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- What Are Holiday Promos?
- Holiday Promos - Year By Year
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The Holidays are a time for giving, and for reminding the important people in your life just how much they mean to you. These two traditions are embodied perfectly in Magic: The Gathering's Holiday promo cards: a series of exclusive promos distributed to friends and employees of Wizards of the Coast during each year’s Holiday season.
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PostsThe scarcity of these cards, and the fact that they’re not legal to play in any sanctioned format, means that many players have never even laid eyes on them, despite their being masterpieces of humorous, flavorful design. Today, we’re hoping to correct that. Join us as we unwrap, and admire, every Holiday promo card to date.
What Are Holiday Promos?
Last-Minute Chopping by Marta NaelThe story of Magic’s Holiday promo cards, sometimes called Happy Holidays cards, begins in 2006, with the release of Fruitcake Elemental. Holiday promo cards, much like the majority of cards from Un-sets such as Unfinity and Unstable, are silver-bordered, meaning they’re not legal to play in any sanctioned Magic format.
This confines them strictly to the world of casual kitchen table play, which is a shame given how fun and creative many of the designs the series includes are. That said, this lack of legality becomes less of an issue when you consider the incredibly specific means through which you can acquire them.
Holiday promos aren’t included in booster packs or other Magic products, nor are they given out as rewards for attending and winning in-store events. Instead, they are given as gifts to Wizards of the Coast employees and those who have a relationship with the company, such as store owners and content creators, over the festive period.
This makes them comparable to Judge promos in terms of how accessible they are. In short: not very.
Unlike Judge promos, however, Holiday promos aren’t shiny versions of existing cards, but brand-new designs. In the tradition of Un-sets, these all parody existing Magic cards or mechanics in some way, albeit with a flavorful festive twist thrown in for good measure. Since 2006, a new Holiday promo card has been released every year without fail, which brings us to the sizable series we have now.
Holiday Promos - Year By Year
Thopter Pie Network by Victor Adame MinguezNow that we’ve covered what exactly a Holiday promo is, let’s get into the specifics. We’re going to look at the Holiday promo cards from each year so far, discussing their inspirations, mechanics, and the many, many puns they contain. Lace up your snow boots: it’s going to be quite the hike.
2006 - Fruitcake Elemental
The Holiday promo that started it all, Fruitcake Elemental is less of a Magic: The Gathering joke and more of a Holiday joke told via Magic: The Gathering mechanics. Fruitcake is a staple inclusion in many Holiday spreads, but it’s also known for its high density and fruit content, both of which make it fairly difficult to eat. Fruitcake Elemental expresses this idea in two ways: by making the Elemental itself indestructible, and by having it deal huge damage to you each turn it’s in play.
The mini-game of passing Fruitcake Elemental around with its activated ability to avoid taking damage is a hilarious analogue to passing a real fruitcake round the table and going “No, you have the first piece!”: a scene that will doubtless be familiar to many. Although it is comedic in tone, the actual mechanics of Fruitcake Elemental aren’t too out-there, and a similar design could probably exist in a Commander product printed today. Which is more than can be said for the majority of Holiday promos.
2007 - Gifts Given
CloseGifts Ungiven is one of the most well-known blue cards in all of Magic. A double pseudo-Tutor effect, with added graveyard synergy, for just four mana, the card saw plenty of play on release and still does to this day in both Modern and Vintage. It was even powerful enough to get banned in Commander: a high honor indeed. It’s fitting, then, that the card should receive a parody version in Gifts Given, a Holiday promo that flips the original design on its head.
Rather than searching your own library for four cards, Gifts Given lets you search your opponent’s library for four cards, and makes them choose which two they want to give you. It’s a nice way of forcing an opponent into the Holiday spirit, and the addition of festive gift bags to the art is a nice touch, but overall we’re glad this card has a silver border. Having key pieces stripped directly from your deck is just too much of a feel-bad for regular play.
2008 - Evil Presents
CloseEvil Presents is interesting both because the card it’s parodying, Alpha’s Evil Presence, isn’t particularly well-known, and because its effect isn’t remotely similar to Evil Presence’s effect anyway. That said, it’s still a boundary-pushing card that deserves its Holiday promo status. For four mana, it lets you gift a creature from your hand to your opponent, with the caveat that it must attack them every turn if able.
