BinderLoot / Glossary
Rules of the game
The words the rules use for the board, the turn, and the order in which things happen.
37 terms
Where the cards live
A card is always in one zone, and what it can do depends on the zone that holds it.
- Battlefield
- The battlefield is the shared zone where lands, creatures, and other permanents sit.
- A card on the battlefield is a permanent. Instants and sorceries never reach the battlefield, because they go to the graveyard after they resolve. Every player plays into the same battlefield.
Example
You play a land. The card moves from your hand to the battlefield, where both players can see it and use it.
- See alsoGraveyardToken
- Command zone
- The command zone holds your commander and any emblems that you control.
- A Commander game starts with the commander in the command zone. You can cast it from there for its mana cost plus the commander tax. When the commander dies or is exiled, you can move it back to the command zone.
Example
The game starts. Your commander waits in the command zone, and the other ninety nine cards are your library.
- See alsoCommander taxCommander damage
- Exile
- Exile is a zone outside the game for cards that leave play.
- A card in exile is face up unless the effect says face down. Indestructible and regeneration do not stop exile, so exile is the cleanest removal. Some cards return an exiled card later, so exile is not always forever.
Example
A spell exiles your creature. The card leaves the game, and a spell that returns cards from the graveyard cannot reach it.
- See alsoDestroyIndestructibleGraveyard
- Graveyard
- The graveyard is the face up discard pile of each player.
- Cards that die, cards that you discard, and instants and sorceries that resolve all go here. Any player can read the graveyard of any player at any time. Flashback, escape, and delve use the graveyard as a second hand.
Example
Your creature dies and your instant resolves. Both cards sit face up in your graveyard, and both players may read them.
- See alsoExileLibraryFlashback
- Library
- The library is the deck of a player, face down, during the game.
- A player who must draw from an empty library loses the game. The loss happens at the next check of state-based actions, not at once. Shuffle the library whenever an effect tells you to search it.
Example
You shuffle and set the deck down. That face down pile is your library, and every draw comes from the top.
- See alsoMillState-based actionsCard draw
A turn, step by step
Every turn runs the same steps in the same order, and each step opens a different window.
- Phases of the turn
- A turn has five phases: beginning, first main, combat, second main, and ending.
- The beginning phase holds the untap step, the upkeep step, and the draw step. The combat phase holds the declare attackers step, the declare blockers step, and the combat damage step. The ending phase holds the end step and the cleanup step.
Example
You untap, you draw, you play a land, you attack, you cast a creature, and you pass. That is one whole turn.
- See alsoUpkeepMain phaseEnd step
- Upkeep
- The upkeep step comes after the untap step and before the draw step.
- Abilities that say at the beginning of your upkeep trigger here. Players get priority in the upkeep, so they can cast instants. The upkeep is the first moment of the turn where a player can act.
Example
Your turn starts. You untap your lands, the upkeep happens, and only then do you draw your card for the turn.
- See alsoPhases of the turnPriority
- Main phase
- A main phase is the part of your turn where you can play a land and cast sorceries.
- A turn has two main phases, one before combat and one after. You need priority and an empty stack to cast a sorcery or to play a land. Many players attack first and then spend the rest of the hand after combat.
Example
It is your first main phase. You play one land and cast a creature, because a sorcery waits for this moment.
- See alsoPhases of the turnPriorityStack
- End step
- The end step is the last step of the turn where players can act.
- Abilities that say at the beginning of the end step trigger here. A player often casts an instant during the end step of an opponent, so the mana is not wasted. The cleanup step follows the end step.
Example
You hold an instant all turn and cast it in the end step of the opponent. Your own turn then starts with every land untapped.
- See alsoCleanup stepPhases of the turn
- Cleanup step
- In the cleanup step you discard down to seven cards and all damage is removed.
- Effects that last until end of turn also end here. Players do not get priority in the cleanup step under normal conditions. The damage on a creature that survived the turn disappears, so the creature is fresh next turn.
Example
You end the turn with nine cards in hand. You discard two, and all damage on every creature is removed.
- See alsoEnd stepPhases of the turnCombat damage
- Summoning sickness
- A new creature cannot attack or use a tap ability on the turn that it arrives.
- The restriction lasts until the start of your next turn. A creature with summoning sickness can still block, and it can still use an ability without the tap symbol. Haste removes the restriction.
Example
You cast a 3/3 and try to attack with it at once. The rules stop you, because the creature arrived this turn.
- See alsoHasteTap and untapBlocking
Combat and damage
What happens after you attack, and the three kinds of damage that end a game.
- Blocking
- The defending player chooses which creatures block and which attacker each blocker stops.
- A tapped creature cannot block, and blocking does not tap the blocker. An attacker that is blocked deals no damage to the player, even when the blocker leaves combat first. Only trample changes that.
Example
You attack with two creatures. The defending player chooses which of their creatures block, and which attacker each one stops.
