Glossary

+1/+1 counter decks put small markers on their creatures that make each one permanently bigger, and keep adding more every turn. Each +1/+1 counter adds one to a creature's power (the damage it deals) and toughness (the damage it can take).

A word in italics at the start of an ability, such as Alliance or Landfall. It labels a group of similar cards; the rules text printed after it is what actually happens.

White, black and green together. Named for the Abzan Houses, one of the five clans on the world of Tarkir.

An ability you choose to use by paying a cost. It is written as “cost: effect”, and you may use it as often as you can pay for it unless the card says otherwise.

A card with a second spell, also called an Adventure, printed beside its main half. Cast the Adventure first and the card goes to exile, so you can cast the main half from exile later.

A keyword that makes a spell cheaper for each permanent of a given kind you control, most often artifacts.

Aggro decks play cheap creatures early and attack every turn, trying to knock opponents out before their bigger plans come together.

An effect that gives a whole group of your creatures a bonus at once, usually +1/+1. The name comes from cards like Glorious Anthem.

The overall plan a deck is built around, such as aggro, control or combo. Two decks with the same archetype win in a similar way, even with different commanders.

A play style that sacrifices your own creatures on purpose and profits from them dying, usually draining opponents' life a little at a time.

An artifacts deck fills the battlefield with artifacts, cards like Sol Ring that stay in play and keep working turn after turn. Played together, they give you extra mana and extra cards. A handful of keywords turn up on artifacts again and again. Equip means you pay a cost to attach an Equipment such as Swiftfoot Boots to one of your creatures. If that creature dies, the Equipment does not go to your graveyard with it. It stays on the battlefield, and you can pay the cost again to attach it to another creature. Crew means you tap your own creatures with enough total power between them to turn a Vehicle such as Smuggler's Copter into a creature until the end of the turn. A Treasure is a token you can sacrifice (put into your graveyard on purpose) for one mana of any color. A token is a game piece that a card makes, not a card from your deck, and Pitiless Plunderer is one card that makes Treasures. Affinity makes a spell like Frogmite cheaper for each artifact you control. Unearth brings a card like Combat Courier back from your graveyard for one turn, and then it is exiled. Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager enter with +1/+1 counters and pass them to another artifact creature when they die.

A card type from Unfinity, one of the joke "Un-" sets. Attractions are kept in their own small deck, apart from your library. When a card tells you to open an Attraction, you put the top one onto the battlefield, and each turn you roll a die to see whether it does something. Some Attractions are legal in Commander and some are not, so check each one.

An enchantment that attaches to something, usually a creature, and changes it for as long as it stays attached. If the creature it is on leaves the battlefield, the Aura goes to the graveyard.

Enchantress decks fill the battlefield with enchantments and use cards that draw you an extra card every time you cast one. An Aura is an enchantment that attaches to something, usually a creature, and changes it.

White and blue together. Named for the Azorius Senate, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

A kind of legendary enchantment that can be your second commander, but only next to a commander that says "Choose a Background". It adds its own abilities to your side.

Green, white and blue together. Named for Bant, one of the five shards (separate lands) of the world of Alara.

A card type you attack to defeat. It enters with defense counters, damage dealt to it removes them, and defeating it earns the reward on the card, such as casting its back face for free.

To behold something, such as an Elf, you either show a card of that kind from your hand or pick a permanent of that kind that you control. Cards use it as a requirement or a cost. Beholding does not normally take the card or permanent away, unless the card says so.

Big Mana decks build up far more mana than usual, then spend it on huge spells. Some are X spells, which have X in their cost and get stronger the more mana you put in.

To blight a number means to put that many -1/-1 counters on a creature you control, which makes it smaller and can destroy it. Cards that ask you to blight usually treat it as a price and give you a bigger effect in return. You choose the creature as you do it, and you can only blight if you control a creature.

Blink decks briefly remove their own creatures from play and return them at once, so every 'when this enters' ability happens again. The move is called a flicker, and it can also rescue a creature from a spell aimed at it.

A spell that destroys or removes most or all creatures at once, resetting the battlefield for everyone. Also called a sweeper or a wrath.

Red and white together. Named for the Boros Legion, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

Returning a permanent to its owner's hand. Nothing is destroyed, so it dodges effects that trigger on dying, but the owner can simply replay it.

