Magic’s beauty lies both in its internal friction and the design choices Wizards has made to reduce that friction. The best mechanics in Magic—Cycling, Kicker, modal double-faced cards—have all been ways to ameliorate mana flood or mana drought, increase the number of options in a given situation, and encourage interaction between players. This wasn’t the focus of the game initially; early Magic was often about restrictions, whether that was sabotaging your own resource development with Cumulative Upkeep or locking your opponent out of the game with Stasis or Winter Orb. But as the game grew in popularity and Wizards of the Coast gathered player feedback, card design trended towards increased player efficacy (sometimes to the game’s detriment, as the hyper-empowerment of Urza’s Saga proved).
The purpose of Magic is to keep players playing Magic, and players who feel like they lost to their mana base are players who might seek out a competing game for their next game night instead of trying again. But even in Magic’s earliest days, Wizards was trying to find a balance of tension between “no, you absolutely cannot do that” (Capsize, Forbid) and “yes, you can do that, in fact, do it more” (Tolarian Academy, Corpse Dance).
The resource-denial elements of the game shifted a bit circa 1997, and an early herald of this change was the innovation of spells with multiple modes. Modal spells had been suggested by Alpha’s Healing Salve and Alabaster Potion, but the power level of the most maligned “boon” kept it from reading as such. Instead, it was the Charm cycles from 1996’s Mirage and 1997’s Visions that gave us the current modal form–three options (now templated with bullet points since Khans of Tarkir) that are situationally useful but not independently worth the mana they cost. Instead of paying for power, we pay for flexibility.
The modal model has been adapted for hundreds of cards over the years, from Jeska’s Will to Monument to Endurance, and these cards tend to be underrespected on paper and decent to exceptional in play. Players like options–and more importantly, players like to feel as though they have made the right choice in a situation with options–and so Charms, Wills, and Commands are durably popular. But it all started with the Charm cycle, ten cards from thirty years ago that are completely obsolete by this point. No one is reaching for an Emerald Charm when Pick Your Poison exists, after all, but the Charms still deserve respect for how they changed the game.
Charmed to Meet You
We get the word “charm” from the Old French charme, meaning “a magic spell, especially one that is sung or recited.” The definition of “charm” as “an object worn to ward off evil” dates back to the end of the 16th century. In Magic, the first charm was Freyalise’s Charm, although Mirage brought the first cycle with Ivory Charm and friends and Visions gave us our second cycle in a single year with Hope Charm and its cohort. These original Mirage/Vision charms were beautifully and evocatively illustrated, but are mostly forgotten, save for Vision Charm, which has gone on to define the Dandan format, and Funeral Charm, which has useful enough modes to be periodically playable (c.f., Piracy Charm, the color-swapped version of Funeral Charm).
The Onslaught cycle of Charms, which includes Piety Charm and Misery Charm, has a slightly better rate, but not enough to be memorable. But those early Charms set the pattern for the initial phase of Magic’s charms: a single mana for three extremely situational and underpowered options. The potency of the card comes from the fact that it’s effectively a split card.
Between Mirage Block and Onslaught Block, we had an evolution of the charm: the three-colored draconic charms from Planeshift. On simple rate, Darigaaz’s Charm is execrable. It’s Raise Dead, Lightning Bolt, or Giant Growth, but for the combined price of all three. This model of Charm would be brought back in Shards of Alara and Khans of Tarkir, representing the fusion of three colors of magic and the philosophy that animates them. It takes a lot for a triple-colored spell to be playable, and the Planeshift Dragon charms rarely got there, but by the time Wizards brought us to Tarkir back in 2014, they had them well balanced. Each new version of the triple-colored charms ramped up in power–no one was hyped to play Dromar’s Charm, but Bant Charm saw a fair amount of tournament play in a powerful Standard environment, and the Khans Charms are much closer to what we’d expect to pay for a similar effect. Mardu Charm’s version of Raise the Alarm is pretty poor, but sometimes you have RWB up and your opponent is attacking with a 4/2.
In the game of Magic, having options is incredibly powerful, and so even a card that reads as poorly as Esper Charm saw play. A three-mana Demystify is awful, unless you’re desperate, but sometimes you’re simply desperate, and the other modes of an instant speed Divination/Mind Rot are both card advantage. No one has seriously considered Mind Rot playable since the Mirage Charms were new, but when it comes as a bonus mode on a decent card draw spell (c.f. Catalog or Inspiration), sometimes those two remaining cards in your opponent’s hand look pretty juicy. That’s what Charms offer at their best: efficiency and flexibility, as we see in pseudo-charm Pick Your Poison, or Magic’s cutest charm, Umezawa’s Charm.
