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Moxonomy

Luke Cage, Power Man

Legendary Creature — Human Hero3 generic manaWhite mana

The trigger does something quietly subversive with the solo-attacker restriction: it turns a losing line into a threatening one. Sending a single creature into open mana is normally how you hand it to a removal spell, but a 2/5 that swings for four and gains indestructible while it does so is an awkward body to answer on that specific axis. The toughness carries as much of the design as the trigger does. At 2/5 he survives most combat math and most burn before Unbreakable Skin ever fires, and once it does, the indestructible clause shuts off every effect that reads "destroy" for the rest of your turn: no targeted destroy-based removal, no combat trick that trades up, no block that kills him. What the indestructible clause does not do is worth stating plainly, because the reward is narrow. It grants nothing on the opponent's turn, so a sorcery-speed board wipe cast on their main phase catches him like anything else, and it offers no protection against sacrifice effects, exile, or bounce, which route around destruction entirely. The answers that remain are the same ones white has always struggled to interact with. The discipline is that all of this is conditional on attacking alone, pricing the resilience against tempo: you get the durable beater only on the turns you commit to a lean, one-threat clock rather than a wide assault, which asks for a deck built to protect the rest of its plan somewhere other than the red zone.

Luke Cage, Power Man (msh)
MSH · #20uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.12
Foil: $0.30
Oracle Text

Rules text

Unbreakable Skin — Whenever Luke Cage attacks alone, he gets +2/+0 and gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy him.)
Legalities

Format Status

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