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Moxonomy

Uncle Istvan

Creature — Human1 generic manaBlack manaBlack manaBlack mana

A 1/3 body that simply will not die to anything a creature can throw at it. The design is a pure wall built on damage prevention rather than toughness: every point of damage from a creature is erased before it lands, whether it comes from combat, a pinger, or a fight spell. The only thing that matters is the printed 3 toughness against noncreature sources. For an early-era black card this is an unusually defensive piece of work, since black's identity has always leaned on removal and trades rather than an immovable object that politely refuses to die. The catch is the triple-black cost, which demands deep commitment to a single color, and the reward is a creature that stonewalls the ground without ever threatening to win a game on its own. It blocks anything, survives the block, and does it again next turn, but it answers only one kind of damage: burn, edicts, evasion, and any noncreature effect walk right past it, which is exactly the friction that keeps an otherwise unkillable blocker from being oppressive. The card reads as a deliberate exception in its set, a black creature whose whole job is to absorb and outlast rather than to drain or destroy, named and flavored as the kind of thing you would rather not meet across the table at night.

Uncle Istvan (4ed)
4ED · #165uncommon
Pricing
Normal: $0.28
Foil:
Oracle Text

Rules text

Prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature by creatures.
Legalities

Format Status

Standard
N/A
Pioneer
N/A
Modern
Legal
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
Legal
Premodern
Legal
PreDH
Legal
Pauper Commander
N/A
Oathbreaker
Legal
Gladiator
N/A
Penny Dreadful
Legal
Duel Commander
Legal
Future Standard
N/A
COMPETITIVEBRAWL
N/A
TLR
N/A
Printings elsewhere

Other printings

4 sets
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