Punisher

Punisher-type cards allow an opponent to decide how to punish themselves, usually giving them a choice between either two bad situations or between something bad for them and a bonus for you. Punisher cards were first printed throughout the Odyssey block and were red. In the "alternative reality" themed set Planar Chaos, black got two punisher cards, while a multicolored black/red punisher card was printed in Shadowmoor. In Avacyn Restored, Punisher came back again this time as a 4/3 creature for that punishes for 4 damage.

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
• Temporal Extortion
• Tyrannize
• Vexing Devil

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.