MTG keywords and rules explained: loyalty, infect vs toxic, scry vs surveil, crew and Commander

A Magic planeswalker can activate one loyalty ability per turn, during a main phase of your own turn while the stack is empty, and it does not gain loyalty on its own each turn: its counters only change when you pay those loyalty costs, when it is dealt damage, or when an effect says so. That is the most searched rule in this guide, so it comes first. After it come the keywords and rules that cause the most arguments at the table: summoning sickness and Vehicles, infect vs toxic, scry vs surveil, landfall, ward and hexproof, the stack, the mana value of X spells and the Commander-specific rules. Each section is written to make sense on its own.

Everything here was checked against the official Comprehensive Rules effective 25 September 2026. Rule numbers are in brackets so you can look up the exact wording. If the wording printed on your card differs from what you read here, its current Oracle text is what counts (108.1).

Index by topic

Looking for a keyword that doesn't have its own section here? The TradeMatches keyword glossary covers Magic alongside eight other games, each entry with a one-line definition and a link to the full explanation.

Planeswalker loyalty abilities

A planeswalker enters with as many loyalty counters as the number in its lower right corner, and you can activate only one of its loyalty abilities each turn: in a main phase of your own turn, when you have priority and the stack is empty (306.5b, 606.3). Planeswalkers do not gain loyalty every turn. Their counters go up when you pay a plus cost and down when you pay a minus cost or when they are dealt damage.

The plus or minus number is a cost

The signed number before each ability is its activation cost, so you add or remove those counters the moment you activate it (606.4). Your opponent cannot respond before the +1 is added or the −3 removed, and if they counter the ability, the counters have already moved. A minus ability can only be activated if the planeswalker has at least that many counters (606.6): with 3 loyalty you cannot activate a −4.

One per planeswalker, not one per player

The limit is counted per permanent. Two different planeswalkers can each use one ability in the same turn. The rule also says you can't activate one if any player already activated a loyalty ability of that permanent this turn (606.3), so stealing a planeswalker your opponent already used this turn doesn't give you a fresh activation. Noncreature planeswalkers have no summoning sickness: you can use an ability the turn you cast it.

Damage and zero loyalty

Damage dealt to a planeswalker removes that many loyalty counters (306.8, 120.3c). At 0 loyalty it goes to its owner's graveyard as a state-based action (704.5i). Creatures can attack planeswalkers directly (306.6). The old rule that let you redirect noncombat damage from a player to their planeswalker no longer exists (306.7): a spell only damages a planeswalker if it says so or lets you choose "any target".

Worked example

You cast a planeswalker with printed loyalty 4 and abilities +1, −2 and −6. It enters with 4 counters, and you use +1 to go to 5. On your opponent's turn an unblocked 3/3 attacks it, leaving 2. Next turn you can still pay −2: the counters drop to 0, the ability resolves, and the planeswalker is put into the graveyard as soon as state-based actions are checked. The −6 will have to wait for another planeswalker.

If an effect changes loyalty costs, the costs are combined into one (606.5). The rules use Carth the Lion as the example: with an additional [+1] cost, a [−4] ability on a planeswalker with three counters only removes three.

Common loyalty mistakes

• Using two abilities of the same planeswalker in one turn.
• Activating on your opponent's turn or with something on the stack.
• Adding a free counter at the start of the turn. There is no such rule.
• Sending excess damage from a planeswalker to its controller. Only "trample over planeswalkers" does that (702.19c).

The legend rule

If one player controls two or more legendary permanents with exactly the same name, that player chooses one and puts the rest into their owners' graveyards. This is the "legend rule", and it is a state-based action (704.5j). It only looks at what each player controls, so you and your opponent can both have the same legendary creature.

