Heroic

Heroic
Ability Word
Introduced	Theros
Last used	Dominaria United
Typical Text	Heroic — Whenever you cast a spell that targets this card, …
Storm Scale	5
Statistics	42 cards 31% 23.8% 9.5% 16.7% 14.3% 2.4% 2.4%
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keyword:"Heroic"

For other uses, see Hero.

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.

History

After Theros, Heroic is also featured in the other sets of the Theros block. The most common Heroic ability is to put +1/+1 counters on the targeted creature; five Green Heroes put more than one, whereas each color has at least one that does so. In the return set, Theros Beyond Death the heroic mechanic was used on five cards, but without the actual ability. To ease learning the "mechanic", all five have the same result of giving creatures you control +1/+0.

Outside of Theros, Tenth District Legionnaire has effective Heroic, and Feather, the Redeemed has a broad semi-heroic variant. Both are , making it a seed for a constructed deck.

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.