Overview
The Storm Scale is a rating system Mark Rosewater uses to rate the chances of a mechanic coming back to Magic. You can see a detailed explanation of the scale on the Wizards website. The key things to know are:
- It only applies to the item being printed in a Standard-legal set.
- It's Mark Rosewater's personal opinion, which others in R&D might not share.
- A low chance doesn't mean no chance. Madness returned while being rated an 8.
Mark also uses the Rabiah Scale for returning to planes, the Venser Scale for returning planeswalkers, and the Beeble Scale for returning creature types, though they all work they same.
A portion of the data behind this site came from the wonderful Storm Scale Database.
The site was last updated on April 25, 2020.
Timeline
Mechanics
-1/-1 counters
Absorb
Adamant
Adventure
Affinity
Affinity for artifacts
Affinity for basic lands
Afflict
Aftermath
Ally mechanic
Alternate win conditions
Annihilator
Ante
Arcane
Artifact lands
Augment/Host
Aura swap
Auras that tap
Awaken
Banding
Bands with other
Barry's land
Basic lands
Batching
Battalion
Battle cry
Bestow
Bloodrush
Bloodthirst
Bolster
Bushido
Bushido (new name)
Buyback
Cantrips
Cartouches
Cartouches and trials
Cascade
Champion
Changeling
Chroma
Cipher
Clash
Cohort
Coin flip
Collatz Conjecture hydra
Colored artifacts
Colorless mana costs
Colorless spells
Conspire
Constellation
Contraptions
Converge
Convoke
Creature lands
Creatures that transform into planeswalkers
Creatures with abilities usable by any player
Cumulative Upkeep
Curses
Cycling
Dash
Deathtouch
Delirium
Delve
Detain
Devoid
Devotion
Devour
Die rolling (black border)
Die rolling (silver border)
Domain
Double-faced cards
Dredge
Echo
Edge mechanic
Embalm
Embalm on Amonkhet
Emerge
Empire (mechanic)
Enchant cards in graveyards
Enchantment creatures
Energy
Entwine
Epic
Equipment
Escalate
Eternalize
Evoke
Evolve
Exalted
Exert
Exploit
Extort
Extra combat phase
Extra turn
Fabricate
Face down mechanics
Fading
Fateful hour
Fateseal
Fear
Ferocious
Flanking
Flanking (tweaked)
Flashback
Flicker effects
Flip cards
Flying
Forecast
Formidable
Fortify
Fractions
Free spell mechanic
Frenzy
Fuse
Gotcha
Graft
Grandeur
Gravestorm
Graveyard order matters
Grind
Haunt
Hellbent
Heroic
Hiding cards
Historic
Horsemanship
Host and augment
Hybrid mana
Hybrid mana with colored mana
Imprint
Improvise
Indestructible
Infect
Ingest
Inspired
Instant speed discard
Instant speed lands
Intimidate
Investigate
Kicker
Kinship
Laces
Land creature
Landfall
Landhome
Landwalk
Legendary sorceries
Level up
Lhurgoyf mechanic
Licids
Living weapon
Locus
Lotuses
Madness
Manifest
Megamorph
Meld
Mercenary mechanic
Metalcraft
Miracle
Modular
Monarch
Monocolored hybrid mana
Monstrosity
Monstrous
Morbid
Morph
Moxen
Multikicker
Negative power or toughness
Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu (new name)
Nonbasic landwalk
Nonland Typecycling
Not-color mana
Outlast
Outside assistance
Overload
Pacts
Panglacial Wurm mechanic
Partner with
Persist
Phasing
Phasing (tweaked)
Phyrexian mana
Phyrexian mana (new name)
Physical dexterity
Pitch cards
Poison
Poisonous
Populate
Processors
Proliferate
Protection
Provoke
Prowess
Prowl
Punch-out counters
Punisher effects
Purple
Putting cards in opponent's deck
Quests
Radiance
Raid
Rally
Rampage
Rebel mechanic
Rebound
Recover
Referencing the stack
Regenerate
Remove counters
Renown
Replicate
Retrace
Revolt
Rhystic mechanic
Ripple
Rituals
Sagas
Scavenge
Scratch-off cards
Scry
Shadow
Shroud
Sixth color
Skulk
Snow
Sorceries castable with flash (like Rout)
Soulbound
Spellshaper mechanic
Splice
Split second
Squirrellink
Squirrellink (silver border)
