First printed in Shards of Alara (2008)
Instant
Change the target of target spell with a single target.
"We can't beat the necromancers in numbers or raw power. We must beat them with ingenuity and timing."
—Rannon, Vithian holdout
- Illustrated by
- Karl Kopinski
Legality
- Legal in
- Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Penny Dreadful, Commander, Duel Commander, PreDH, Tiny Leaders, Oathbreaker
- Not legal in
- Standard, Pioneer, Pauper, Future Standard, Historic, Timeless, Alchemy, Premodern, Old School 93/94, Gladiator, Pauper Commander, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Competitive Brawl
Rulings (6)
- If a spell targets the same player or object multiple times, you can't target it with Swerve.
- Swerve targets only the spell whose target will be changed. It doesn't directly affect the original target of that spell or the new target of that spell.
- If you cast Swerve on a spell that targets a spell on the stack (like Cancel does, for example), you can't change that spell's target to itself. You can, however, change that spell's target to Swerve. If you do, that spell won't resolve when it tries to resolve because Swerve will have left the stack by then.
- You don't choose the new target for the spell until Swerve resolves. You must change the target if possible. However, you can't change the target to an illegal target. If there are no legal targets, the target isn't changed. It doesn't matter if the original target of that spell has somehow become illegal.
- If a spell targets multiple things, you can't target it with Swerve, even if all but one of those targets has become illegal.
- An Aura spell on the stack targets the object or player which it will enchant upon entering. Thus, an Aura spell is a "spell with a single target", which means you may use Swerve to change that target. Doing so will cause it to enter enchanting the new target rather than the original one.
Prices
Paper price: €0.25 / $0.33 , the cheapest non-foil print (Cardmarket and TCGplayer through MTGJSON, 2 Nov 2026).
MTGO price: 0.003 TIX, the cheapest non-foil print (average sell price on GoatBots, 2 Nov 2026).