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Magic: The Gatheringhas lots of interesting ways to make spells cost more than you think they do. Mechanics like kicker, offspring, and ward all ask more of you than the measly mana cost, and gifting is just one more example of it.
By promising your opponent a gift, you can change up the abilities of your spells. This makes them more flexible, but be careful of giving your opponents things they could use against you.
What Is Gifting?
As mentioned, gifting is anadditional cost, which you’re able to pay to change or add additional effects to a card. But instead of mana likekickeror offspring, the cost is that youpromise your opponent something. It could be anything, from drawing a card to making a token of some description.
When your opponent receives their gift happens a different times depending on the type of card you played. If it was a permanent spell, such as an enchantment, creature, or artifact, they receive their promised giftafter the permanent enters the battlefield.If it’s a non-permanent spell, meaning an instant or sorcery, they receive itbefore the spell’s effects are resolved.
For permanents, the gift is classed as an enter trigger, so be careful of trigger doublers like Panharmonicon and Roaming Throne.
However, regardless of what kind of spell was cast,it needs to resolve for your opponent to get the gift.If it’s countered, your opponent doesn’t get their gift. This makes promising gifts an excellent bargaining strategy.
Gifting is optional. Youdon’t have to promise your opponent anything, but you’ll also not get the additional benefits promising a gift can confers.
How To Use Gifting
Gifts are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s tempting to think of what you’re promising asa minor thing. It doesn’t matter if an opponent draws a card or makes a token, if in exchange you’re casting a splashy spell that could help you win the game.
However, this canquickly spiral out of controlif you don’t plan for it. A token is an easy chump blocker, and card draw could give your opponent the answer to dealing with your threat. This is especially true in one-on-one competitive formats like Standard and Modern, asevery resource your opponent gains is aimed squarely at you.
Commander is where gifts get interesting. Commander is already a political format where deals are made and alliances are formed, and using a gift toget someone on your sidewhile also giving you a buff to your spell is a good way of playing the whole table.
In a lot of ways, gifting issimilar to the demonstrate mechanic, where both you and an opponent both copy a spell, and should be treated similarly. Be careful ofwho you make deals withand who you give resources to, but also don’t be afraid to give your opponent a little bit of help if it means you get much farther ahead.
The Best Gifting Cards
Most cards with gifting attached to them aren’t on the high end of the power scale, offering small buffs to cheap effects provided you promise a gift. That doesn’t mean some aren’t worth keeping an eye out for, though.
