Keyword soup
| Keyword soup | |
|---|---|
| Mechanic | |
| Introduced | Tempest |
| Last used | Mystery Booster 2 |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
Keyword soup is slang term to identify creatures with multiple evergreen keyword abilities. They’re a stark contrast to vanilla creatures, which have no abilities at all.[1][2]
Description
Conceptually, the phrase was first used to describe Akroma, Angel of Wrath and her seven keywords, though the premise stretched back to Urza's Avenger.
A "keyword soup strategy" refers to a deck that attempts to win by including a large number of cards with various keywords, often without strong synergy between them. The idea is to overwhelm the opponent with a variety of different effects, rather than focusing on a specific game plan or engine.
When achievements were added to MTG Arena, they included the Keyword Soup achievement: "Attack with a creature that has Flying, Vigilance, Trample, Lifelink, and Haste."[3] No creature natively has all five.
Many-keywords matter
A small set of cards reward having multiple, typically evergreen, keywords amongst one's cards, usually on the battlefield or in the graveyard. One case is from drafting (Animus of Predation) and one is from the library (Selective Adaptation). These cards are an unusual class of mechanical relevance as "Evergreen Keyword" is not a defined term, so they often list eight or more abilities in its rules text.
The most common keywords included in keyword soup are flying, first strike, double strike, deathtouch, haste, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, and vigilance. This list has a tendency to change every printing as evergreen mechanics are introduced or are deprecated and can't be updated with errata as it would make a functional change to the card.
History
The first card to feature keyword soup matters, Escaped Shapeshifter (Tempest), only had flying, first strike, trample and protection amongst its options, as common keywords double strike, haste, deathtouch, vigilance, menace, reach and lifelink were not keyworded yet. It also required the opponent to be the one with the keyworded creatures.
Death-Mask Duplicant and Concerted Effort included fear and landwalk, which later were deprecated. Death-Mask Duplicant excluded vigilance as it was keyworded in Champions of Kamigawa, while Concerted Effort excludes haste as it is an upkeep trigger. Later keyword-granting effects do so at beginning of combat as to keep haste relevant.
Odric is most often (cards) represented with keyword soup matters making this his signature ability.
Variants
- Cairn Wanderer is the only one of these that has Shroud, being the only design of this style made in the four years between Future Sight keywording it and Hexproof replacing it in Magic 2012.
- Odric, Lunarch Marshal lists Skulk, suggesting that it was intended to be an evergreen keyword before reception and gameplay determined otherwise. Curiously, it is also the only one to use first strike as the example rather than flying.
- Thunderous Orator gains abilities when attacking, so the defensive keywords hexproof and reach are left out, as are haste and vigilance, for obvious reasons.
- Odric, Blood-Cursed is the only one of these whose keyword counting has nothing to do with combat, instead creating a blood for each keyword.
- Indominus Rex, Alpha gains keyword counters, which introduces the haste keyword counter, in contrast to Kathril, Aspect Warper. It also inexplicably switches the order of hexproof and haste in its listing.
References
- ↑ Alexis (December 17, 2024). "The 23 Best Keyword Soup Cards in Magic Ranked". Draftism.com.
- ↑ Magis Set Editor. "MSE Glossary". Magicseteditor.boards.net.
- ↑ Grant Reid (February 3, 2025). "Introducing Achievements on MTG Arena". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.