A number from 1 to 5 describing how strong a Commander deck is meant to be, so everyone at the table can agree on a fair game before it starts. Bracket 1 is a deck built purely for fun and Bracket 5 is as competitive as it gets. It is Wizards of the Coast's own system, not ours.

Spells that deal damage straight to a player or a creature, most of them red. A burn deck aims that damage at its opponents' life totals instead of attacking with creatures.

Mana you get for one turn only, rather than every turn, such as from a ritual spell or a Treasure you sacrifice. It lets you cast something big early, but once it is spent it is gone.

A cheap spell that also draws you a card, so it replaces itself.

Ending up with more usable cards than your opponents. Drawing extra cards creates it; trading one of your cards for two of theirs creates it too.

Cards that put more options into your hand from your deck.

When you cast a spell with cascade, you exile cards from the top of your library until you hit one that is not a land and costs less than that spell. You may cast that card for free. The rest go to the bottom of your library in a random order.

Cascade decks cast extra spells for free, straight from the top of their deck, every time they cast the right card. Cascade turns over cards from the top of your library until it hits a cheaper spell, which you may cast without paying for it.

To cast a spell is to put it on the stack and pay its cost, usually from your hand. Playing a land is not casting, and a copy of a spell is not cast either.

Also called: Casting

Short for competitive EDH: Commander played to win as fast and as reliably as possible, often in tournaments. It is Bracket 5 in Wizards of the Coast's bracket system.

A creature with changeling counts as every creature type at once, so it fits into any typal deck.

An ability on some lands and cards that lets you discard the card itself to get an effect, so a land can double as a spell when you do not need the land drop.

Chaos decks fill the game with random effects like coin flips, dice rolls and random swaps, so nobody's plan goes as expected. It is built for fun and big stories more than for winning quickly.

Cheat into Play decks put huge creatures and other expensive cards onto the battlefield without paying their mana costs. A card says "put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield", and an eight-mana dragon is attacking on turn three. Sneak Attack Kaalia of the Vast Natural Order

A type of enchantment that you level up by paying for each level in turn. Every level adds new abilities and keeps the ones before it.

How many turns your deck needs to finish off an opponent. A deck that wins on turn eight is said to have a turn-eight clock, and a faster clock simply means a shorter game.

Clone decks copy the best creature on the battlefield, whoever owns it, so they always have one of the strongest things on the table. A copy also gets the original's 'when this enters' ability, so each clone can bring a fresh effect too.

A card's number within its set, printed at the bottom of most modern cards. The same card can have a different number in each printing.

Making sure you can produce the specific colors of mana your cards require. A five-color deck that only draws Forests cannot cast its blue spells, so fixing is what keeps a multicolored deck functional.

Every color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.

Having no color. Many artifacts and all lands are colorless, and colorless is not a sixth color of mana.

A cheap spell, usually an instant, cast in the middle of combat to surprise an opponent, like making your creature bigger after blockers are chosen.

Two or more cards that, put together, do something far bigger than either of them does alone, often ending the game on the spot. Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood are a well-known pair: together they drain every opponent to zero.

The area where your commander sits outside the game. It starts there, and returns there whenever it would die, be exiled, or go to your hand or deck. That is why neutralising a commander is often better than destroying it.

The legendary card that leads your deck, and the name of the format itself. Your commander starts the game in the command zone instead of in your deck, and you can cast it from there. If it leaves the battlefield you can send it back and cast it again, paying 2 more mana each extra time. It is usually a legendary creature; a few other cards say they can be your commander.

Combat damage dealt to a player by one particular commander. A player who has been dealt 21 or more from the same commander loses the game.

The extra cost of casting your commander again from the command zone: 2 more mana for each time you cast it from there earlier in the game.

A creature that starts outside your deck. If your deck meets the condition printed on it, you can pay 3 once per game to put it into your hand.

A digital-only keyword action. To conjure a card is to create a brand new card from nothing and put it into the zone the effect names.

Control decks answer what everyone else plays, stopping spells and removing dangerous cards, then win slowly once they are in charge. Expect lots of removal, spells that cancel other spells, and extra card draw.

You may tap your untapped creatures to help cast a spell with convoke. Each creature tapped this way pays for one generic mana, or one mana of its own color.

Bracket 2, the strength of an average preconstructed deck with no changes. Like Exhibition, it leaves out Game Changers.

Two different things share this word. A counter is a small marker placed on a card, such as a +1/+1 counter. To counter a spell is to stop it resolving while it is still on the stack.

