Can you regenerate a destroyed creature

Bridge card games. Does regenerate a creature remove it from combat? Does regenerate only work in combat? Do regenerated creatures come back tapped? Does regenerate last until the end of the turn? Can I regenerate after combat damage? Instead, tap it, remove all damage from it, and remove it from combat. Instead, I tap the creature and reset the amount of damage it has taken this turn. If it is in combat, I remove it from combat too.

This post may contain affiliate links to online stores. If you click a link and buy something, I may get a commission at no extra cost to you. See my affiliate disclosure. Regenerate has been a keyword action since Alpha. Initially, it was an evergreen keyword action. It appeared regularly in almost all sets until Oath of the Gatewatch, when its evergreen status was revoked.

In Kaladesh, regenerate was finally retired as a keyword. Although it began as an iconic keyword action, the rulings around regenerate quickly become overcomplicated and difficult for newer players.

Rules changes also altered the flavor of regenerate, which made it harder to design cards with the action. Originally, regenerate was an ability you activated in the damage step to save a creature from dying where it would otherwise take lethal damage. However, with updated rules, regenerate became a shield you activated pre-emptively to prevent a creature from being destroyed in the future. Initially, this addition was a way to nerf regenerate and make cards more powerful.

However, you might find some cards with this text in non-premier sets, primarily for flavor reasons. Suppose I attack with Ancient Silverback , a creature with an ability that lets me pay one green mana to regenerate it. Now, my opponent casts Defenestrate , targeting my Ancient Silverback.

Usually, my creature would be destroyed. However, instead, I can pay one green mana. Doing so regenerates Ancient Silverback. So, Defenestrate has no effect. All that happens is that I tap Ancient Silverback and remove it from combat. I can also regenerate a creature with spells, such as Boon of Erebos. Just like in the last example, my creature would die.

But I can regenerate it. I cast Boon of Erebos, targeting Battlefield Raptor. Instead, I remove Battlefield Raptor from combat and tap it. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Skip to content. You're on the list. There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription.

Please reload the page and try again. How to lose friends I wonder why he has that single piece of wrist armor. With Shock on the stack, you say "in response, I regenerate" and pay your mana. This puts the ability on the stack, on top of Shock. Now, assuming neither you nor your opponent want to play any more spells or abilities, the objects on the stack start to resolve from top to bottom LIFO , thus the ability resolves first and a regeneration shield is created.

Now Shock is at the top of the stack; assuming neither you nor your opponent want to play any more spells or abilities, it resolves, and your creature is dealt 2 damage, though this time it survives thanks to the replacement effect provided by its regeneration shield.

Here's an interesting case for you: your opponent casts Shock on your creature. In response, you tap two lands, and use your creature's regeneration ability. In response to this , your opponent taps for another red mana and casts another Shock from his hand! You may at this point be out of mana and unable to respond by using the regeneration ability again. In this case your creature is toast, despite trying to regenerate, as the second Shock will resolve before anything else Hope this helps you visualise how the stack works - it's quite hard until you suddenly "get it", and then it's pretty easy, I promise you!

What I really wanted to know is that if someone uses for example Shock on my creature can I say at that moment "Ok, I will spend 2 mana and regenerate my creature". Longer answer: I linked this nice article as a comment to your question that has a very thorough discussion, with examples, of how the Stack and Priority works in MtG. I thought I'd give the summary here. Note in this synopsis I will ignore any rules, cards or keywords that may modify these rules.

Split Second , Flash. And just to be crystal clear, once the Regeneration Shield resolves replaces a destruction effect that card can still be targeted again. If your opponent has another Shock and has mana, he can cast the spell on your creature. Of course, if you still have the mana, you can regenerate it again…. The way regeneration works is that, when a creature is regenerated, it receives protection from the next effect that would put it into the graveyard equivalent to the "destroy" action.

So, if your creature would receive lethal damage or be targeted by a Doom Blade or something, you can activate regeneration, and when the effect occurs, the destruction part of the effect is ignored, and instead the creature is tapped, if it wasn't already. So a creature with lethal damage has the damage removed, but the creature remains in play. The regeneration "shield" only protects against the first such effect; if your creature has two toughness and there are two Lightning Bolts on the stack targeting it, you'll need to activate its regeneration ability twice to keep it from dying.

Regeneration also doesn't protect against effects that exile the creature, sacrifice effects, or effects that specify that the creature is destroyed and cannot be regenerated.

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