Magic the Gathering ~ Glossary

Deathtouch: A creature dealt any amount of damage by a creature with deathtouch is destroyed.

Flying: A creature with flying can be blocked only by creatures with flying or reach.

Haste: A creature with haste isn’t affected by summoning sickness. It can attack as soon as it comes under your control. You can also activate its activated abilities with [colorless] in the cost right away.

Hexproof: Prevents a permanent or player from being the target of spells or abilities an opponent controls.

Indestructible: An indestructible permanent can’t be destroyed by damage or by effects that say “destroy,” but it can still be put into the graveyard for other reasons—such as an effect that reduces its toughness to 0.

Lifelink: When a creature you control has lifelink and deals damage, you simultaneously gain that much life.

Menace: A creature with menace can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.

Trample: Trample allows a creature to deal excess combat damage to the player it’s attacking, even if the creature is blocked. If you’re attacking with a creature that has trample and it is blocked, you have to assign its combat damage to the creatures blocking it first. If it destroys all of those creatures, then you can assign any excess damage to the player it’s attacking. If an attacking creature with trample is blocked, but there are no creatures blocking it when damage is assigned (for example, if you used a spell to destroy the blocking creature), then all of its damage is assigned to the player it’s attacking.

Reach: A creature with reach can block a creature with flying. Note that a creature with reach can be blocked by any kind of creature.

Vigilance: A creature with vigilance doesn’t tap to attack. Vigilance doesn’t allow a tapped creature or a creature that entered the battlefield this turn to attack.

Artifact: Permanent "special object" that is not a creature/enchantment/instant/sorcery/etc.

Battle: See this.

Enchantment: Permanent that enters the battlefield and remains there until it is exiled or destroyed.

Food Token: Artifact with "2 colorless mana, tap, Sacrifice this artifact: you gain 3 life."

Sorcery: Non-permanent (can never enter the battlefield); can only be cast during the Main Phases of your turn.

Spell: All types of cards (except lands) are spells while you’re casting them. For example, Angler Turtle is a creature card. While you’re casting it, it’s a creature spell. When it resolves, it becomes a creature. Spells can only be cast during your main phase, except for instants, which can be cast anytime.

Treasure Token: Artifact with "Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."

Controller: A spell’s controller is the player who cast it. A permanent’s controller is the player who cast it—unless another spell or ability changes who controls it.

Exile: Exiled cards are set apart from the rest of the game. You can’t interact with cards in exile unless an ability specifies otherwise. (Akin to "banish" in Yu-Gi-Oh.)

Owner: The person who starts the game with a card in their deck is that card’s owner. Even if your opponent gains control of one of your permanents, you’re still its owner. (If you loaned your friend a deck, they’re the “owner” of all the cards in it during the game.) The owner of a token is the player who controlled it when it entered the battlefield.

Legendary: Legendary is a supertype, so you’ll find it written on the type line before the card type. If a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name at the same time, that player must choose one of those permanents to keep and immediately put the rest into their graveyard. Different players can control legendary permanents with the same name. All Planeswalkers are legendary, but you can control two different versions of the same Planeswalker at the same time (e.g. Jace, Mirror Mage and Jace, Arcane Strategist).

Permanent: A card or token on the battlefield. Permanents can be artifacts, creatures, enchantments, or lands. Once a permanent is on the battlefield, it stays there until it’s destroyed, exiled, sacrificed, or otherwise removed according to the game rules. You can’t remove a permanent from the battlefield just because you want to, even if you control it.

There are six permanent types: artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker. Instant and sorcery cards can’t enter the battlefield and thus can’t be permanents.

Sacrifice: If a spell or ability tells you to sacrifice a kind of permanent, choose one of your permanents of that type on the battlefield and put it into its owner’s graveyard (usually your graveyard, but some spells and abilities allow you to gain control of cards owned by an opponent). You can sacrifice only permanents you control. Sacrificing a permanent is different from destroying it. You can sacrifice a permanent only if a spell or ability tells you to, or if it’s part of a cost.

Token: Some spells and abilities can create tokens. Tokens are always permanents, and they’re affected by all the rules, spells, and abilities that affect permanents. If one of your tokens leaves the battlefield, however, it moves to the new zone (such as your graveyard or your hand) and then immediately vanishes from the game.

At the beginning of a Magic game, you draw the top seven cards of your library. That’s your starting hand. If you don’t like your starting hand for any reason, you can take a mulligan. The choice to take a mulligan is made after the starting player is determined, but before doing anything else. To take a mulligan, shuffle your hand back into your library and draw a new hand of seven cards. If you are satisfied with that hand, put one card from it on the bottom of your library. If not, you can take another mulligan. You can take a mulligan as many times as you want, but you put one card on the bottom of your library for each mulligan you’ve taken this game.