Tags

-1/-1 Counters

Puts -1/-1 counters on creatures, lowering their power and toughness for good. Unlike damage, which wears off at the end of the turn, the counters stay, and a creature whose toughness reaches zero dies. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Devoted Druid · 263 cards

-X/-X Removal

Removes a creature by giving it -X/-X, which lowers its toughness. A creature with 0 or less toughness goes to the graveyard. Like damage, it can miss a big creature: -3/-3 kills a 3/3 but not a 30/30. Unlike damage, it also kills a creature that can't be destroyed (indestructible), because the game's rules put a creature with 0 toughness into the graveyard without destroying it. Dismember Grasp of Darkness · 305 cards

+1/+1 Counters

Puts +1/+1 counters on creatures, permanently raising their power and toughness. Unlike a temporary boost that wears off at end of turn, these markers stay put and stack up over a long game. Hardened Scales, The Great Henge · 3,060 cards

Ability Sharing

Gives your creatures the activated abilities of other creatures, often ones sitting in a graveyard. An activated ability is one you choose to use by paying a cost, written as “cost: effect”. Necrotic Ooze, Marvin, Murderous Mimic · 23 cards

Ability Suppression

Switches abilities off instead of removing the permanent itself. It stops activated abilities from being used, stops triggers from firing, or stops library searching. Linvala, Keeper of Silence, Torpor Orb · 28 cards

Acorn

A joke card, marked with an acorn-shaped stamp at the bottom. Acorn cards are made for laughs, so they are only allowed in Bracket 1 (Exhibition) games, where a deck's theme comes before the rules.

Aikido / Redirection

Turns an opponent's own spell, ability or damage back on them. It changes the spell's target, copies it, or sends the damage somewhere else. Aikido is the community's name for it, borrowed from the martial art. Deflecting Swat, Narset's Reversal · 188 cards

Airbend

Airbend sends a permanent or a spell into exile, out of the game for now. Its owner can cast it again later, but only by paying 2 mana instead of its normal cost. · 14 cards

Alliance

An ability word on cards that trigger whenever another creature you control enters the battlefield. Witty Roastmaster, Devilish Valet · 23 cards

Alt-Win Condition

Wins the game outright when its condition is met, instead of reducing opponents to zero life. It is worth building more than one way to win, because a deck resting on a single alternate win condition folds to one well-timed answer. Thassa's Oracle, Laboratory Maniac · 56 cards

Alternative Cost

Lets you cast a spell by paying some other cost instead of its mana cost, like life, a card from your hand, or nothing at all. · 1,808 cards

Animate Artifact

Turns artifacts into creatures so they can attack and block. It is a trade: they gain a body, and they become vulnerable to anything that destroys creatures. Mirage Mirror, Inkmoth Nexus · 163 cards

Animate Enchantment

Turns enchantments into creatures. The same trade as animating artifacts: they gain a body, and they stop being safe from creature removal. Starfield of Nyx, Opalescence · 43 cards

Anthem

A card that makes every creature you control bigger for as long as it stays on the battlefield. The whole team gets the bonus at once, instead of one creature getting a boost that wears off. Named after Glorious Anthem. · 232 cards

Artifact Payoff

Rewards you for having artifacts: counting them, triggering off them, or getting cheaper as you play more. Urza's Saga, Mox Opal · 467 cards

Artifact Tutor

Searches your library for an artifact card. Enlightened Tutor, Whir of Invention, Fabricate · 34 cards

Attack Tax

Charges opponents mana to attack you, or stops them attacking at all. Because it sits on a permanent, it keeps working every turn rather than answering one attack. Propaganda, Ghostly Prison · 64 cards

Attack Trigger

Triggers when a creature attacks, so the reward comes from declaring the attack. You get it even if the creature is blocked. Sword of the Animist, Adeline, Resplendent Cathar · 1,246 cards

Attraction

Attractions are carnival rides from Magic's Unfinity set, kept in a separate deck of their own. They are legal in Commander unless they carry an acorn stamp. The same goes for the cards that open an Attraction, such as Coming Attraction. An Attraction never goes in your 100-card deck. "Open an Attraction" puts the top card of your Attraction deck onto the battlefield, where it stays. When a card tells you to roll to visit your Attractions, you roll a six-sided die, and every Attraction you control with that number lit up on its side does what it says. Commanders built to use them include Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost and Myra the Magnificent. · 22 cards

Aura

An Aura is an enchantment that attaches to something, usually a creature, and changes it while it stays attached. If the thing it is attached to leaves the battlefield, the Aura goes to the graveyard. · 1,271 cards

Aura Removal

An Aura that switches off the creature it is attached to instead of destroying it. It might turn the creature into something harmless or remove its abilities. That matters against a commander: one that is switched off stays on the battlefield, so its owner cannot send it back to the command zone and cast it again. Darksteel Mutation, Imprisoned in the Moon · 267 cards

Banding

An old keyword that lets creatures attack or block as a group. You also decide how the other side's combat damage is split among your creatures. It has barely been printed since 1997 and has a reputation for being hard to read. Baton of Morale, Helm of Chatzuk · 47 cards

Big Mana

Produces several mana at once from a single source, rather than the one extra mana most acceleration gives you. That surplus is what lets a deck cast something enormous far ahead of schedule. Compare Ramp, which is a reusable source you build up over time, and Burst Mana, which pays out once and is then gone. Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Savage Ventmaw · 363 cards

Blight

To blight a number means putting that many -1/-1 counters on a creature you control, lowering its power and toughness for good. Cards often pair it with a reward, like a Treasure or a card. · 25 cards