Since this card’s release, the goad mechanic has been introduced to Magic, which serves a similar purpose in multiplayer games, but we’ve never seen a real card that allows a creature to attack its controller, making Evil Presents a nice mechanical novelty.
While it doesn’t tie in with the card it draws its pun name from, the humor present throughout, particularly in the trailing ellipse before “and always attacks its controller”, is as on-point as ever.
2009 - Season’s Beatings
Some Holiday promos parody aspects of Magic: The Gathering, and some just parody the Holidays in general. Season’s Beatings is firmly in the latter camp, poking fun at the overblown family arguments that often occur when people who rarely see each other spend some ‘quality’ time together.
This is expressed mechanically in the card’s effect, which forces all the creatures under a player’s control to, effectively, fight each other.
This is an interesting, comedic approach to a board wipe, pairing nicely with the title, which is a play on the common festive expression ‘Season’s Greetings.’ This card is also notable for making use of ‘flavor words’, a technique where flavor text is used to describe a card’s effects that would later be widely used in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms and Universes Beyond products, with the ‘Family gathering’ in its text box.
2010 - Snow Mercy
CloseSnow Mercy is one of the best designs the Holiday promo series has to offer. Firstly, it’s a comedic take on No Mercy, an iconic black enchantment from Urza’s Legacy, the art on which depicts the surprise Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria. Snow Mercy shows the same scene, but within the cozy confines of a snow globe, lending the whole thing a much less serious tone.
This tonal shift continues into the effect of the card. Rather than destroying each creature that damages you like No Mercy does, Snow Mercy instead puts globe counters on them, which makes them vulnerable to its activated ability.
By tapping, untapping, tapping, untapping, and tapping Snow Mercy, a condition that introduces a layer of physical comedy by having you effectively ‘shake’ the card like a real snow globe, you can tap all creatures with globe counters on them.
This is not only very funny, particularly if the affected creatures are as impressive as the Phyrexians shown in the art, but also an incredibly creative use of the physical mechanics of Magic to convey the flavor of a card. Top marks.
2011 - Yule Ooze
For 2011, the Holiday promo series took a major step into the world of Un-set design with Yule Ooze, an insatiable gelatinous treat that can make a mess of any given kitchen table. The name, for starters, is a solid pun on ‘You Lose’, kicking things off nicely, but the card’s abilities are even better.
Each turn, the Ooze ‘eats’ a random nonland permanent in play, be it yours or an opponent's, and grows in size based on its mana cost.
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PostsThis can lead to a very large Ooze very quickly, which makes the card’s second ability vital. By paying two mana and eating some real, physical food (not a Food token), you can regenerate Yule Ooze so it can live to munch another day.
Bringing real-world actions and sub-games into Magic is one of the elements that make Un-sets so beloved by players, and Yule Ooze is a great example of that kind of design applied to a Holiday promo card.
2012 - Naughty//Nice
CloseNaughty//Nice is a solid card on a mechanical level, presenting the player with the two options made famous in the Christmas classic ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’ and letting them decide for themselves which list they want to end up on. If you go for Naughty, you get to steal a card from another player’s deck, whereas Nice does the opposite, letting you gift another player a card from your own deck.
These are fun, flavorful effects, but where this card really shines is in its artwork. The sinister-looking character that appears on both halves here is the same one that appeared in Greg Staples’ Tenth Edition artwork for Diabolic Tutor, and his terrifying features lend an extra layer of humor due to their contrast with the fun festive theme of the card.
There’s even a little ‘story in two acts’ across both halves, with the worrying red liquid around the character’s mouth on Naughty revealed to be nothing more than cherry pie filling on Nice.
2013 - Stocking Tiger
CloseStocking Tiger is both a punny homage to Mirage’s Stalking Tiger, right down to its 3/3 stats, and an elegant translation of the concept of a Christmas stocking into the mechanics of Magic: The Gathering. When it enters play, you get to stash a full booster pack underneath it, opening your gift when the Tiger manages to deal direct damage to your opponent.
