Martial Law
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Magic: The Gathering
Mana cost
Return to RavnicaRTR · #14
- Card type
- Enchantment
- Rarity
- Rare
- Indicative price
- 0.17 € · ★ 0.49 € · 0.27 $ · ★ 0.34 $
- Mana value
- 4
- Colour
- White
Card text
At the beginning of your upkeep, detain target creature an opponent controls. (Until your next turn, that creature can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.)
Format legality
- CommanderLegal
- DuelLegal
- LegacyLegal
- ModernLegal
- OathbreakerLegal
- PennyLegal
- PioneerLegal
- VintageLegal
Legalities follow the imported catalogue; check format rules before a tournament.
Data imported on 2026-10-06 (UTC).
Indicative Scryfall prices, updated daily. ★: foil; ★ E: etched foil. EUR and USD represent different markets.
Printing information
- Illustrator
- Tyler Jacobson
- Card language
- English
- Release date
- 2012-10-05
Flavour text
"The good of society matters much more than the inconvenience of a few." —Agmand Sarv, Azorius hussar
Rulings
Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form “[cost]: [effect].” No one can activate any activated abilities, including mana abilities, of a detained permanent.
If a creature is already attacking or blocking when it’s detained, it won’t be removed from combat. It will continue to attack or block.
If a noncreature permanent is detained and later turns into a creature, it won’t be able to attack or block.
If a permanent’s activated ability is on the stack when that permanent is detained, the ability will be unaffected.
The static abilities of a detained permanent still apply. The triggered abilities of a detained permanent can still trigger.
When a player leaves a multiplayer game, any continuous effects with durations that last until that player’s next turn or until a specific point in that turn will last until that turn would have begun. They neither expire immediately nor last indefinitely.