Board Wipe

A spell that destroys, exiles, or otherwise removes all creatures at once. Also called a sweeper or a wrath, after Wrath of God. One that deals damage or gives -X/-X counts only at 7 or more, enough to kill almost every creature people play, like Blasphemous Act. A smaller one is a Mini Sweeper. · 578 cards

Broad Tutor

Finds any card of a broad type: creature, artifact, enchantment, instant or sorcery. Mystical Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor. · 124 cards

Burn

Deals damage directly, to creatures or to players. Because it can hit a player as easily as a creature, the same card can remove a blocker or finish off an opponent. Lightning Bolt, Blasphemous Act · 1,578 cards

Burst Mana

One-shot acceleration: a burst of mana you get once and then it is gone, whether the card is a spell or sacrifices itself. Dark Ritual Lotus Petal Jeska's Will · 216 cards

Cantrip

A cheap instant or sorcery that replaces itself: it has a small effect and draws a card, so casting it costs you no cards overall. Commander Nexus counts a spell of mana value 2 or less that draws exactly one card. Ponder Opt · 266 cards

Card Selection

Improves what you draw rather than how much: you look at the top few cards of your library and decide what stays on top. Ponder lets you rearrange the top three, Serum Visions lets you scry, and Consider lets you surveil. It makes your draws more reliable without giving you extra cards. · 1,780 cards

Cast from Graveyard

Lets you cast spells or play lands straight from your graveyard, so the graveyard becomes a second hand. This is different from Reanimation, which puts a creature card onto the battlefield without casting it. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Yawgmoth's Will · 142 cards

Cheat into Play

Puts permanents straight onto the battlefield without casting them, from your deck, your hand or your graveyard. Skipping the cast skips the mana cost, and counterspells with it. Genesis Wave, Coiling Oracle · 322 cards

City's Blessing

Cards with ascend give you the city's blessing once you control ten or more permanents (cards and tokens you have in play). You keep it for the rest of the game, and cards that care about it get stronger. · 27 cards

Clone

Copies a creature or another permanent already on the battlefield. Copying the best thing on the table is often cheaper than casting something equally strong. Phyrexian Metamorph, Helm of the Host · 394 cards

Coin Flip / Die Roll

Leaves part of the outcome to chance: a coin flip, a die roll, or a choice made at random. A flip that can only hurt you, like the one on Mana Crypt, does not count, because no deck is built around it. Ancient Copper Dragon, Delina, Wild Mage · 326 cards

Combat Control

Lets you decide which creatures attack or block, taking that choice away from the player who would normally make it. Odric, Master Tactician, Master Warcraft · 12 cards

Combat Keywords

A creature whose only abilities are simple combat keywords, like deathtouch, first strike, vigilance or defender. This tag sets them apart from vanilla creatures, which have no abilities at all. Deadly Recluse, Typhoid Rats · 390 cards

Combat Trick

An instant you cast during a fight to change how it ends: making a creature bigger or smaller, or keeping your creatures from dying. Boros Charm, Flawless Maneuver · 4,178 cards

Companion

A companion is a creature you keep outside your deck. If your whole deck meets its special rule, once per game you can pay 3 mana to put it into your hand. · 10 cards

Control Exchange

Swaps control of cards on the battlefield between players: you give an opponent something of yours and take something of theirs. Gilded Drake trades itself for an opponent's creature, and Mindslaver even lets you control another player's whole turn. · 39 cards

Cost Modification

Changes what a spell costs to cast: cheaper for you, or more expensive for everyone. It is the broad family; Cost Reducer and Spell Tax say which direction a given card goes. Herald's Horn, Foundry Inspector · 670 cards

Cost Reducer

Makes your own spells cheaper to cast. A discount every turn adds up faster than a single burst of mana. Herald's Horn, Foundry Inspector · 711 cards

Cost Tax

Makes spells, abilities or attacks cost MORE for your opponents, and sometimes for everyone including you. It never stops anything outright: a player with mana to spare pays and carries on. What it does is slow the table down and punish decks built on lots of cheap spells. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Sphere of Resistance, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV · 41 cards

Counter Doubler

Doubles the counters being placed on your permanents: +1/+1, loyalty, charge, any kind. Counters here are the markers placed on cards, not counterspells. Doubling Season, Branching Evolution · 64 cards

Counter Engine

Adds +1/+1 counters over and over rather than once. A counter here is a small permanent marker that raises a creature's power and toughness for good. It is not a counterspell, which is a different thing entirely. Something that adds them every turn makes your whole board bigger and keeps it that way. Hardened Scales, Corpsejack Menace · 1,865 cards

Counter Manipulation

Adds, moves or multiplies counters already on permanents. It works on any kind (+1/+1, loyalty, charge), so the same card can serve very different decks. Karn's Bastion, Doubling Season · 1,308 cards

Counter Protection

Stops your spells from being countered, so an opponent cannot cancel them. It is insurance for a deck with one big spell it cannot afford to lose. Cavern of Souls, Dovin's Veto · 33 cards

Counter Suppression

Stops counters from being placed at all. Only two cards do it, and both switch off whole strategies built on counters, including, in some cases, your own. Solemnity, Suncleanser · 2 cards

Counterspell

Cancels a spell or ability while it is waiting on the stack, so it never takes effect. The countered spell goes to its owner's graveyard without doing anything. Counterspell · 492 cards

Craft

Craft turns a double-faced artifact over to its back face. You pay a cost and exile it together with other permanents you control or cards from your graveyard. · 24 cards

Creature Aura

An Aura (an enchantment that stays on the battlefield attached to something else) that attaches to a creature. It changes that creature's power and toughness or gives it new abilities. It also goes to the graveyard if the creature leaves, which is the risk: one removal spell can cost you both cards at once. Rancor, Ethereal Armor · 611 cards

