Donate

Sorcery

Target player gains control of target permanent you control.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

legendofa on Tiers of card badness

1 month ago

Not all "bad" cards are created equal. As I see it, just like how there's build-around good cards, really good cards, and must-include cards, there's several tiers of cards that don't quite measure up.

At the top, there's the weird cards. These cards have unique effects. They're generally useful and/or interesting, but make lots of demands for deckbuilding and have no redundancy. Spellweaver Helix, Riku of Two Reflections, and Leyline of the Guildpact are some examples. Good for casual play and for "trying to make work".

Next is the draft fodder. Good if you don't have anything better, but easily replaceable. These cards get functionally reprinted a lot, and are usually pretty straightforward. I would put Cancel, Shock, and Alabaster Host Sanctifier as examples. You won't be ashamed to use them in Limited, and they work well as starters for a new collection, but they get outclassed quickly.

Next, and the first tier I would call truly bad cards, are the very inefficient cards and the cards that just don't do anything. They're significantly overcosted, or there's many better options. These cards might still be technically useful, or at least not actively harmful, but they can't compete with anything else. Mudhole, Razor Boomerang, and Aven Trooper go here.

Finally, there's the worst of the worst. The cards that actively hurt you and make it harder to play the game. If you put them in a deck, you're either trying to meme or you're going to Donate them. Alabaster Leech, Soldevi Steam Beast, and Goblin Elite Infantry fall into this group.

This is subjective and a continuum, so there's a lot of room to arrange individual cards. I've been reading Mark Rosewater's articles on bad cards, and designing Nihilist decks (example here), and there's been some forum discussion on what cards are worth using and which aren't. So it's been on my mind recently.

Neotrup on Hive Mind / Donate interaction

2 months ago

Because Donate targets, it can only target something they controlled when they make the copy. That said, because Hive Mind says they may choose new targets, they are allowed to leave the target unchanged. Since it's targeting one of your permanents, the target will be illegal on resolution.

legendofa on Is WotC Being Inconsistent in …

2 months ago

I personally see a distinction between downsides and restrictions. Both are ways to limit the utility of the card, but downsides give you an outsized effect for the cost, but it actively hinders or harms you, while a restriction limits when or how the effect can be used.

Like, Volcanic Spite doesn't have a downside because it can't hurt players. That's a restriction. Similarly, the "activate only one per turn" clause isn't a downside because it doesn't actively hurt you or prevent you from playing. It simply limits how it can be used.

A couple of downside examples would be Steel Golem, which prevents you from casting any more creature spells, or Demonic Pact, which gives you lots of resources, but will cause you to straight up lose eventually.

Basically, if you would want to Donate it to an opponent, it's a downside. If you want to keep it but use it more often, it's a restriction. If it simply costs too much (Ember Shot) it's inefficient.

Max_Hammer on Rakdos Santa Deck

10 months ago

Bronze Bombshell is one you missed. (: Also, you might wanna make it Grixis for the fact that there's plenty of blue gift cards. Donate and Jon Irenicus, Shattered One are two prime examples. Also, cut one of your copies of Blim, most of the time having 4 legendries is too much and you'd be better off just including more efficient draw.

Squee_Spirit_Guide on UBR Trix - Premodern

1 year ago

I just absolutely love this! Illusions of Grandeur and Donate was one of the first combo decks I made and I still love it! The Burning Wishes to tutor from the sideboard is really nice as well. My decks never had anything so sophisticated :)

Rhadamanthus on How does donating a creature …

1 year ago

In each of the examples you described, the player who the creature was donated to will keep control of it.

Because control-changing effects all apply in the same layer, the one with the most recent timestamp will take precedence. If an effect with an older timestamp ends, it doesn't force the most recent one to end as well. For each of your examples, the effect created by Jon Irenicus, Shattered One (or whatever you used to Donate the creature) has the most recent timestamp, so it will determine who controls the creature.

Neotrup on How does Cultist of the …

1 year ago

It does not work if you're using Assault Suit to give them your commander, because Assault Suit triggers on their upkeep, so it's too late for your commander's upkeep trigger to also trigger. It does work if you use something like Donate or Harmless Offering to give them your commander though.

vishnarg on Killing by giving opponents "positive" …

1 year ago

I mean I always love the classic Immortal Coil + Donate/Bazaar Trader. Since you mentioned you want to force your opponents to cast spells, the perfect card for that is Hive Mind :) edit: just saw that somebody already mentioned that.