery spell has a target if it includes the word "target" in its rules text.
• Each Aura spell also has a target, indicated by its enchant ability.
• Creature spells and other non-aura permanent spells never have targets.
• Heroic abilities will resolve before the spell that caused them to trigger.
• Heroic abilities will trigger only once per spell, even if that spell targets the creature with the heroic ability multiple times.
• Heroic abilities won't trigger when a copy of a spell is created on the stack or when a spell's targets are changed to include a creature with a heroic ability.
• If the spell that caused heroic to be triggered is countered, heroic will still resolve.

Examples

Example

Favored Hoplite
Creature — Human Soldier
1/2
Heroic — Whenever you cast a spell that targets Favored Hoplite, put a +1/+1 counter on Favored Hoplite and prevent all damage that would be dealt to it this turn.