Mandate of AbaddonHow it works & interactions with other cards

What It Does

Mandate of Abaddon is a selective board wipe that scales based on the power of a creature you control. When you cast it, you target one of your own creatures. Upon resolution, every creature on the battlefield—both yours and your opponents'—that has a power value lower than your target's current power is destroyed. Importantly, the targeted creature itself is never destroyed by this effect, regardless of its power level.

Step-by-Step Resolution

First, you cast Mandate of Abaddon and choose a target creature you control. As the spell resolves, the game checks the current power of that target. Next, the game identifies all other creatures on the battlefield with a power strictly less than that number. Finally, all those identified creatures are destroyed simultaneously. If the target creature is no longer on the battlefield or has become illegal when the spell tries to resolve, the entire spell fails and nothing is destroyed.

Common Mistakes

A frequent error is forgetting that power is checked only during resolution. If an opponent uses a spell like Toxic Deluge to lower your creature's power in response, the 'kill threshold' for Mandate of Abaddon will decrease accordingly. Additionally, remember that this spell checks the power of creatures currently on the board; it does not care about the base power printed on the cards, but rather the total power including buffs, counters, and equipment.

When to Play It

This sorcery is best played when you have a single large creature and your opponents have a wide array of smaller blockers or utility creatures. It is also excellent after using spells like Victimize to bring a high-power threat back from your graveyard, ensuring you have a valid, high-power target to maximize the carnage on the following turn.

Interaction examples

Clearing the Path

You control a 5/5 Demon and your opponent has three 2/2 Soldiers. You cast Mandate of Abaddon targeting your Demon. Since 2 is less than 5, all three Soldiers are destroyed, while your Demon remains safe on the battlefield.

Responding to Power Reduction

Toxic Deluge

You target your 6/6 creature with Mandate of Abaddon. In response, your opponent casts Toxic Deluge where X=4, giving all creatures -4/-4. When Mandate of Abaddon resolves, your creature is now a 2/2. It will now only destroy creatures with power 0 or 1, instead of everything under power 6.

Post-Reanimation Wipe

Victimize

You use Victimize to sacrifice a token and return two massive creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. On your next main phase, you target one of these high-power creatures with Mandate of Abaddon to destroy your opponent's entire army of smaller creatures, leaving your two reanimated threats ready to attack.