Tombstone icon

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The icon

The tombstone icon, or tombstone symbol, is a graphic in the upper-left-hand corner of a number of Odyssey block cards with graveyard-active or -relevant abilities.

Description

Ichorid
Ichorid (Torment), with its recursion/self-reanimating ability, is one such card that features the tombstone icon.

Due to the mechanical and thematic focus on the graveyard in Odyssey block, the tombstone icon was designed to be featured on cards from the block's sets — Odyssey, Torment, and Judgment — so as to "make players' lives easier".[1] The practice of placing a tombstone icon was not carried over to future expansions or blocks, but the tombstone icon has since been seen on the Time Spiral "timeshifted" reprints of Template:Cardlink and Template:Cardlink.

History

Introduced in Odyssey, the tombstone icon was featured on cards with the Flashback ability. In Torment and Judgment, the tombstone icon was used indicator of cards with graveyard-active abilities,[2] as in the case of Template:Cardlink[3] and the Incarnations of Judgment (e.g., Template:Cardlink).[4]

The original plan was to make it a permanent addition, but it couldn’t work with the new card frame (starting two blocks later in Mirrodin) so R&D decided to just make it a block thing.[5]

Comprehensive Rules

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

  • 107.9. A tombstone icon appears to the left of the name of many Odyssey™ block cards with abilities that are relevant in a player’s graveyard. The purpose of the icon is to make those cards stand out when they’re in a graveyard. This icon has no effect on game play.

List of cards featuring the tombstone icon

FNM Promos

After technology changed it became possible to combine the Tombstone icon on modern bordered FNM Promos.[6]

See also

References

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  5. Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (March 11, 2017). "". Tumblr.
  6. Error on call to {{WebRef}}: Parameters url and title must be specifiedMark Rosewater (March 13, 2017). "". Tumblr.