Destroy

Build, Destroy

I realized as I started assembling my notes for this short essay that Murder is not the original sin, at least as far as Magic is concerned. While there have always been removal spells in MTG since the early days of the game, unconditional kill spells were a rarity in the early phases of the game’s history. Even good old Murder (killing one creature with no rider/condition) was only brought to Magic in 2013, more than 20 years into the game’s history.

“Destroy” as a keyword might be among the most self explanatory in the game. All it does is remove a permanent (usually a creature) from the field of play, and puts it into the owner’s graveyard. Clean, efficient removal. No math required. Don’t like a thing? Don’t see it again. Unless…

One of the tricks of kill spells that levels a new Magic player’s heuristics up from noob to Pro is that destroy spells don’t necessarily mean destroy forever. Of course, the piece is removed from the board, and any new copies or copies brought back are con…