Happily Ever After MTG Card
2019-10-04 - Number 16
2019-10-04 - Number 337
| Card sets | Released in 2 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Enchantment |
Key Takeaways
- Happily Ever After enables wins without combat by fulfilling unique in-game conditions.
- Building decks to suit its criteria can hasten your path to victory, adding strategic depth.
- Opponents may make hasty decisions due to the enchantment’s subtle pressure on game dynamics.
Text of card
When Happily Ever After enters the battlefield, each player gains 5 life and draws a card. At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are five colors among permanents you control, there are six or more card types among permanents you control and/or cards in your graveyard, and your life total is greater than or equal to your starting life total, you win the game.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Happily Ever After provides a unique form of card advantage not by drawing cards, but by allowing for a victory condition that can bypass conventional combat and resource attrition strategies. It encourages building decks that diversify permanent types, thus expanding the player’s on-board options and potential paths to winning the game. When conditions are met, it rewards the player with a decisive win.
Resource Acceleration: While this enchantment doesn’t directly accelerate resources in the traditional sense, meeting its criteria can essentially accelerate the game to its conclusion. Players often build around synergy with Happily Ever After, incorporating elements that align their deck’s resources to meet the enchantment’s varied conditions more quickly.
Instant Speed: Happily Ever After might not be an instant, however, its presence on the battlefield sets a ticking clock that pressures opponents at all stages of the game. This can force the opponent to act as if under the constant threat, possibly leading to suboptimal plays, which is an indirect advantage at any speed.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Happily Ever After requires a diverse set of conditions to be met for its effect to trigger. This often means having to discard other valuable cards to sculpt your battlefield and hand to its specific needs, potentially leaving you with fewer options if the game doesn’t end in your favor.
Specific Mana Cost: The mana needed for Happily Ever After includes white mana, which might not always be readily available in multicolored or off-theme decks. Players not running a deck with a strong white mana base could find it challenging to cast the spell when it’s most needed.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: At three mana, Happily Ever After sits at a higher casting cost for an enchantment that does not immediately affect the board state. Its delayed gratification condition can be a liability in faster-paced games where more immediate impacts are valued over potential future gains.
Reasons to Include Happily Ever After in Your Collection
Versatility: Happily Ever After is a unique enchantment that offers various benefits and can slide into a broad spectrum of deck themes. Its conditional win conditions encourage deck diversity, from gaining life to controlling a range of permanents.
Combo Potential: The card shines when paired with strategies that fast-track its win conditions. Whether it’s through creature type manipulation, life gain accelerators, or library arrangement, the potential to click with just the right combo makes it a thrilling addition.
Meta-Relevance: In game environments heavy on control or combo plays, Happily Ever After poses an alternative angle of attack. It’s not just about damage—fulfilling its criteria during stalemates or complex board states could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
How to beat
Happily Ever After represents a unique challenge within the world of enchantments in Magic: The Gathering. This card weaves a victory condition that revolves around a diversity on the battlefield and in life totals, which is a twist that can catch players off guard. To effectively counter this spell, it’s crucial to disrupt the balance it seeks to achieve. For instance, lowering your opponent’s life total to prevent them from reaching the starting point or using direct removal spells against key creatures or enchantments that support their strategy.
Control decks become valuable allies in this case, as they offer a suite of countermeasures like Thoughtseize to extract Happily Ever After from your opponent’s hand before it hits the board, or Despark to exile it outright once it’s in play. Cards that offer graveyard interaction, such as Bojuka Bog, can also nullify its effects postmortem. Therefore, maintaining a strong hold on the board state and applying steady pressure can undermine Happily Ever After’s enchanting win condition.
Understanding the intricacies of this enchantment allows players to prepare and adapt their playstyle and deck composition, staying one step ahead of this fairytale ending in the competitive scene of Magic: The Gathering.
Cards like Happily Ever After
Happily Ever After introduces a unique victory condition to the world of Magic: The Gathering, where players can win the game by meeting specific requirements. It shares a conceptual space with cards like Felidar Sovereign and Test of Endurance, which also present alternative win conditions. Felidar Sovereign, for instance, allows for a victory at the upkeep if the player’s life total is high enough, bypassing the need to reduce opponents to zero life. Unlike Happily Ever After, Felidar Sovereign does not require a diversity of card types in the graveyard or a high life total; rather, it solely focuses on the life aspect.
Test of Endurance functions similarly, rewarding players for achieving a life total of 50 or more. Happily Ever After, however, necessitates a broader range of conditions to be met, including life total, card diversity in the graveyard, and a reflection of the game’s five colors on the board. While Test of Endurance interacts with life total, Happily Ever After requires a well-rounded gameplay approach to reach its win condition. This makes Happily Ever After potentially more challenging to utilize but also more satisfying for players who enjoy complex strategies and conditions for victory.
Therefore, players looking for a multifaceted route to success in Magic: The Gathering might find Happily Ever After an intriguing card to build around, adding depth and a fairy tale twist to achieving triumph on the battlefield.
Cards similar to Happily Ever After by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Happily Ever After MTG card by a specific set like Throne of Eldraine and Throne of Eldraine, 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 Happily Ever After and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Happily Ever After Magic the Gathering card was released in 1 different sets between 2019-10-04 and 2019-10-04. Illustrated by Matt Stewart.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019-10-04 | Throne of Eldraine | ELD | 16 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Matt Stewart | |
| 2 | 2019-10-04 | Throne of Eldraine | ELD | 337 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Matt Stewart |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Happily Ever After has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Historicbrawl | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Explorer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
| Timeless | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Happily Ever After card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2019-10-04 | Ignore the alternative characteristics of an adventurer card in your graveyard. Its alternative card type won't be counted among the card types of cards in your graveyard. |
| 2019-10-04 | In a Two-Headed Giant game, Happily Ever After's first ability causes each team to gain 5 life twice. |
| 2019-10-04 | Lands are normally colorless permanents, even if they tap for mana of a certain color. |
| 2019-10-04 | Players can't take any actions during your turn before your upkeep begins. |
| 2019-10-04 | The card types that could appear among your permanents and cards in your graveyard are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery. Certain older sets contain tribal cards as well. Supertypes, such as legendary and basic, aren't card types. |
| 2019-10-04 | The second triggered ability of Happily Ever After has one very long intervening “if” clause. This means that all of the conditions must be true as your upkeep begins—you must control permanents with all five colors, your permanents and graveyard must contain six or more card types, and your life total must be high enough—or the ability won't trigger at all. If they're not all true as the ability resolves, you won't win the game. |
| 2019-10-04 | You could have one permanent that's all five colors, or the five colors could be spread out among any number of permanents. |
