What card did you misread, only to eventually facepalm when you figured out what it actually says?

I realised that [[Ophiomancer]] snakes have deadtouch today.

I didn't notice Dockside counted enchantments for the longest time

Took me longer than i care to admit to realize fetch lands are for LANDS, not just basics.

I built an entire [[Lara Croft, Tomb Raider]] deck assuming I could only target things in my graveyard. It wasn't until an opponent pointed out that it was narrow graveyard hate that I realized the card said "a graveyard", not "your graveyard".

[[koma, cosmos serpent]]

Thought the serpent creation happened only on its controllers upkeep. Boy was that a rude surprise haha

This is a bit of a stretch because it's not obvious, but [[Garth One-Eye]]. I didn't realize his ability lets you play whatever spell at instant speed even if it's not. I got so giddy realizing I could essentially flash in [[Shivan dragon]], [[Brain geyser]] and the mighty [[Black Lotus]] and play mind games with what I'm going to cast.

When I first bought the Mothman precon, I was putting a counter for EVERY nonland card milled on one creature.

You only get to put ONE counter on THAT many creatures.

The first time I cast [[Kill Maim Burn!]] in a real game I decided to use it destroy a creature, my opponent was kind enough to ask what else I would do with it, and it was at this moment I finally noticed the card says "Choose one or more"

[[Braids, Arisen Nightmare]] is for every opponent, not just one

Not me, but I had to explain to my friend that [[Library of Leng]] didn't work with [[Cathartic Reunion]] or any other discards like it. Basically half his deck didn't work with Leng.

I once put [[Farseek]] into a mono green deck.

I was actually pointed and laughed at.

Needless to say... it resolved.

[[Davros]]

I initially read it as "For each opponent who lost 3 life this turn, make a Dalek and they face a villainous choice"

No. You get 1 Dalek even if 3 people lose life

I’ve been paying the mana cost PLUS the overload cost when casting things like [[Cyclonic Rift]] until someone recently corrected me lol

Happens on a semi-regular basis lol. Sometimes midgame, I'll play a card and tell people what it does, then a turn later realize I was actually wrong and have to correct myself. If you want a specific example, for a hot minute I thought [[Grinning Ignus]] went infinite with [[Ruby Medallion]] until I realized 2R and 1RR are NOT equivalent ><

I don’t know why I never get this right but I always attempt to cast [[Feed the Swarm]] at instant speed. Ive been playing mtg for 10 years and I know how to read but for some reason this card brainwashes me every time it’s in my hand.

I spent a few months building a [[Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas]] comander deck, finding and acquiring many creatures with a High Power : low CMC ratio. The first game I played it I plopped down my commander, and followed it up with [[Iroas, God of Victory]] and was met with the comment "It's ironic that Iroas doesn't trigger it's disciple"... it was only then that I realized that my entire deck was a non-bo with my commander (who cares about High CMC, not high power

EDIT: I did make a note of it on my now defunct blog https://edh100.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/game-xxx-kalemne/

Also the deck was an 'all-creatures' deck, and only 5 of the 59 creatures in it would have actually triggered Kalemne.

I didn’t realize [[dockside extortionist]] counted enchantments the first few times I played it. Spoiler: it’s still good just counting artifacts.

I didn’t misread it but I once built an entire deck for [[Athreos Shroud Veiled]] because for some inexplicable reason I thought that the coin counters just…stayed. Like if it died or got exiled it would come back and still have the coin counter on it somehow.

It’s not like I thought this happened for other counters. But it wasn’t until I sat down and played a game did I realize yeah no you don’t put a coin counter on a thing and then it just permanently won’t stay dead. You’d have to put another coin counter on it again

I thought [[Braid of Fire]] mana was usable in my main phase!

During OTJ Prerelease I was amazed at how powerful [[Decimate]] was. I even had it resolve in a game where I took out my opponent's artifact, creature, and land. A turn later, I realized the text pointed out that I need ALL valid targets to cast it, I side boarded it out next game never to been seen again. Seems great EDH though.

[[Urza, Chief Artificer]] .. I thought it was affinity for artifacts .. not artifact creatures. It was like my brain just omitted the "creatures" portion of the words on the card for a few games.

Not a card but a keyword. For the longest time I didn't realize convoke said "or a mana of that creature's colors"

I thought [[Chaos Mutation]] allowed you to flip ANY number of permanents from ANY number of players. Turns out it’s just ONE from any number of players. I disassembled a deck when I found that out because the polymorph effect wasn’t nearly as easy to set up.

