Gating
Gating is a slang term that refers to cards that require you to return a permanent (usually a creature) that shares a color with it to your hand when it comes into play, usually in exchange for a lower casting cost or higher power.[1][2] Gating cards were featured in Planeshift, but it later inspired a series of white creatures.
Description
In science fiction, “gating” is a term often used to mean teleportation. This is supposedly where the slang comes from.[3] All gating cards printed are multicolored. There are 13 gating cards in Planeshift: a common cycle, an uncommon cycle, and three rares, of which two are creatures. The last card, Natural Emergence, is an enchantment that requires returning an enchantment.
The biggest of these is the Shivan Wurm, a 7/7 trampler which could be cast on the third turn in a green deck with mana-producing creatures. Meanwhile, Fleetfoot Panther's gating cost can be used as a boon, as with flash it can save a creature targetted for destruction. Any gating creature can also be useful in a deck full of creatures with comes-into-play abilities (like Flametongue Kavu, for instance), allowing you to return such creatures to your hand so you can play them multiple times.
As the gating cards are multicolored, the strongest color combination of the gating cards is green/red. This combination has the most gating cards with four. This combination has two of the most efficient gating creatures in Horned Kavu a quick 3/4 creature for 
and the aforementioned Shivan Wurm.
Cavern Harpy is notable for its ability to return itself, which enabled its place in the Aluren combo deck.
Not a keyword
Gating is not an ability or a keyword. If it came back one day, R&D most likely would keyword it.[4][5]
Visual cue
In the art of the cards, gating creatures appear to pass through a portal.[6]
List of Gating cards
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| Common gaters | Silver Drake | Cavern Harpy | Lava Zombie | Horned Kavu | Steel Leaf Paladin |
| Uncommon gaters | Sawtooth Loon | Marsh Crocodile | Razing Snidd | Sparkcaster | Fleetfoot Panther |
Rares:
Similar cards
Shrieking Drake in Mirage had a similar ability, though the creature could be any color. Since it costs only 
and can return itself, it can be employed in many combos. To an extent, any creature with proper gating can too, but their higher, multicolored costs make them less efficient for such purposes, Cavern Harpy in the Aluren combo being a notable exception.
The mechanic returned slightly altered on white cards in Planar Chaos. No color is prescribed as to which creature needs to be returned but instead multiple creatures would be needed to be returned on some cards. These cards are Whitemane Lion, Stonecloaker, Stormfront Riders and Dust Elemental. Keymaster Rogue (reprinted as Storm Sculptor) and Yarok's Wavecrasher are newer versions. From then, new Gating is primary used in white but all the other colors can have access to it when needed.[7]
A variant was printed with Dream Stalker in Time Spiral that returned on the cards Kor Skyfisher, Emancipation Angel, and Invasive Species where the difference is that the returned card does not have to be a creature, but can be any permanent you control. Ancestral Statue does the same, but excludes lands. Another variant in Faerie Impostor and Quickling requires another creature on the board to be returned or else it is sacrificed, preventing single-card looping.
Optional gaters like Mischievous Pup, Ambrosia Whiteheart, Sunpearl Kirin and Nurturing Pixie have a different play pattern, but generally encourage the same sorts of flicker-esque decks, as they add board presence while generating more enter effects.
Rulings
- Gating cards read "Whenever [this card] comes into play, return a [color A] or [color B] card to your hand." That's a triggered ability, so players can respond to it going on the stack by playing instants or activated abilities.
- Like any comes-into-play triggered ability, the gating ability will trigger regardless of whether the card comes into play from a player's hand, graveyard, or library (or any other zone).
- The gating triggered ability doesn't target anything, so it's perfectly fine to return an untargetable card you control (or a card with the right kind of protection) to its owner's hand.
- When the gating ability resolves, if you control no appropriate cards of the specified colors other than the gating card, you'll have to return the gating card itself to your hand. If the gating card turns out to be an invalid choice (for example, if you change the gating card's color before its comes-into-play ability resolves), then the gating ability does nothing.
References
- ↑ Rui Oliveira. "Planeshift Preview: Cavern Harpy". Wizards of the Coast. Retrieved on 15 August 2016.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 5, 2007). "The Great Mix-Up, Part II". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (February 10, 2015). "Why is "gating" named as such?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Devin Low (August 25, 2005). "Ask Wizards - August 2005". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-08-05.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (July 22, 2018). "Do you know why the "planeshift" ability like in Horned Kavu never got a name and never came back ?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast (September, 2002). "Ask Wizards - September, 2002". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-06-28.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 11, 2015). "Is gating exclusively a white thing, now, or it can be used by other colors whenever it's needed?". Blogatog. Tumblr.