A spell whose job is to counter another spell: it stops that spell while it is still on the stack, so it does nothing and goes to the graveyard. The name comes from the card Counterspell, the classic example.

How you drive a Vehicle. Tap any of your untapped creatures whose power adds up to at least the number after Crew, and the Vehicle becomes a creature until the end of the turn, so it can attack or block.

The distribution of your cards' mana costs. A "high curve" means you have too many expensive spells.

Cycling is a cost you pay from your hand: discard the card and draw a new one. It turns a card you cannot use right now into a fresh draw.

An ability that happens when a creature dies, meaning it goes from the battlefield to the graveyard. Sacrifice decks rely on these to get something back every time a creature is lost.

Any amount of damage from a creature with deathtouch is enough to destroy the creature it damages, however high that creature's toughness is.

Blue and black together. Named for House Dimir, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

Moving a card from a player's hand to their graveyard. Some cards make opponents discard; others reward you for discarding your own cards.

Short for mana dork: a creature that taps for mana. It works like a mana rock, but it can also attack, block and be hit by removal.

A creature with double strike deals combat damage twice each combat, once with the first strikers and once again with everyone else.

One Secret Lair product: a few cards sold together, usually 4 to 6, often with a foil and a non-foil version. Wizards calls each one a drop.

Black, red, green and white together: every color but blue. Named for the Dune-Brood Nephilim, a four-color creature from the Guildpact set.

Dungeon decks explore dungeons, special cards kept outside your deck, and get a reward in each room they move into. The initiative sends you into one called the Undercity, and an opponent takes it from you by dealing combat damage to you.

The first few turns of a game, when players mostly play lands, cheap cards and mana helpers to get set up.

Another name for Commander. It stands for Elder Dragon Highlander, what players called the format when they invented it, before Wizards of the Coast made it official.

An effect that makes a player sacrifice a creature of their own choosing, rather than targeting one. It gets around protection and hexproof, because nothing is being targeted.

An ability word on cards whose ability works while the card is in the command zone, and often on the battlefield too, so your commander helps before you cast it.

A card that makes something in your deck work or work better, like one that gives your creatures haste or lets you cast spells at instant speed. The cards that reward you for it are called payoffs.

A resource written {E} that you collect and spend. Energy stays with you rather than sitting on a permanent, so it survives anything that destroys your board.

A combination of cards that generate continuous, repeatable value over time.

A word printed on some creatures meaning they do something extra every time they are dealt damage.

The moment a permanent arrives on the battlefield. Many cards have an ability that triggers right then, often written "when this enters". Players shorten it to "ETB".

Also called: ETB

The card arrives on the battlefield sideways, so you cannot use it until your next turn. Lands that make more than one color of mana usually enter tapped as the trade-off for being flexible.

How you attach an Equipment to one of your creatures: pay its equip cost and move it on. You can only do this on your own turn when nothing else is waiting to happen, and the Equipment stays on the battlefield if the creature leaves.

An artifact you attach to one of your creatures to make it stronger or give it an ability. If that creature leaves, the Equipment stays on the battlefield, and you can move it to another creature by paying its equip cost.

White, blue and black together. Named for Esper, one of the five shards (separate lands) of the world of Alara.

A foil finish with a textured, metallic look instead of the usual rainbow shine. It has the same rules as other versions of the card.

Any ability that makes a creature hard or impossible to block, such as flying, menace or "can't be blocked".

Bracket 1, the most casual of the five Commander brackets. These decks put a theme or a joke ahead of winning and play at a slow, relaxed pace, so they leave out Game Changers.

Removes a card from the game entirely rather than putting it in the graveyard. Exiled cards are much harder to get back, which is why exile is the strongest answer to recursion.

Extra Combat decks get to attack more than once in a single turn, so their creatures can hit twice or more. They pair with cards that untap creatures, because a creature that attacked is usually tapped and cannot attack again until it untaps.

Spells that grant you an additional turn. CHAINING means casting them repeatedly so opponents never get a turn back.

Artifacts or spells that produce more mana than they cost to cast.

A card that can end the game by itself once the rest of your board is set up, rather than just adding a little more to it. Craterhoof Behemoth is the classic one: it turns a board of small creatures into a lethal attack in a single turn.

A creature with first strike deals its combat damage before creatures without it. If that kills its blocker outright, it takes no damage back.

You can cast a card with flash at any time you could cast an instant, even during your opponent's turn or in the middle of combat. That lets you surprise opponents with a creature or spell.

