Way behind

Way behind is a Magic game term introduced on the 2024 Mystery Booster 2 test card Knight of Lost Causes. It describes a game state in which a player is at a significant disadvantage.

Description

You are way behind if, at any point during a turn, an opponent has 10 or more life than you, controls at least three more creatures than you, or has at least three more cards in hand than you.

Cards of this vein have been printed prior in Eternal Magic, but rarely to the same degree of requirements. Timely Reinforcements, Sunset Revelry, Linvala, the Preserver and Beza, the Bounding Spring all articulate several states of "being behind", with the Keeper and Oath cycles in Exodus and the Pulse cycle of Darksteel have single versions. However, the major difference is that "way behind" is used as a continuous check while the other designs are instants or single triggers.

Example

Example

Knight of Lost Causes
Creature — Human Knight
2/2
Vigilance
As long as you are way behind, Knight of Lost Causes gets +3/+3 and has indestructible. (You are way behind if, at any point during this turn, an opponent had 10 or more life than you, controlled at least three more creatures than you, or had at least three more cards in hand than you.)}

Ruling

• To determine if you are way behind, check the game state as it was at any point during the current turn, regardless of whether Knight of Lost Causes was on the battlefield at that time. For example, if you control one creature and an opponent controls four, then you play Knight of Lost Causes going up to two creatures, you are way behind this turn because, at some point in the past the turn, that opponent controlled three creatures more than you.