Tags

-1/-1 Counters

Puts -1/-1 counters on creatures, permanently lowering both their power and their toughness — the two numbers on a creature, meaning the damage it deals and the damage it can survive. Unlike ordinary damage, which wears off at end of turn, these counters stay, and a creature whose toughness reaches zero dies. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, Devoted Druid · 264 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 · 3,016 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 of the card. Acorn cards are made for laughs and are not legal in Commander games. We label them so you know they are for fun, not for your deck.

Aikido / Redirection

Turns an opponent's own spell, ability, or damage back on them — changing what it targets, copying it, or pointing the damage somewhere else. Aikido is the community's name for it, borrowed from the martial art. Deflecting Swat, Narset's Reversal · 186 cards

Airbend

A keyword action that exiles one or more permanents and/or spells. The owner of each card exiled with airbend may cast it from exile by paying {2} rather than paying its mana 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 · 55 cards

Alternative Cost

A cost a spell may have that its controller can pay rather than paying its mana cost. · 1,801 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 · 164 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 · 42 cards

Anthem

A permanent that gives every creature you control a lasting bonus to power and toughness for as long as it stays on the battlefield — the whole team gets bigger at once, rather than one creature getting a temporary boost. Named after Glorious Anthem. · 229 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 · 240 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 · 1,156 cards

Attraction

Yes, Attractions are legal in Commander, except the ones with an acorn symbol at the bottom of the card. The same goes for the cards that open an Attraction, such as Coming Attraction. An Attraction never goes in your 100-card deck. It waits in a separate Attraction deck beside it, and "open an Attraction" puts the top one onto the battlefield, where it stays. When a card tells you to roll to visit your Attractions, you roll a six-sided die. Every Attraction you control with that number lit up on its side then does what it says. Commanders built to use them include Dee Kay, Finder of the Lost and Myra the Magnificent. · 22 cards

Aura

An enchantment subtype. Aura spells target objects or players, and Aura permanents are attached to objects or players. · 1,269 cards

Aura Removal

An Aura that neutralises what it is attached to rather than destroying it — turning a creature into a harmless shape, or switching its abilities off. Especially useful against a commander, because a neutralised one stays on the battlefield instead of going back to the command zone to be recast. Darksteel Mutation, Imprisoned in the Moon · 263 cards

Banding

An old keyword that lets creatures attack or block as a group, with combat damage assignment handed to you. 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 · 361 cards

Blight

A keyword action. To blight N means to put N -1/-1 counters on a creature you control. · 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. · 817 cards

Burn

Deals damage directly, to creatures or to players. Damage does not care about most protection from destruction, so burn can answer things that "destroy" effects cannot. Lightning Bolt, Blasphemous Act · 1,560 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 · 185 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 · 259 cards

Card Selection

Improves what you draw rather than how much — scry, surveil, or looking at the top few cards and rearranging them. Ponder, Serum Visions scry; Consider surveils. Consistency, not card advantage. · 1,762 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 · 205 cards

City's Blessing

You earn the city's blessing when you control ten or more permanents (cards you have in play). Once you have it, 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 · 393 cards

Coin Flip / Die Roll

Leaves part of the outcome to chance — a coin flip, a die roll, or a choice made at random. Ancient Copper Dragon, Delina, Wild Mage · 343 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 · 11 cards

Combat Keywords

Carries a combat keyword — deathtouch, first strike, vigilance, defender — but no strategy beyond it. It separates a plain body with one keyword from a vanilla creature that has no abilities at all. Deadly Recluse, Typhoid Rats · 393 cards

Combat Trick

An instant speed effect that changes how a fight resolves — raising your creature's power and toughness, lowering theirs, or clearing the board mid-combat. Boros Charm, Flawless Maneuver · 4,140 cards

Companion

A keyword ability that allows a player to choose one creature card from outside the game as a companion if the restriction of that card’s companion ability is met. Once a player has chosen a companion, that player may pay {3} to put it into their hand once during the game. · 10 cards

Control Exchange

Swaps control of permanents between players, or hands you a player's whole turn. Unlike stealing outright, a swap gives something back — which is how Gilded Drake gets around commanders returning to the command zone. Mindslaver · 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 · 663 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 · 704 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 · 40 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 · 63 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 — 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 · 1,830 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 · 1,296 cards

Counter Protection

Makes your spells impossible to counter, or protects them while they are on the stack. The insurance policy for a deck that has one big spell it cannot afford to lose. Cavern of Souls, Dovin's Veto · 32 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

