Act of Heroism

Instant

Untap target creature. It gets +2/+2 until end of turn and can block an additional creature this turn.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (27)

danthecolombian on Jumanji Aggro || Selesnya Surprise

3 years ago

psionictemplar, thanks again! Several of these will definitely work. I've added Act of Heroism to my Maybeboard and I'm looking to see how the others might fit in. In order to play the ambushers at little to no cost, I'd need most everyone tapped to draw in an attack. I'm still tweaking this concept and playtesting, but after turn 4-5, I lose momentum with the ambushers unless I can get a Wilt-Leaf Liege and several enchantments on the board.

Turn 1: Play a land (Forest). Play a Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Play a land (Plains). Play Behemoth Sledge. Flash in Qasali Ambusher if attacked.
Turn 3: Play a land. Equip the sledge and smash with ambusher. Use Fog effect or Dawn Charm if BoP gets targeted. Taking damage is fine, here, too.
Turn 4: Play a land. Play Wilt-Leaf Liege as a 5/5 creature and boosting all others by 1 or 2. One mana left for fog after attacking.
Turn 5: Play a land. Play Loxodon Hierarch as a 6/6 creature. Two mana left for Ephemerate or Fog effect at end of turn.

I don't want to take advantage of your time and generosity, but do you have any thoughts here?

psionictemplar on Jumanji Aggro || Selesnya Surprise

3 years ago

I'm glad you've taken the time to understand what you're looking to do and the reasoning on why I made the suggestions I did. Too often, I've known and made decisions too hastily, which in hindsight were not optimal by any means. While I did feel like the suggestions I made were helpful, there was a part of me that also felt like I was destroying the core identity of the deck in the same regard. It is one of the big reasons I try to advocate for having fun, playing the way you want.

To try and keep with the ambushing theme I've looked into some untapping effects for your creatures and found these budget options. Act of Heroism, Ahn-Crop Champion, Blessed Alliance, Call to Glory (granted you'd want samurai), Copperhorn Scout, Glare of Subdual,Knotvine Paladin, Rally of Wings.

FormOverFunction on Looking For Cards

3 years ago

I LOVE Chamber of Manipulation, so good call Mj3913. If this mechanic works for Act of Treason would cards like Act of Heroism adorn your creature with new abilities? Or would Accursed Horde make your zombies indestructible permanently?

Caerwyn on Card creation for custom set

4 years ago

Funkydiscogod - you would have to re-write that to make it a static ability; ~ gets +0/+X where X is the total power of all creature it is blocking.

If it is a triggered ability, they can simply cast a pump-spell post resolution of the triggered ability. You also need to reference the total power of all creatures to cover the odd situation where you might have cast Act of Heroism or something similar.

For this specific Instant, however, that was not the goal. The design was to allow your creatures to hold off the assault, but be killed in the process if you did not have a shieldwall-like situation. A secondary consideration was to make your creatures be able to hold off the assault even against pump spells. That means you have to give your creatures a static ability which can adjust on the fly, taking into account all the myriad nuances of the Combat Phase. It can be done, but the only feasible way to accomplish that task is to either use Banding or Banding's rules text:

Until end of turn, you assign how each attacking creature's combat damage is assigned. If you control three or more creatures that share a creature type, creatures you control gain indestructible until end of turn.

Banding's a great ability deserving of love though; it seems silly not to use an excuse to use it!

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All that brings me to another point, cards like Act of Heroism or creatures who can receive additional blocks would also be flavorful for what the shieldmages are trying to do. I like the idea of an activated ability like that on Coastline Chimera that allows you to dump a bunch of mana into the creature and block a whole host of bad guys.

bootsworthy on Modern Centaurs

5 years ago

Hi JessT! It looks like Armadillo Cloak isn't modern legal!

I might consider consolidating some of your creatures and instead of having two of a bunch of different creatures, choose a few that you'd really like to see come out in a game and give yourself 3 or 4 of them.

I might also think about adding some more cards with a CMC, so that you have a better chance of being able to throw something out there on your first turn.

A cool thing you could possibly do with Pheres-Band Raiders and Pheres-Band Tromper is use cards like Beacon Hawk, Act of Heroism, Aim High, Djeru's Resolve, Gift of Growth, Ornamental Courage, or Prepare to untap them after they've attacked and activate their abilities.

I'm also worried about Pheres-Band Warchief being in there, because if it's out on the battlefield, cards like Pheres-Band Raiders and Pheres-Band Tromper will have vigilance, and thus not tap when they attack and not be able to activate their untap abilities.

I hope some of this is useful!

KarnaxHestrus on cheap RW dinos

5 years ago

You should put more creatures. Take out 1 Tormenting Voice, 1 Dinosaur Stampede and 2 Act of Heroism and put Sun-Blessed Mount, Etali, Primal Storm or something.

Kogarashi on Ojutai Exemplars Trigger + Untap …

5 years ago

The way the stack works, you'd have Murder on the bottom, because your opponent cast it. Act of Heroism would be on the stack next, as your response. Casting this triggers Ojutai Exemplars, which means their trigger is on the stack above Act of Heroism, and thus resolves first, so your Exemplars would flicker before anything else happens.

Unfortunately, the Exemplars permanent that returns to the battlefield is a different permanent than the one Act of Heroism targeted, so your Act of Heroism would fizzle. Luckily for you, the same applies to your opponent's Murder.

Ixthinon on Ojutai Exemplars Trigger + Untap …

5 years ago

The spell you cast, Act of Heroism, requires a target. Once you have that target leave the battlefield the spell Act of Heroism is invalid. Just as if you cast Cloudshift instead to avoid the Murder.

I know this doesn't answer your question exactly but it has the result of not working as is.