Evasion ability

Evasion ability
Mechanic
Introduced	Alpha
Last used	Avatar: The Last Airbender
Scryfall Statistics
cards

An evasion ability is a kind of static ability of a creature that improves its chances of damaging the defending player by restricting which creatures can block it.

Types of evasion

The ultimate example is "This creature is unblockable" (e.g. Tidal Kraken), and some have specific clauses (e.g. Sacred Knight, Vindictive Mob). There are several keyworded evasion abilities, including but not limited to:

• Flying: Can only be blocked by other creatures with flying or reach (e.g. Wild Griffin).
• Fear: Can only be blocked by Black or Artifact creatures (e.g. Gluttonous Zombie).
• Intimidate: Can only be blocked by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it (e.g. Bladetusk Boar).
• Horsemanship: Can only be blocked by other creatures with Horsemanship (e.g. Lu Bu, Master-at-Arms).
• Skulk: Can only be blocked by creatures with equal or lesser power (e.g. Furtive Homunculus).
• Shadow: Can only block or be blocked by other creatures with Shadow (e.g. Soltari Priest).
• Menace: Can only be blocked by two or more creatures (e.g. Boggart Brute).
• Landwalk: Unblockable if defending player controls a land with this property (e.g. Rushwood Dryad).
• Protection from X: Cannot be blocked by creatures with X quality (e.g. Paladin en-Vec).

Some unkeyworded abilities are common enough to have colloquial names:

• "Burrowing": Can't be blocked by creatures with flying (e.g. Stone Spirit).
• "Daunt": Can't be blocked by creatures with 2 or less power (e.g. Arlinn's Wolf).
• "Gingerbrute ability": Can't be blocked except by creatures with haste (e.g. Gingerbrute)
• "Nimble": Can't be blocked by creatures with power 3 or greater (e.g. Lydia Frye).

Pseudo-evasion

Some abilities act as pseudo-evasion abilities, not affecting how creatures block but instead rendering the act of blocking partially or wholly ineffectual.

• Afflict: Deals life loss to the defender when blocked (e.g. Ammit Eternal).
• Trample: Allows excess combat damage to be dealt to the defending player (e.g. Force of Nature)
• "Unstoppable": All combat damage is dealt directly to player (e.g. Thorn Elemental).

Strategic evasion

Some keywords, such as first strike, bushido and flanking, can make it a strategically poor decision to block as the blocker will die without killing the attacker. In early game scenarios, losing a creature to save a little amount of life is typically not recommended, making them evasive in spirit. However, the opponent is capable of blocking and receiving no damage regardless, making them a different class of evasion.

Unblockable

The ultimate form of evasion, a creature that can't be blocked will always attack for damage. It is primary in blue, which has both creatures with this ability and grants it through spells and Auras.

R&D tried to keyword this evasion ability only to discover that there are so many variations on it that they couldn't. Officially, it used to be an attribute of a creature, until it was made obsolete in Magic 2014 when the text Is unblockable was changed to Can't be blocked to make it very clear that "unblockable" is not an ability. Cards that used the term have received errata in the Oracle card reference.

A recurring design in granting unblockable at common is a blue creature with low power and high toughness that grants it to another attacker. Said blue creature is likely not to survive multiple combats from multi-blocking, but until it does it allows a more fragile creature to hit for damage.

Tunneling

One of the more enduring forms of granting unblockable is for targeting creatures under a certain power — two most often, sometimes three — to let them attack. While not universal, it is often an activated ability that costs no mana. The upper bound means it is only threatening when the opponent is at a single digit life total, but the controller can hasten the clock by using pump spells after the fact. This is known as tunneling.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Evasion Ability

An ability that restricts what creatures can block an attacking creature. See rules 509.1b–c.

From the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)

• 509.1b The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met). If any restrictions are being disobeyed, the declaration of blockers is illegal.
  A restriction may be created by an evasion ability (a static ability an attacking creature has that restricts what can block it). If an attacking creature gains or loses an evasion ability after a legal block has been declared, it doesn’t affect that block. Different evasion abilities are cumulative.

  Example: An attacking creature with flying and shadow can’t be blocked by a creature with flying but without shadow.

From the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)

• 509.1c The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any requirements (effects that say a creature must block, or that it must block if some condition is met). If the number of requirements that are being obeyed is fewer than the maximum possible number of requirements that could be obeyed without disobeying any restrictions, the declaration of blockers is illegal. If a creature can’t block unless a player pays a cost, that player is not required to pay that cost, even if blocking with that creature would increase the number of requirements being obeyed. If a requirement that says a creature blocks if able during a certain turn refers to a turn with multiple combat phases, the creature blocks if able during each declare blockers step in that turn.

  Example: A player controls one creature that “blocks if able” and another creature with no abilities. If a creature with menace attacks that player, the player must block with both creatures. Having only the first creature block violates the restriction created by menace (the attacking creature can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures). Having only the second creature block violates both the menace restriction and the first creature’s blocking requirement. Having neither creature block fulfills the restriction but not the requirement.