This is a similar effect to Unhinged’s Booster Tutor, but on a much, much larger scale. There aren’t many creatures that effectively draw you 15 cards when they deal damage to your opponent, after all.
The anticipation and excitement this card creates as you wonder whether you’ll be able to get it through for damage, gazing longingly at your sealed booster and wondering what’s inside all the while, make it a brilliant celebration of the festive season and a great Holiday promo.
2014 - Mishra’s Toy Workshop
CloseThe original Mishra’s Worskhop is the kind of egregious design mistake that seems laughable in the modern era of Magic, and its Holiday promo adaptation, Mishra’s Toy Workshop, isn’t much better. It provides three whole mana, with the caveat that it can only be used on effects that generate tokens: a nifty way of representing the production of toys in-game.
This is taken even further by the final line of text here, which requires you to use actual toys to represent the tokens you generate this way. This is both incredibly flavorful and actually quite a nice way of balancing the card’s power level, since your ability to use it is limited by the number of toys you have.
There are ways around this, such as bringing a small bag of plastic army men with you, but, nevertheless, it's an interesting design that demands creative thinking from those who play it.
2015 - Goblin Sleigh Ride
The idea of Magic cards testing the physical dexterity of players is nothing new, with Alpha’s Chaos Orb introducing the concept right off the bat. That said, they have been phased out in all but Un-sets since the early days of the game, which makes Goblin Sleigh Ride a welcome addition to the Holiday promo lineup.
When played, you put one of your creatures on top then slide them both across the table, dealing damage to other creatures if the rider manages to keep both hands and feet inside the ride at all times.
Interestingly, this card predates the introduction of Vehicles to Magic by a year, and is a wonderfully whimsical take on the same concept. It’s hard to think of a better line of Magic text than “You slide them on their merry way”, and the ‘slaying song’ pun in the flavor text matches the spirit of Magic’s Goblins perfectly.
2016 - Thopter Pie Network
CloseIf you’re feeling hungry, then this is the Holiday promo for you. As a festive parody of Thopter Spy Network, this card swaps out the original’s artifact requirement for a new, more interesting condition: that you be eating food at the start of your upkeep. In addition, the Thopters produced this way must be represented by food too, with you being forced to eat them if they’re killed in any way.
With the right food choice and the right timing, these two effects can actually support each other, with the Thopter you eat during your opponent’s turn fueling the creation of another on your own. This works best with large packs of small biscuits or the like, but the real test would be to run it alongside a full turkey dinner and let chaos ensue.
2017 - Some Disassembly Required
Arriving just after the release of Unstable, 2017’s much-anticipated new Un-set, Some Disassembly Required very much feels like a card that was cut from that expansion at some point. This is evident in the industrial feel of the artwork, and in its ability to redistribute keywords, which feels like a natural fit for the set’s core mechanics of augment and Contraptions.
That said, there’s still plenty of festive joy present in this funky black enchantment.
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Posts‘Some Disassembly Required’ is a pun on ‘Some Assembly Required’, a common disclaimer attached to children’s toys, and the mechanical snowman in the art ties it firmly into the Holiday season. The flavor text is also a nice little reference to the classic Christmas song ‘Frosty the Snowman’, albeit flipped on its head for humorous effect.
2018 - Bog Humbugs
Charles Dickens’ seminal festive tale A Christmas Carol is notable for many reasons, but perhaps most of all for its introduction of a new colloquialism into the English language: “Bah, humbug!” Bog Humbugs is a joyfully literal parody of this ubiquitous phrase, presenting an actual humming Insect that demands you join in with its song in order to scale up its power.
Each time the Humbug deals damage, you need to hum that many notes of a festive song to add a +1/+1 counter to it. This gets harder every turn, as more counters stack up, and you need to deliver more notes in a row. The flavor text here also takes the form of musical notes taken directly from ‘Jingle Bells’, in case you need some inspiration.
2019 - Decorated Knight//Present Arms
Rather than a parody of a specific card, Decorated Knight instead feels like a parody of the entire Throne of Eldraine expansion, which was released earlier in the same year this Holiday promo was distributed. Both Decorated Knight itself and its Adventure half, Present Arms, are festive puns on the traditional ideals of chivalry that Eldraine featured heavily in its design and worldbuilding.
