Tread Upon

Tread Upon was released in 2015 as part of the Dragons of Tarkir set, the third expansion in the Khans of Tarkir block for Magic: The Gathering. The card was designed as a common-rarity green instant, intended to provide players with a functional combat trick that reflected the aggressive, dragon-focused theme of the set. Within the game's mechanics, it allows a creature to gain +2/+2 and trample until the end of turn, a design choice meant to push damage through blockers in the board-state-heavy environment of Tarkir.

The artwork for the card was created by illustrator Svetlin Velinov. Tasked with visualizing the card's effect, Velinov rendered an image capturing the immense scale and crushing force associated with the Tarkir dragons, aligning with the set's central narrative conceit of a timeline reshaped by the survival and dominance of dragonkind. The card was received by the player base as a standard limited-play tool, valued primarily for its utility in draft and sealed formats where combat math often dictates the outcome of a game.