Fading

Fading is a keyword ability that limits the number of turns a permanent is on the battlefield. The vanishing keyword ability was introduced later as a replacement, as some players found the mechanics of fading unintuitive. Unlike many other cards with time-related effects, fading does not use time counters.

Description
During each of its controller's upkeeps, that player removes one fade counter from the permanent. If the player cannot remove a fade counter, they must sacrifice the permanent. This acts as a countdown to destroying the permanent on the player's next turn after the countdown reaches zero, which players found unintuitive.

All tournament-legal cards with fading were printed in the Nemesis set.

It is unlikely that any new tournament legal cards with fading will be printed. The ability vanishing from the Time Spiral block is nearly identical to fading, but like suspend, triggers its effect as soon as the last counter is removed rather than waiting until the player's next turn. Vanishing also uses the more ubiquitous time counter rather than fading's ability-specific fade counters. One fading card was even timeshifted as a vanishing card, namely Blastoderm being color-shifted and reprinted as Calciderm.

Artifact that adds fade counters

 * Parallax Inhibitor