- See alsoCombat damageTrampleMenace
- Combat damage
- Combat damage is the damage that attackers and blockers deal in the combat damage step.
- All combat damage happens at the same time, unless a creature has first strike or double strike. Damage does not lower toughness, and it stays marked on the creature until the cleanup step. A creature with damage equal to its toughness dies as a state-based action.
Example
Your 3/3 attacks and nothing blocks. In the combat damage step the opponent loses three life.
- See alsoFirst strikeState-based actionsCleanup step
- Commander damage
- A player who takes 21 combat damage from one commander loses the game.
- The count is per commander, and it does not reset when that commander dies. Only combat damage counts, so damage from an ability of the commander does not. Track the total for each commander at the table.
Example
One commander hits you for seven, three times. That is twenty one damage from one commander, and you lose the game.
- See alsoCombat damageCommand zone
- Poison counter
- A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.
- Creatures with infect or with toxic give poison counters to a player. Poison counters do not go away on their own. The loss happens as a state-based action, so nobody can respond to it.
Example
Three attacks leave you with ten poison counters. You lose the game at once, even at twenty life.
- See alsoState-based actionsProliferate
The stack, and who acts first
A spell does not happen the moment you cast it. This is the part that costs a new player games.
- Spell
- A spell is a card on the stack, on its way to resolve.
- A card in your hand is not a spell yet. A permanent on the battlefield is no longer a spell. A counterspell hits a spell on the stack, so it cannot answer a permanent that already resolved.
Example
You cast a creature card. It is a spell while it waits on the stack, and it becomes a creature when it resolves.
- See alsoStackAbilityBattlefield
- Stack
- The stack is the zone where spells and abilities wait before they resolve.
- The last object that goes on the stack is the first one that resolves. Every player can respond before an object resolves. Mana abilities and special actions do not use the stack.
Example
You cast a spell and the opponent answers it. Their spell resolves first, because the stack empties from the top.
- See alsoPrioritySpellTriggered ability
- Priority
- Priority is the right to act, and only the player with priority can cast a spell.
- The active player gets priority first in each step. When every player passes priority in a row, the top object of the stack resolves. When the stack is empty and every player passes, the game moves to the next step.
Example
You cast a spell. The opponent gets priority and can answer it before your spell resolves.
- See alsoStackPhases of the turn
- Triggered ability
- A triggered ability starts with when, whenever, or at, and it triggers by itself.
- The ability goes on the stack the next time that a player gets priority. The controller does not choose to use it, because the trigger happens on its own. Players can respond to the trigger before it resolves.
Example
Your creature reads whenever this creature attacks, draw a card. You attack, and the ability happens with no cost.
- See alsoStackPriorityEnters the battlefield
- Ability
- An ability is text on a permanent that works from the battlefield.
- An activated ability has a cost, then a colon, then the effect. A triggered ability starts with when, whenever, or at. An ability is not a spell, so a card that counters a spell cannot counter an ability.
Example
Your creature reads flying. That text is an ability, and it works while the creature is on the battlefield.
- See alsoSpellTriggered abilityStack
- Target
- A spell targets only when the word target appears in its text.
- You choose the targets when you put the spell on the stack. If every target becomes illegal, the spell does not resolve. An effect without the word target ignores hexproof, shroud, and ward. Protection still prevents damage from a source of its quality.
Example
A spell reads destroy target creature. Your creature with hexproof cannot be chosen, because the spell targets.
- See alsoHexproofWardStack
- State-based actions
- State-based actions are automatic checks that the game runs before any player gets priority.
- They put a creature with zero toughness into the graveyard, and they kill a creature with lethal damage. They also apply the legend rule and make a player at zero life lose. Nobody can respond to a state-based action, because it does not use the stack.
Example
Your 2/2 takes two damage. Nobody acts, and the game destroys it the moment a player would get priority.
- See alsoPriorityLegend ruleCombat damage
Mana and what a card costs
How to read the symbols in the corner of a card, and what the game counts them as.
- Mana cost
- The mana cost is the group of symbols in the top right corner of a card.
- The cost names the generic mana and the colored mana that you must pay. The mana cost sets the color of the card. An alternative cost such as flashback does not change the mana cost that is printed on the card.
Example
A card reads {2}. It costs four mana, and two of those four must be blue.
- See alsoMana valueGeneric manaColor identity
- Mana value
- The mana value is the total amount of mana in the mana cost of a card.
- A cost of {2} has a mana value of four. The colors do not matter for the mana value. An {X} in a cost counts as zero everywhere except on the stack, where it counts as the chosen value.
Example
A card that costs {2} has mana value four. A spell that answers mana value three or less cannot touch it.
- See alsoMana costMana curve
- Pip
- A pip is one colored mana symbol in the cost of a card.
- Count the pips of each color to know how many sources of that color a deck needs. A card with two pips of one color needs many more sources than a card with one. Generic mana, such as {2}, is not a pip.