In my defense tho, that card is written like shit.

Everyone I’ve talked to hasn’t even read the front side of [[Jadzi, Oracle of Arcavios]] and how the magecraft allows you to storm off really easy if you build the deck right.

For the longest time I thought the eldrazi titan’s were an enter the battlefield trigger, not on cast. It wasn’t until i was watching some video where somebody countered an *ulamog, [[infinite gyre]] and then still did the destroy effect.

Honestly most cards . I'll get hyped for the first few lines of text . Send my friend the card spew out my idea only for him to be like ...finish reading the card haha .

Example [[Dynaheir, Invoker Adept]] I remembered it doubled activated abilities . Totally forgetting it requires mana to be spent. So I was thinking man this would be a sick energy commander ..oops

Not edh (but 4 player 60 cards kitchen table magic) I just purchased a powerhouse in pack rat to cause mass pain on my friends. I didn’t realize each rat counted itself for p/t, so I used like 20 dice on my board to differentiate the 1/1, 2/2, 3/3… rats and it was insanity. Much easier when I realized they all had the same power toughness.

A friend and I learned [[coat of arms]] affects all creatures. Right after he cast [[breach the multiverse]]

Safe to say, he won

[[Everflowing Chalice]]

For the longest time I thought this just acted as a 'put mana into it take mana out of it later'.

I did not realize it was reusable XD

Ironically enough [[misleading signpost]]

[[Beledros Witherbloom]]. Built a whole deck around it thinking I could untap my lands multiple times each turn despite the card clearly stating it can only be once per turn.

I thought I had discovered the greatest underpriced card in magic with [[Martyr of Frost]] turns out my brain just skipped the sacrifice itself part.

The realization that [[Toxrill, the Corrosive]] adds a slime token at the end of EACH turn and not just your turn. Turns out this oppressive ass card is way more oppressive than I originally thought.

Definitely [[Ice Cauldron]]

(I’m still reading it by the way)

[[Courser of Kruphix]]

I thought it allowed more than 1 land play per turn

[[myriad landscape]]

[[Uraz's saga]] I thought you could only use the chapter that you were on. So you play it get to use it for a mana. Next turn you can only use it to make the token then on your next turn you get the tutor. Stll a good card but I didn't understand how it was poised to break modern. Then i saw gameplay with it and realized how good the card was

Just this past week at my LGS, I played [[Death Kiss]] thinking it affected my creatures, too. Turns out it was just opponents' creatures and I couldn't kill the archenemy before his turn.

I thought Misleading Signpost could redirect all attackers, not just one. It’s so much worse than I thought, and was cut right after.

[[Idle Thoughts]]

I thought it said "Activate only if you have no cards in hand", but actually the effect says "Draw a card if you have no cards in hand" which means no matter how many times you activate it, you only ever draw one card unless you can discard or play the card you drew between resolutions.

For me it was [[Helm of Awakening]]. I love spell cost reduction. At first I was amazed that it wasn't a staple. Ordered it, it arove, then I read it properly; it's just a group hug that speeds up the game a bit. That was truly awakening.

I once a long tome ago aquited an [[imprison]]. I did not realize the racial implications at the time so i played it.

Because the card is so olf and the templating is so weird, i thought it was an enchantment where you paid 1 mana per creature per combat step and this was mandatory or the enchantment was sacrificed.

It was only later that i realized it was just a bad pacefism.

It's really dumb and simple, but I misread [[Dread return]] and I thought it had buyback, and not flashback

I didnt realize for a while [[hex]] actually needs 6 targets. You can't do less. It's not "up to" 6. It's 6.

Recently built a [[Lucius]] deck as it never fit in the Demon's precon. I have a copy of [[Cloudkill]] in a binder i've kind of wanted to fit into a deck and figured it worked with the plan.

Got to play it the first time a few days ago and did pretty well, I had Lucius exiled with his ability and then cast cloudkill to get him back, game moves on. About 5min later someone points out my commander was neither on the battlefield or in the command zone when I cast it :(

Wheel of Misfortune.

I guess I may as well share my story with [[Laelia, the Blade Reforged]]. I def had to learn the hard way that flashback does not exile from the graveyard so it does not go with her.

The year was 2005, and "I cast [[Farseek]]..."

For me, it was [[Pantlaza, Sun-Favored]].

During spoiler season, I was super hyped when they announced this card, and I immediately started redesigning my [[Gishath, Sun's Avatar]] deck to make the best dino deck possible. Gishath was one of my first commander decks, and I was so stoked to build an now even more powerful dino deck.

