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Skeleton Key

Skeleton Key

Artifact — Equipment

uncommon

Equipped creature has skulk. (It can't be blocked by creatures with greater power.) Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card. Equip

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Semantic Tags

Cantripmechanical

A spell that replaces itself by drawing a card as part of its resolution.

Card Drawmechanical

Puts additional cards into your hand. Includes direct draw, 'look/reveal and put into hand' effects, and conditional draw triggers.

Defensivevector

Suited for blocking and defense. Includes defender, reach, vigilance, and cards that incentivize blocking.

Equipmechanical

A keyword ability that lets a player attach an Equipment to a creature they control. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 702.6, “Equip.”

Equipment-focused strategy — attaching, equip cost reduction, equipment ETBs.

Evasivemechanical

Difficult to block or grants evasion. Includes flying, menace, fear, intimidate, shadow, skulk, horsemanship, unblockable effects, and cards that grant these abilities.

Draw-then-discard or discard-then-draw effects that improve hand quality without net card advantage.

Permanentmechanical

A card or token on the battlefield. See rule 110, “Permanents.”

Unblockablemechanical

Cannot be blocked or has an ability that makes it very hard to block.

Powers up a single creature with equipment or auras. Includes equipment, aura payoffs, and suited-up creature effects.

Format Legality

commanderlegal
oathbreakerlegal
modernlegal
pioneerlegal
standardnot legal
legacylegal
vintagelegal
paupernot legal
historicnot legal
explorernot legal
alchemynot legal

Price history

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Printings (1)

SetRarityTCGplayerCard KingdomCardmarket
Shadows over Innistrad#263uncommon···

Related Concepts

Equip

A keyword ability that lets a player attach an Equipment to a creature they control. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 702.6, “Equip.”

Related Rules

106.5

If an ability would produce one or more mana of an undefined type, it produces no mana instead.

106.7

Some abilities produce mana based on the type of mana another permanent or permanents “could produce.” The type of mana a permanent could produce at any time includes any type of mana that an ability of that permanent would produce if the ability were to resolve at that time, taking into account any applicable replacement effects in any possible order. Ignore whether any costs of the ability could or could not be paid. If that permanent wouldn’t produce any mana under these conditions, or no type of mana can be defined this way, there’s no type of mana it could produce.

106.12

To “tap [a permanent] for mana” is to activate a mana ability of that permanent that includes the {T} symbol in its activation cost. See rule 605, “Mana Abilities.”

106.12a

An ability that triggers whenever a permanent “is tapped for mana” or is tapped for mana of a specified type triggers whenever such a mana ability resolves and produces mana or the specified type of mana.

106.12b

A replacement effect that applies if a permanent “is tapped for mana” or tapped for mana of a specific type and/or amount modifies the mana production event while such an ability is resolving and producing mana or the specified type and/or amount of mana.

107.3m

If an object’s enters-the-battlefield triggered ability or replacement effect refers to X, and the spell that became that object as it resolved had a value of X chosen for any of its costs, the value of X for that ability is the same as the value of X for that spell, although the value of X for that permanent is 0. This is an exception to rule 107.3i.

107.5

The tap symbol is {T}. The tap symbol in an activation cost means “Tap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already tapped can’t be tapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.

107.6

The untap symbol is {Q}. The untap symbol in an activation cost means “Untap this permanent.” A permanent that’s already untapped can’t be untapped again to pay the cost. A creature’s activated ability with the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. See rule 302.6.

Rulings

2016-04-08

Skulk matters only as blockers are chosen. Modifying either creature’s power after blockers are chosen won’t cause the attacking creature to become unblocked.

2016-04-08

If you cause a creature to have 0 power or less, use the actual value (which may be negative) to determine whether it can block or be blocked. A creature with skulk and 0 or less power most likely won’t be blocked, but it won’t deal combat damage and won’t trigger any abilities that trigger when combat damage is dealt.