Briefly exiling a permanent and returning it to the battlefield straight away. It re-triggers anything that happens when the permanent enters, and can rescue it from removal.

Also called: Blink

A creature with flying can only be blocked by creatures that also have flying or reach. It is the most common way to get combat damage past a ground army.

A spell that prevents all combat damage for a turn, so an attack does nothing.

A card printed with a shiny finish. It has the same rules as the regular version, and only the look changes.

Cards that warp the game disproportionately around themselves, requiring immediate answers.

A deck built to win incredibly fast but lacks the protection or interaction to survive disruption.

Black, red, green and blue together: every color but white. Named for the Glint-Eye Nephilim, a four-color creature from the Guildpact set.

A goaded creature must attack on its controller's next turn, and cannot attack you if it can attack somebody else. It turns an opponent's board against the rest of the table.

Playing a deck by yourself to see how fast it executes its game plan without opponents interacting.

Playing a deck by yourself to see how fast it executes its game plan without opponents interacting.

Black and green together. Named for the Golgari Swarm, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

The discard pile. Cards that are destroyed, discarded or used up go here. In Commander plenty of cards bring them back, which is why graveyards are a resource rather than a bin.

Graveyard decks fill their own graveyard on purpose, then play cards from it as if it were a second hand. Moving cards from the top of your own deck straight into the graveyard is called self-mill.

Blue, black and red together. Named for Grixis, one of the five shards (separate lands) of the world of Alara.

A play style built on giving every player extra cards, mana or life. It buys goodwill and time, and pairs with cards that profit from everyone drawing.

Group Slug decks hurt every player at the table at once, then make sure they can survive the pain better than anyone else. Typical cards make each player take damage or lose life whenever they draw, cast a spell or tap a land for mana.

Red and green together. Named for the Gruul Clans, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

A creature with haste can attack and use its tap abilities the turn it arrives, instead of waiting a turn.

A cheap creature with an ability that gets in your opponents' way, such as making their spells cost more or stopping one kind of play. "Bear" is player slang for a two-mana creature with 2 power, after the card Grizzly Bears.

A permanent with hexproof cannot be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control. It can still be hit by effects that do not target, such as a board wipe or an edict.

A card that is legendary, an artifact, or a Saga. Cards that reward you for historic spells count all three.

A mana symbol that can be paid with either of two colors. A card with one counts as both colors, including for your commander's color identity.

A permanent with indestructible cannot be destroyed by damage or by effects that say "destroy". It can still be exiled, sacrificed, or shrunk to 0 toughness.

Damage from a source with infect gives players poison counters instead of making them lose life, and gives creatures -1/-1 counters instead of normal damage. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.

Infect and toxic decks win with poison counters instead of damage: a player with ten or more poison counters loses the game. Creatures with infect give players poison counters instead of normal damage, and creatures with toxic give poison counters on top of their combat damage.

Two or more cards that, put together, can repeat an action endlessly for as much mana, damage or value as you want. The official bracket rules treat one that can come together early in the game as far stronger than one that needs a lot of setup first.

Something only one player can have at a time. When you take the initiative, and at the start of each of your turns while you keep it, you go one room deeper into a dungeon called the Undercity and get that room's reward. If a creature deals combat damage to you, its controller takes the initiative from you.

Red, green, white and blue together: every color but black. Named for the Ink-Treader Nephilim, a four-color creature from the Guildpact set.

A one-use spell you can cast at any time, even on an opponent's turn. After it resolves it goes to the graveyard.

Able to be used at any time, including during an opponent's turn or in the middle of combat, as opposed to sorcery speed, which is only on your own turn before you attack.

Blue and red together. Named for the Izzet League, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

Blue, red and white together. Named for the Jeskai Way, one of the five clans on the world of Tarkir.

Black, red and green together. Named for Jund, one of the five shards (separate lands) of the world of Alara.

A card type for cards that care about one creature type, like Elf or Faerie. A Kindred card has creature types even though it is not a creature. Wizards of the Coast renamed it from "Tribal" in 2024, so older cards and articles may use the old name. Players also call a deck built around one creature type a kindred deck.

Also called: Typal

Playing a land from your hand onto the battlefield. You normally get one each turn, and making that play on a given turn is called hitting your land drop.

A word printed on some cards meaning they do something extra every time a land comes into play under your control. Avenger of Zendikar has it: every land you play after it grows all of your plant tokens.

