Wizards of the Coast have done a fantastic job of bringing new worlds to Magic: The Gathering (MTG) with their Universes Beyond sets.
It’s impressive that the Universes Beyond releases, which have seen MTG’s multiverse expand to include the worlds of Warhammer, Doctor Who and, most notably, Lord of the Rings, among others, always feel deeply thematic and true to the lore of their respective universes too.
The latest universe to be adapted to Magic: The Gathering is long running video game RPG series, Fallout.
Its cards dive deep into numerous well known characters and settings from across the Fallout games, with references and mechanics that’ll be all too familiar for long term fans of the subversive post-apocalyptic saga.
In fact, the Universes Beyond Fallout cards introduce (or re-use!) a number of mechanics that make this set feel undeniably like the anachronistic, retro-futurism of the pseudo-1950s nuclear wasteland that’ll be very familiar for fans of the games.
One of those mechanics is radiation; let’s take a look at how that works in MTG!
How Do Radiation Counters Work In MTG?
Just like in the video game, radiation in MTG chips away at your health; in the case of MTG of course, that means your precious Life Points!
For each radiation counter you have, you must mill a card at the beginning of your main, precombat phase.
Milling means to reveal and discard a card from the top of your draw deck (or spellbook, if we’re sticking to MTG terminology!).
For each non Land card that is milled in this way, players must lose one life point, but also one radiation counter or, as they’re referred to in the MTG Comprehensive Rules, ‘rad counters’.
If life loss from radiation damage is referred to on a card, it specifically means the damage taken from rad counters.
Are There Other Ways To Remove Radiation Counters?
One way to combat a severe case of MTG Fallout radiation is with The Survivor’s Med Kit, an Artifact card which has several different, one-use options.
One of these is Rad Away, which removes all rad counters from a player, but does cause Survivor’s Med Kit to be sacrificed.
How Do I Get Radiation Counters?
You’ll most commonly acquire radiation counters from damage dealt by irradiated creatures, as you can see from the examples above.
Glowing One deals radiation damage along with normal damage when a player is attacked, but Mirelurk Queen’s radiation counters are given to a target player only when entering play.
Glowing One also has a positive effect on its controller due to the radiation; whenever any player (including yourself!) mills a non Land card, you gain one Life!
Are There Any Positive Effects From Radiation?
A good example of radiation being used to positive effect is with the card Strong, the Brutish Thespian.
Strong gets stronger the more damage is dealt to him; this also increases the amount of radiation you take.
However, having Strong on your side also makes you gain Life from radiation instead of losing it.
This is risky, however; you’ll still be milling cards and, if you lose Strong (who’ll no doubt prove to be a target!), your ability to gain, instead of lose, Life from radiation will of course be lost with him!
While you’re here, why not check out our Magic: The Gathering Fallout cards list?
It’s also been a big week for Fallout in general, with the TV series receiving a trailer and a new Fallout Pip-Boy replica on the way too; check out the news article on our sister site, Retro Dodo, covering the new, functional prop!
