Card filtering
- Not to be confused with Impulsive draw.
| Card Filtering (Impulse) | |
|---|---|
| Mechanic | |
| Introduced | Arabian Nights |
| Last used | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
|
498 cards  6.8%  7.8%  20.3%  6.4%  4%  30.5%  24.1% | |
Card filtering is a slang term used by Magic R&D to describe the following effect: "Look at the top N cards of your library and put M in your hand and and the rest on the bottom of the library in any order."[1]
Impulse is the specific name for card filtering with M equals to one.[2]
Description
This impulse ability is named after the eponymous Impulse. Effectively, the card is a cantrip, but the card selection is often broad enough to warrant being two mana if the card sees more than one card (compare Sleight of Hand to Anticipate). As it is the most common type of card filtering the term "Impulse" is sometimes used synonymous with card filtering.[3]
Blue is the color of information, so it is primary in this ability to choose what exactly it gets to draw. Sometimes card filtering looks similar to looting, where you draw some number of cards and then discard a close number. Green is also primary, but usually only gets a subset of permanents (usually creatures and/or lands) into its hand.[4]
As this mechanic is not keyworded there are some variants. For example, can the rest be placed in the graveyard or uses random order instead of any order.
Commune
Commune is a naming convention used to describe a mechanic that allows a player to look at the top few cards from one's library and take one of a particular subset. As such, it is a narrower version of Impulse. It started with the green Commune with Nature in Champions of Kamigawa.[5] As it is often in green, the subset is a combination of creatures, lands, and a set-themed object.
- Green
- Commune with Nature (Champions of Kamigawa)
- Commune with the Gods (Theros)
- Commune with Dinosaurs (Ixalan)
- Commune with Spirits (Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty)
- Commune with Beavers (Final Fantasy)
- Black
Outside of the theme naming, all colors have Commune effects for various objects, though black and red have it rarest, and blue doesn't usually use subsets.
Commune with Lava (Forgotten Realms Commander) is despite its name an impulsive draw and not card filtering.
See also
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 26, 2016). "Has "look at top X cards, pick one and put the rest on the bottom" its own term?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ The search query uses the term "impulse" despite including all forms of card filtering in general.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 18, 2021). "Mechanical Color Pie 2021 Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-10-18.
- ↑ Gavin Verhey (January 3, 2023). "Mildly Interesting Magic Fact.". Twitter.