Can counter a spell or ability on the stack, stopping it from resolving. The countered spell goes to its owner's graveyard without ever taking effect. Counterspell · 482 cards

Counterspell - Hard

Counters outright, with no way for the spell's controller to pay their way out. Countermagic's most reliable form. Counterspell · 335 cards

Counterspell - Lock

A permanent that counters spells on an ongoing trigger, taxing every future spell rather than answering one. Functions as a Stax piece. Nether Void Chalice of the Void · 11 cards

Counterspell - Soft

Counters the spell unless its controller pays an additional cost, so an opponent with mana to spare can buy their way through. Mana Leak · 136 cards

Craft

Craft is an activated ability that allows a player to exile cards from their graveyard and/or permanents they control to exile the permanent with the craft ability and return it onto the battlefield transformed. · 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 · 610 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

A keyword ability that lets a card be discarded and replaced with a new card. · 399 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 · 70 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. Damage only kills if it meets or beats the creature's toughness, so it can miss the biggest ones — but it also gets past anything that says it cannot be destroyed. Pyroclasm, Blasphemous Act · 1,278 cards

Daybound / Nightbound

An ability found on the front faces of some double-faced cards. Cards with daybound and nightbound are face up when it’s day and face down when it’s night. · 67 cards

Death Trigger

Triggers when a creature dies — yours or an opponent's. This is the reward half of an aristocrats deck: something has to make creatures die, and these cards decide what you get each time one does. Blood Artist, Solemn Simulacrum · 1,435 cards

Decayed

A keyword ability that means “This creature can’t block” and “When this creature attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat. · 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 · 158 cards

Draw

Draws you cards. The simplest form of card advantage — more options every turn, and in a hundred-card format it is the main way you find the pieces you need. Rhystic Study, Skullclamp · 4,058 cards

Draw Payoff

Rewards drawing — it triggers when you or an opponent draws a card, rather than drawing cards itself. Pair it with a wheel like Wheel of Fortune, or a group hug card like Howling Mine, so the cards everyone else gains 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 through a dungeon card kept outside your deck — each venture advances one room and triggers that room's effect, and finishing the last room lets you 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 · 99 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 · 97 cards

Epic

A keyword ability that lets a player copy a spell at the beginning of each of their upkeeps at the expense of casting any other spells for the rest of the game. · 5 cards

Equipment

An artifact subtype that attaches to a creature you control and grants it bonuses. Paying the Equip cost is what attaches it, and that is a sorcery-speed ability — so an Equipment that just entered sits on the battlefield doing nothing until you pay Equip. It stays behind when the creature dies, and you pay Equip again each time you move it to another creature. Skullclamp · 680 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 · 30 cards

ETB Payoff

Profits whenever your permanents enter the battlefield, either triggering off each arrival or making those triggers happen more than once. Where ETB Value is the card that HAS the ability, this is the card that rewards it. Impact Tremors, Panharmonicon · 380 cards

ETB Value

Does something useful the moment it enters play — an ability that triggers when a permanent enters the battlefield, which players shorten to ETB. You get the value even if the permanent is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker effects. Solemn Simulacrum, The One Ring · 4,212 cards

Evasion

An ability that restricts which creatures can block, making it easier to connect with a player — flying, menace, landwalk, or plain "can't be blocked". · 5,198 cards

Exalted

A keyword ability that rewards attacking alone: whenever a creature you control attacks by itself, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each Exalted ability you control. Several Exalted creatures stack their bonuses onto the single attacker. Sublime Archangel · 60 cards

Expend

A word found on some abilities that care how much mana a player has spent to cast spells this turn. · 12 cards

Exploit

A keyword ability that lets you sacrifice a creature for a benefit. · 24 cards

Explore

A keyword action that causes a player to reveal the top card of their library and then to take different actions depending on whether a land card is revealed this way. · 44 cards

Extra Combat

Grants an additional combat phase. Aggravated Assault, Aurelia, the Warleader. A second attack only helps if your creatures can swing again, so these pair with untap effects like Seedborn Muse and evasion like Whispersilk Cloak. · 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 · 83 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. · 53 cards

Face-Down / Morph

A keyword ability that lets a card be cast face down as a 2/2 creature. · 302 cards

Fast Mana

Permanent acceleration: a permanent whose mana ability nets more than it cost, so it keeps paying out every turn. Sol Ring Mana Vault Ancient Tomb · 61 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 · 94 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 · 22 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 · 248 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 dictates who they attack, often by goading them. In multiplayer it points other people's boards 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 · 350 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 · 403 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 · 238 cards

