: This creature deals 1 damage to any target. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
When this creature enters, look at target opponent's hand.
When this creature enters, look at the top two cards of target player's library. Put one of them into their graveyard.
This creature can't attack unless defending player controls an Island.
Both Wu and Wei warships patrolled the Yangtze River, the natural border between the two kingdoms.
Zhou Yu can't attack unless defending player controls an Island.
"After making me, Zhou Yu, did you have to make Kongming?"
—Zhou Yu crying to heaven on his deathbed
: Target creature can't be blocked this turn. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
When Zhuge Jin proposed the marriage of Guan Yu's daugher and Sun Quan's heir, Guan Yu's arrogant refusal led to disaster.
You draw three cards and you lose 3 life.
"When you give offense to heaven, to whom can you pray?"
—Cao Cao, quoting Confucius
: Target opponent discards two cards. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
When Cao Ren enters, you lose 3 life.
Cao Cao's cousin, Cao Ren was known throughout the three kingdoms as the fiercest of warriors.
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.
Though he held the title of prime minister, Cao Cao used the emperor's name to exert his own influence on the empire.
When this creature enters, target opponent discards a card.
: Target opponent discards a card. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Target opponent discards two cards.
Believing they wrote the forged letter that had been stolen from Zhou Yu, Cao Cao rashly executed his two best admirals for treason.
Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
"Lieutenants dishonored, corpses carted home; The general raises troops again to take revenge."
Famine deals 3 damage to each creature and each player.
"But it was a year of dearth. People were reduced to eating leaves of jujube trees. Corpses were seen everywhere in the countryside."
Destroy target nonblack creature.
Cao Cao was haunted to death by the ghosts of the empresses and other high courtiers he had murdered.
Target opponent chooses a creature they control. Destroy that creature.
Frustrated with Cao Cao's control of the imperial court, Emperor Xian secretly issued an edict condemning him, using his own blood as ink.
Search your library for a card, then shuffle and put that card on top. You lose 2 life.
"If Heaven has placed it in your hands, it means that the throne is destined to be yours."
Destroy all creatures target opponent controls. Draw a card for each creature destroyed this way.
By the year 208, Cao Cao commanded more than 1,000 experienced generals and a million infantry, cavalry, and naval troops.
Destroy target nonblack creature. You gain 3 life.
In ancient China, not wearing armor could be a fatal mistake. Guan Yu, Zhou Yu, Sun Ce, and other heros were struck by poison arrows.
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
"Swallowing his eye, the valiant Xiahou Dun fought on; / But Cao Cao's vanguard, its commander wounded, could not hold out for long."
Sima Yi's power is equal to the number of Swamps you control.
Sima Yi fought for four generations of the Cao family before his own grandson became emperor and united the three kingdoms.
Stolen Grain deals 5 damage to target opponent or planeswalker. You gain 5 life.
At the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao by raiding his grain depot, leaving him with no way to feed his troops.
: Destroy target tapped nonblack creature. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
Whenever this creature attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
The battle of Puyang marked the beginning of the end for Lu Bu. He lost the city—and later his life—to Cao Cao.
When this creature enters, target opponent chooses a creature they control. Destroy that creature.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Cao Cao was more concerned with capabilities than lineage. He excelled at recruiting and retaining men of talent to serve him.
Wei won the battle of Hefei when Zhang Liao defeated Sun Quan and then foiled a Wu scheme to incite rebellion.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Whenever this creature deals damage to an opponent, that player discards a card.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
"He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared."
—Sun Tzu, Art of War (trans. Giles)
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
At the battle of Chang'an, Ma Chao defeated the two generals Cao Cao sent to guard the pass but was forced to flee when Cao Cao's trickery turned his own ally against him.
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Sacrifice Xiahou Dun: Return target black card from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
: Target creature you control gets +2/+0 until end of turn. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
"A splendid talent, admired of all men! His folly lay in serving Cao Cao's power."
This creature can't block.
"To send the common people to war untrained is to throw them away."
—Confucius, The Analects (trans. Lau)
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Whenever Zhang He attacks, each other creature you control gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Whenever Zhang Liao deals damage to an opponent, that opponent discards a card.
Swampwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Swamp.)
". . . Zhong Hui and Deng Ai next led armies west: / And to the Cao, Han's hills and streams now passed. . . ."
Swampwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Swamp.)
" . . . Cao Pi, Cao Rui, Fang, Mao, and briefly, Huan— / The Sima took the empire in their turn. . . ."
Swampwalk (This creature can't be blocked as long as defending player controls a Swamp.)
"Thrice Xuande's ardent quest led to Nanyang, / Where Sleeping Dragon unveiled Han's partition: . . ."
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
"Barbarian tribes with their rulers are inferior to Chinese states without them."
—Confucius, The Analects (trans. Lau)
Only twenty years after the Sima clan united the empire, invading barbarians divided it again.
Blaze deals X damage to any target.
"Spreading flames illumined cloud and sea: Cao Cao went down; 'twas Zhou Yu's victory."
Burning Fields deals 5 damage to target opponent or planeswalker.
"In raiding and plundering, be like fire, in immovability like a mountain."
—Sun Tzu, Art of War (trans. Giles)
You destroy four lands you control, then target opponent destroys four lands they control. Then Burning of Xinye deals 4 damage to each creature.
Draw four cards, then discard three cards at random.
"Power-hungry eunuchs, the curse of the dynasty, have thrown the masses of the people into the depths of misery."
When this creature enters, it deals 2 damage to target creature.
Desert Sandstorm deals 1 damage to each creature.
While pursuing the remnants of Yuan Shao's forces into the Wuhan Desert, Cao Cao was temporarily turned back by a fierce sandstorm.
: Destroy target creature of your choice, then destroy target creature of an opponent's choice. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
When Dong Zhou enters, target creature an opponent controls deals damage equal to its power to that player.
Target opponent chooses a creature they control. Other creatures they control can't block this turn.
Taking control of powerful court positions one by one, eunuchs eventually brought on the fall of the Han dynasty, leading to the chaos of the Three Kingdoms.
Fire Ambush deals 3 damage to any target.
"With fire he broke the battle at Bowang . . . . Striking fear deep into Cao Cao's soul, thus Kongming scored a coup at his debut."
Sacrifice this creature: It deals 1 damage to any target. Activate only during your turn, before attackers are declared.
When this creature enters, search your library for a creature card with power 2 or less, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
"The empire, long united, must divide, and long divided, must unite."
Haste; horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
"Dong Zhuo's man, Lu Bu, warrior without peer, / Far surpassed the champions of his sphere."
Horsemanship (This creature can't be blocked except by creatures with horsemanship.)
Whenever Ma Chao attacks alone, it can't be blocked this combat.
Haste
Penniless and far from home, many former Yellow Scarves and other soldiers became bandits to survive.
When this creature enters, destroy target land.
Upon his return to the capitol after taking soldiers to loot a nearby peaceful town, the prime minister, Dong Zhou, boasted of it as a victory over bandits.
Untap all creatures that attacked this turn. After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase.
With only 70,000 men under his command at the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao was able to defeat Yuan Shao and his 700,000.
Haste
"Across the land rebellions seethed and swarmed / As vicious war lords swooped down on all sides."