Example
A card reads {1}. It has two green pips, so your deck needs many Forests to cast it on turn three.
- See alsoMana costColor sources
- Generic mana
- Generic mana is the number in a cost, and any type of mana can pay it.
- A cost of {2} needs one red mana and two mana of any type. Colored mana can pay a generic cost. Cost reductions such as affinity and convoke lower only the generic part.
Example
A cost of {2} needs one red mana. Any two other mana pay the {2}, from any land that you control.
- See alsoColorless manaMana costAffinity
- Colorless mana
- Colorless mana is the {C} symbol, and it is a type of mana and not a color.
- A cost with {C} needs colorless mana, and colored mana cannot pay it. Colorless mana can pay a generic cost such as {3}. The basic land Wastes produces colorless mana.
Example
A cost of {C} needs colorless mana. A Forest makes , and green mana cannot pay that cost.
- See alsoGeneric manaMana cost
- Color identity
- The color identity of a card is every color in its cost and in its text.
- Commander uses color identity to decide which cards you can play. A card with no colored mana in its cost can still have a color identity from a mana symbol in its rules text. Every card in the deck must fit inside the color identity of the commander.
Example
A card costs {1} and its text names . Its color identity is green and blue, so both are needed.
- See alsoCommand zoneMana cost
- Commander tax
- The commander costs {2} more for each earlier cast from the command zone.
- The tax counts only the casts from the command zone. It does not reset during the game. A commander that you cast for the fourth time costs six extra mana.
Example
Your commander has died twice. The third cast from the command zone costs {4} more than the printed cost.
- See alsoCommand zoneMana cost
Things that happen to a card
The words a card uses for moving, dying, tapping and growing.
- +1/+1 counter
- A +1/+1 counter is a permanent bonus of one power and one toughness.
- A counter stays on the creature, and it is not an effect that ends with the turn. A +1/+1 counter and a -1/-1 counter on the same creature remove each other. The game does this as a state-based action.
Example
Your 2/2 takes two +1/+1 counters and becomes a 4/4. The counters stay when the turn ends.
- See alsoState-based actionsToken
- Destroy
- Destroy puts a permanent into the graveyard of its owner.
- Indestructible stops a destroy effect, and regeneration replaces it. Destroy is the most common removal, and it is also the easiest to answer. Exile is the better answer for a creature that returns from the graveyard.
Example
A spell destroys your 4/4. The creature card goes to your graveyard face up, and any Aura on it goes as well.
- See alsoExileIndestructibleRemoval
- Enters the battlefield
- An enters the battlefield ability triggers when the permanent arrives on the battlefield.
- Players call this an ETB. The trigger goes on the stack after the permanent is already on the battlefield. Removal in response to the trigger does not stop the trigger, because the trigger is separate from the permanent.
Example
Your creature reads when this creature enters, draw a card. You cast it and draw at once, before it can attack.
- See alsoTriggered abilityStackBattlefield
- Legend rule
- If you control two legendary permanents with the same name, put one into the graveyard.
- You choose which one stays, and the rest go to the graveyard. The rule applies per player, so two players can each control a copy. The rule checks the name, so two different legends are fine.
Example
You control a legendary creature and cast a second copy. You keep one and put the other into your graveyard.
- See alsoState-based actionsGraveyard
- Mulligan
- A mulligan shuffles your hand back into your library and draws seven new cards.
- After each mulligan you keep seven cards and then put cards on the bottom of your library. The number that you put on the bottom is the number of mulligans that you took. Players call this the London mulligan. In Commander, and in any game of three or more players, the first mulligan is free.
Example
You draw a hand with one land. You mulligan, draw seven new cards, and put one of them on the bottom.
- See alsoLibraryMana screw
- Sacrifice
- To sacrifice is to put a permanent that you control into your graveyard.
- You can sacrifice only a permanent that you control. Indestructible, hexproof, protection, and regeneration do not stop a sacrifice. A sacrifice that is part of a cost cannot be responded to.
Example
A card asks you to sacrifice a creature. You choose one of yours, and no spell can save it.
- See alsoDestroyIndestructibleGraveyard
- Tap and untap
- Tapping turns a card sideways to show that it is used.
- You tap lands for mana and creatures for tap abilities. A tapped creature cannot block, and a tapped creature cannot attack. You untap all of your permanents during your untap step, and no player gets priority in that step.
Example
You turn a land sideways to pay for a spell. It stays that way until your next untap step.
- See alsoSummoning sicknessVigilancePhases of the turn
- Token
- A token is a permanent that is not a card.
- A token works like any other permanent while it is on the battlefield. If a token leaves the battlefield, it stops existing and it cannot come back. The game checks this as a state-based action.
Example
A spell makes a 1/1 Soldier token. It attacks like any creature, and it disappears the moment it leaves the battlefield.
- See alsoBattlefieldState-based actions