The year is 2013. Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope in centuries to resign the papacy, a large meteor entered the atmosphere over Russia and shattered windows with the shockwave, and the second set in Return to Ravnica block, Gatecrash, was released in February.

Gatecrash featured five of the ten guilds, each with its own mechanic. The Gruul Clans () got Bloodrush, an interesting one aimed primarily at drafting. Let's take a look.

A Rush of Blood to the Head

Bloodrush is a keyword ability word found on 13 total cards, all within Red, Green, or a combination. It is modal, which means it can be used in more than one way. It's also an Activated Ability. Every card with Bloodrush is a Creature and can be cast like normal, functioning as the Creature.

Zhur-Taa Swine is a great example. You can pay five mana for a 5/4 Creature.

However, Bloodrush allows you to pay a cost (always a combination of mana in the same colors as the Creature's casting cost and discarding the card with Bloodrush) to give another target attacking Creature a temporary Power and Toughness boost (always equivalent to the Power and Toughness of the Creature with Bloodrush).

Same Old Bloodrush with a New Touch

Bloodrush allows a card to function as both a Creature and a combat trick, which made them quite useful in Limited. You could take advantage of the trick if you got in with a Creature, but you also had tricks which could be Creatures, upping your Creature count (important in Limited).

Bloodrush also provides abilities when the Creature with Bloodrush has an ability.

Skarrg Goliath is a great example; you can pay eight mana for a 9/9 with Trample, or you can pay seven mana, discard Skarrg Goliath, and give something else attacking +9/+9 and Trample until end of turn.

The Blood Rushes

There's not much else to this, except one really important thing:

Bloodrush is an activated ability. It is not a spell. That means it cannot be countered with regular counter spells.

If you pay five mana and cast Wrecking Ogre, I can counter it with my Mana Leak. But if you pay five mana and Bloodrush Wrecking Ogre, I either need a Stifle or some other way to counter an activated ability.

Also note, discarding the card is part of the cost - you do that first, along with paying the mana. If the effect does get Stifled, you will still have discarded the card.

Finally, Bloodrush must always target an attacking Creature; no using it to give a bonus to a blocker. This timing restriction doesn't apply to when you can activate Bloodrush, just when something can be targeted with it. That means if you want to discard the card with Bloodrush for some reason, you can do it whenever you want, but if there's no Attacking Creature to target, the effect will fizzle (but you'll have something new in your Graveyard).

I Feel the Thunder Roll Tonight like a Rush of Blood

Bloodrush was met with... a lackluster response. It was fairly limited, because there was only so much it could do. Because of that, it's a 6 on the Storm Scale - we could see it again, but there would have to be a compelling reason.

That said, if you find yourself in a random draft or sealed with this ability, it's excellent in Limited. The fact they can be uncounterable tricks or Creatures makes them very strong.

Additionally, a card like Rubblehulk can be great in Commander; a big mana deck using Red and Green might not mind a massive Power boost for three mana.

A card that can function in more than one way is often worth a second look. While none of the cards is wildly powerful, don't sleep on the fact they are often cheap ways to pump existing Creatures in a difficult-to-interact-with way.

Thanks for reading.