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Arcades, the Strategist
Legendary Creature — Elder Dragon
mythic
Flying, vigilance Whenever a creature you control with defender enters, draw a card. Each creature you control with defender assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power and can attack as though it didn't have defender.
3/5
Semantic 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 prohibits a creature from attacking. See rule 702.3, “Defender.”
Suited for blocking and defense. Includes defender, reach, vigilance, and cards that incentivize blocking.
Suited for blocking and defense. Includes defender, reach, vigilance, and cards that incentivize blocking.
Difficult to block or grants evasion. Includes flying, menace, fear, intimidate, shadow, skulk, horsemanship, unblockable effects, and cards that grant these abilities.
A keyword ability that restricts how a creature may be blocked. See rule 702.9, “Flying.”
A card or token on the battlefield. See rule 110, “Permanents.”
Cares about power of creatures — Fling effects, power-based draw, Xenagos strategies.
A keyword ability that lets a creature attack without tapping. See rule 702.20, “Vigilance.”
Format Legality
Price history
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Printings (4)
| Set | Rarity | TCGplayer | Card Kingdom | Cardmarket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The List#M19-212 | mythic | · | · | · |
| Time Spiral Remastered#371 | special | · | · | · |
| Core Set 2019#212 | mythic | · | · | · |
| Core Set 2019 Promos#212s | mythic | · | · | · |
Related Concepts
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
Arcades's last ability doesn't actually change any creature's power. It changes only the amount of combat damage it assigns. All other rules and effects that check power or toughness use the real values. For example, Rabid Bite won't cause a creature with defender to deal damage equal to its toughness.
If Arcades leaves the battlefield after a creature with defender has attacked, that creature remains an attacking creature, although it will assign damage equal to its power.