Graveyard Hate

Attacks graveyards — exile them outright, or shut off the recursion other decks are built on. Bojuka Bog, Scavenger Grounds. It answers a whole strategy rather than one card: without it, something like Eternal Witness keeps returning the same threat all game. · 576 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 · 477 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 · 188 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 · 245 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

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 · 152 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 · 78 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 · 179 cards

Impulse Draw

Exiles cards from the top of your library and lets you play them for a limited window, usually only that turn — card advantage you have to use or lose. Act on Impulse Prosper, Tome-Bound · 293 cards

Incubate

A keyword action that creates an Incubator token with a specified number of +1/+1 counters on it. · 25 cards

Initiative

A marker only one player holds at a time. While you have the initiative, you explore the Undercity -- a dungeon that gives you a reward at each step. An opponent can steal the initiative by attacking you and dealing combat damage. · 26 cards

Keyword Enabler

Grants a casting keyword — convoke, improvise, cascade, discover, affinity, flash — to your spells as a group, rather than to one creature. Inspiring Statuary, Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty · 23 cards

Land Animation

Turns your lands into creatures. It gives you extra attackers without spending extra cards, and a manland sits safely as a land the rest of the time — though it can be caught by a board wipe while animated. Nissa, Who Shakes the World · 163 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 · 401 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 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

A triggered ability that fires whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control — often several times in a turn with extra land drops or fetch effects. Tireless Tracker Evolution Sage · 183 cards

Life Drain

An opponent loses life and you gain it from the same effect. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat. The two-for-one that lets aristocrats decks close a game without ever attacking. Every drain card is also tagged Life Gain; this tag is the subset where the life comes out of somebody. · 622 cards

Life Gain

Gains you life, whether once or repeatedly. Soul Warden, The Great Henge. In Commander life is a resource to spend, not just a cushion — many of these are engine pieces rather than defensive cards. · 2,014 cards

Life Total Manipulation

Changes life totals in unusual ways — setting them to a number, swapping them, or putting them out of reach for a turn. It sidesteps the normal maths of gaining and losing life. Teferi's Protection, Tree of Perdition · 39 cards

Lifegain Engine

Gains you life repeatedly, on a trigger that keeps firing, rather than a single time. You start at 40 life in Commander, so life is a resource to spend rather than only a cushion — and an engine like this switches on every card that rewards you for gaining it. Soul Warden, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice · 844 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 · 100 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. · 676 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 · 10 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. · 31 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 · 5,109 cards

Mass Bounce

Returns many permanents to their owners' hands at once. Aetherize. A gentler board wipe: nothing dies, so nobody's death triggers fire, but every player has to spend the mana again to rebuild. · 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 · 333 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 — often the whole table's creatures for a turn, which frequently ends the game on the spot. Insurrection, Hellkite Tyrant · 37 cards

Mill

To mill a number of cards, a player puts that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard. · 294 cards

Monarch

A designation a player can have. Some effects instruct a player to become the monarch. The monarch draws a card at the beginning of their end step. Dealing combat damage to the monarch steals the title from that player. · 60 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 · 340 cards

Open Information

Reveals information that is normally hidden — hands played face up, the top card of a library turned face up, or a look at what an opponent is holding. 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 · 609 cards

Overrun

Makes your whole team bigger at once, usually granting evasion as well — the card that turns a wide board into a lethal attack. Craterhoof Behemoth, Akroma's Will · 546 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. · 237 cards

Planeswalker Payoff

Rewards you for having planeswalkers -- powerful ally cards that use loyalty counters to activate their abilities. These cards protect your planeswalkers, add extra loyalty counters, or let you use their abilities more often. · 112 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 · 58 cards

Playtest Card

A test print that was never meant for real games, found in Mystery Booster products. Playtest cards are not legal in Commander games.

