Punisher

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Punisher
Mechanic
Introduced The Dark
Last used Avatar: The Last Airbender
Scryfall Statistics
171 cards
Colorless mana 7% White mana 1.8% Blue mana 10.5% Black mana 36.8% Red mana 21.1% Green mana 4.7% Multicolored 18.1%

Punisher is R&D slang for spells that force an opponent to decide how to punish themselves, usually giving them a choice between either two bad situations or between something bad for them and a bonus for you.[1][2][3]

Description

Punisher mechanics are characterized by two effects that are higher in rate than usually offered, offset by the opponent having the choice between them. Rarely are they effective at high levels, but certain players are huge fans. Over time, some of these have aged poorly as creature and removal cost efficiency has gone up, but rarely is the practicality of it the point. Some punisher cards require a mana cost, which plays very differently from a "classic punisher": it can be timed to when the opponent can't pay, forcing the outcome, and enough triggers will overwhelm an opponent's mana sources.

Punisher is primary in red, where one of the two abilities is usually damage to the opponent, making the choice; the other option is often something red doesn't normally do in the color pie (e.g. card draw). Black is secondary but doesn't tend to have the color pie–bending aspect.[3] Black also has more repeating Punishers, while Red tends to use spells or single triggers.

History

Punisher cards were first printed throughout the Odyssey block and were red. Two creatures were printed with punisher abilities: Longhorn Firebeast, which was either a 3/2 creature or five damage, and Barbarian Bully, a 2/2 which either became a 4/4 or dealt four damage. In the "alternative reality" themed set Planar Chaos, black got four punisher cards, using an unusual template where they are countered on the stack rather than sacrificed on entry for the two creatures (Brain Gorgers and Phantasmagorian). Some punisher cards from the Odyssey block got a modern card frame for the first time in Tibalt's deck for Duel Decks: Sorin vs. Tibalt. Soul Ransom in Gatecrash is an Aura with an opponent-only ability, which is one of the few cases of that template.

Tribute is a punisher mechanic introduced in Born of the Gods that was all creatures that either entered with multiple +1/+1 counters or gained an ability.

Indulgent Tormentor in Magic 2015 introduced a new formatting that gave your opponents a choice of three options, all of which were ultimately detrimental to them.[4] With a few changes, three-choice punisher effects were later dubbed as the Torment ability, used most in Hour of Devastation.

The Doctor Who/Commander decks introduced Villainous choice, an ability word for targeted punisher effects.

Rulings

  • When a punisher spell resolves, the player whose creature, land, or spell would be affected must choose whether to take damage or allow the spell's normal effect to work.
  • Damage that the punisher spell would deal to the player may be prevented.

Examples

Example

Book Burning 1 generic manaRed mana
Sorcery
Any player may have Book Burning deal 6 damage to them. If no one does, target player mills six cards.

In the above example, your opponent must decide whether to punish themselves by taking 6 points of damage or letting someone mill, potentially turning on threshold.

List of punisher cards

White mana White

Blue mana Blue

Black mana Black

Red mana Red

Green mana Green

Multicolored Multicolor

Colorless mana Colorless

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sam Stoddard (February 28, 2014). "A Tribute to Punisher". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2017-09-11.
  2. ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 16, 2017). "Are Browbeat like effects (Opponents chooses to hurt themselves or help you) still in Reds color pie?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
  3. ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
  4. ↑ Melissa DeTora (June 23, 2017). "Cycle of Torment". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2019-02-25.
 
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