Creature Type Enabler

Changes what creature types your permanents count as, often making everything the type you need. It lets a deck built around one creature type work with cards that were never that type. Maskwood Nexus, Ashaya, Soul of the Wild · 19 cards

Cycling

Cycling lets you pay a cost to discard this card from your hand and draw a new one, so a card you do not need never sits there useless. · 404 cards

Damage Bonus

Adds a flat amount to damage that is already being dealt: one or two more, every time a source you control deals it. Unlike a doubler it does not scale with the size of the hit, so it is at its best across many small instances of damage. Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, Sulfuric Vapors · 16 cards

Damage Doubler

Increases damage that is already being dealt, usually doubling it. It turns an attack that was survivable into one that is not. Twinflame Tyrant · 74 cards

Damage Reflection

Sends damage somewhere other than where it was aimed: bouncing it back at its source, or moving it onto another creature. It turns a big attack into the attacker's problem. Deflecting Palm, Pariah · 93 cards

Damage Removal

Removes creatures by dealing damage to them rather than by destroying them outright. This includes fight cards, where your creature deals the damage. Damage only kills a creature if it at least equals its toughness, so it can miss the biggest ones, and it does not kill a creature that cannot be destroyed. Lightning Bolt, Rabid Bite, Pyroclasm · 2,244 cards

Daybound / Nightbound

Double-faced cards that flip with the time of day: the front face shows during the day and the back face at night. It becomes night after a turn in which the player whose turn it was cast no spells, and day again after a turn in which that player cast two or more. · 67 cards

Death Trigger

Triggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn Simulacrum · 1,465 cards

Decayed

A creature with decayed cannot block, and if it attacks, you sacrifice it when the combat is over. Most are 2/2 Zombie tokens, good for one attack. · 19 cards

Digital / Alchemy

Uses mechanics that exist only in Magic's digital clients: conjure, perpetually, seek, and specialize. Clever Conjurer · 10 cards

Discard Payoff

Rewards you for discarding instead of treating it as a loss. Discarding means putting a card from your hand into your graveyard; usually that is a cost you pay, and these cards make it the point of the deck. Anje Falkenrath, Waste Not, Necrogoyf · 163 cards

Donate

Gives an opponent control of one of your own permanents. Sometimes the gift is generous, sometimes it is a cursed object; either way the card changes hands on purpose. Zedruu the Greathearted, Akroan Horse, Harmless Offering · 35 cards

Draw

Draws you extra cards. More cards means more choices every turn, and in a 100-card deck it is the main way to find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, Skullclamp · 4,093 cards

Draw Payoff

Rewards card drawing: it triggers whenever you or an opponent draws a card, rather than drawing cards itself. Pair it with cards that make everyone draw, like Wheel of Fortune or Howling Mine, so the cards everyone else gets end up working for you. Smothering Tithe · 131 cards

Drawback

Comes with a real cost or restriction attached: a condition that can backfire, or a downside you accept in exchange for a stronger effect. Worth reading twice before building around one. Phantasmal Image · 70 cards

Dungeon / Venture

Venturing moves you one room through a dungeon, a special card kept outside your deck, and each room gives you its reward. Finish the last room and you can start a new dungeon. Dungeons are not permanents and never enter the battlefield. Sefris of the Hidden Ways · 65 cards

Enchantment Payoff

Rewards you for casting or controlling enchantments, usually by drawing cards each time one enters. Sram, Senior Edificer, Eidolon of Blossoms · 98 cards

Enchantment Tutor

Searches your library for an enchantment card (or an Aura, an enchantment that attaches to something). Compare the broader Tutor tags, which say how wide a search is rather than what it finds. Zur the Enchanter, Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor · 24 cards

Energy Resource

Uses energy, a resource written {E} that you collect and spend. Energy sits with you rather than on any one permanent, so it survives anything that destroys your board. Aether Hub, Guide of Souls · 142 cards

Enrage

Triggers when this creature is dealt damage, so hurting it hands you something instead. It turns blocking and burn spells into a decision your opponents would rather not have to make. Some of these were printed under the ability word Enrage; this tag covers the whole family, named or not. Boros Reckoner, Truefire Captain, Coalhauler Swine · 98 cards

Epic

Epic spells copy themselves at the start of each of your turns for the rest of the game, but you can never cast another spell. · 5 cards

Equipment

An artifact that attaches to one of your creatures and makes it stronger. You attach it by paying its equip cost, which you can only do during your own turn when nothing else is happening, so a new Equipment does nothing until you pay. It stays behind when the creature dies, and you pay the equip cost again each time you move it. Skullclamp · 688 cards

Equipment Payoff

Rewards you for casting or attaching Equipment: drawing cards, attaching for free, or attaching at instant speed. Puresteel Paladin, Sigarda's Aid · 61 cards

Equipment Tutor

Searches your library for an Equipment card. Stoneforge Mystic, Steelshaper's Gift, Open the Armory · 19 cards

ETB Payoff

Rewards you whenever your permanents enter the battlefield. It either gives you something for each arrival or makes their 'when this enters' abilities happen twice. Impact Tremors, Panharmonicon · 386 cards

ETB Value

Does something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One Ring · 4,274 cards

Evasion

An ability that makes a creature hard to block, so its attacks reach the player. Flying, menace, landwalk and plain 'can't be blocked' are the common kinds. · 5,233 cards

Exalted

Rewards attacking alone: whenever one of your creatures attacks by itself, it gets +1/+1 for each exalted ability you control. The bonus lasts until end of turn, and several exalted cards add together on that one attacker. Sublime Archangel · 60 cards