Then, after I designed the deck and finally picked up the precon and put it together, I went to playtest. I notably glossed over the fact that it's only once each turn and NOT basically the first sliver but for dinos.

It's still a really awesome deck to play, but finding out when I did that Pantlaza had the once a turn clause was rather disappointing. It would be totally insane otherwise.

[[Sphinx of the second sun]]. Didn't realize the second beginning phase happens AFTER main 2. Still a great card for the right decks, but not nearly as broken as we thought for a while

I’ve played my Verina zombie deck since she was released and only a few months ago I was corrected that I gain life along with drawing and discarding x lol.

[[tarnation vista]] thought it tapped for a single color for as much of that colored permanent you have, come to find out it only taps for WUBRG max.

I had thought [[Elminster]]’s mana reduction stacked the more you scried in a turn. Realized after havung built the deck. Thankfully knly meant that I needed to change 6-7 cards tops. Deck still slaps lol.

EDIT:CLARIFICATION- I know the scries stack in a turn. I thought it carried over in between cmc reduced spells.

u/phalbin grolnok lol

I didn't realize Pantlaza's trigger was a may. I was constatly questioning why bone hoard dracosaur was good on the deck until I realized I didn't have to discover of the token

[[meren of clan nel toth]]

Thought she got experience counters. Then I realized I get experience counters. So much better

I’d been playing [[Master Warcraft]] since Ravnica draft… I realized that I commander you can not force an alpha strike on someone else, the player still decides where the attackers go, you are merely declaring which creatures are attacking.

Definitely scammed a few games because we did t realize how it worked with 4 players because 2 player it very cut and dry.

[[withering boon]] I thought pay 3 life was an alternate cost, not additional cost lol

[[Eriette, the Beguiler]], my stupid eyes read it as the mana value of the aura needed to be less than the target. I started building the cheapest deck imaginable from my collection of one and two drop auras.

[[asinine antics]] is still fun to run against token decks.

I built a [[zethi]] deck thinking I could just bank the spells for later. Made it a control deck that banked removal and counterspells.

[[Endless Detour]]. The opponent decides where the permanent goes, not me. So the card is borderline unplayable instead of very good.

[[Crescendo of war]] did not realize it affected ALL creatures when attacking so games became super fast every time I played it. After a bunch of games I removed it completely

I built a whole entire Rienne, Angel of Rebirth deck built around creatures that came back into play when they died, and then read it again and was like "oh, back to hand." and immediately started unsleeving the deck.

I built and played a couple games at FNM with a [[Jin-Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant]] deck and read it like "Once per turn, you may counter an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell an opponent controls" instead of the first one they play, and it's not optional to counter it. As well as reading the copy as a option to pick one spell per turn.

In the same deck I was using [[Throne of Eldraine]] to do loops with itself and rings of brighthearth/voltaic key, not realizing that the colored mana it produces can't be used on the activated abilities for itself. I fully understood that you could only use colored mana to activate the draw effect, but it hadn't clicked that the colored mana was only for monocolored spells.

When [[Defiler of Vigor]] came out I played it incorrectly because I thought you can pay 2 life for EVERY green mana symbol. And it took me a while before someone pointed out I was doing it wrong

[[deathrite shaman]] threw me off. I thought the exiling cards from graveyards was part of the cost of each of the effects. Only recently did I realize the placement of the colon was just to the right of the tap symbol. I finally get it.

Didn't realize [[Black Market Connections]] allowed to to pick any number of choices every turn for the longest time 😓

I thought TOR protected everything, creatures, lands, etc. but nah, just you as a target.

Nazgul. I'd been playing them as if only one triggered when a new one entered the battlefield, rather than each triggering separately.

Tenth doctor. Thought you could time travel at instant speed for a good 3 months...

When I first started playing [[Grolnok, the Omnivore]] I completely missed that it was only permanents that got exiled with croak counters. I basically played as if I had a second hand of cards in exile that I got to add 3 cards to everytime a frog attacked. Won quite a few games with counterspells or well played Polymorphists Jests and such that I would play from exile.

Only realized my mistake when my niece played with us and I read the card to her so she knew what it did. I reached the part that said permanents, stopped, then went, "Oh, shit, I've totally been cheating this whole time."

[[Uktabi Drake]] is an insane creature for green: 1 mana, flying, 2/1, and in green??!

