Great WallHow it works & interactions with other cards

What It Does

Great Wall is a continuous effect enchantment that modifies the rules of combat. Specifically, it negates the unblockable nature of the plainswalk ability. Under normal circumstances, a creature with plainswalk cannot be blocked if the defending player controls a Plains. Great Wall allows you to ignore that restriction entirely during the declare blockers step.

How It Resolves Step by Step

First, cast Great Wall by paying two generic and one white mana. Once it is on the battlefield, the effect is passive and does not use the stack. When an opponent attacks you with a creature that has plainswalk, and you control a Plains, you move to the declare blockers step. Instead of being forced to let the creature through, you may now assign any of your eligible untapped creatures to block it just as you would any normal creature without evasion.

Common Mistakes

A common misconception is that Great Wall removes the plainswalk ability from the creature. It does not; the creature still 'has' plainswalk, but the evasion benefit is simply ignored for blocking purposes. Additionally, Great Wall does not allow you to block other forms of landwalk, such as islandwalk or swampwalk. It is strictly limited to interacting with the plainswalk keyword.

When to Play It

Great Wall is best utilized in a defensive white deck that relies on stalling the game. While it handles specific evasion, it works best when paired with other 'taxing' effects that make attacking difficult or expensive for your opponent, ensuring that any creature they do send your way can be intercepted by your own forces.

Interaction examples

Static Defense

If your opponent attacks with a creature that has plainswalk while you control a Plains and Great Wall, you can block that creature with a vanilla 1/1 soldier. Without Great Wall, the soldier would be unable to stand in the way of the plainswalker.

The Taxing Wall

Ghostly Prison

With both enchantments out, an opponent must first pay two mana to attack you due to Ghostly Prison. If they pay the cost and attack with a plainswalk creature, Great Wall then allows you to block that creature normally, forcing the opponent to spend resources for an attack that can still be easily stopped.

Resource Management

Smothering Tithe

While Smothering Tithe generates Treasure tokens to help you cast your spells, Great Wall ensures that once those spells (like creatures) are on the board, they can actually be used to block plainswalking threats. The Tithe provides the mana to maintain your board, and the Wall provides the tactical flexibility to use that board for defense.