Don't forget Auras and Equipment, even if they are somehow attached to permanents you don't control. When checking if you control ten or more permanents, count every permanent you control, including lands and tokens. This means Secrets of the Golden City can give you the city's blessing before determining whether you'll draw two or three cards. Those instructions appear after the ascend ability, so they'll happen after the check. In this case, the ascend ability checks if you control ten or more permanents only once, as the spell resolves. The ascend ability on an instant or sorcery works slightly differently. Ascend always looks at the current game state, not the past.Īscend also appears on instants and sorceries, such as Secrets of the Golden City. If you control ten permanents, then go back to eight, and then you cast Dusk Charger as your ninth permanent, you won't get the city's blessing just yet. But the permanent with ascend has to be under your control to check. This doesn't use the stack and can't be responded to. The moment you do, you get the city's blessing. If ascend is on a permanent, it constantly checks to see whether you control ten or more permanents.

For example, Dusk Charger gets a nice boost to 5/5 if you have the city's blessing. It doesn't do anything by itself, but different cards will get bonuses if you have the city's blessing. The city's blessing isn't a permanent or emblem, and nothing can destroy it or otherwise interact with it. The city's blessing is a designation that the ascend ability can give you. What is the city's blessing? How do you get it? Let's check out Dusk Charger. That's a fairly unusual description for a Magic ability, but then again, ascend is a fairly unusual ability. Ascend unlocks different bonuses on different cards if you have the city's blessing.

Rivals of Ixalan features one new keyword: ascend. Rivals of Ixalan gives you even more tools to secure your discoveries once and for all. But finding something isn't the same as keeping it, and now the real fight begins. Incredible riches, unthinkable power, and a crazy little artifact called the Immortal Sun-all within your grasp. Good news, Planeswalker! Your adventures on Ixalan have led you to the once-lost city of Orazca.

Rivalos of ixalan release