Well, it also an Echo cost of GG1: You can pay that on your first upkeep after he comes into play, or he goes to the graveyard. Seemed like a bonkers 1-drop until I read that more closely… Thankfully, my opponents also didn’t read it closely, so they’re wasting their removal on a creature that’s going to disappear in a second anyway.

I played the card [[abjure]] wrong for maybe a year when I started playing commander.

I thought it was an enchantment. SO, I used it as a repeatable way to counter my opponents spells by sac'ing [[flying men]].

Learning how the card was supposed to work was very humbling.

Way back in Ravnica I had a [[Concerted Effort]] in my deck. Why wouldn't I? After all, if a creature you control has flying, the same is true for all those other abilities. Wait, that's a period, I thought it gave all your creatures all those abilities. Very embarrassing when the guy I was playing with called a judge over lol.

For too long did I think [[Primal Vigor]] doubled only my stuff. Obviously I found out the hard way.

Not too far back, me and my friend noticed that you can't search up forests with [[farseek]], (we were under the influence) and so now it forever is in my head because it's green so you are "in the forest looking out"

I had no ideas how goad actually worked and the next game I played with a goad commander I dominated. Feel a lot better about goad cards now

The first commander deck I played was Azusa, and it still is my fave deck. When I first started playing I thought you just got to play two lands a turn, until someone had to tell me that it was two EXTRA lands, so up to three a turn. I am horrified to think how long it would take me to realize that if no one pointed it out xD.

[[Groundskeeper]]

I thought it'd be great to reuse Evolving Wilds using Groundskeeper on a landfall deck. Didn't realise it says basic land cards. So... that's outta my plans. At keast I have cards that allows playing land from graveyard but I had to go over my initial budget.

I thought [[dockside extortionist]] only made a treasure for each artifact everyone else owns. It's artifacts and enchantments

I thought that [[Emeria Shepherd]] read so that it could only return plains from the graveyard to the battlefield and thusly thought that it was trash. It is indeed, much better than that.

How I thought it read:
Flying

Landfall — Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may return target nonland permanent card from your graveyard to your hand. If that _card_ is a Plains, you may return that nonland permanent card to the battlefield instead.

I thought i could exile phasing creatures from my deck and then they would phase back in in my upkeep. The other kids in 10th grade saw no flaws in this logic and my [[Foresight]] [[Breezekeeper]] deck was OP

I opened a [[necropotence]] recently and was shocked to learn it says "your end step" and not "each end step" don't know why I thought that haha

I missed so many scry triggers from aqueous form. My adhd focus on the delicious unblockable I totally read but didn't register.

I was so focused on the alt wincon and the gate searching that I managed to miss the part where mazes end comes in tapped

Never won with it even by misplaying lol

Wild that a casual player just has a mana vault just sitting in his collection gathering dust, i sincerely hope it wasn't unsleeved in a bulk box or something lol. But one card i recently figured out that i was playing wrong was [[tom bombadil]] i thought he triggered for every saga that ends, but only to just now realize not long ago that it's only the first one, sadge, makes him so much worse, still like him though

I was playing blue tron against my friends burn deck I played trinisphere and chailce of the void on three and thought I found a way to break magic

The next day I looked up the rules and found out it doesn't work like that

I didn't realize until earlier this year that [[Urza's Incubator]] is a symmetrical effect

I thought lauthiel could give itself 1/1 counters, and I played it as a Voltron deck for5-6 games without me or any other player at the table noticing its effect said "other creatures"

I borrowed a precon from a friend that included [[Koma, Cosmos Serpent]] and i ended up pitching it to a discard effect because i didnt think it was good. Some friends were spectating and were like “why did you pitch that” and i said “ehhhh, it seems kind of slow” and they replied “a 3/3 every upkeep is slow?” And i YOINKED that card from my graveyard to re-read it yelling “EVERY UPKEEP!?!?!!??”

I did not realize Koma made a serpent on my opponents upkeep as well. The sad part is i had ramped pretty hard and could have played him on turn 4.

Bonus: i also recently discovered storm counts your opponents spells as well.

I realized [[Octavia]] can turn my opponent's creatures into 8/8s. It opened a whole branch of politics I didn't expect. Totally gave me the push to build her.

[[Falco Spara]] I misread it as costing a counter from a permanent you control, not only from a creature. Built superfriends.

I built an entire deck around the "fact" that [[Roxanne]]'s text says that every time a meteorite token gets tapped for mana it deals 2 damage to any target.

It does not say that. It's an ETB trigger.

[[Ancestral Mask]] is all enchantments on the field.