Finishing Move: How Humor Fuels MTG Culture

Finishing Move: How Humor Fuels MTG Culture

In TCG ·

Finishing Move card art from Unfinity

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Humor as a Magic: The Gathering Culture Engine

If you’ve ever laughed your way through a match, you know humor is more than a mood—it's a social currency in the MTG community 🧙‍♂️. From legendary misplays to tongue-in-cheek decknames, jokes lubricate the gears of competition and camaraderie alike. Finishing Move, a green sorcery from the tongue-in-cheek Unfinity set, serves as a perfect case study for how a card's playful design can ripple beyond the table and shape a whole subculture 🔥. It’s not just about winning; it’s about making the journey to victory feel delightfully unpredictable, like a dopamine-kick in a cardboard wrapper 🎲.

What this card is and why it lands with fans

Finishing Move is a green-splashing gem from Unfinity (released October 7, 2022). It costs {2}{G} and comes as a common rarity, a nod to the set’s mission: celebrate the silly, the strange, and the spectacularly tongue-in-cheek moments MTG is known for. The card’s oracle text reads: You get {TK}{TK}, then you may put a sticker on a nonland permanent you own. Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control. Put simply, you gain two Treasure tokens and, much more blisteringly, you can leverage your own creature’s power to ping an adversary’s creature. The flavor text—“What the show lacks in historical accuracy, it makes up for in awesome submission holds.”—embodies the playful self-awareness that makes Unfinity so beloved among casual players and meme-lovers alike ✨.

“What the show lacks in historical accuracy, it makes up for in awesome submission holds.”

The artwork by Dmitry Burmak captures the showmanship vibe that MTG fans adore: dramatic flourishes, over-the-top action, and a wink at the crowd. The card’s stickers mechanic—putting a sticker on a nonland permanent you own—turns a boring board state into a canvas for creativity. It’s not just a rule to memorize; it’s a invitation to the table to co-create chaos in a friendly, laughter-filled way 🧙‍♂️⚔️.

How humor informs strategy and culture in practice

Finishing Move operates in a space where green ramp meets comedy. The two Treasure tokens you generate offer credible acceleration—colorless mana that can be spent as you need to cast your next big green spell or to snap up a utility need mid-game. In casual Commander games, that ramp can feel almost as satisfying as landing the final blow in a goofy, high-spirited duel. The ability to give a little extra punch to a creature you control—“deal damage equal to its power” to an enemy creature—further reinforces a shared joke that the power on your side of the board is not just raw stat lines but an instrument of hilarity when used creatively 💎. Strategically, the sticker option invites players to pair Finishing Move with board-state setup. You might apply a sticker to a dependable nonland permanent—perhaps a favorite ramp piece or a beloved commander—then style the payoff around a creature you control delivering the damage to a foe’s blocker or threat. The result is a moment where rules-savvy play and community humor converge into a memorable, story-worthy game moment 🎨. It’s the kind of play that becomes a talking point at a con, a stream, or a kitchen-table session. For clubs and stream communities, Finishing Move is a ready-made tease: a card that explicitly invites jokes about “tapping for two treasures” while you “finishing move” an opponent’s board with a cheeky, self-aware flourish. The card’s Unfinity identity—tapping into the ridiculous, the carnival-atmosphere, and the crowd-pleasing finish—helps justify why players come back to the game again and again. When humor is woven into the deck’s design, players feel like part of an ongoing story rather than mere spectators to a meta-contest 🔥.

Narrative and art: how laughter rides alongside lore

MTG’s lore has always thrived on flavor, and Unfinity leans into a cosmology where spectacle, jokes, and showmanship are as important as the spells themselves. Finishing Move, with its sticker mechanic and two Treasure tokens, invites a narrative where players become performers and their boards a stage. The flavor text nods to the spectacle and the submission holds that make a big finish satisfying—not merely for the win, but for the shared moment of ridiculous, exuberant play. Good humor in MTG isn’t just a joke; it’s a mechanism for lowering entry barriers, inviting new players to lean into the game’s quirks, and building a community that laughs together while learning the rules 🎭.

Bringing the vibe to your desk and beyond

If you’re chasing that same vibe at your own game night or streaming table, the community-driven humor around cards like Finishing Move can be a blueprint. Celebrate the memes, share the sticker stories, and lean into the playful risk of a big, unexpected combo that’s as much about the moment as the math. The set’s charm isn’t merely in the card text; it’s in how the card encourages you to improvise, joke, and riff with your friends as you play. And yes, it’s absolutely acceptable to celebrate a two-Treasure-turn, followed by a perfectly timed, cheeky “finishing move” on a rival’s creature. That’s the essence of MTG culture at its best 🧙‍♂️💎⚔️.

While we’re talking vibes, a practical note for your table: a smooth workspace helps keep the humor flowing. Speaking of comfort, this handy non-slip mouse pad from our shop is a perfect desk companion during those epic, laughter-filled sessions: Non-slip Gaming Mouse Pad – Polyester Surface, Anti‑Fray, 9.5x8 🧙‍♂️🔥

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Finishing Move

Finishing Move

{2}{G}
Sorcery

You get {TK}{TK}, then you may put a sticker on a nonland permanent you own. Target creature you control deals damage equal to its power to target creature you don't control.

What the show lacks in historical accuracy, it makes up for in awesome submission holds.

ID: cadd9acf-3c42-4be4-bb45-551736535cb7

Oracle ID: d41dc3a5-58e4-444a-b388-5a32ccbed0eb

Multiverse IDs: 580689

TCGPlayer ID: 288028

Cardmarket ID: 677319

Colors: G

Color Identity: G

Keywords:

Rarity: Common

Released: 2022-10-07

Artist: Dmitry Burmak

Frame: 2015

Border: black

EDHRec Rank: 20251

Set: Unfinity (unf)

Collector #: 139

Legalities

  • Standard — not_legal
  • Future — not_legal
  • Historic — not_legal
  • Timeless — not_legal
  • Gladiator — not_legal
  • Pioneer — not_legal
  • Modern — not_legal
  • Legacy — banned
  • Pauper — banned
  • Vintage — banned
  • Penny — not_legal
  • Commander — legal
  • Oathbreaker — banned
  • Standardbrawl — not_legal
  • Brawl — not_legal
  • Alchemy — not_legal
  • Paupercommander — legal
  • Duel — banned
  • Oldschool — not_legal
  • Premodern — not_legal
  • Predh — not_legal

Prices

  • USD: 0.04
  • USD_FOIL: 0.13
  • EUR: 0.10
  • EUR_FOIL: 0.13
Last updated: 2025-11-20