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Startling Development
Instant
common
Until end of turn, target creature becomes a blue Serpent with base power and toughness 4/4. Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
Card Kingdom
CardmarketSemantic Tags
A spell that replaces itself by drawing a card as part of its resolution.
Puts additional cards into your hand. Includes direct draw, 'look/reveal and put into hand' effects, and conditional draw triggers.
A keyword ability that lets a card be discarded and replaced with a new card. See rule 702.29, “Cycling.”
Cycling-focused strategy — payoffs for cycling, cycling triggers, Astral Drift effects.
Draw-then-discard or discard-then-draw effects that improve hand quality without net card advantage.
A permanent with a repeatable activated ability that converts excess mana into value.
Format Legality
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Printings (2)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jumpstart 2022#350 | common | · | · | · |
| Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths#68 | common | · | · | · |
Related Concepts
Related Rules
Cycling
Cycling is an activated ability that functions only while the card with cycling is in a player’s hand. “Cycling [cost]” means “[Cost], Discard this card: Draw a card.”
Although the cycling ability can be activated only if the card is in a player’s hand, it continues to exist while the object is on the battlefield and in all other zones. Therefore objects with cycling will be affected by effects that depend on objects having one or more activated abilities.
Some cards with cycling have abilities that trigger when they’re cycled. “When you cycle this card” means “When you discard this card to pay an activation cost of a cycling ability.” These abilities trigger from whatever zone the card winds up in after it’s cycled.
Typecycling is a variant of the cycling ability. “[Type]cycling [cost]” means “[Cost], Discard this card: Search your library for a [type] card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.” This type is usually a subtype (as in “mountaincycling”) but can be any card type, subtype, supertype, or combination thereof (as in “basic landcycling”).
Typecycling abilities are cycling abilities, and typecycling costs are cycling costs. Any cards that trigger when a player cycles a card will trigger when a card is discarded to pay an activation cost of a typecycling ability. Any effect that stops players from cycling cards will stop players from activating cards’ typecycling abilities. Any effect that increases or reduces a cycling cost will increase or reduce a typecycling cost. Any effect that looks for a card with cycling will find a card with typecycling.
Rulings
Effects that modify the affected creature’s power or toughness without setting it will apply no matter when they started to take effect. The same is true for counters that change the creature’s power or toughness.
Startling Development overwrites all previous effects that set the affected creatures’ color, creature types, power, and/or toughness to specific values. Other effects that set these characteristics to specific values that start to apply after Startling Development resolves will overwrite that part of the effect.
The affected creature doesn’t lose any abilities when it becomes a Serpent.
Because damage remains marked on a creature until the damage is removed as the turn ends, nonlethal damage dealt to the target creature may become lethal once its base toughness becomes 4.