Studies / Keyword creep

Keyword Soup: how many keyword abilities a Magic creature carries, by year

“Keyword soup” is the accusation: modern creatures bundle Flying, Trample, Lifelink, Ward and more onto one body. Keywords are printed on the card, so we counted them on every new-design creature Magic has released, in its debut year. The verdict: the vanilla decade really was vanilla, and the soup is real — but it boiled over only after 2020.

0.57→1.11

mean keyword abilities per new creature, then vs now

29.5%

of new creatures stack 2+ keywords (1990s: 11.6%)

3→10

most keywords on one creature, founding era vs now

Keyword-stacked creatures by year

Bar = share of that year’s new creatures printed with 2+ keyword abilities on one body. Right columns: mean keywords per creature, and the single-card maximum that year.

1993

11.9%

mean 0.56 · max 3

1994

10%

mean 0.46 · max 3

1995

11.3%

mean 0.49 · max 4

1996

14.9%

mean 0.66 · max 4

1997

9.2%

mean 0.53 · max 3

1998

10.8%

mean 0.49 · max 4

1999

11.7%

mean 0.54 · max 3

2000

mean 0.51 · max 3

2001

10.4%

mean 0.58 · max 3

2002

14.6%

mean 0.68 · max 3

2003

13.7%

mean 0.73 · max 6

2004

12.5%

mean 0.56 · max 3

2005

14.9%

mean 0.65 · max 3

2006

14.4%

mean 0.69 · max 3

2007

22.3%

mean 0.82 · max 4

2008

13.9%

mean 0.66 · max 4

2009

17.3%

mean 0.84 · max 6

2010

14.6%

mean 0.75 · max 3

2011

18.1%

mean 0.78 · max 3

2012

21.1%

mean 0.89 · max 5

2013

19.3%

mean 0.8 · max 4

2014

20.3%

mean 0.89 · max 6

2015

23.6%

mean 0.95 · max 3

2016

23.1%

mean 0.95 · max 5

2017

16.2%

mean 0.74 · max 4

2018

18.5%

mean 0.8 · max 5

2019

17%

mean 0.76 · max 4

2020

20.1%

mean 0.84 · max 5

2021

27.9%

mean 1.09 · max 10

2022

30.4%

mean 1.12 · max 7

2023

33.2%

mean 1.23 · max 7

2024

30.6%

mean 1.12 · max 7

2025

30.7%

mean 1.15 · max 7

The vanilla decade, then the soup

For Magic’s first decade the average new creature carried barely half a keyword, and fewer than one in eight stacked two. Keywords spread steadily through the 2000s and 2010s, then the 2020s repriced the whole curve: a new creature now averages 1.11 keyword abilities and nearly one in three stacks 2+. It is the same era Magic’s output and body stats jumped (see the creature power-creep study): more cards, bigger bodies, and more abilities bolted onto each.

Era	Mean keywords	Has a keyword	Stacks 2+
1993-2004 (the vanilla decade)	0.57	43.3%	11.6%
2005-2014 (keywords spread)	0.78	56.4%	17.6%
2015-2019 (the plateau)	0.83	59.7%	19.4%
2020-2025 (keyword soup)	1.11	68.8%	29.5%

The soup, ladled

A few of the most keyword-dense creatures ever printed. Akroma was a 2003 shock at six; the modern record more than doubles the founding-era ceiling.

Odric, Blood-Cursed (2021)10 keywords

Deathtouch, Lifelink, Reach, Indestructible, Hexproof, First strike, Haste, Trample, Menace, Double strike

Sire of Seven Deaths (2024)7 keywords

Lifelink, Reach, Vigilance, First strike, Trample, Menace, Ward

Akroma, Angel of Wrath (2003)6 keywords

Flying, Vigilance, First strike, Protection, Haste, Trample

Method & sources

Every NEW-design creature (17,398 cards) via the open Scryfall API, counted once in its debut year (a card’s first printing is not a reprint). English corpus; tokens, memorabilia and digital-only cards excluded; deduped by card within year.
“Keyword abilities” = the card’s printed keyword list (Flying, Trample, Ward, and so on). Landcycling/typecycling variants each count as their own keyword, which nudges a handful of cycling creatures up; the effect is constant across all years, so the trend is unaffected. Keywords measure named abilities only, not the text around them — this is a conservative floor on total complexity.
No market data is used. Known facts reproduce: Alpha creatures already averaged ~0.57keywords but rarely stacked; the modern soup era is post-2020. Valued 2026-07-10; reproducible from the open API.

FAQ

Is Magic keyword creep real?

Measurably yes, and it accelerated late. The average new-design creature carried 0.57 keyword abilities across Magic's first decade (1993-2004) and 1.11 in the 2020s — roughly 2x. The sharper signal is stacking: the share of new creatures printed with 2+ keyword abilities on one body went from 11.6% to 29.5%, and the share with any keyword at all rose from 43.3% to 68.8%.

Which Magic creature has the most keywords?

Among new-design creatures, Odric, Blood-Cursed (2021) tops the set with 10 keyword abilities printed on one card. In the founding era the ceiling was just 3 — Akroma, Angel of Wrath (2003) was famous precisely because six keywords on one body felt absurd; today a 6- or 7-keyword creature is unremarkable.

How is this different from the complexity-creep study?

That study counts WORDS of rules text; this one counts KEYWORD ABILITIES, the concrete mechanical unit players actually track. They can move independently: a card can be text-heavy with zero keywords, or short with a stack of them. Keyword count also captures a specific design phenomenon — "keyword soup," where a single creature bundles Flying, Trample, Lifelink, Ward and more. Both point the same direction, which is the honest corroboration.

How was this measured?

The printed keyword-ability list of every NEW-design creature (each card counted once, in its debut year) via the open Scryfall API (printed keyword abilities via the open Scryfall API (new-design creatures, debut year), valued 2026-07-10); 17,398 creatures, English-language corpus, tokens, memorabilia and digital-only cards excluded, deduped by card within year. No market data is used. Known facts reproduce: Alpha creatures already averaged ~0.57 keywords (Flying and First strike are older than the game's first tournament), but they almost never stacked them — the soup is a modern habit.

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Foilio (2026-07-10). Keyword Soup: how many keyword abilities a Magic creature carries, by year. Retrieved from https://foilio.net/studies/mtg-keyword-creep

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