Cycling
| Cycling | |
|---|---|
| Keyword Ability | |
| Type | Activated |
| Introduced | Urza's Saga |
| Last used | Alara Reborn |
| Reminder Text |
Cycling [cost] (Discard this card: Draw a card.) (Type) Cycling [cost] (Discard this card: Search your library for a (Type) card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.) |
| Statistics |
146 cards 20%  18%  14%  14%  11%Multicolor 9%, Land 6% |
| Scryfall Search | |
| keyword:"Cycling" | |
Cycling is a keyword ability that allows a player to pay a cost that includes discarding the card. When the activated ability resolves, that player draws a card.
Description
Cycling has been perennially popular and has been featured in more blocks than any other non-evergreen keyword, appearing in the Urza's [1], Onslaught, Time Spiral, and Alara blocks, the last of which introduced cards with hybrid cycling costs.
Rules
From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- 702.29. Cycling
- 702.29a Cycling is an activated ability that functions only while the card with cycling is in a player’s hand. “Cycling [cost]” means “[Cost], Discard this card: Draw a card.”
- 702.29b Although the cycling ability can be activated only if the card is in a player’s hand, it continues to exist while the object is on the battlefield and in all other zones. Therefore objects with cycling will be affected by effects that depend on objects having one or more activated abilities.
- 702.29c Some cards with cycling have abilities that trigger when they’re cycled. “When you cycle [this card]” means “When you discard [this card] to pay an activation cost of a cycling ability.” These abilities trigger from whatever zone the card winds up in after it’s cycled.
- 702.29d Some cards have abilities that trigger whenever a player “cycles or discards” a card. These abilities trigger only once when a card is cycled.
- 702.29e Typecycling is a variant of the cycling ability. “[Type]cycling [cost]” means “[Cost], Discard this card: Search your library for a [type] card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.” This type is usually a subtype (as in “mountaincycling”) but can be any card type, subtype, supertype, or combination thereof (as in “basic landcycling”).
- 702.29f Typecycling abilities are cycling abilities, and typecycling costs are cycling costs. Any cards that trigger when a player cycles a card will trigger when a card is discarded to pay an activation cost of a typecycling ability. Any effect that stops players from cycling cards will stop players from activating cards’ typecycling abilities. Any effect that increases or reduces a cycling cost will increase or reduce a typecycling cost. Any effect that looks for a card with cycling will find a card with typecycling.
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)
- Cycling
- A keyword ability that lets a card be discarded and replaced with a new card. See rule 702.29, “Cycling.”
Typecycling
A variant of the ability, typecycling, allows the player to search his or her library for a card of a given subtype instead of drawing the top card of their library. The first cards with this ability appeared in Scourge and allowed a player to search for a land card with a specific land type. Future Sight then expanded the ability to search for cards with a specific creature type, but appears on only two cards: Vedalken Æthermage (wizard) and Homing Sliver (sliver). Conflux introduced basic land cycling.
Alara Reborn introduced the first cards with two landcycling abilities.
Basic Landcycling
Basic landcycling was introduced in Conflux.[2]
- Unlike the normal cycling ability, basic landcycling doesn't allow you to draw a card. Instead, it lets you search your library for a basic land card. You don't choose the type of basic land card you'll find until you're performing the search. After you choose a basic land card in your library, you reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
- Basic landcycling is a form of cycling. Any ability that triggers on a card being cycled also triggers on a card being basic landcycled. Any ability that stops a cycling ability from being played also stops a basic landcycling ability from being played.
- Basic landcycling is an activated ability. Effects that interact with activated abilities (such as Stifle or Rings of Brighthearth) will interact with basic landcycling. Effects that interact with spells (such as Remove Soul or Faerie Tauntings) will not.
- You can choose not to find a basic land card, even if there is one in your library.