An evasion ability naming a land type: a creature with islandwalk cannot be blocked at all if the defending player controls an Island.

The later turns of a game, when players have lots of mana and cast their biggest cards. Games are often decided here.

A word printed on some cards, as in Legendary Creature. Your commander is usually a legendary creature, and that is where the word matters most in Commander.

Legends decks fill up on legendary cards and use cards that reward you each time you cast one. A legendary card has the word Legendary on its type line; you can only keep one with the same name in play, and nearly every commander is legendary.

Your deck once the game has started: the face-down pile you draw from. A card that says "search your library" lets you look through it for a card.

Lifegain decks gain life over and over and use cards that reward each gain with extra cards, creatures or damage to opponents. Everyone starts at 40 life in Commander, so the extra life also keeps you safe while you set up.

Damage dealt by a creature or spell with lifelink also makes its controller gain that much life.

A set of cards that, once in play, stops the other players from doing anything useful: their lands stay tapped, their spells never resolve, or their turns are skipped. The game is not over, but nobody else can win it. Stasis with Smothering Tithe is a lock.

To loot is to draw a card and then discard a card. It improves your hand without changing how many cards you hold.

Also called: Looting

The number in a planeswalker's bottom right corner. It enters with that many loyalty counters, and each of its abilities adds or removes counters as its cost. You can use one of its abilities once a turn, in your main phase when nothing else is waiting to happen. A planeswalker with no loyalty counters left goes to the graveyard.

Short for Leaves the Battlefield. It is the moment a permanent goes from the battlefield to another place, such as the graveyard or exile, and many cards have an ability that triggers right then.

A keyword that lets you cast a card for a different cost at the moment you discard it, instead of it going to the graveyard.

Discard decks throw away their own cards on purpose and play cards that reward each discard. Cards with madness can even be cast for a different, usually cheaper, cost at the moment you discard them.

The cards you actually play with, as opposed to the sideboard. In a Commander deck the mainboard is the 99 cards besides your commander.

The spread of what your cards cost, from cheap to expensive. A good curve means you have something worth casting on every turn, instead of a hand full of cards you cannot afford yet.

An artifact that taps to produce mana, such as Sol Ring or Arcane Signet. Called a "rock" to distinguish it from a creature that makes mana, which is a "mana dork".

A card or ability that lets you spend a lot of spare mana on something useful, often again and again. It matters most late in the game, when you have more mana than cards to cast.

The total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.

Also called: CMC, MV

A land that can turn itself into a creature. It attacks like a creature but sits safely as a land the rest of the time.

Red, white and black together. Named for the Mardu Horde, one of the five clans on the world of Tarkir.

TCGplayer's average of what this card actually sold for recently on their site, rather than what sellers are asking for it today.

Cards that destroy, exile or return lots of lands at once, or stop them untapping or making the mana they should, without giving them back. Losing lands sets every player back several turns, so the official bracket rules keep these cards out of Brackets 1 to 3.

The number of cards you may keep in hand, normally seven. You only discard down to it during your own end step, not the moment you go over, so you can draw and spend freely on your turn.

A pair of specific cards that can combine into one huge creature if you control both. Until then each half is an ordinary card.

A creature with menace cannot be blocked by only one creature. It takes two or more blockers to stop it.

The mix of decks and strategies that players in one place or event are using. A deck built with the metagame in mind is chosen to beat the decks it expects to face. Often shortened to meta.

A deck style that sits between fast attacking decks and slow controlling ones: sturdy creatures and answers at every stage of the game, winning by steady value rather than raw speed.

Putting cards from the top of a player's library straight into their graveyard. You can mill an opponent to run their library out, or mill yourself to stock your graveyard for cards that use it.

Also called: Self-mill

A spell or ability that gives you a list of options and tells you to choose one or more when you cast it, often written as "Choose one".

An ability on some artifact creatures: they enter with +1/+1 counters on them, and when one dies you can move those counters onto another artifact creature.

You may cast a card with morph face down for three mana, as a 2/2 creature with no name and no abilities. Any time after that, even in the middle of combat, you can pay its morph cost to turn it face up and show what it really is.

Taking a new starting hand of cards, usually penalized by putting fewer cards in your hand.

The rarest card rarity, above rare. A mythic rare is meant to be special or powerful, and being mythic does not change how a card plays.

Red, green and white together. Named for Naya, one of the five shards (separate lands) of the world of Alara.