Static abilities on planeswalkers
Storm
Structures
Subgames (silver border)
Substance
Sunburst
Support
Surge
Suspend
Suspend (tweaked)
Threshold
Totem armor
Transfigure
Transform
Transmute
Traps
Treasure
Trials
Tribal
Two cards spells
Uncommon legendary creatures
Undying
Unearth
Unleash
Untap symbol
Vanishing
Vehicles
Wither
Wordy
World
Cards
1-mana planeswalker
1/1 vanilla creature
Angelic Destiny
Banana-themed card
Baneslayer Angel
Bear lord
Birds of Paradise
Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual (in red)
Dead planeswalker card
Disenchant
Donate
Double-faced card with Morph which is a flip card on both sides
Doubling Season
Fetch lands
Giant Growth
Goblin planeswalker
Healing Salve
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Lightning Bolt
Mark Rosewater card
Maro
Mishra's Factory
Mother of Runes
Naughty & Nice
Nonbasic lands with basic land types
Ooze lord
Pain lands
Path to Exile
Phyrexian planeswalker
Planeswalker with banding
Samite Healer
Shichifukujin Dragon
Skullclamp
Storm Crow
Swords to Plowshares
Sylvan Library
Sylvan Library (different colors)
Timeshifted legendary creatures
Vanilla creature at rare or mythic rare
Volcanic Hammer
Wall without defender
Wasteland
Winter Orb
Planes
Alara
Amonkhet
Bablovia
Dominaria
Eldraine
Fiora
Gobakhan
Innistrad
Ixalan
Kaladesh
Kamigawa
Kylem
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
Mercadia
Muraganda
New Phyrexia
Phyrexia
Portal: Three Kingdoms plane
Rabiah
Rath
Ravnica
Regatha
Segovia
Serra's Realm
Shandalar
Tarkir
Theros
Tolvada
Ulgothra
Vryn
Zendikar
Planeswalkers
Ajani
Angrath
Arlinn Kord
Ashiok
Bolas
Chandra
Elspeth
Englebert
Garruk
Gideon
Jace
Kiora
Koth
Leshrac
Liliana
Nahiri
Narset
Nissa
Rowan
Sarkhan
Sorin
Sorin (if not trapped in wall)
Tamiyo
Tibalt
Ugin
Urza
Venser
Vraska
Will
Themes
All-creature set
Artifact-themed block
Block set in the past
Colorless matters
Dwarves (theme)
Enchantment-themed block
Goblins (theme)
Graveyard-themed set
Human tribal
Legendary matters
No-creature set
Nostalgia-themed set
Other IP-based set
Pirate world
Planar Chaos-like set
Planeswalker-less set
Planeswalker-themed set
Prequel set
Time Spiral-like set
Tribal set (all classes)
Tribal set (some classes)
Unbalanced color set
Tribes
Aetherborn
Allies
Angels
Atog
Azra
Basilisks
Bats
Bears
Beebles
Big aquatic creatures
Bringers
Brushwaggs
Cats
Dauthi
Demons
Dinosaurs
Djinn
Dogs (not Hounds)
Dragons
Dreadnoughts
Dwarves
Elders
Eldrazi
Elementals
Elves
Eyes
Faeries
Ferrets
Gnomes
Goats
Goblins
Gods
Homarids
Horrors
Horses
Humans
Hydras
Kavu
Kirin
Kithkin
Lamias
Lhurgoyfs
Mercenaries
Merfolk
Mice
Minotaurs
Moles
Moonfolk
Myr
Nephilim
Ninjas
Noggles
Orcs
Orggs
Ouphes
Oysters
Pests
Phelddagriffs
Phyrexians
Pirates
Rats
Rebels
Reflections
Sables
Scarecrows
Slivers
Slivers (old-style)
Snakes
Spawn
Spellshapers
Sphinxes
Spikes
Spirits
Squirrels
Titans
Titans (powerful as M11 titans)
Treefolk
Vampires
Walls
Werewolves
Werewolves (non-Innistrad)
Wombats
Zombies
Other
Absolutely-removed-from-the-freaking-game-forever zone
Alternate card frames
Banana daiquiri scale
Black Forest ham
Commas in names
Crab legs
Creatures bigger than Eldrazi
Cross-block keywords
Exclamation point in a card name
Full art lands
Full art vanilla creatures
Grilled cheese
Ham and cheese sandwich
Long card names
Magic puzzles
Magic puzzles by Mark Rosewater
Mark Rosewater art
Mauve scale
New Ravnica guilds
Noncreature tokens
Oranges
Pizza
Planechase
Pretzels
Purple (on Mauve Scale)
Resized cards
Six planeswalkers in a block
Storm Scale articles
Un-set
Unique promotional cards
White bordered cards
World Championship Decks
You Make the Card