Tide Shaper 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
Kicker(You may pay an additional
Complete guide
Tide Shaper is a versatile Merfolk Wizard that allows players to disrupt their opponent's mana base while growing into a significant threat. By utilizing its Kicker ability, you can turn a crucial utility land into a basic Island, effectively neutralizing its unique powers.
Mastering the Tides
Tide Shaper features a Kicker cost of {1}. If you pay this extra mana as you cast the spell, it enters the battlefield with a triggered ability. This ability targets a land and transforms it into an Island for as long as Tide Shaper remains on the battlefield. Additionally, Tide Shaper has a static ability that grants it +1/+1 as long as any opponent controls at least one Island, whether that is a basic Island or a land you changed with its ability.
Transformation Step-by-Step
When Tide Shaper enters and was kicked, you choose a target land. Upon resolution, that land loses all its original abilities and land types, gaining the Island subtype and the ability '{T}: Add {U}'. It retains its supertypes, meaning a Legendary Land remains Legendary, and a Snow Land remains Snow. If Tide Shaper leaves the battlefield before this trigger resolves, the land never changes. If it leaves later, the land immediately reverts to its original state.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A common error is assuming Tide Shaper's +1/+1 bonus only counts basic Islands; it actually counts any land with the Island subtype. Also, remember that if you put Tide Shaper directly onto the battlefield without casting it (via an effect like 'vialing' it in), you cannot pay the Kicker cost, and the land-changing ability will not trigger. Lastly, changing a land's type does not remove 'Creature' or 'Artifact' types if the land was also a permanent of those types.
Interaction examples
Ornithopter of ParadiseIf your opponent has a land that can produce any color of mana to cast Ornithopter of Paradise, you can cast Tide Shaper with Kicker. Target that land to turn it into an Island. Now that land can only produce blue mana, potentially preventing your opponent from having the correct colors for their future spells, while simultaneously buffing Tide Shaper to a 2/2.
Faerie MastermindYou cast Tide Shaper and pay the Kicker cost, targeting a non-Island land controlled by the opponent. The land becomes an Island. If you later cast Faerie Mastermind, you now have a board where Tide Shaper is a 2/2. Because your opponent now controls an Island, any of your creatures with Islandwalk (a common Merfolk trait) would become unblockable against that player.
Guide written with AI from the official text and rulings. Official English text prevails.
How it works : Tide Shaper
Original English text — Wizards of the Coast / Scryfall
- #1· 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.
- #2· 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.
- #3· 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.
- #4· 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.
- #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
A land that becomes an Island gains "
: Add 
" and loses all other abilities. It loses any other land types, but it doesn't lose any types or supertypes, such as creature, legendary, or snow.No other card is named in this ruling.
- #8· Wizards of the Coast
Tide Shaper will get +1/+1 as long as an opponent controls any land with the Island land type, not just ones named Island.
No other card is named in this ruling.
- #9· Wizards of the Coast
If Tide Shaper leaves the battlefield before its triggered ability resolves, the target land will not become an Island.
No other card is named in this ruling.
Legal formats
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