Bracket 4, a high-power deck where players expect fast, strong play. It has no limit on Game Changers.

White and black together. Named for the Orzhov Syndicate, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

A card that lets you do one particular thing whenever you want, as often as you can pay for it. A sacrifice outlet lets you sacrifice permanents; a discard outlet lets you discard cards from your hand.

An ability that lets you have two commanders instead of one. Both must have partner, or one must name the other, and your deck uses the colors of both.

A card that rewards you for something your deck already does a lot, like casting spells, gaining life or sacrificing creatures. The cards that make it happen are called enablers.

Any card that stays on the battlefield once it resolves: creatures, artifacts, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers and battles. Instants and sorceries are not permanents; they resolve and go to the graveyard.

A digital-only word. A perpetual change stays with a card for the rest of the game and in every zone, unlike most effects, which wear off.

Pillowfort decks make attacking you so costly or unappealing that opponents attack each other instead. Cards like Ghostly Prison make a player pay mana for every creature that attacks you, buying time for your own plan.

Pinger decks deal one damage at a time, again and again, to pick off small creatures and wear opponents down. The damage usually comes from creatures you tap to deal 1 damage, or from cards that deal damage whenever something happens.

One colored mana symbol in a card's mana cost. A card costing two generic and one green has one green pip. Counting the pips of each color in your deck shows which colors you need the most mana for.

A powerful ally on the battlefield. You spend its Loyalty counters to use one ability each turn, and opponents can attack it to knock it out.

The people you usually play with. A playgroup tends to agree on its own deck strength and house rules, which is why talking before a game helps.

The group of players sitting down to play one game. Commander pods usually have four players. The playtest screen calls your table the pod.

Politics decks turn opponents against each other, making their creatures attack someone else or letting the whole table vote. Goad is the most common tool: a goaded creature must attack, and must attack someone other than you if it can.

To populate, you create a token that is a copy of a creature token you already control. If you control no creature tokens, nothing happens.

The first of the two numbers in a creature's bottom-right corner. It is how much damage that creature deals when it fights or attacks.

A rough number players give a deck to say how strong it is. Everyone rates differently, so Commander Nexus uses brackets instead.

Short for preconstructed deck: a ready-to-play deck sold in a box by Wizards of the Coast. A Commander precon comes with its commander and all 100 cards, so you can play it straight away and change cards later.

A guide that explains how a deck or a combo works: what it is trying to do, the key cards, and the steps to win with it.

One version of a card in one set. The same card can be printed again in many sets, each time with its own artwork, set code and collector number.

The right to act. After anything is cast or played, each player in turn gets priority (a chance to respond) before it actually happens. Nothing resolves while a player still wants to act.

Choose any number of players and permanents that already have a counter on them, and give each one more of a counter it already has. It adds to what is there; it cannot start something new.

Protection from something, such as a color or a card type, means the permanent cannot be damaged, blocked, targeted, enchanted or equipped by anything with that quality.

A creature with prowess gets +1/+1 until end of turn each time you cast a noncreature spell, so it grows with the instants, sorceries and artifacts you play.

A stand-in for a real card, such as a plain card with the name written on it. Whether a playgroup allows proxies is up to the table.

Black and red together. Named for the Cult of Rakdos, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

Cards that permanently increase the amount of mana you have access to each turn.

To bring a creature back from a graveyard onto the battlefield. The word comes from the card Reanimate, which does exactly that.

Bringing a creature back from a graveyard onto the battlefield. Reanimator decks get a huge creature into the graveyard early, then return it for far less mana than casting it would cost.

Reanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.

Regenerating sets up a shield on a creature: the next time it would be destroyed that turn, it instead taps, loses all damage and is removed from combat.

Also called: Regeneration

Spells or abilities that destroy, exile, or bounce your opponents' cards.

A card printed again in a later set, with the same rules text as before and sometimes new art. Reprints are why one card can have many printings.

What happens when a spell or ability finally takes effect, after every player has passed on responding to it. A countered spell never resolves.

A cheap spell that gives you more mana than it costs, for this turn only. Dark Ritual costs one black mana and adds three. Rituals let you cast something big early or fit more spells into one big turn.

The Commander community rule that your group talks about decks and house rules before the game and agrees on what is fine. It is a conversation, not part of the Comprehensive Rules.

The official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.

To rummage is to discard a card and then draw a card, the reverse order of looting.

