First printed in Eldritch Moon (2016)
Instant
Escalate 
(Pay this cost for each mode chosen beyond the first.)
Choose one or more —
• Target player gains 4 life.
• Untap up to two target creatures.
• Target opponent sacrifices an attacking creature of their choice.
- Illustrated by
- Johann Bodin
Legality
- Legal in
- Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator, Commander, Duel Commander, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Competitive Brawl
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pauper, Future Standard, Alchemy, Penny Dreadful, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Pauper Commander, PreDH, Standard Brawl
Rulings (9)
- If one target of an escalate spell becomes illegal, the other targets will still be affected. If all of the targets become illegal, the spell won’t resolve.
- You can’t choose any one mode multiple times.
- Additional costs don’t affect a spell’s mana value.
- You choose all of your modes at once. You can’t wait to perform one mode’s actions and then decide to choose more modes.
- Effects that reduce the cost of spells reduce the total cost, including any escalate costs added.
- Untapping an attacking creature doesn’t cause it to be removed from combat.
- If two of the chosen modes of an escalate spell target a creature, you may choose the same creature for each mode’s target, or choose different creatures. The same is true if the chosen modes target a player (or opponent).
- The targeted opponent chooses which of their attacking creatures to sacrifice, not you.
- If an effect allows you to cast a spell that has escalate without paying its mana cost, you pay escalate costs for that spell if you choose more than one mode.
Prices
MTGO price: 0.003 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 2 Nov 2026).