Cantrip

Cantrip
Mechanic
Introduced	Alliances
Last used	Avatar: The Last Airbender Eternal
Scryfall Statistics
583 cards 3.9% 15.1% 35.2% 11.1% 7.7% 16.5% 10.5%

Cantrip is a slang term used to refer to a spell that draws a card in addition to its other effects (usually minor) and can therefore be said to replace itself. Cantrips can be found in all colors.

Description

The term originated from a Scottish word for a magic spell or charm. The term entered the gaming lexicon through Dungeons & Dragons as slang for a spell with a minor effect and no cost. As such, cantrips in Magic are spells where the bulk of the power of the card is in the fact that it is cheap (two mana at most) and replaces itself. Cantrips are included in decks for varying reasons. A cantrip can effectively "thin" a deck, so more useful cards can be drawn faster, while at the same time not losing card advantage. It can also inexpensively increase the number of spells played in a turn, which is a key factor in some decks, most notably those using the Storm mechanic. However, the more focused a deck is, the less it wants cantrips, as adding them is using mana in a game and spell slots in a deck in a way that doesn't guarantee progressing one's game plan.

Blue cantrips have a special niche as their "filler" effect is often card selection, letting the caster rearrange or bypass unwanted cards. In contrast, other spells' cantrips are designed like Defiant Strike, Needle Drop, Cremate, and Abundant Growth: cards that aren't effective en masse. As such, filling a deck with blue cantrips can be used to reduce lands in deckbuilding and select lands during gameplay. Green's Commune effect is close, but its inability to select other copies of itself hinders adding more than a few copies.

Some cantrips have additional effects that can serve as an answer to an obstacle in play, but the more impactful it is, the less it is considered a cantrip so much as a card advantage spell.

Cantrips are considered to be deciduous.

Slowtrips

Cantrips were introduced in Ice Age, where the effect read "Draw a card at the beginning of next turn's upkeep." Starting with Weatherlight, the effect was changed to "Draw a card." The Ice Age cantrips were hence referred to as "slowtrips" because they are slower than drawing a card immediately. It also generated memory issues.

Slowtrips set up a delayed triggered ability that triggers at the beginning of the upkeep of the very next turn. It doesn't matter whose turn it is.

See also

• Card filtering
• Cycling