To put one of your own permanents into your graveyard because a card tells you to or lets you. You can only sacrifice things you control, and it does not count as destroying them, so effects that stop a card from being destroyed do not stop it.

Also called: Sac

A card that lets you sacrifice your own creatures or other permanents whenever you want, usually for little or no cost, such as Viscera Seer or Ashnod's Altar. Sacrifice means putting your own card into the graveyard on purpose. Decks use an outlet to cash in creatures that are about to be destroyed or stolen, and to set off cards that reward a creature dying.

An enchantment that does something different each turn. It gains a lore counter as it enters and again after your draw step, then is sacrificed after its last chapter.

How much a card, a deck or a play annoys the other players at the table. A card that makes people groan has a high salt level. The word comes from being "salty", slang for upset.

Look at the top card or cards of your library and choose to keep each on top or move it to the bottom. It improves your next draw without drawing anything.

Special Magic cards sold by Wizards of the Coast on their own online store for a short time. Most are cards that already exist, given new art by a well-known artist or another franchise. A Secret Lair copy of a card plays exactly like any other copy of it.

A digital-only keyword action. The game picks a card at random from your library matching what the effect describes and puts it into your hand. Nothing is searched or shuffled.

Green and white together. Named for the Selesnya Conclave, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

A short code, a few letters long, that stands for a Magic set. CMD means Commander 2011. Together with the collector number it names one exact printing of a card.

A permanent or player with shroud cannot be the target of any spell or ability, even your own. Hexproof is the version that only stops your opponents.

In tournament formats, extra cards you may swap in between games. Commander has no sideboard, so cards that fetch from "outside the game" only work if your playgroup agrees on where those cards come from.

A type of Mana Rock: a two-mana artifact that taps for mana in your colors, such as Arcane Signet.

Green and blue together. Named for the Simic Combine, one of the ten guilds (rival factions) on the world of Ravnica.

The rule that a Commander deck may contain only one copy of any card other than basic lands. It is why searching your deck for a specific card is so valuable.

A one-use spell you can cast only on your own turn, in a main phase, when nothing else is waiting to resolve. After it resolves it goes to the graveyard.

An artifact subtype that comes with the station ability. It gets stronger abilities as charge counters pile up, and many turn into creatures once they have enough.

A digital-only keyword. Paying a specialize cost turns a creature into a stronger version of itself tied to a single color.

Spellslinger decks cast lots of instants and sorceries, one-time spells, and play creatures that reward every spell you cast. Instants and sorceries take effect once and then go to your graveyard, and an instant can even be cast during another player's turn.

Spells or abilities that destroy, exile, or bounce a single one of your opponents' cards.

The zone where spells and abilities wait to resolve. The last thing added is the first to resolve, so responses resolve before what they answer.

A card so useful that it goes in a huge number of decks, whatever the commander. Arcane Signet is one: it makes mana of your commander's colors, so it fits almost any deck.

A card with station is powered up by tapping your other creatures. You tap another untapped creature you control, and the card gets charge counters equal to that creature's power. You can only do this on your own turn when the stack is empty, and once it has enough counters it gains the abilities, and sometimes the power and toughness, printed further down its text box.

Cards that restrict game actions, tax resources, or prevent players from untapping permanents.

Storm decks build up to one huge turn. They cast a long chain of cheap spells, using rituals (spells that add mana) to keep going, and finish with a spell that counts every spell cast before it that turn.

Black, green and blue together. Named for the Sultai Brood, one of the five clans on the world of Tarkir.

A creature cannot attack, or use abilities with the tap symbol, unless you have controlled it since the start of your turn. Haste ignores this rule.

A batch of Secret Lair drops that go on sale on the same day, a few times a year.

Superfriends decks play lots of planeswalkers and protect them so they can use their abilities turn after turn. A planeswalker stays in play and uses one ability each turn by adding or removing loyalty counters; opponents can attack it to knock those counters off.

Look at the top card or cards of your library and choose to keep each on top or put it into your graveyard. It is a kind of filtering that also fuels graveyard strategies.

Another name for a board wipe: a spell that clears most or all creatures at once.

Cards that work well together, so the pair does more than either card would alone. A deck with lots of synergy has every card pushing toward the same plan.

To tap a permanent is to turn it sideways, usually to pay a cost such as making mana or attacking. A tapped permanent cannot be tapped again until it untaps.

A land that enters the battlefield tapped, slowing down your ability to cast spells by a full turn.

Lands that enter the battlefield tapped, slowing down your ability to cast spells by a full turn.

