Forced Adaptation MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 2 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityCommon
TypeEnchantment — Aura
Abilities Enchant

Key Takeaways

  1. Forced Adaptation enables continuous creature growth, posing an escalating threat each turn.
  2. Strategically valuable in green or counter-centric decks, providing a consistent combat advantage.
  3. Its gradual strength increase makes it a unique tool for sustained board presence.

Text of card

Enchant creature At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on enchanted creature.

"We're planting the seeds of change. Sometimes, we plant them in people." —Vorel of the Hull Clade


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Forced Adaptation may not directly draw cards, but it repeatedly strengthens a creature each turn. This incremental growth can outpace single-card advantages by amassing a seriously threatening creature.

Resource Acceleration: Though not a traditional form of resource acceleration, the consistent enhancement Forced Adaptation provides can translate into accelerated board presence and pressure, effectively using your mana invested over several turns to sway the game in your favor.

Instant Speed: While Forced Adaptation itself is an enchantment played at sorcery speed, the +1/+1 counter it places at the beginning of your upkeep contributes to combat surprises. This interacts well with creatures that have abilities triggered by counters or during combat, offering potentially unexpected advantages.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Forced Adaptation, as an enchantment, doesn’t inherently require a discard but being part of a deck means you could be discarding other valuable cards to maintain card balance, which might be a strategic disadvantage if you’re trying to preserve hand advantage.

Specific Mana Cost: Costing one green mana, Forced Adaptation can be restrictive as it’s only readily playable in green or green-inclusive decks, potentially limiting its versatility in a multi-colored format or decks with a different color identity.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While cheap to cast, the true cost comes in its opportunity expense – slots in a deck are valuable, and there may be other enchantments or spells that provide immediate or more impactful benefits than the incremental growth Forced Adaptation offers.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Forced Adaptation offers the flexibility to augment any creature-heavy deck by steadily making your creatures larger, ensuring they remain a growing threat each turn.

Combo Potential: This enchantment is a boon for decks focusing on +1/+1 counters, potentially combining with cards that unlock benefits when counters are placed, or with proliferate mechanics to accelerate growth.

Meta-Relevance: In a game where tempo can dictate victory, Forced Adaptation can tip the scales by consistently beefing up creatures, keeping pace with the evolving battlefield conditions.


How to beat

Forced Adaptation is an enchantment card that has a unique place within the Magic: The Gathering ecosystem. Its ability to gradually bolster a creature can become a thorn in your opponent’s side if left unchecked. To effectively counter this card, it’s essential to employ removal or bounce spells that can manage enchanted creatures before they grow too powerful. Options like Murder and Unsummon excel in these scenarios, instantly clearing the threat or resetting the creature’s power boost.

An alternative tactic is to utilize counter-magic to prevent Forced Adaptation from hitting the battlefield in the first place. Spells like Negate or Essence Scatter are perfect for this, keeping your opponents’ plans at bay. Apart from direct counters, one could also lean on enchantment removal such as Naturalize or Disenchant to dismantle their strategy. These spells serve a dual purpose by handling not only Forced Adaptation but any other problematic enchantments as well.

It’s clear that understanding and preparing for the potential impact of Forced Adaptation is key in maintaining control of the game. By leveraging removal and counter strategies, you can keep this enchantment card from drastically influencing the match’s outcome, ensuring your board remains resilient against gradual threats.


BurnMana Recommendations

Maximizing the potential of Forced Adaptation in MTG can be an exciting challenge that adds depth to your deckbuilding strategies. Its ability to incrementally power up your creatures is an asset that, when used wisely, can swing games in your favor. Assessing the merits and pitfalls of this enchantment compared to others is vital in understanding its role in a game where every incremental edge counts. Whether you’re tweaking an existing deck or innovating a new strategy, consider how Forced Adaptation could integrate and evolve your playstyle. If you’re aiming to adapt and enhance your creatures steadily, learn more about leveraging this enchantment for enduring dominance on the battlefield with us.


Cards like Forced Adaptation

Forced Adaptation is a unique enchantment in Magic: The Gathering that puts your creatures on a growth trajectory, steadily bolstering their strength turn after turn. It’s akin to other enchantment cards like Unflinching Courage, which provides an immediate boost in power and toughness, plus lifelink and trample. However, Unflinching Courage doesn’t offer the cumulative aspect of Forced Adaptation’s consistent stat increase.

Examining cards with growth potential, Alpha Authority is another card that can be compared. It grants hexproof and can’t be blocked by more than one creature, but it doesn’t inherently increase power and toughness like Forced Adaptation. Rancor is well-known as well, offering a recurrent strength and trample boost each time it’s played. Despite the different abilities of these cards, what sets Forced Adaptation apart is its ability to make creatures bigger threats with each turn, a gradual but potentially game-ending strategy.

Narrowing down to the value and strategic edge that Forced Adaptation offers, its standing is solid among enchantments that shape the board by manipulating creature stats over time. Its unique, incremental power increase can steadily turn even the smallest creature into a significant threat, showcasing its distinct role in Magic: The Gathering.

Unflinching Courage - MTG Card versions
Alpha Authority - MTG Card versions
Rancor - MTG Card versions
Unflinching Courage - MTG Card versions
Alpha Authority - MTG Card versions
Rancor - MTG Card versions

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Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Forced Adaptation MTG card by a specific set like Gatecrash and Ravnica Remastered, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Forced Adaptation and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Forced Adaptation Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2013-02-01 and 2024-01-12. Illustrated by Trevor Claxton.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12013-02-01GatecrashGTC 1202003NormalBlackTrevor Claxton
22024-01-12Ravnica RemasteredRVR 1402015NormalBlackTrevor Claxton

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Forced Adaptation has restrictions

FormatLegality
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
PaupercommanderLegal
ModernLegal
OathbreakerLegal
PauperLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PioneerLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Forced Adaptation card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2013-01-24 If Forced Adaptation’s ability triggers but Forced Adaptation isn’t on the battlefield when the ability resolves, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature it was enchanting when it left the battlefield.
2013-01-24 The creature that gets the +1/+1 counter is the creature enchanted by Forced Adaptation when the ability resolves.

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