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Stronghold Arena
Enchantment
rare
Kicker and/or (You may pay an additional and/or as you cast this spell.) When this enchantment enters, you gain 3 life for each time it was kicked. Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, you may reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. If you do, you lose life equal to its mana value.
Semantic Tags
Puts additional cards into your hand. Includes direct draw, 'look/reveal and put into hand' effects, and conditional draw triggers.
Gains you life. Relevant for lifegain-matters strategies and general survivability.
A card or token on the battlefield. See rule 110, “Permanents.”
Cares about or manipulates the top card(s) of your library. Includes scry, surveil, and top-deck payoffs.
Cares about or manipulates the top of library — Sensei's Top, miracles, Future Sight.
Format Legality
Price history
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Printings (5)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic Online Promos#103428 | rare | · | · | · |
| Dominaria United#404 | rare | · | · | · |
| Dominaria United Promos#110s | rare | · | · | · |
| Dominaria United Promos#110p | rare | · | · | · |
| Dominaria United#110 | rare | · | · | · |
Related Rules
If an ability would produce one or more mana of an undefined type, it produces no mana instead.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
As Stronghold Arena's last ability resolves, you don't get to see what the card of your library is before deciding whether to reveal it. If you choose to reveal it, you must put it into your hand and will lose life.
Normally, combat damage is dealt all at the same time. In that case, Stronghold Arena's last ability triggers once for each opponent that creatures you control dealt combat damage to, regardless of how many creatures were dealing that damage. If any of those creatures have double strike or first strike, the ability will trigger once for each opponent dealt damage in each combat damage step.
You may kick Stronghold Arena only once for its {G} cost and only once for its {W} cost. You can kick it twice by paying {G}{W}, but you can't kick it twice by paying {G}{G} or {W}{W}. You can't kick it more than twice.
The kicker ability doesn't let you pay a kicker cost more than once.
If a spell's kicker cost was paid, the spell is "kicked."
If you copy a kicked spell on the stack, the copy is also kicked. If the copied spell is a permanent spell, the token the copy of that spell becomes when it enters is also kicked.
If a card or token enters as a copy of a permanent, the new permanent isn't kicked, even if the original was.
If you put a permanent with a kicker ability onto the battlefield without casting it, you can't kick it.
To determine a spell's total cost, start with the mana cost (or an alternative cost if another card's effect allows you to pay one instead), add any cost increases (such as kicker), then apply any cost reductions. The spell's mana value remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.