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Specialize Mechanic

Reminder Text

Pay mana and discard a color/land type of your choice to change your card to that new card with its effects (the change depends on which color you discarded).


Description

Specialize is a digital-only, Magic: the Gathering Arena exclusive keyword action mechanic first introduced in Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate. Specialize is so unique as it isn’t the first mechanic to turn one card into another, but it’s the first one that can turn a creature into 5 distinctly different cards depending on what you discard!

Specialize will have extremely interesting game play applications as the mechanic itself begets diversity. The opponent will never be sure which mode you’re going to get off of your Specialized creature and what’s occurring in game can drastically change which mode you want to pick creating dynamic and interesting decisions every time a Specialize creature hits the field.

Two interesting points to note with Specialize is that you can also discard a land which will let you Specialize into a color that the land can produce. Second, for the Historic Brawl fans out there, if you use a Specialize creature as your commander, then you can pick a second color for your deck so all decks with Specialize commanders will be two color rather than five color.


Cards

As of June 24, 2022 there are 16 cards revealed referencing the Specialize keyword. As this is a digital-only ability, cards have been designed only for the digital MTG Arena formats such as Alchemy or Historic. Here are some examples of cards with the Specialize mechanic and their subsequent Specializations.

Viconia, Nightsinger’s Disciple

Specializations

Pay 2 mana and discard a color/land type of your choice to change your card to that new card with its effects (the change depends on which color you discarded).

Skanos, Dragon Vassal

Specializations

Pay 4 mana and discard a color/land type of your choice to change your card to that new card with its effects (the change depends on which color you discarded).

Lukamina, Moon Druid

Specializations

If you control six or more lands, you can pay 3 mana and discard a color/land type of your choice to change your card to that new card with its effects (the change depends on which color you discarded).

Gale, Conduit of the Arcane

Specializations

Pay 2 mana and discard a color/land type of your choice to change your card to that new card with its effects (the change depends on which color you discarded).

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DoggertQBones
DoggertQBones

Robert "DoggertQBones" Lee is the content manager of MTGAZone and a high ranked Arena player. He has one GP Top 8 and pioneered popular archetypes like UB 8 Shark, UB Yorion, and GW Company in Historic. Beyond Magic, his passions are writing and coaching! Join our community on
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