Expend

Expend abilities trigger once you have spent a set amount of mana on spells in one turn, such as your fourth mana. · 12 cards

Exploit

When a creature with exploit enters, you may sacrifice a creature, even the exploit creature itself, and if you do you get a bonus. · 24 cards

Explore

When a creature explores, you reveal the top card of your library. If it is a land, it goes to your hand; if not, the creature gets a +1/+1 counter and you may put that card into your graveyard. · 44 cards

Extra Combat

Gives you an extra combat, a second chance to attack in the same turn. Most, like Aggravated Assault and Aurelia, the Warleader, also untap your creatures so they can attack again, and cards that make a creature hard to block, like Whispersilk Cloak, make each attack count. · 45 cards

Extra Land Drop

Lets you put down more than one land in a turn. The normal limit is exactly one, so this both accelerates your mana and switches on everything that triggers when a land enters play. Exploration, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, Oracle of Mul Daya · 82 cards

Extra Phase

Adds an extra phase to your turn: usually another combat, though sometimes an additional main phase to cast more spells. Aggravated Assault, Moraug, Fury of Akoum · 51 cards

Extra Turns

Takes an additional turn once this one ends. Time Warp, Final Fortune. Casting them one after another so opponents never get a turn back is what Brackets 2 and 3 specifically ask you not to do. · 52 cards

Face-Down / Morph

Lets you cast a card face down as a nameless 2/2 creature for 3 mana, hiding what it really is. Later you pay its morph cost to turn it face up, at almost any time, even in the middle of a fight. · 326 cards

Fast Mana

A permanent that makes more mana than it cost to play, every turn, so you pull ahead from the very start. Sol Ring costs 1 and makes 2 each turn. Sol Ring Mana Vault Ancient Tomb · 27 cards

Flash Enabler

Lets you cast things at instant speed, including on other players' turns. Holding up mana and deciding later is a real advantage. Leyline of Anticipation, Emergence Zone · 95 cards

Flashback Enabler

Lets you cast instants and sorceries out of your graveyard, so spells you have already used become resources again. Snapcaster Mage, Past in Flames · 27 cards

Flicker/Save

Briefly exiles a permanent you control and immediately returns it. That saves it from a kill spell like Swords to Plowshares, and it re-triggers any enter the battlefield ability: Mulldrifter flickered is two more cards. Ephemerate, Teferi's Protection · 251 cards

Fog

Prevents combat damage, usually for a whole turn. A single card can blank an entire attack, which in multiplayer often means surviving a turn you had no other answer to. Fog, Spore Frog, Maze of Ith · 139 cards

Forced Combat

Forces creatures to attack, or decides who they attack, often with goad. In multiplayer it points other people's creatures at each other instead of at you. Bident of Thassa, Toski, Bearer of Secrets · 416 cards

Forced Sacrifice

Makes opponents sacrifice their own permanents. Because they choose what to lose, it gets around protection and hexproof that ordinary removal cannot touch. Braids, Arisen Nightmare, Living Death · 354 cards

Free Cast

Can be cast without paying its mana cost when a condition is met, often "if you control your commander". Because it costs nothing, you can still answer something after your mana is already spent. Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat · 404 cards

Freeze / Tap Lock

Keeps permanents tapped, or stops them untapping normally. It denies opponents their mana and attackers, and on your own cards it is the drawback you pay for a burst of power. Basalt Monolith, Intruder Alarm · 282 cards

Graveyard Hate

Empties graveyards or stops cards from coming back out of them, shutting down decks built on reusing their graveyard. Bojuka Bog, Scavenger Grounds. It answers a whole plan rather than one card: without it, something like Eternal Witness keeps returning the same card all game. · 425 cards

Graveyard Payoff

Rewards you for having cards in your graveyard, or uses them straight from there. Your graveyard is normally where cards go once they are finished with; these turn it into a second hand, and the fuller it is the better they get. Golgari Grave-Troll, Splinterfright · 519 cards

Group Hug

Gives everyone at the table something: extra cards, extra mana, extra lands. It really is generous, and that is the trick: the player who built the deck around it knows what to do with the surplus, and the other three usually do not. Howling Mine, Heartbeat of Spring, Rites of Flourishing · 193 cards

Group Slug / Punisher

Deals damage or drains life from every opponent at once, or forces a choice where each option hurts. It usually sits on a permanent and fires over and over rather than doing it a single time. Manabarbs · 247 cards

Hand Size Modifier

Changes the maximum hand size, usually removing your own limit so you can keep everything you draw, sometimes lowering an opponent's. Without one, you discard down to seven during your end step. Reliquary Tower, Thought Vessel · 48 cards

Hard Counterspell

Cancels a spell outright, with no way for its caster to pay to save it. The most reliable kind of counterspell. Counterspell · 343 cards

Haste Enabler

Lets your creatures attack or use tap abilities the turn they arrive, instead of waiting out summoning sickness. Rhythm of the Wild, Anger · 154 cards

Hatebear

A cheap creature, costing 3 mana or less, with a rule that slows everyone else down. Spells cost more, things enter tapped, or players cannot do something. It is the community's word for it, and a deck of them is a Hatebears deck. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Drannith Magistrate, Collector Ouphe · 91 cards

Historic Payoff

Rewards you for historic cards: the legendary cards, artifacts, and Sagas that Magic groups under that one word. In Commander your commander is always legendary, so these start with something to count. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain · 79 cards

Humility / Stat Setting

Sets creatures to a fixed power and toughness, or strips their abilities. It answers a threatening creature without destroying it, which matters against a commander: a neutralized one stays on the battlefield instead of going back to the command zone. Darksteel Mutation · 184 cards