In terms of mechanics, the card is incredibly innovative, letting you swap your deck for a completely new one at any point, then access your old deck by attacking with the Knight himself later if need be. While it’s not particularly in keeping with the spirit of the season, we’ve all bought ourselves an unnecessary treat over the Holidays at some point, and this card lets you replicate that process in-game.
2020 - Topdeck The Halls
Close2020's Holiday promo is a serious deep cut, with an absolute tonne going on from mechanics to art. First of all, the title is a pun on the Magic term ‘topdeck, meaning to draw exactly the card you need from the top of your library, and ‘Deck the Halls’, a well-known Christmas carol.
The ‘Halls’ part actually goes even deeper, because the art for this card is based heavily on that of Dream Halls, a powerful blue enchantment from Stronghold that lets players circumvent mana costs via discarding.
In terms of effects, the ‘Topdeck’ part of the title comes into play with the first one here, which lets you cast ‘decorated’ cards in your hand for a single snow mana, provided you drew them this turn. Decorated is a whole new concept defined by this card, and includes foils, promos, and alternate art cards, and it's doubly relevant because you can actually win the game with this card if you amass 12 or more of them in play.
This is likely a reference to the 12 days of Christmas, and it’s a huge relief that this card isn’t legal for sanctioned play given the huge volume of alternate art treatments available in our post-Booster Fun age.
2021 - Last-Minute Chopping
Magic’s favorite squabbling sibling duo, Gisa and Geralf, take center stage in this send-up of the practice of rushing to buy presents for family members right before Christmas day. The card is a classic punisher effect, giving your opponent the option to gift you a card of their choice from outside the game, or a card of your choice from their board. Neither scenario is ideal, but such are the perils of leaving things too late.
The art and flavor on this one are on point too. From the title, a nice little pun on ‘last minute shopping’ that pairs up nicely with the axe behind Gisa’s back in the art, to the art itself, which shows the pair exchanging horrific presents on a snow-dusted Innistrad, a Zombie shambling slowly towards them in the distance.
2022 - Chaos Wrap
CloseA truly tactile Holiday promo, Chaos Wrap brings the joy of wrapping presents to the Magic table. The card is a clear parody of Chaos Warp, a staple combo enabler/removal piece in formats like Commander, where instead of simply giving the affected player a possible permanent from their deck it lets them wrap up the top card of their deck, regardless of type, and put it into play.
The wrapping process is the most interesting element here, tasking you with putting your card inside ‘lots of sleeves’, with each providing a protective shield against in-game damage and destruction. This works best at a Local Game Store, where sleeves of various sizes are readily available, and can result in some truly unwieldy, unstoppable permanents.
It’s another great physical mini-game, and another great Holiday promo as a result.
2023 - Seasonal Sequels
Every Holiday promo features at least one pun, but Seasonal Sequels is a veritable smorgasbord of them. The art and flavor text feature six separate festive puns on recognizable Magic card names, and with good reason. They’re necessary examples for the task the card expects you to do: come up with festive puns on your own card names to copy them multiple times.
This is both a fun mini-game to play regardless of the reward attached, and a subtle critique of the kinds of low-effort cash-in films franchises tend to put out around the Holidays. The art also appears to show Ravnica in winter, with Rakdos, Aurelia, and Fblthp all making appearances.
This isn’t particularly relevant to the message or mechanics of the card, but is a lovely touch regardless, particularly since they put Rakdos in an ill-fitting pinstripe suit.
Complete Holiday Promo Index
Seasonal Sequels by Adrián Rodríguez PérezIf you just want to check out each of the Holiday promos individually, along with full descriptions of their costs and effects, then you can do so using the table below.
Full List Of Holiday Promos
Fruitcake Elemental
One generic, two green mana creature - Elemental - 7/7 - Rare
Fruitcake Elemental is indestructible.
At the end of your turn, Fruitcake Elemental deals 7 damage to you.
Three generic mana: Target player gains control of Fruitcake Elemental.
