Punisher

Punisher-type cards allow an opponent to decide how to punish themselves. Punisher cards were first printed in Odyssey and were red only. In the Alternative Reality set of Planar Chaos, black got a punisher card.

List of punisher cards

• Barbarian Bully
• Blazing Salvo
• Book Burning
• Breaking Point
• Browbeat
• Dash Hopes
• Dwarven Driller
• Dwarven Scorcher
• Flaming Gambit
• Lava Blister
• Longhorn Firebeast
• Molten Influence
• Skullscorch

Example

In the above example, your opponent must decide whether to punish themselves by taking 6 points of damage or putting the top 6 cards of their library into their graveyard.

Rulings

• When a punisher spell resolves, the player whose creature, land, or spell would be affected must choose whether to take damage or allow the spell's normal effect to work.
• Damage that the punisher spell would deal to the player may be prevented.