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Moxonomy

Captain's Maneuver

InstantX generic manaRed manaWhite mana

Redirection, not prevention. Most damage-interaction spells of its era either fogged the hit, prevented it outright (Healing Salve), or shrank the source. This one lets the damage land, just somewhere you choose: a burn spell, an attacker's combat damage, even a swing from an opposing creature gets rerouted to whatever target you name. The X scales with whatever is incoming, so a lethal alpha strike or a giant red sorcery becomes the answer to a different problem entirely. Because it is an instant, you are never guessing: you cast it in response to the spell already on the stack, or after attackers and blockers are declared, knowing exactly how much damage is on its way before you commit the mana. That is precisely what makes the reroute clean. An opponent's removal becomes your removal, their attack becomes your strike against a third player, and the original aggressor watches their own resources land on someone else's board. The wording draws a tight boundary on the trick: it governs only the next X damage to a single target, and it must resolve before that damage is dealt. Size X too small and the overflow still connects; misjudge which source fires first and the redirect sits idle. Read the sequence correctly and you have turned the table's biggest threat into its own undoing, a far more interesting axis than the prevention effects it sits beside in red-white's defensive toolkit.

Captain's Maneuver (apc)
APC · #92uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.17
Foil: $2.39
Oracle Text

Rules text

The next X damage that would be dealt to target creature, planeswalker, or player this turn is dealt to another target creature, planeswalker, or player instead.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
N/A
Legacy
Legal
Vintage
Legal
Commander
Legal
Pauper
N/A
Brawl
N/A
Historic
N/A
Alchemy
N/A
Timeless
N/A
Standard Brawl
N/A
More formats
Old School
N/A
Premodern
Legal
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
N/A
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
Legal
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
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