Prowess

Prowess
Keyword Ability
Type	Triggered
Introduced	Khans of Tarkir
Last used	Hour of Devastation
Reminder Text	Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Storm Scale	1
Statistics	38 cards 52.6% 28.9% 13.2% 5.3%
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keyword:"Prowess"

Prowess is a keyword ability that was introduced as the clan-specific mechanic for the Jeskai Way in Khans of Tarkir and Fate Reforged. R&D's need for blue to get a combat-relevant keyword that wasn't about evasion caused prowess to become evergreen in Magic Origins.

Description

Prowess was designed by Jonathon Loucks during the second Great Designer Search. Creatures with prowess get +1/+1 until end of turn whenever a noncreature spell is cast by their controller.

Prowess is secondary in red and tertiary in white. Mark Rosewater has admitted that prowess has more design issues than the average evergreen mechanic. Problems typically included the density of cast triggers (overlapping with historic triggers in Dominaria), weakness in creature dense-sets (such as for the Merfolk tribal theme in Ixalan), and coverage of artifacts and enchantments being unfavorable (such as for the Izzet League in Guilds of Ravnica wanting instants and sorceries), leading to the keyword constantly being pulled off sets. Because of this, prowess is in danger of losing its evergreen status.

Rulings

• Any spell you cast that doesn't have the type creature will cause prowess to trigger. If a spell has multiple types, and one of those types is creature (such as an artifact creature), casting it won't cause prowess to trigger. Playing a land also won't cause prowess to trigger.
• Prowess triggers only once for any spell, even if that spell has multiple types.
• Prowess goes on the stack on top of the spell that caused it to trigger. It will resolve before that spell.
• Once it triggers, prowess isn't connected to the spell that caused it to trigger. If that spell is countered, the ability's effect will still resolve.