Unlawful Entry: Unraveling Its Set’s Mechanical Identity

Unlawful Entry: Unraveling Its Set’s Mechanical Identity

In TCG ·

Unlawful Entry artwork from MTG Unfinity

Image courtesy of Scryfall.com

Reading the Mechanical Identity of Unfinity Through Unlawful Entry

Blue magic in Unfinity isn’t about counters and clunky combos as much as it is about tempo, surprise, and keeping your opponents guessing. Unlawful Entry, an instant from the whimsical Unfinity set, embodies that identity with a two-part package: a straightforward evasion boost and a cheeky loopability that rewards clever play and careful timing 🧙‍♂️🔥. For blue mages, this card is a microcosm of the set’s design philosophy: return to the hand when it serves the plan, while the current moment is your canvas for a well-timed evasion push ⚔️.

At its simplest, Unlawful Entry costs 1U and grants a creature +1/+0 and flying until end of turn. That’s not a flashy long-lasting anthem, but in a blue-lightning world where creatures trade in a heartbeat, giving a single target a temporary feathered flicker can swing races, steal a tempo advantage, or push a creature out of reach for a turn. The flying matters more than the stat line here; blue loves evasion, and a creature that can dodge ground blockers even for a single turn can unlock aggressive lines or secure a crucial blocking window later in the same turn. It’s not just utility—it’s style, a wink that says: we’re playing for the moment, and the moment matters 🧩🎲.

“Glaxxar, Security Bot 254 has wandered off. After lunch, throw on a spacesuit and go find it.” —Truss, chief engineer

But the second half of Unlawful Entry’s text elevates the card beyond a one-off tempo spell. Whenever you put an art sticker on a creature, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand. That line is the heart of Unfinity’s mechanical identity in action: it introduces a self-recycling loop via art stickers, a thematic and mechanical innovation that felt like a playful bridge between sticker nostalgia and modern card design. The sticker mechanic isn’t just flavor; it creates a subtle but potent condition for card advantage within the chaos of a silver-bordered environment. The idea that you can recapture a cheap spell from your graveyard by applying an art sticker nudges blue toward control-esque recursion—without losing the unhinged, crowd-pleasing vibe that defines the set 🧙‍♂️🎨.

In practice, that recursion reward invites you to think in terms of timed recursions and board-presence planning. You don’t necessarily want to fill your deck with art stickers and wait for Unlawful Entry to return every time; you want to balance the sticker interactions with the tempo engine of the rest of your deck. The beauty is that the card’s two modes harmonize with Unfinity’s broader identity: the set leans into playful, out-of-the-box interactions, and Unlawful Entry gives you a tangible, repeatable tool to leverage them. You can imagine a blue-centered strategy that leverages layering effects, returning this spell to hand to recast it after a sticker has been placed on a creature, all while pressuring opponents with evasive threats and precise tempo plays 🚀💎.

The card’s color identity—blue—plus its mana cost of 1U for a common instant with two distinct effects showcases the set’s design ethos: efficiency, humor, and interaction. Unfinity’s set type is listed as “funny,” and that label isn’t just marketing fluff. It signals an atmosphere where players can explore mechanics beyond the usual disease of optimized combos. The sticker mechanic, in particular, invites experimentation: what stickers exist, how do you attach them, and what creatures benefit most from being tagged with art? The elegant line of Unlawful Entry—granting flight now and enabling future hand recursions later—encourages a play pattern that feels both retro and refreshingly novel in a modern format context 🔥🎨.

From a collector’s perspective, Unlawful Entry is an approachable look at Unfinity’s exploration of identity. It’s common, both nonfoil and foil, with a modest price tag that reflects its casual-use status rather than a need to chase a spike in rarity. Yet its foil treatment and flavor-laden art by Francis Tneh add shine to a deck that loves a quirky centerpiece. The flavor text reinforces the whimsical, narrative flavor—this is a universe where defective robots and misdelivered stickers produce memorable game states and even more memorable stories. The card is a tangible reminder that not all blue cards are dour control; sometimes they are a little ridiculous and a little brilliant, and that’s a Magic identity worth celebrating 🧙‍♂️💎.

Why this matters for understanding Unfinity’s mechanical identity

Unlawful Entry captures the essence of Unfinity by reinforcing two core themes: tempo and recursion through a blue lens, and artistic, sticker-driven interactions that reward creative play and deckbuilding flexibility. The card isn’t a stall tactic or a one-serious-cool trick; it’s a window into how Unfinity balances lighthearted flavor with genuine mechanical depth. It’s a reminder that even in a world of sci-fi sticker diplomacy and spacefaring humor, blue’s job remains to shape the pace of the game—one clever trick at a time 🧠⚔️.

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Unlawful Entry

Unlawful Entry

{1}{U}
Instant

Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains flying until end of turn.

Whenever you put an art sticker on a creature, you may return this card from your graveyard to your hand.

"Glaxxar, Security Bot 254 has wandered off. After lunch, throw on a spacesuit and go find it." —Truss, chief engineer

ID: 402a29c1-1270-4a2a-8099-4c489e3c1adf

Oracle ID: 898ee071-dd37-4a02-895d-a41b568d7eef

Multiverse IDs: 580643

TCGPlayer ID: 288122

Cardmarket ID: 677294

Colors: U

Color Identity: U

Keywords:

Rarity: Common

Released: 2022-10-07

Artist: Francis Tneh

Frame: 2015

Border: black

EDHRec Rank: 24972

Set: Unfinity (unf)

Collector #: 62

Legalities

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

Prices

  • USD: 0.04
  • USD_FOIL: 0.10
  • EUR: 0.04
  • EUR_FOIL: 0.11
Last updated: 2025-11-16