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. · 167 cards

Prepared

A designation a permanent may have that allows you to cast a copy of that card with its alternative characteristics. · 48 cards

Proliferate

Has the keyword proliferate: choose any number of players and permanents (cards on the battlefield) that already have a counter, then give each one more counter of a kind it already has. It grows poison counters, +1/+1 counters and loyalty counters alike. · 94 cards

Protection

Protection from a quality means the permanent cannot be Damaged, Enchanted or Equipped, Blocked, or Targeted by anything with that quality — the four are remembered as DEBT. It does not stop effects that neither target nor damage, such as a board wipe. Progenitus · 2,203 cards

Ramp

An effect that accelerates your mana, giving you a reusable mana source beyond the usual one land per turn. Cultivate Rampant Growth · 1,314 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 · 78 cards

Reanimation

Returns a creature from a graveyard straight to the battlefield, skipping its mana cost entirely — which is why the biggest threats are worth discarding on purpose. Named for Reanimate. Animate Dead · 666 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 · 2,057 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 · 206 cards

Repeatable Damage

Deals damage again and again rather than once — an activated ability you can use each turn, or a trigger that fires whenever something happens. Walking Ballista, Impact Tremors · 712 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 · 678 cards

Sacrifice Outlet

A permanent that lets you sacrifice your own creatures or artifacts whenever you want, usually for free. The engine piece every aristocrats deck needs — death triggers only pay out if you can choose when things die. Ashnod's Altar, Viscera Seer · 652 cards

Self-Bounce / Rescue

Returns a permanent to its owner's hand — including your own, to rescue it from removal or to replay its enter-the-battlefield effect. 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 fuels recursion, madness and channel abilities, and some cards are worth more there than in hand. Faithless Looting, Boseiju, Who Endures · 1,224 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 · 339 cards

Self-Sacrifice

Sacrifices itself as part of its own ability, trading the permanent away for what it does. Evolving Wilds, Mind Stone · 1,424 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 and are not legal in Commander games.

Spell Copying

Copies a spell or an ability. The copy is created straight onto the stack instead of being cast, so it normally costs nothing extra and most counterspells cannot touch it. Reverberate, Storm-Kiln Artist · 223 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 · 46 cards

Spellslinger

Rewards you for casting instants and sorceries, usually triggering each time you cast one. Storm-Kiln Artist, Guttersnipe · 316 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 · 201 cards

Stack Interaction

When someone casts a spell it does not happen straight away — it waits on the stack while every player gets priority, a chance to respond. These cards use that window: countering the spell so it never resolves, changing what it targets, or copying it. Counterspell, Negate · 705 cards

Stat Scaling

Has power and toughness that count something — lands you control, cards in your graveyard, creatures on the battlefield — so the creature grows as the game goes on. Craterhoof Behemoth, Psychosis Crawler · 839 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 · 2,228 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. Powerful and often unwelcome; check what the table is expecting first. · 959 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 — destroying, exiling or bouncing it. The precise answer to one problem, as opposed to a board wipe that hits everything. Swords to Plowshares, Beast Within · 3,439 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 · 55 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 · 96 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 · 415 cards

Token

A marker used to represent any permanent that isn’t represented by a card.

Token Doubler

Creates extra copies whenever you would make tokens — one trigger becomes two creatures, two Treasures, and so on. Doubling Season, Anointed Procession · 22 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 · 1,962 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 our largest mechanical tag, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind. · 3,628 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 · 116 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 · 21 cards

Transform / Meld

Turns a double-faced card to its other face — the same permanent stays on the battlefield, now with the back face's name, cost and abilities. Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration. Meld is the rare cousin: two specific cards exile together and return as a single oversized permanent. 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. · 350 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 · 216 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 · 52 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 · 527 cards

Tutor - Broad

Finds any card of a broad type: creature, artifact, enchantment, instant or sorcery. Mystical Tutor, Worldly Tutor, Enlightened Tutor. · 87 cards

Tutor - Narrow

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. · 322 cards

Tutor - Unrestricted

Finds any card in your library with no type restriction — the strongest form of consistency. Demonic Tutor, Vampiric Tutor, Imperial Seal. · 118 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. · 1,038 cards

Typal/Kindred

A card type (formerly "tribal") for noncreature cards that still carry a creature type — a Kindred instant is genuinely a Goblin card, so it counts for anything that cares about Goblins even though it is not a creature. In deckbuilding, "typal" also names the strategy of building around one creature type. Vengevine · 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

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 · 774 cards

Upkeep Cost

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

Value Creature

A creature that does two jobs at once: when it arrives it deals with something of your opponent's, and then it stays behind as a real threat. Its enters the battlefield (ETB) ability destroys, damages, counters or bounces something, and its body is worth attacking with — power (the first number in the bottom corner, the damage it deals in combat) of 3 or more, 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 · 420 cards

Vanilla

A creature with no abilities at all — just a name, a cost, and a power/toughness box. Grizzly Bears · 758 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 · 262 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 · 199 cards

Voting / Politics

Cards that hand a decision to the whole table — every player votes and the result binds everyone, which turns the vote itself into a bargaining chip. 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. · 70 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 · 20 cards