Impulse Draw

Exiles cards from the top of your library and lets you play them for a short time, usually only that turn. You have to use them or lose them. Act on Impulse Prosper, Tome-Bound · 291 cards

Incubate

Incubate makes an Incubator, an artifact token with +1/+1 counters on it. Pay 2 mana later to flip it into a Phyrexian artifact creature that keeps those counters. · 25 cards

Initiative

A title only one player holds at a time. When you take it, and at the start of each of your turns while you hold it, you move one room through the Undercity, a dungeon with a reward in every room. An opponent takes it from you by dealing combat damage to you. · 26 cards

Keyword Enabler

Gives a whole group of your spells a keyword that changes how you cast them, such as improvise, cascade, convoke or flash. Inspiring Statuary, Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty · 23 cards

Land Animation

Turns your lands into creatures. That gives you extra attackers without spending extra cards, and a manland, a land that can become a creature, is safe as a land the rest of the time, though a board wipe can catch it while it is a creature. Nissa, Who Shakes the World · 164 cards

Land Fetch

Searches your deck for a land. That handles color fixing (making sure you can produce the specific colors of mana your cards ask for), and because it puts a real land onto the battlefield, it also switches on landfall. Cultivate, Farseek, Evolving Wilds · 405 cards

Land Lock

Changes what opponents' lands are or do, usually stripping nonbasic lands of their abilities. In a format where most decks lean on nonbasic lands for their colors, it can shut a deck off almost entirely. Blood Moon, Magus of the Moon · 4 cards

Land Recursion

Returns land cards from your graveyard to your hand or to the battlefield, or lets you play lands from your graveyard. Lands-matter decks use it to hit a land drop every turn and to trigger Landfall again and again. Crucible of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator, Life from the Loam · 68 cards

Land Type Modifier

Changes which basic land types your lands have. Adding a type makes those lands tap for a new color and switches on cards that care about that type. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Dryad of the Ilysian Grove · 35 cards

Landfall

Triggers whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. Extra land plays and cards that pull lands out of your deck can set it off several times in one turn. Tireless Tracker Evolution Sage · 187 cards

Life Drain

An opponent loses life and you gain that life from the same effect. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat. It lets Aristocrats decks win without ever attacking. Every drain card is also tagged Life Gain; this tag is the part where the life comes out of somebody. · 621 cards

Life Gain

Gains you life, once or over and over. Soul Warden, The Great Henge. In Commander life is something to spend, not just a cushion, and many of these cards also set off others that reward gaining life. · 2,041 cards

Life Total Manipulation

Changes life totals in unusual ways: setting them to a number, swapping them, or stopping them from changing for a turn. It sidesteps the normal math of gaining and losing life. Teferi's Protection, Tree of Perdition · 40 cards

Lifegain Engine

Gains you life again and again, on a trigger that keeps happening, rather than once. You start at 40 life in Commander, so life is something to spend as well as a cushion, and a card like this sets off every card that rewards you for gaining it. Soul Warden, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice · 846 cards

Lifegain Payoff

Turns life gain into an actual effect: draining opponents, drawing cards, or growing creatures each time you gain life. Without one of these, gaining life mostly just delays things. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose, Sanguine Bond · 185 cards

Lock Counterspell

A permanent that keeps countering spells, over and over, instead of answering just one. It works like a standing rule every player has to play around. Nether Void Chalice of the Void · 11 cards

Looting

Draws and discards in the same breath. Faithless Looting, Frantic Search. It does not gain you cards. It improves the ones you have, and fills your graveyard on purpose, which is exactly what a reanimator card like Animate Dead wants. · 688 cards

Loss Prevention

Stops you losing the game, or stops the thing that would have made you lose. Some say plainly that you cannot lose while they are on the battlefield; others hold your life total in place instead of letting it fall. They buy you a turn. They rarely win you one. Platinum Angel, Angel's Grace, Gideon of the Trials · 11 cards

Mana Doubler

Multiplies the mana your lands or permanents produce, so every land you already control starts making more. Mirari's Wake, Caged Sun. Read the wording before you add one, because some are a trap. Mana Flare, Heartbeat of Spring and Zhur-Taa Ancient say "a player", so every opponent's lands make extra mana too, and each of them gets to spend it before your next turn. Nikya of the Old Ways doubles only your own lands, but it stops you casting anything that is not a creature. · 48 cards

Mana Sink

Gives you somewhere useful to spend spare mana, usually through an ability you can activate again and again. Rogue's Passage, Mind Stone · 5,153 cards

Mana Storage

Keeps mana from disappearing at the end of a step or turn, or makes a burst of mana last until end of turn. Normally unused mana empties as each step ends; these cards let you save it up for something enormous. Kruphix, God of Horizons, Omnath, Locus of Mana, Upwelling · 36 cards

Mass Bounce

Returns many permanents to their owners' hands at once. Aetherize. It clears the battlefield without destroying anything, so cards that care about creatures dying do nothing, but every player has to spend mana again to replay what they lost. · 61 cards

Mass Burn

Deals damage to everything, or to every opponent at once, rather than to a single target. In a four player game the same card hits three people, so small repeated amounts add up quickly. Blasphemous Act, Impact Tremors · 341 cards

Mass Land Destruction

Destroys many lands at once, resetting everyone's mana. Most tables treat it as off limits outside the highest brackets, so check before building around it. Armageddon, Ruination · 43 cards

Mass Tap

Taps many permanents at once. Tapping an opponent's board stops an attack or shuts off their mana for a turn. Cryptic Command, Turnabout · 127 cards

Mass Theft

Takes many permanents at once rather than one. It often takes the whole table's creatures for a turn, which frequently ends the game on the spot. Insurrection, Hellkite Tyrant · 37 cards

