Skip to content
Moxonomy

Diversionary Tactics

Enchantment3 generic manaWhite mana

Tapping is the cheapest kind of removal: it does not kill anything, it just borrows the turn the creature would have spent attacking or blocking. What this enchantment does is turn that borrowing into an engine. Two of your creatures can be spent to lock down one of theirs, and crucially the spent creatures do not need to be the ones that benefit, so a wall of small bodies becomes a standing threat against any single large attacker. The math is the constraint: it costs two creatures to tap one, so the card only pays off when you have a board wide enough that trading taps two-for-one still leaves you ahead. That makes it a defensive piece for go-wide white, where the bodies are surplus and the opponent's win condition is a singular fattie or a key utility creature. It is also instant-speed and repeatable, which is the real difference from a one-shot Pacifism effect: you can tap down a would-be attacker before it strikes, or neutralize the right creature each turn rather than committing to a target in advance. The ability sits in the same family as later "tap two to disrupt" designs that ask you to convert a numbers advantage into tempo, paying in untapped creatures for the privilege of dictating which of the opponent's threats gets to act.

Diversionary Tactics (apc)
APC · #7uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.14
Foil: $2.33
Oracle Text

Rules text

Tap two untapped creatures you control: Tap target creature.
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
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

1 set
Quick navigation
move selectesc close