Arcane Adaptation

Arcane Adaptation card image

Arcane Adaptation: Enchantment, Ixalan. As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type. Printings, prices, and format legality on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{2}{U}
Mana value
3
Type
Enchantment
Colour identity
Blue (U)
Rarity
Rare
Set
Ixalan (XLN)
Released
2017-09-29
Collector number
46
Artist
Mark Behm
Commander rank
4,008 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)

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About Arcane Adaptation

Arcane Adaptation is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare blue enchantment from Ixalan (XLN), an expansion set released in September 2017. It is collector number 46 in that set, with art by Mark Behm. It costs {2}{U} (two generic and one blue mana) to cast, for a mana value of 3. Its colour identity is blue. It is legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator and Penny Dreadful. It has been printed in 3 sets, from Ixalan (2017) to The List (2020). The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $3.71 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-11).

Card text

As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type.

Creatures you control are the chosen type in addition to their other types. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield.

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $3.71 (as of 2026-11-11).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Arcane Adaptation by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

PioneerLegal
ModernLegal
LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
BrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
TimelessLegal
GladiatorLegal
Penny DreadfulLegal

Other printings of Arcane Adaptation

Arcane Adaptation has been printed in 3 sets. The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.

PrintingRarityYear
The List (PLST) #XLN-46Rare2025
Ixalan Promos (PXLN) #46pRare2017
Ixalan Promos (PXLN) #46sRare2017

Official rulings

Two official rulings apply to Arcane Adaptation, newest first.

  • To choose a creature type, you must choose an existing creature type, such as Vampire or Knight. You can’t choose multiple creature types, such as “Vampire Knight.” Card types such as artifact can’t be chosen, nor can subtypes that aren’t creature types, such as Jace, Vehicle, or Treasure.
  • Replacement effects that modify creatures of a certain type as they enter the battlefield will apply after you apply Arcane Adaptation’s effect. This is a change from previous rules. If you control Arcane Adaptation and the Aether Revolt card Metallic Mimic, with the same creature type chosen for both, then any creature you control will enter the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.

Similar cards

Other enchantment cards with a blue colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Arcane Adaptation is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

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