Turned sideways to show that it has been used for mana, to attack or to pay a cost. It stays that way until it untaps.

A spell or ability that says “target” chooses what it affects when it is cast or activated. Anything with hexproof or protection from it cannot be chosen this way.

How much you get done each turn compared with your opponents. A tempo play costs you less than it costs them, like sending their expensive permanent back to their hand, so you pull ahead.

Green, blue and red together. Named for the Temur Frontier, one of the five clans on the world of Tarkir.

Theft decks take control of opponents' creatures and other cards, or cast spells from their decks, and use them against them. Some steals last one turn so you can attack with the borrowed creature; others are permanent.

Our way of grouping Secret Lair drops that share a subject, like Marvel or Fallout, so every version is on one page.

A card or permanent someone has to deal with or it will win or wreck the game, like a huge attacker. A spell that deals with one is called an answer.

A permanent that is not a card. Tokens are made by other cards' effects, and a token that leaves the battlefield stops existing. Creature tokens, Treasures and Clues are all tokens.

A deck that packs a spread of single answers for different problems, plus ways to search your library for whichever one the moment calls for.

The second of the two numbers in a creature's bottom-right corner. It is how much damage the creature can take in a turn before it dies. A creature whose toughness reaches zero dies immediately.

Toxic comes with a number, like toxic 1. When a creature with toxic deals combat damage to a player, that player also gets that many poison counters on top of the damage. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.

If a creature with trample is blocked, damage beyond what is needed to destroy its blockers spills over to the defending player.

A token you can sacrifice for one mana of any color. Many cards make Treasure, and it is mana you can save for a later turn.

The old name for Kindred, a card type for cards that care about one creature type. Wizards of the Coast renamed it in 2024, but players still call a deck built around one creature type, like Elves or Zombies, a tribal deck.

An ability that fires automatically when a specific event happens, usually written "when" or "whenever". You do not choose to use it; it happens on its own.

A card that searches your library for another specific card, making your deck far more consistent.

Typal decks are built around one creature type, like Elves, Dragons or Zombies, with cards that make that type stronger. The type is printed after the dash on the card's type line, and the strategy is also called kindred or tribal.

A cost you can pay from your hand: pay it and discard the card to search your library for a card of the named type, show it to everyone and put it in your hand, then shuffle. The name tells you the type, so Mountaincycling finds a Mountain and basic landcycling finds a basic land. It is a way to turn a card you cannot use right now into the one you need.

Lets you return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield for a single turn. It can attack straight away, and it is exiled at the end of the turn or if it would leave the battlefield.

Turning a tapped card upright so it can be used again. Cards normally untap once per turn during your untap step, so an effect that untaps something early gives you a second use of it.

Bracket 3, stronger than an average preconstructed deck. These decks are tuned to be efficient, with several spells in one turn and strong ways to win, and they allow up to three Game Changers.

A step near the start of every turn, before you draw. Many cards trigger there: some paying you, some charging you.

A creature with no abilities at all: just a name, a cost, and its power and toughness.

Vehicle decks use Vehicles, artifacts that become creatures when you tap your own creatures to crew them. A Vehicle is not a creature the rest of the time, so it survives spells that destroy all creatures and then turns into an attacker when you need it.

A creature with vigilance does not tap when it attacks, so it is still available to block on the way back.

A label on abilities that get stronger the more colors you have. The ability counts how many different colors are among the permanents you control, a number from 0 to 5, and uses that number. Lands are usually colorless, so they do not add to the count.

Voltron decks load one creature, usually the commander, with Equipment and Auras until it can win by attacking on its own. In Commander, a player dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the game loses, so one huge commander can knock a player out.

Ward is a shield on a creature or other permanent. When an opponent targets it with a spell or ability, that spell or ability is countered unless the opponent pays the ward cost, such as 2 mana or 3 life. It only works against your opponents, not against you.

A card that makes each player throw away their hand and draw a new one. The name comes from Wheel of Fortune: each player discards their hand, then draws seven cards.

The way your deck actually wins the game, such as combat damage, a combo, or a card that says you win. Most decks want at least one main win condition and a backup.

Also called: Wincon

Green, white, blue and black together: every color but red. Named for the Witch-Maw Nephilim, a four-color creature from the Guildpact set.

White, blue, black and red together: every color but green. Named for the Yore-Tiller Nephilim, a four-color creature from the Guildpact set.