How Does Intimidate Work in Magic: The Gathering?

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Learn the rules behind MTG’s Intimidate ability
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Intimidate is an ability in Magic: The Gathering that makes a creature unblockable unless you block them with an artifact creature or a creature that shares a color with it. This may seem intuitive enough, but there are a few niche scenarios where intimidate can clash with other rules and mechanics. Worry not, we’ll cover all of these situations and more.

Intimidate in Magic: The Gathering

Intimidate is an evasion ability in MTG that basically means a creature cannot be blocked unless the blocker is the same color or an artifact. Intimidate is an “update” of the fear ability, and would go on to be replaced by menace, which is now the only iteration of this kind of combat evasion.

Section 1 of 6:

How does intimidate work?

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    If a creature has the intimidate keyword, they cannot be blocked unless the blocker shares a color with it or is an artifact. Notably, intimidate does not impact what the creature can block—just who can block them. Intimidate’s reminder text reads, “this creature can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.” [1]
    • Intimidate is an evasion ability (like flying, fear, or shadow).
    • The intimidate keyword has appeared in every color, but it’s primarily a black ability.
    • Intimidate is a static ability, not a triggered or activated ability. In other words, it is always true.
    • The intimidate ability is meant to replicate the fear of the unknown. The creature is too scary to fight unless you share something in common with them (color) or you can’t be scared in the first place (artifacts).
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Section 2 of 6:

How does intimidate work with multicolored creatures?

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    Let’s say you’re being attacked by a Lifebane Zombie . If you had a Thief of Sanity or a Sliver Queen , you could block it! So long as the color is represented somewhere in a card’s mana cost, it can block an intimidate creature with the same color. [2]
Section 3 of 6:

What if a creature changes colors?

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    Let’s say you have a Lifebane Zombie on the board and your opponent plays a Painter’s Servant , naming green. Now, all of the creatures are green—including the Lifebane Zombie. Now, it can’t be blocked by black creatures, even though it was originally black! It can be blocked by green creatures, though. [3]
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    Let’s say you attack with your red Academy Raider , which has intimidate. Your opponent blocks with a Bonecrusher Giant . You go to the damage step and activate Distorting Lens to make the Giant green, thinking that it will make it unable to block the raider. Unfortunately, it’s already blocked and the damage goes through.
    • In our example, you’d have to activate the Distorting Lens before the Academy Raider attacked. Intimidate cares about the declare blockers step—once a creature has been legally blocked, the ability does nothing.
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Section 4 of 6:

Can colored artifacts block intimidate creatures?

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    Intimidate explicitly says, “This creature can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.” The “or” there is key. If a creature is an artifact, it can block any creature with intimidate, regardless of color.
    • This means colored artifacts, like Porcelain Legionnaire , can block intimidate creatures even if they don’t share a color with them.
Section 5 of 6:

Can devoid creatures block intimidate creatures?

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    There are about 100 creatures with devoid, an ability that makes the creature colorless, even if there are colored mana pips in the converted mana cost. So, even though Bearer of Silence has a black mana in its mana cost, it couldn’t block an attacking Lifebane Zombie .
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Section 6 of 6:

Why did WOTC stop using intimidate?

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    Intimidate has been swapped out for menace going forward. Intimidate is a rare 10/10 on the storm scale—the scale game designer Mark Rosewater uses to determine whether a mechanic will ever return. [4] The original version of this mechanic was fear, which made a creature unblockable unless the other creature was black or an artifact. This was too restrictive, so Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) developed intimidate to replace it. [5]
    • Intimidate ended up being too restrictive as well. It punishes opponents for not playing creatures that are the same color as you, which is a bit arbitrary.
    • Menace makes creatures unblockable unless you block them with two or more creatures. This proved to be a good middle ground so far as combat evasion goes.

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      References

      1. ↑ https://dotesports.com/mtg/news/how-does-intimidate-work-in-magic-the-gathering
      2. ↑ https://media.wizards.com/2024/downloads/MagicCompRules%2020240308.pdf
      3. ↑ https://media.wizards.com/2024/downloads/MagicCompRules%2020240308.pdf
      4. ↑ https://mtgstormscale.com/
      5. ↑ https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/144356686243/where-are-fear-and-intimidate-on-the-storm-scale

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