Flying
| Flying | |
|---|---|
|
[[File:{{#setmainimage:mtga_flying.png}}|70x70px]] | |
| Keyword Ability | |
| Type | Evasion |
| Introduced | Alpha |
| Last used | Evergreen |
| Reminder Text | Flying (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach.) |
| Scryfall Search | |
| keyword:"Flying" | |
Flying is an evergreen evasion ability that makes creatures without flying unable to block creatures with flying. It has been in Magic since the original Alpha set.[1][2] It was the first mechanic that Richard Garfield designed for the game.[3]
Description
Flying appears on over 1,000 different cards and is scattered wildly on the color wheel, mostly being found on blue and white cards, and to a lesser extent in black and red.[4] Green rarely has flying creatures, but is the best color at destroying them (e.g. Hurricane, Plummet).[4] There are a number of creature types that almost always have flying, such as Angels, Birds, Sphinxes, Dragons, and Griffins (each of these generally being creatures with wings).
The Mystery Booster test cards and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths introduced flying counters.
Rules
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- Flying
- A keyword ability that restricts how a creature may be blocked. See rule 702.9, “Flying.”
From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- 702.9. Flying
- 702.9a Flying is an evasion ability.
- 702.9b A creature with flying can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach. A creature with flying can block a creature with or without flying. (See rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step,” and rule 702.17, “Reach.”)
- 702.9c Multiple instances of flying on the same creature are redundant.
Examples
Example
Bog Imp 
Creature — Imp
1/1
Flying (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach.)
Enchantments that grant just flying
One creature
- Flight
- Shimmering Wings
- Arcanum Wings
- Buoyancy
- Crown of Ascension
- Dragon Wings
- Illuminated Wings
- Launch
- Phantom Wings
- Flight of Fancy
All your creatures
Pseudo-flying
Some creatures without flying can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach (but unlike creatures that actually have flying, these cannot block creatures with flying themselves). Mark Rosewater is not a fan of this design,[5] as it does not differentiate itself from flying meaningfully. It also runs into keyword-referencing issues, as whether or not reach can block it depends on whether reach existed at time of printing.
Includes reach
- Canopy Cover
- Orchard Spirit
- Signal Pest
- Spire Tracer
- Tatsunari, Toad Rider (
activated ability)
Can't be blocked by creatures with flying
Some creatures without flying can't be blocked by creatures with flying. This is a red ability, and is sometimes nicknamed "Tunneling"[6] However, "Tunneling" is more often used for “target creature with power 2 or less is unblockable this turn”.[7][8] Given the lack of defensive fliers in a typical game, this use of the keyword has seen little print.
Losing flying
As the most common keyword ability, it is also the keyword most commonly explicitly removed or lost by certain effects, twice as common as the next keyword removed, defender. Despite the low utility, it has continued to appear on cards as trinket text.
- On own creatures
- Chimeric Sphere (
) - Colossus Hammer ()
- Downdraft ()
- Leering Gargoyle (
) - Magebane Armor ()
- Mist Dragon ()
- Swooping Talon ()
- On opposing creatures
- Adarkar Windform ()
- Burning Palm Efreet (
) - Canopy Claws ()
- Crash Landing ()
- Downdraft ()
- Earthbind ()
- Emerald Charm ()
- Goblin Skycutter ()
- Gravity Well ()
- Grounded ()
- Mammoth Harness ()
- Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer ()
- Radjan Spirit ()
- Ribbon Snake ()
- Sky Tether ()
- Short Curcuit ()
- Tightening Coils ()
- Vertigo ()
Player flying
The Mystery Booster test card Sarah's Wings (a reference to On Serra's Wings) grants flying to a player (Players with flying can’t be dealt damage by creatures without flying). This was also the idea behind Form of the Dragon, which has a different mechanical implementation.
See also
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (Monday, November 17, 2003). "Up, Up and Away". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 8, 2015). "Evergreen Eggs & Ham". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Brady Dommermuth (June 01, 2009). "Mechanically Inclined". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 16, 2017). "What is the point of pseudo-flying creatures like Signal Pest and Orchard Spirit?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 12, 2018). "What color is "can't be blocked by creatures with flying"?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 21, 2019). "Whatever happened to tunneling?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 21, 2019). "I was just reading a wiki article on flying and it referenced tunneling as "can't be blocked by creatures with flying."". Blogatog. Tumblr.
External links
- A Planeswalker's Primer for Magic 2010: Flying (Video). Magic: The Gathering. YouTube.
- Gavin Verhey (February 3, 2017). "The Invention of Flying". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.