Recently, Wizards has even been slowrolling a different kind of charm: the dedicated “arch-” Charms, beginning with Modern Horizons’ Archmage’s Charm. A tournament staple for a bit, Archmage’s Charm was followed by Archdruid’s Charm and Archenemy’s Charm, both of which surface periodically at mid-level play and all three of which are extremely well-designed and viable cards in Commander and Cube. Unlike the Planeshift or Khans of Tarkir charms, these reward your devotion to a specific color rather than a broad base of chromatic expertise. We’re still waiting for the presumed Archangel’s and Anarchist’s Charms, but Charming Prince and Charming Scoundrel will do in a pinch until we get their Instant versions.
As fun and varied as all these cycles and partial cycles of Charms are, it’s clear that Wizards truly lived up to the potential of Charms with the Return to Ravnica guild charms. At two mana, these are all reasonably well-balanced and situationally useful. They ranged broadly in terms of actual play, but, unlike the Mirage/Vision or Planeshift Charms, they still read well as functional cards over a decade later. Boros Charm from Gatecrash is unequivocally the best, seeing consistent play in Modern Burn, and Rakdos Charm excels as an instant-speed player-killer if you’re up against a token deck, but none of the ten are embarrassing (although Dimir Charm is definitely at the bottom of the roster). I have fond memories of playing all of the Charms at one point or another during Return to Ravnica draft and Standard and was very pleased to see that Secrets of Strixhaven is bringing us a new cycle of Charms themed around the five Strixhaven disciplines.
Back to School
Last time we went to Strixhaven, back in 2021, we got Commands—modal spells that let you choose two options out of four, generally for a higher cost than your average Charm (although Witherbloom Command and Quandrix Command came close). This semester, we get Charms, pitched along the Return to Ravnica model, meaning that they cost XY and have three modes based on the overlap between the enemy colors. Thus, Silverquill Charm is a bad Archenemy’s Charm, a bad Smother, and a bad Lightning Helix. You would never play an Instant at WB that exiled a creature with power two or less unless the metagame was warped beyond belief, but as an option for a card with multiple modes, I anticipate it killing many Badger-Mole Cubs in days to come. Putting two +1/+1 counters on a creature as an Instant is a useful backup mode and sometimes your opponent is simply at three life. It’s no Boros Charm, but it’s probably better than Orzhov Charm.
Lorehold Charm, befitting its color combination, is much more appealing, as it fuses a minor Overrun effect with a reanimation spell and the lesser played side of Abrade. It rewards you for having an army, can be cashed in to bring back one of your smaller bodies, or can force your opponent to sacrifice a Simulacrum Synthesizer in a pinch.
Prismari Charm has Fire//Ice connotations as a combination removal spell and card selection spell, and serves as a panic button Boomerang. This lines up well, compared to the often-played Izzet Charm.
Quandrix Charm, intriguingly, may be the closest to Izzet Charm, as a hard-to-cast Quench with upside. It can also win combats and be a quick Naturalize if that proves necessary, all three of which are reasonable modes. Based on Quandrix’s affinity for +1/+1 counters, the 5/5 mode will end more than a few games in Limited at the very least.
This brings us to the most disappointing charm: Witherbloom Charm. Deadly Dispute may have spoiled us, but trading a permanent for two cards, even in response to removal is only mediocre. Five life can save you in a pinch–I have fond memories of Life Goes On coming through at a crucial moment–but certainly isn’t worth a card, and the miniature Abrupt Decay pales in a format with Assassin’s Trophy and Maelstrom Pulse. Or maybe I’m flailing my way into the classic trap of underrating the flexibility of charms based on the perceived power of the abilities; it may be that, once the set is out on tables and phones, a bad Abrupt Decay that insulates against an alpha strike or can trade a blocking Pest in for a couple of cards is good enough to make it into Standard these days. The fact that I have this concern this late in my Magic career is inspiring and suggests how perfectly designed the Charm concept is.
I’ve been a fan of Charms since Time Spiral, where the unassuming Funeral Charm could win a combat or be cast at the start of their first main phase for the card they just drew with an empty hand. Once Secrets of Strixhaven launches, you can–and you better believe I will–build a very functional Standard Golgari deck based around picking modes (or, if you’re more interested in winning, one built around Riku of Many Paths). Archenemy’s Charm, Archdruid’s Charm, Pick Your Poison, and Witherbloom Charm may not form the core of a coherent deck, but as a deck concept, it’s certainly charming. At the very least, you won’t run out of options anytime soon.
Rob Bockman (he/him) is a native of South Carolina who has been playing Magic: the Gathering since Tempest block. A writer of fiction and stage plays, he loves the emergent comedy of Magic and the drama of high-level play. He’s been a Golgari player since before that had an official name and is never happier than when he’s able to say “Overgrown Tomb into [mtg_card]Thoughtseize,” no matter the format.