Skyclave Shade is one of those cards players keep asking about. Here is, in plain words, what its official text says, the rulings published by Wizards of the Coast, and the combos players actually run.
Official card text
KickerThis creature can't block. If this creature was kicked, it enters with two +1/+1 counters on it. Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, if this card is in your graveyard and it's your turn, you may cast it from your graveyard this turn.
Complete guide
Skyclave Shade is a resilient threat from Zendikar Rising that refuses to stay down for long. This Shade specializes in returning from your graveyard to the battlefield whenever you play a land, making it a persistent headache for control decks.
Unpacking Landfall and Kicker
Skyclave Shade has a unique Landfall ability that functions specifically while the card is in your graveyard. When a land enters the battlefield under your control during your turn, this ability triggers, granting you permission to cast the Shade from your graveyard for the rest of the turn. Additionally, it features a Kicker cost of {2}{B}. If you choose to pay this extra mana when casting it, the Shade enters the battlefield as a 5/3 creature thanks to two +1/+1 counters, rather than its base 3/1 stats.
The Casting Process
When the Landfall ability resolves, it creates a continuous effect that allows you to cast the card. You must still follow all normal timing rules, meaning you can only cast it during your main phase while the stack is empty. When you cast it, you choose whether to pay the Kicker cost. Once the spell is cast and moves from the graveyard to the stack, it becomes a new object. If the Shade is countered or dies later that same turn, you cannot cast it again unless you have another land enter the battlefield to trigger the ability a second time.
Strategic Considerations
It is important to remember that Skyclave Shade cannot block, so its value lies entirely in aggression and sacrifice synergies. Because the Landfall ability only triggers if the Shade is already in the graveyard when the land enters, you cannot play a land and then discard the Shade to the graveyard in response to try and cast it. The 'intervening if' clause checks its location the moment the land hits the table.
Interaction examples
Ornithopter of ParadiseYou have Skyclave Shade in your graveyard and an Ornithopter of Paradise on the battlefield. You play a Swamp for your turn, triggering the Shade's Landfall ability. After the ability resolves, you tap the Ornithopter of Paradise for mana and use your lands to pay a total of {3}{B}{B}. This covers the {1}{B} mana cost and the {2}{B} Kicker cost. The Skyclave Shade enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters as a 5/3 creature.
Blood ArtistWith Blood Artist on the battlefield, you cast Skyclave Shade from your graveyard after playing a land. Later in your main phase, your opponent destroys the Shade; Blood Artist triggers, and the Shade returns to the graveyard. Even though you were granted permission to cast it earlier this turn, that permission applied to the old instance of the card. To cast the Shade again during this same turn, you would need to put another land into play to trigger its Landfall ability once more.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Skyclave Shade
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· Wizards of the Coast
Whenever a land you control enters, each landfall ability of the permanents you control will trigger. You can put them on the stack in any order. The last ability you put on the stack will be the first one to resolve (As a result, you can have those abilities resolve in the order of your choosing.).
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #2· Wizards of the Coast
To determine a spell's total cost, start with the mana cost (or an alternative cost if another card's effect allows you to pay one instead), add any cost increases (such as kicker), then apply any cost reductions. The spell's mana value remains unchanged, no matter what the total cost to cast it was.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #3· Wizards of the Coast
A landfall ability triggers whenever a land you control enters for any reason. It triggers whenever you play a land, as well as whenever a spell or ability puts a land onto the battlefield under your control.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #4· Wizards of the Coast
A landfall ability doesn't trigger if a permanent already on the battlefield becomes a land.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #5· Wizards of the Coast
If a spell's kicker cost was paid, the spell is "kicked."
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #6· Wizards of the Coast
The kicker ability doesn't let you pay a kicker cost more than once.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #7· Wizards of the Coast
If you put a permanent with a kicker ability onto the battlefield without casting it, you can't kick it.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #8· Wizards of the Coast
If you copy a kicked spell on the stack, the copy is also kicked. If the copied spell is a permanent spell, the token the copy of that spell becomes when it enters is also kicked.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #9· Wizards of the Coast
If a card or token enters as a copy of a permanent, the new permanent isn't kicked, even if the original was.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #10· Wizards of the Coast
You must follow the normal timing permissions and restrictions for Skyclave Shade when casting it with the permission of its landfall ability. You must pay its mana cost (or, if another effect allows, an alternative cost). You may pay its kicker cost when casting it this way.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #11· Wizards of the Coast
After you cast Skyclave Shade from your graveyard, it's considered a new object, and the permission from its landfall ability won't apply to it again even if it returns to your graveyard later in the turn. You'll need to have another land enter the battlefield under your control after it has returned to your graveyard to cast it again.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #12· Wizards of the Coast
Skyclave Shade's landfall ability triggers only if it's in your graveyard immediately after the land enters the battlefield.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
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