Mill

Puts cards from the top of a player's library, the deck they draw from, straight into their graveyard. Aimed at opponents it can win the game, because a player who has to draw from an empty library loses. · 294 cards

Mini Sweeper

Deals a set amount of damage, or gives a set -X/-X, to every creature, and that amount is under 7. It clears out tokens and small creatures but leaves big ones standing, so it is not counted as a board wipe. Pyroclasm Anger of the Gods Languish · 241 cards

Monarch

Being the monarch means you draw an extra card at the end of each of your turns. Deal combat damage to the monarch and the title passes to you. · 62 cards

Narrow Tutor

Finds a specific class of card: a subtype, a named card, an Equipment, or one capped by mana value. Steelshaper's Gift, Captain Sisay, Green Sun's Zenith. · 303 cards

Oddball / Build-Around

Does something unusual enough that no other tag fits, and unusual enough to build a deck around. This is where the genuinely strange cards live. Warp World, Painter's Servant · 318 cards

Open Information

Shows information that is normally hidden, like the top card of a deck or the cards in an opponent's hand. Some cards make you play with your hand face up, or with your top card turned face up. Courser of Kruphix, Gitaxian Probe · 7 cards

Opponent Discard

Makes opponents discard cards from their hands. In a format where everyone starts with seven and refills slowly, stripping a hand can be harder to recover from than losing a creature. Windfall, Sword of Feast and Famine · 615 cards

Overrun

Makes your whole team bigger at once, usually with trample or another way past blockers. It turns a big group of creatures into a winning attack. Craterhoof Behemoth, Akroma's Will · 602 cards

Partner

Can share the command zone with a second commander, giving the deck two color identities to combine. The varieties are Partner Thrasios, Triton Hero, Partner With Brallin, Skyshark Rider, Friends Forever Anara, Wolvid Familiar, Choose a Background Wilson, Refined Grizzly, and Doctor's Companion Rory Williams. · 233 cards

Planeswalker Payoff

Rewards you for having planeswalkers. A planeswalker is an ally that stays in play and uses one ability each turn by adding or removing loyalty counters. These cards protect your planeswalkers, give them extra loyalty, or let you use their abilities more often. · 136 cards

Play from Top

Lets you play cards directly off the top of your deck, so your next draw is always available to cast. It pairs strongly with anything that controls what sits on top. Bolas's Citadel, Mystic Forge · 57 cards

Playtest Card

A test print from Mystery Booster products that was never meant for normal games. Playtest cards are only allowed in Bracket 1 (Exhibition) games, where a deck's theme comes before the rules.

Poison

Gives out poison counters, or gets stronger when opponents have them. A player who has ten or more poison counters loses the game. Cards with the keyword infect or toxic hand out poison counters when they deal damage to a player. · 166 cards

Prepared

Some creatures come with a spell printed alongside them. While the creature is prepared, you may cast a copy of that spell, and doing so uses up the prepared state until something prepares it again. · 72 cards

Proliferate

Adds one more counter of each kind already there, on any players and cards on the battlefield that you choose. It grows poison counters, +1/+1 counters and loyalty counters alike. · 95 cards

Protection

A creature with protection from something, like a color, is safe from anything with that quality. It cannot be damaged, enchanted or equipped, blocked, or targeted by it, and players remember the four with the word DEBT. It does not stop effects that neither target nor damage, like a board wipe that destroys every creature. Progenitus · 2,211 cards

Ramp

An effect that accelerates your mana, giving you a reusable mana source beyond the usual one land per turn. Cultivate Rampant Growth · 1,495 cards

Rattlesnake

Discourages attacks rather than preventing them, making an attack expensive or unappealing enough that opponents pick somebody else. Named for a rattlesnake's warning: the point is to be left alone. Propaganda, Sphere of Safety · 77 cards

Reanimation

Returns a creature card from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost. That is why decks built around it put their biggest creatures into the graveyard on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate Dead · 680 cards

Recursion

Brings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, Victimize · 2,115 cards

Regeneration

Shields a creature the next time it would be destroyed. Instead of dying it survives and taps, and if it was attacking or blocking it is pulled out of the fight, dealing and taking no combat damage. It does not stop exile or sacrifice, so exiling the creature is the reliable way around it. Asceticism, Golgari Charm · 205 cards

Repeatable Damage

Deals damage again and again rather than once. It comes from an activated ability you can use every turn, or a trigger that fires whenever something happens. Walking Ballista, Impact Tremors · 728 cards

Repeatable Tutor

A search for a card that you can repeat, because it sits on a permanent rather than being a one-time spell. It works as an ability or a trigger, and it is the heart of a Toolbox deck: one card that can find the right answer every turn. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain, Survival of the Fittest, Birthing Pod · 135 cards

Ritual

An instant or sorcery that adds mana once, often more than it cost, so you can keep casting spells this turn. Named after Dark Ritual. Rite of Flame Jeska's Will · 52 cards

Saboteur

Triggers when a creature deals combat damage to a player, so the reward comes from connecting rather than from the damage itself. Evasion makes these far more reliable. Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer · 680 cards

Sacrifice Outlet

A permanent that lets you sacrifice your own creatures or artifacts whenever you want, usually for free. Every Aristocrats deck needs one, because cards that reward a creature dying only help if you choose when it dies. Ashnod's Altar, Viscera Seer · 656 cards

Sacrifice Payoff

Rewards you whenever something is sacrificed, meaning put into the graveyard on purpose. The reward might be a +1/+1 counter, a card, or a drained opponent, and it is the reason a deck sacrifices its own creatures. Compare Sacrifice Outlet, the card that lets you sacrifice, and Death Trigger, which fires when a creature dies for any reason. Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, Mayhem Devil, Savra, Queen of the Golgari · 109 cards

