Evasion

Lu Meng, Wu General has the horsemanship evasion ability

This month I'll focus on various facets of the rules. Today: evasion abilities.

From the comprehensive rules, an evasion ability is

An ability that restricts what creatures can block an attacking creature.

Evasion abilities can be powerful and game-changing. They are mentioned in the 'declare blockers' section of the rules. After the attacker declares which of his creatures are attacking that turn, the defending player must declare blockers (if any). Part of that process:

509.1b The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met) . . . A restriction may be created by an evasion ability (a static ability an attacking creature has that restricts what can block it).

In essence, evasion abilities make it easier for your creatures to do damage.

The official rules mention eight evasion abilities (parentheses enclose official rules text):

- Flying (A creature with flying can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach.)

- Intimidate (A creature with intimidate can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)

- Landwalk (A creature with landwalk can’t be blocked as long as the defending player controls at least one land with the specified land type . . .)

- Shadow (A creature with shadow can’t be blocked by creatures without shadow, and a creature without shadow can’t be blocked by creatures with shadow.)

- Horsemanship (A creature with horsemanship can’t be blocked by creatures without horsemanship.)

- Fear (A creature with fear can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

- Menace (A creature with menace can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

- Skulk (A creature with skulk can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.)

Of these, I would consider only Flying and Menace evergreen keywords (more on that term next time). The others have made their appearances but haven't been seen in standard releases for some time (though they can show up in compilation sets, Commander, and so on).

Evasion is one of those terms that is never listed on cards but you will hear mentioned by players during games or when discussing card/deck features.