Connive is a creature ability introduced with Streets of New Capenna, and most recently returned in the Spider-Man set. In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about it, including:
- How does connive work?
- What means if a creature connives?
- And more!
There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to it.
How Does Connive Work?
When your creature connives, you draw a card, then discard a card. If you discard a nonland card, that creature gets a +1/+1 counter.
Essentially, you’re getting some card filtering and potentially even some counters. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples for further clarification.
Examples
Here’s Unstable Experiment, a common instant from the Spider-Man set.
When you cast it, you draw a card, and then one of your creature connives. This means that you draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, you put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that connived.
Cards of higher rarities can use this mechanic in slightly more complex ways. One such card would be Body Launderer.
This four mana 3/3 connives whenever one of your other nontoken creatures dies. So, whenever that happens, you draw and discard. If you discard a nonland, Body Launderer gets a +1/+1 counter.
With the right setup, you can quickly churn through your deck, and grow this creature. (Which will power up its last ability.)
MTG Connive – FAQ
Here are some answers to questions that you might have about connive. If there’s something that we didn’t answer, you can leave a comment below, and we’ll get back to you.
You draw first.
Yes, you can. You’ll draw a card and immediately discard it. The conniving creature will get a +1/+1 counter if the discarded card wasn’t a land.
In general, if you’re missing land drops, you should discard your worst nonland card. This way, your conniving creature will also get bigger. On the other hand, if you have enough lands, you should discard a land card, unless you’d really need the additional +1/+1 counter.
If your creature would connive and an opponent destroys it in response, you’ll still get to draw a card and discard a card.
You connive X by drawing X cards, then discarding X cards. Then you put +1/+1 counters on the creature that connived. (The number of counters is equal to the number of discarded nonland cards.)
Flavor
To connive means to secretly allow (something immoral, illegal, or harmful) to occur. Drawing and discarding a card doesn’t seem particularly immoral, but the drawn card is certainly a secret from your opponent.
Still, this mechanic isn’t such a flavor win, as some other ones.
MTG Connive – Interactions
In this section, we’ll talk about some interactions and synergies that connive enables.
Madness
Madness is a mechanic that works nicely with connive. It lets you play a card that you’d otherwise discard.
For example, you could discard Big Game Hunter to one of your connive abilities. You’d still be able to cast it right away for a single black mana, destroy a big creature, and even put a +1/+1 counter on the creature that connived. That’s a neat synergy.
Mayhem
A more recent mechanic that works similarly is mayhem. You can cast a card from a graveyard for its mayhem cost, as long as you’ve discarded it this turn.
Your creature connives on your turn and you discard Ultimate Green Goblin. The creature gets a +1/+1 counter. You can play Goblin from your graveyard until the end of turn. This way, you’re really getting max value from your connive cards.
You can learn more about mayhem rules here.
Containment Construct
But what if you need to discard a card without madness or mayhem? This 2-mana artifact can help you with that.
With Containment Construct you can play your discarded cards until the end of turn. That’s kinda useful, especially if your deck is focused on discarding cards.
Hold That Extra Land
Now this is more more of a tip than an interaction. If you have cards with connive in your deck, you don’t want to play out every land in your hand. At least in the late game, you’ll want to keep a useless land in your hand if you’ll draw a card with connive. This way you’ll be able to get rid of the land, and perhaps find a more impactful card.
This is especially important in Limited formats (New Capenna or Spider-Man Draft and Sealed), where connive will be an important factor.
Connive in Commander
Another format where you can use the connive mechanic is Commander. One of the best commanders focused around this mechanic would be Raffine, Scheming Seer.
With the proper support, Raffine can be responsible for a bunch of card filtering, significantly improving your hand and buffing one of your creatures. A great card if you enjoy the play patterns that connive enables.
Conclusion
Anyhow, that’s all about connive. You now know how it works, so you’ll be able to make smart decisions that will hopefully win you the game.
If you like this mechanic, and the friendliest super-hero, you might want to order a Spider-Man Play booster box. You’ll almost certainly end up with a few cards that use connive mechanic.
Additionally, if you want more information about the first Marvel set, you can explore the following articles:
- MTG Soul Stone Odds (Learn how likely you are to pull the best card in the set.)
- Spider-Man Comic Panel Cards (Discover the amazing alt-arts.)
- Spider-Man Bundle Contents (What’s inside the regular and the Gift bundle?)
Until next time, have fun and may you always make the right decision when your creature connives.