Self-Bounce / Rescue

Returns a permanent to its owner's hand, often one of your own. That saves it from removal or lets its 'when this enters' ability happen again. Whitemane Lion · 183 cards

Self-Discard

Discards your own cards as a cost or an effect. Filling your own graveyard on purpose is the point: it feeds cards that bring things back, madness and channel abilities, and some cards are worth more there than in hand. Faithless Looting, Boseiju, Who Endures · 1,245 cards

Self-Mill

Puts cards from your OWN library into your graveyard on purpose. Milling means moving cards off the top of a library into a graveyard. Aimed at an opponent that is an attack; aimed at yourself it is setup, filling the graveyard for the cards that want to use what is in it. Stitcher's Supplier, Hermit Druid · 376 cards

Self-Sacrifice

Sacrifices itself as part of its own ability, trading the permanent away for what it does. Evolving Wilds, Mind Stone · 1,433 cards

Silver-Bordered

A joke card from Magic's parody sets, printed with a silver border instead of the normal black one, or with no border at all. These cards are made for laughs, so they are only allowed in Bracket 1 (Exhibition) games, where a deck's theme comes before the rules.

Soft Counterspell

Counters the spell unless its controller pays an additional cost, so an opponent with mana to spare can buy their way through. Mana Leak · 138 cards

Spell Copying

Copies a spell or an ability. The copy is not cast, so it costs nothing extra and does not set off cards that care about casting a spell. Reverberate, Storm-Kiln Artist · 250 cards

Spell Tax

Charges opponents extra to cast their spells: either they pay up, or you get something out of it. Rhystic Study, Esper Sentinel · 47 cards

Spellslinger

Rewards you for casting instants and sorceries, usually triggering each time you cast one. Storm-Kiln Artist, Guttersnipe · 319 cards

Spellslinger Payoff

Rewards you specifically for casting or copying instants and sorceries, usually with a trigger each time. Narrower than Spellslinger, which covers the whole instant-and-sorcery family. Archmage Emeritus, Storm-Kiln Artist · 210 cards

Stack Interaction

Acts while a spell is waiting to take effect: countering it, changing what it targets, or copying it. When someone casts a spell it waits on the stack, and every player gets priority, a chance to respond, before it happens. Counterspell, Negate · 712 cards

Stat Scaling

A creature whose power and toughness count something, so it grows as the game goes on. It might count lands you control or cards in your graveyard. Craterhoof Behemoth, Psychosis Crawler · 848 cards

Static Buff

Gives creatures a lasting bonus to power and toughness while it remains on the battlefield, rather than a boost that wears off at end of turn. Garruk's Uprising, Patchwork Banner · 2,240 cards

Stax/Tax

Makes the game more expensive or more restrictive for everyone: taxing spells and attacks, or stopping permanents from untapping. Propaganda, Ghostly Prison. Many groups dislike playing against it, so check what your table expects first. · 963 cards

Storm

Gets stronger for every spell cast before it this turn. A spell with storm is copied once for each of those spells, so the tenth spell of the turn happens ten times. Grapeshot Brain Freeze Tendrils of Agony · 39 cards

Super Trample

Assigns combat damage as though the creature were not blocked, so a blocker stops none of it. Ordinary trample only spills damage over a blocker's toughness; this ignores the blocker entirely. Siege Behemoth, Indomitable Might · 19 cards

Suspect

Uses suspect, a keyword action from Murders at Karlov Manor. A suspected creature gains menace (meaning two or more creatures are needed to block it) and cannot block itself. Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser · 24 cards

Target Removal

Removes a single chosen permanent by destroying it, exiling it or returning it to its owner's hand, however big it is. It is the precise answer to one problem, as opposed to a board wipe that hits everything. Damage and -X/-X can miss a big creature, so they are Damage Removal and -X/-X Removal instead. Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within · 2,843 cards

Targeted Discard

Makes a chosen opponent discard, often letting you see their hand and pick what goes. Precise, though in a four player game it only sets one person back. Grief, Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God · 57 cards

Text/Type/Color Shifter

Changes what a card *is* rather than what it does: its color, its creature types, or the words in its text box. Often used to switch on cards that only interact with one color or type. Mycosynth Lattice, Leyline of the Guildpact · 111 cards

The Ring

From the Lord of the Rings set. When "the Ring tempts you", you choose one of your creatures to be your Ring-bearer, and it gains new abilities. Each time the temptation happens, the Ring grows stronger. · 56 cards

Theft

Takes something that belongs to an opponent: a creature, another permanent, or even a spell cast straight off the top of their deck. Act of Treason, Hellkite Tyrant · 419 cards

Token

A token is a creature or other permanent that a card creates, not a card from your deck. It stops existing as soon as it leaves the battlefield.

Token Doubler

Creates extra copies whenever you would make tokens: one trigger becomes two creatures, two Treasures, and so on. Doubling Season, Anointed Procession · 27 cards

Token Engine

Makes tokens again and again rather than once. A token is a creature or other permanent created by a card, with no card of its own. Something that makes one token gives you a body; something that makes them every turn gives you a board you can keep rebuilding after it is cleared. Grave Titan, Bitterblossom, Ophiomancer · 1,975 cards

Token Maker

Creates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind. · 3,662 cards

Token Payoff

Rewards you for making or having tokens: counting them, copying them, or making every one of them bigger. These are the cards that turn a lot of small creatures into a way to actually win. Anointed Procession, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice · 121 cards

Token Wipe

Deals a small amount of damage to every creature, or lowers every creature's toughness a little. It is aimed at clearing tokens and small creatures while larger ones survive. Fiery Confluence, Pyrohemia · 196 cards

