Desperate Gambit
Instant
Card text
Choose a source you control and flip a coin. If you win the flip, the next time that source would deal damage this turn, it deals double that damage instead. If you lose the flip, the next time it would deal damage this turn, prevent that damage.
Showing Weatherlight#96
Price
0.60 $
9 printings
Daily estimate from Scryfall, not a shop quote.
Desperate Gambit rulings
The chosen source may be a permanent, a spell on the stack, or anything referred to by something on the stack (such as a Prodigal Pyromancer that’s left the battlefield while its ability is still on the stack)
The coin is flipped during resolution of this spell, so you know in advance what will happen when the source deals damage the next time.
Desperate Gambit keyword rules
Double Rule 701.9
Doubling a creature’s power and/or toughness creates a continuous effect. This effect modifies that creature’s power and/or toughness but doesn’t set those characteristics to a specific value. See rule .
To double a creature’s power, that creature gets +X/+0, where X is that creature’s power as the spell or ability that doubles its power resolves. Similarly, an effect that doubles a creature’s toughness gives it +0/+X, where X is that creature’s toughness. Doubling a creature’s power and toughness gives it +X/+Y, where X is its power and Y is its toughness.
If a creature’s power is less than 0 when it’s doubled, doubling that creature’s power instead means that the creature gets -X/-0, where X is the difference between 0 and its power. Similarly, if its toughness is less than 0 when doubled, it gets -0/-X. If one characteristic’s value is negative but the other isn’t when both are doubled, it gets -X/+Y or +X/-Y, as appropriate.
To double a player’s life total, the player gains or loses an amount of life such that their new life total is twice its current value.
To double the number of a kind of counters on a player or permanent, give that player or permanent as many of those counters as that player or permanent already has.
To double the amount of a type of mana in a player’s mana pool, that player adds an amount of mana of that type equal to the amount they already have.
To double an amount of damage a source would deal, that source instead deals twice that much damage. This is a replacement effect.
Desperate Gambit format legality
Constructed
- StandardNot legal
- PioneerNot legal
- ModernNot legal
- Future StandardNot legal
Eternal
- LegacyLegal
- VintageLegal
- PauperNot legal
- PremodernLegal
- Old SchoolNot legal
- Penny DreadfulNot legal
Commander
- CommanderLegal
- OathbreakerLegal
- Pauper CommanderNot legal
- Duel CommanderLegal
- PreDHLegal
Arena & online
- HistoricNot legal
- TimelessNot legal
- AlchemyNot legal
- GladiatorNot legal
- BrawlNot legal
- Standard BrawlNot legal
- Competitive BrawlNot legal
Other
- TLRLegal
All printings of Desperate Gambit 9
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