Flying

Flying is an evergreen evasion ability that makes creatures without flying unable to block creatures with flying. It has been in Magic since the original Alpha set. It was the first mechanic that Richard Garfield designed for the game.

Description
Flying appears on over 1,000 different cards and is scattered wildly on the color wheel, mostly being found on blue and white cards, and to a lesser extent in black and red. Green rarely has flying creatures, but is the best color at destroying them (e.g. Hurricane, Plummet). There are a number of creature types that almost always have flying, such as Angels, Birds, Sphinxes, Dragons, and Griffins (each of these generally being creatures with wings).

The Mystery Booster test cards and Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths introduced flying counters.

Enchantments that grant just flying
One creature
 * Flight
 * Shimmering Wings
 * Arcanum Wings
 * Buoyancy
 * Crown of Ascension
 * Dragon Wings
 * Illuminated Wings</c>
 * Launch</c>
 * Phantom Wings</c>
 * Flight of Fancy</c>

All your creatures
 * Levitation</c>

Pseudo-flying
Some creatures without flying can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach (but unlike creatures that actually have flying, these cannot block creatures with flying themselves). Mark Rosewater is not a fan of this design, as it does not differentiate itself from flying meaningfully. It also runs into keyword-referencing issues, as whether or not reach can block it depends on whether reach existed at time of printing.


 * Elven Riders</c>
 * Treetop Rangers</c>
 * Treetop Bracers</c>
 * <C>Treetop Scout</c>
 * Silhana Ledgewalker</c>
 * Canopy Cover</c>
 * Orchard Spirit</c>
 * Signal Pest</c>
 * Spire Tracer</c>

Can't be blocked by creatures with flying
Some creatures without flying can't be blocked by creatures with flying. This is a red ability, and is sometimes nicknamed "Tunneling" However, "Tunneling" is more often used for “target creature with power 2 or less is unblockable this turn”. Given the lack of defensive fliers in a typical game, this use of the keyword has seen little print.


 * Stone Spirit</c>
 * Gnat Alley Creeper</c>
 * Greater Stone Spirit</c>
 * <c>Dust Corona</c>
 * <c>Skyblinder Staff</c>, Equip:

Player flying
The Mystery Booster test card <c>Sarah's Wings</c> (a reference to <c>On Serra's Wings</c>) grants flying to a player (Players with flying can’t be dealt damage by creatures without flying).