An animate effect or spell is one that turns a non-creature into a creature, most of the times for a certain amount of time. The mechanic was first introduced in Alpha with Animate Artifact, Animate Dead and Mishra's Factory.[1]
Examples
Animated Artifacts
Self-animating
- Chimeric Staff, and other Chimeric artifacts
- Darksteel Brute
- Jade Idol and all other Idols
- Slumbering Tora
- Stalking Stones
Animate others
- Karn's Touch
- Karn, Silver Golem
- March of the Machines
- Sydri, Galvanic Genius
- Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
- Titania's Song
- Toymaker
- Xenic Poltergeist
Animated creature cards in the graveyard
Animated Enchantments
Self-animating
- Halcyon Glaze
- Lurking Jackals
- Still Life
- Testament of Faith
- Sleeping enchantments like the Hidden, Opal and Veiled creatures of Urza's Saga (Hidden Gibbons, Opal Acrolith, Veiled Crocodile etc.)
Animate others
Animated Instants and Sorceries
Animated Lands
Land is the most popular card type to be animated. Green, as the color connected most closely to lands and creatures, is the color most likely to turn lands into creatures — usually still keeping them lands. The mechanic is secondary in red and tertiary in all other colors.[2]
- Animate Land
- Awakener Druid
- Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi
- Genju of the Cedars
- Genju of the Falls
- Genju of the Fens
- Genju of the Fields
- Genju of the Realm
- Genju of the Spires
- Hunting Wilds
- Jolrael, Empress of Beasts
- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa
- Lifespark Spellbomb
- Quirion Druid
- Rude Awakening
- Soilshaper
- Vivify
If a land is self-animating its is called a manland.
Animated Planeswalkers
Animated Library
Variants
- Wakestone Gargoyle and Warmonger's Chariot allows creatures with defender to attack; thus Animate Wall and Rolling Stones only allows Wall to attack.
- Licids and Soul Sculptor turn creatures into enchantments.
"Artifact-ize"
There are spells or effects that turn non-artifacts into artifacts.
- Argent Mutation
- Ashnod's Transmogrant
- Liquimetal Coating
- Memnarch
- Mycosynth Lattice
- Myr Landshaper
- Neurok Transmuter
- Phyrexian Metamorph
- Silverskin Armor
- Thran Forge
- Transmogrifying Licid
- Xathrid Gorgon
References
- ↑ Magic Arcana (June 17, 2004). "The animating principle". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (November 27, 2017). "Unstable Scraps, Part 1". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.