Toughness Combat

Lets creatures deal combat damage equal to their toughness instead of their power. It turns defensive creatures with big toughness into real attackers. Doran, the Siege Tower, Assault Formation · 22 cards

Transform / Meld

Turns a double-faced card over to its other face. It stays the same permanent on the battlefield, now with the back face's name and abilities. Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration. Meld is the rare cousin: two specific cards exile together and return as one oversized card. Bruna, the Fading Light · 226 cards

Treasure

Creates or cares about Treasure tokens: small artifacts you can sacrifice for one mana of any color. Saving them up lets you cast something big early, or feed anything that likes sacrificing artifacts. · 351 cards

Treasure Engine

Produces Treasure tokens repeatedly. A Treasure is a small artifact token you sacrifice for one mana of any color. Something that keeps making them is mana acceleration and, at the same time, a steady supply of artifacts to sacrifice for anything that wants them. Smothering Tithe, Dockside Extortionist, Goldspan Dragon · 217 cards

Treasure Payoff

Rewards you for having Treasure tokens or for sacrificing them, rather than for making them in the first place. Revel in Riches wins you the game outright if you hoard enough of them; Goldspan Dragon makes each one you spend worth double. · 29 cards

Trigger Doubler

Makes your triggers fire an extra time. One trigger becomes two, which is where a lot of long chains start. Panharmonicon, Roaming Throne · 45 cards

Turn Skipping

Skips a step, phase, or turn. Sometimes it is aimed at an opponent, but more often it is your own draw step given up as the price of a strong effect. Necropotence, Solitary Confinement · 24 cards

Tutor

Searches your deck for a specific card. Because a Commander deck may only contain one copy of each card, a tutor is how you reliably find the exact one you need. See the Tutor tier tags for how broad each search is. Demonic Tutor · 503 cards

Typal Payoff

Rewards you for playing lots of one kind of creature. That includes "lords" that make every other Goblin or Merfolk you control bigger, and cards that ask you to choose a creature type and then pay you off for it. A creature type is the word on the middle line of the card, like Goblin, Elf or Zombie. · 1,098 cards

Typal/Kindred

Kindred is a card type for spells that are not creatures but still have a creature type. A Kindred Goblin instant counts for anything that cares about Goblins. It used to be called tribal, and 'typal' is also the community's word for building a deck around one creature type. · 62 cards

Type Changer

Adds a type to permanents on top of the types they already have. Making everything an artifact or a land switches on cards that only interact with that type. Liquimetal Torque, Phyrexian Metamorph · 268 cards

Uncounterable

This card cannot be countered. Countering a spell stops it from resolving and puts it straight into the graveyard, so a spell that cannot be countered is going to happen no matter what an opponent is holding. This tag is about the card itself. A card that grants that protection to your OTHER spells is tagged Counter Protection instead. Allosaurus Shepherd, Counterflux · 91 cards

Unrestricted Tutor

Finds any card in your library, with no limit on what kind: the most reliable way to get exactly the card you need. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal. · 76 cards

Untapper

Untaps permanents. Untapping a land or a mana-producing artifact effectively lets you spend that mana twice in a turn, which is why untap effects turn up in so many infinite combos. Seedborn Muse · 779 cards

Upkeep Cost

Costs you something at the start of each of your turns, like life, mana or a card, for as long as you keep it. Strong effects often come with a running bill. The One Ring, Phyrexian Arena · 390 cards

Value Creature

A creature that does two jobs: it deals with an opponent's card when it arrives, then stays as a real attacker. Its enter the battlefield ability destroys, damages, counters or bounces something, and it has 3 or more power or an ability like flying that makes it hard to block. Answering your opponent and pressuring them with the same card is what a Midrange deck is built on. Shriekmaw, Meteor Golem · 470 cards

Vanilla

A creature with no abilities at all: just a name, a cost, and a power/toughness box. Grizzly Bears · 764 cards

Vehicle

An artifact subtype that is not a creature until it is crewed. Crew N is an activated ability: tap any number of untapped creatures you control whose total power is N or more, and the Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn. The crewing creatures are only tapped: they are never sacrificed, they do not attack, and summoning sickness does not stop them from crewing. Smuggler's Copter · 257 cards

Vehicle Payoff

Cares about Vehicles, artifacts that become creatures when crewed, without being one itself. It makes them bigger, gives them abilities, or finds them. Depala, Pilot Exemplar, Fearless Swashbuckler, From Father to Son · 79 cards

Voltron Commander

A legendary creature that can carry the whole game plan by itself. It protects itself, grows with what is attached to it, or rewards attacking alone. The deck piles Auras and Equipment onto it and wins with commander damage, since 21 or more combat damage from one commander knocks a player out. Named for the toy robot built from smaller pieces. Zurgo Helmsmasher, Uril, the Miststalker, Sigarda, Host of Herons · 102 cards

Voltron Support

Helps you stack Auras and Equipment onto a single creature: cheaper attaching, protection, or extra ways to suit it up. Hammer of Nazahn, Sigarda's Aid · 281 cards

Voting / Politics

Hands a decision to the whole table: every player votes, and the result applies to everyone. That turns the vote itself into something to bargain with. Council's Judgment · 40 cards

Wheel

Makes players discard their hands and draw new ones. Wheel of Fortune, Windfall. It refills you and usually the rest of the table too, so it works well beside Draw Payoff cards that turn everyone else's new cards into your advantage. · 72 cards

Wish

Fetches a card from outside the game. Commander has no sideboard, so whether this does anything is a house rule. Agree it with your table before relying on it. Karn, the Great Creator, Mastermind's Acquisition · 21 cards