Gifts Given
Three generic, one blue mana instant - Rare
Search target opponent’s library for four cards with different names and reveal them. That player chooses two of those cards. Put the chosen cards into the player’s graveyard and the rest into your hand. Then that player shuffles their library.
Evil Presents
Two generic, two black mana sorcery - Rare
Put a creature card from your hand into play under target opponent’s control. That creature attacks each turn if able… and always attacks its controller.
Season's Beatings
Four red mana sorcery - Rare
Family gathering — Each creature target player controls deals damage equal to its power to another random creature that player controls.
Snow Mercy
Two generic, two white mana Snow enchantment - Rare
Whenever a creature deals damage to you, put a globe counter on it.
Tap, Untap, Tap, Untap, Tap: Tap all creatures with globe counters on them.
Yule Ooze
Two generic, one red, one green mana creature - Ooze - 1/1 - Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy another nonland permanent chosen at random, then put a number of +1/+1 counters on Yule Ooze equal to that permanent’s converted mana cost.
One red, one green mana, Eat some food: Regenerate Yule Ooze.
Naughty//Nice
Naughty
One generic, two black mana sorcery - Rare
Search another target player’s library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle that player’s library.
Nice
One generic, two white mana sorcery - Rare
Search your library for a card and put it into another target player’s hand. Then shuffle your library.
Stocking Tiger
Five generic mana artifact creature - Cat Construct - 3/3 - Rare
Stocking Tiger enters the battlefield with a sealed Magic booster pack under it.
When Stocking Tiger deals combat damage to a player, unwrap the booster pack and put it into your hand.
Mishra's Toy Worskhop
Land - Mythic Rare
Tap: Add three generic mana. Spend this mana only on spells and abilities that put tokens onto the battlefield. Use toys to represent the tokens.
Goblin Sleigh Ride
One generic, one red mana sorcery - Mythic Rare
Target creature you control climbs into Goblin Sleigh Ride. You slide them on their merry way. If the creature stayed on, it deals damage equal to its toughness to each other creature touched during the slide.
Thopter Pie Network
Two generic, two blue mana enchantment - Mythic Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you’re eating, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying. Use food to represent the token.
Whenever a creature token you control dies, if it’s represented by food, eat it.
Some Disassembly Required
One black mana enchantment - Mythic Rare
One black mana, Sacrifice a creature: Distribute the sacrificed creature’s keyword abilities among any number of other target creatures until end of turn. If it’s December, you gain 1 life for each of those keywords.
Bog Humbugs
One generic, one black mana creature - Insect - 1/1 - Mythic Rare
Flying
Whenever Bog Humbugs deals combat damage, hum that many notes of a festive song. If you can, put a +1/+1 counter on Bog Humbugs.
Decorated Knight//Present Arms
Decorated Knight
Three generic, one blue mana creature - Human Knight - 3/3 - Mythic Rare
Whenever Decorated Knight attacks, draw a card from your original deck if it’s outside the game.
Present Arms
Two generic, one blue mana sorcery - Adventure
Exchange your library with another deck you own from outside the game. Shuffle your library.
Topdeck the Halls
Three generic, one red, one white mana enchantment - Mythic Rare
Decorated cards in your hand have miracle one snow mana. (Decorated cards include premiums, promos, and cards with alternate frames or art.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control twelve or more decorated permanents, you win the game.
Last-Minute Chopping
One generic, one blue, one black mana sorcery - Mythic Rare
Ask target opponent if they remembered to get you a present. If they say yes, they put a card they own from outside the game into your hand. Otherwise, you gain control of target permanent they control.
Chaos Wrap
Two generic, one red mana instant - Mythic Rare
The owner of target permanent shuffles it into their library. Then they may look at the top card of their library and may wrap it. If it’s a permanent card, they may put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, they may put it onto the battlefield face down as a 4/4 red Present creature. (To wrap a card, put it inside lots of sleeves. If it would be dealt damage or destroyed, remove a sleeve from it instead.)
Seasonal Sequels
X generic, three blue mana instant - Mythic Rare
Pitch the titles of up to X holiday-themed sequels to target spell. Copy that spell for each title pitched, except the copy has that name. You may choose new targets for the copies. (Simply adding numbers isn’t festive enough.)
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