Modal

Modal spells or abilities give the caster a choice of two or more effects when it is cast or otherwise put on the stack. Modes are the different effects you may choose on a modal spell or ability.

Description
A modal spell or ability begins with "Choose one —" (or "Choose two —", etc.) followed by multiple possible effect choices, or modes. When a modal spell or ability is announced its controller first chooses one of the modes to take effect before choosing its target or targets if it requires any. The earliest modal spell is Healing Salve, although initially, it didn't have the "Choose one —" wording. It was reworded when reprinted in Urza's Saga.

There are several variations of modal spells and abilities:
 * "An opponent chooses one —" appears on three spells, Fatal Lore, Library of Lat-Nam and Misfortune, all from Alliances. Largely obsolete, as most punisher choices are binary and use "may have X, else Y", though if there ends up more than two choices it may return. The greatest functional difference is that if copied the choice is locked in, whereas modern punisher cards can result in the opponent splitting the difference.
 * "If [event], instead choose one —". This is a modal replacement effect. This wording was used for Time Vault's Oracle text at one point but is no longer on any cards.
 * "Choose two —" appears on a series of cards known as Commands; the caster is given a choice of four effects, and as expected allows the user to use two of them. The original monocolour cycle were from Lorwyn, with an allied cycle in Dragons of Tarkir and an enemy cycle in Strixhaven: School of Mages. There were also single cards in Kaya's Guile and Very Cryptic Command.


 * "Choose one or both —" has appeared a few times starting in Alara block; two effects are given, and the caster is allowed to choose either for resolution. This is for spells priced to hit two targets but can be still used when only one target is the rational choice. The wording is also used for the two common Escalate cards, which typically use "one or more" as the others have three modes.
 * "Choose one or more —" was first seen on Rain of Thorns in Avacyn Restored, but has appeared most in Eldritch Moon's Escalate.
 * "Choose any number" is close to identical, having first appeared on Rankle, Master of Pranks</c>. It is used as unlike casting an instant or sorcery, it can be rational for the triggered ability to choose nothing. It appears again on the cycle of Inscriptions in Zendikar Rising, though the reasoning behind the templating is unknown.
 * "Choose three" has appeared on the Confluence cycle in Commander 2015, which also has the text of "you may choose the same mode more than once".
 * "Choose four" with the same rider text has appeared once on Planewide Celebration</c>.
 * "Choose one that hasn't been chosen —" appears on Demonic Pact</c> and Captive Audience</c>.
 * Kargan Intimidator</c> adds the rider "this turn" for an activated ability.
 * "Choose X or Y —" was devised to allow for a singular choice for a permanent, currently on seven enchantments and an artifact. The Siege cycle from Fate Reforged used "Khans or Dragons"; inspired by this, Mirrodin Besieged</c> asked "Mirran or Phyrexian". The other two are Unstable cards: "Bland or Flavourful" for a variant of Ineffable Blessing</c>, and "Whack or Doodle" for  Buzzing Whack-a-Doodle</c>.
 * Modal double-faced cards from the sets in 2021 are a new form of this X or Y choice, which avoids memory issues by having a different face being used. All of them from Zendikar Rising have lands on the back face, which makes it very clear as to which side is the default side. Kaldheim follows a similar rule in that the front face is always a God; and finally Strixhaven: School of Mages have enemy color sides, though which side is the front is not immediately obvious.

In August 2014, along with the rules update for Khans of Tarkir, the templating for modal abilities was changed from its previous semicolon-separated prose list format to a bulleted list, making them more readable. All existing modal cards received errata on Oracle to have bullet points, and all subsequent modal cards (e.g. Jeskai Charm</c>) have been formatted this way.

A subset of modal spells have choices regarding choosing a color, creature type, name, or card type. These are distinct from other modal spells in that the spell more ore less has the same effects on the chosen quality, whereas the modal spells that follow the bullet point have very distinct effects.

The keyword abilities escalate/entwine allow the caster to choose additional/all options by paying an additional cost.

Rules
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As design element
Modality is one of the fundamental building blocks of Magic design, alongside kicker, covering mechanics such as Channel, Evoke, Adventure, Cycling, and Bestow; this article covers otherwise uncategorized modal spells.

Trivia

 * Mode is also a creature type on the non-legal Heroes of the Realm card Optimus Prime, Inspiring Leader</c>.