Knife and Death

Format legality

Where you can play Knife and Death in sanctioned and popular formats.

All printings (2)

Prices range from $0.11 to $0.29 across finishes. Cheapest printing: Unfinity at $0.13.

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Rulings

Official rulings from Wizards of the Coast (8).

• 2022-10-07Just a second is a variant of split second. Announcing Knife and Death instantly locks all permanents in place on the battlefield. As long as Knife and Death is on the stack, players can’t cast spells, activate abilities, or move their permanents.
• 2022-10-07The ten cards must be traditionally sized Magic cards. They can be in card sleeves if you’d like, but not otherwise modified. They must be thrown onto the battlefield from at least three feet (about one meter) away horizontally.
• 2022-10-07No player may interfere with the throwing of the ten cards, including while they’re in flight.
• 2022-10-07Card sleeves are considered part of the card. If a thrown card (or its own card sleeve) is touching another card’s sleeve, it is considered touching that card.
• 2022-10-07If one of the cards ends up touching the object used to represent a creature or planeswalker token an opponent controls, Knife and Death will deal damage to it.
• 2022-10-07Knife and Death considers only the creatures and planeswalkers any of the ten cards are touching after you have thrown the tenth card and all cards stop moving. It’s possible that a card will land touching a creature but then will be knocked off that creature by a later throw. That is, assess damage only after all knives . . . er, cards have been thrown.
• 2022-10-07If a thrown card ends up touching more than one creature or planeswalker you don’t control, Knife and Death will deal 1 damage to each of them. You’ll gain 1 life for each of them. Knife and Death won’t deal damage to creatures or planeswalkers you control that get hit, and you won’t gain life for them either.
• 2022-10-07The thrown cards never actually enter the game. After Knife and Death finishes resolving, they return from whence they came, to thine sideboard or collection.

Frequently asked questions