How it works

• Exact name. Two different printings of a character with different names can sit side by side.
• No stack. State-based actions happen before anyone gets priority (704.3), so nobody gets a window between the second copy arriving and the choice.
• Not destroy, not sacrifice. The extra copy is simply put into the graveyard, so indestructible doesn't save it. It does go from the battlefield to the graveyard, so it "dies" (700.4) and death triggers fire.
• Tokens and copies. A token copying a legendary permanent copies its name and supertype (707.2), so the rule applies.
• Planeswalkers. The old planeswalker uniqueness rule is gone. Older planeswalkers got errata to be legendary and follow the legend rule like anything else (306.4).

Example

You have a legendary creature with a +1/+1 counter and cast a second copy to get its enters trigger again. The new one enters and its ability triggers. Before that trigger goes on the stack, state-based actions are checked and you pick which copy stays. Whichever you keep, the trigger still resolves, because an ability exists independently of its source (113.7a). The legend rule only applies on the battlefield. It doesn't limit how many copies you put in a deck, though singleton formats such as Commander do.

Summoning sickness: what it stops and what it doesn't

A creature can't attack or activate abilities with the tap ({T}) or untap ({Q}) symbol in their cost unless you have controlled it continuously since your most recent turn began. That is rule 302.6, informally called the "summoning sickness" rule. Haste removes both restrictions (702.10). Nothing else changes: the creature can block and can use its other abilities.

What a creature that just arrived can do

• Block. Blocking only requires an untapped creature (509.1a).
• Use abilities without {T} or {Q}. A "{2}: gets +1/+1" works right away.
• Help pay for crew or convoke. Tapping a creature to pay another object's cost isn't activating that creature's {T} ability, so a new creature can crew a Vehicle (702.122a) or convoke a spell (702.51a).

Control matters, not how long the card has been around

The rule tracks how long you have controlled the permanent, not how long it has been a creature. If you gain control of an opponent's creature this turn, it can't attack without haste. If something you controlled when the turn began becomes a creature, such as a crewed Vehicle or an animated land, it can attack. The reverse also holds: a land you played this turn and then animate is a creature under 302.6, so while it is a creature it can't attack or tap for mana, because that mana ability has {T} in its cost.

Table check

1. Is it a creature right now? If not, 302.6 doesn't apply.
2. Have you controlled it since your turn began? If yes, it's free to act.
3. If not, does it have haste? With haste it can attack and use {T}. Without it, it can still block and use abilities that don't have {T} or {Q}.

To place this rule within the turn: the clock starts when your turn starts, with the untap step, and the restriction bites in the declare attackers step of the combat phase. The diagram shows the full order of phases and steps set by rules 500 to 514.

Vehicles and crew: summoning sickness, tapped Vehicles and blocking

A Vehicle you have controlled since the start of your turn can attack as soon as you crew it, even if the creatures crewing it just came in; a Vehicle that entered this turn can't attack even when crewed, because once it becomes a creature rule 302.6 applies to it. So yes, Vehicles do have summoning sickness, and it's the Vehicle that has it, not the creatures crewing it.

What crew means

Crew N means "Tap any number of other untapped creatures you control with total power N or greater: This permanent becomes an artifact creature until end of turn" (702.122a). It is an activated ability, so it uses the stack and can be activated any time you have priority (117.1b), including on your opponent's turn. Until it's crewed, a Vehicle is a noncreature artifact and its printed power and toughness don't apply (301.7a–b). It can't crew itself, because the cost asks for "other" creatures.

Can you crew a tapped Vehicle?

Yes. The cost taps the crew, not the Vehicle, so you can activate crew on a tapped Vehicle. But a tapped Vehicle can't attack (508.1a) or block (509.1a), because both need an untapped creature. Crewing a tapped Vehicle is still useful when you just need it to be a creature or when it has a "whenever this Vehicle becomes crewed" trigger (702.122e).

Crewing to block

To block with a Vehicle, crew it on your opponent's turn before the declare blockers step, for example in the declare attackers step once you've seen what is attacking. Crew it during their main phase instead and they will know about the extra blocker before they decide how to attack.

Common Vehicle mistakes

• Treating the crew as if they climbed inside. They stay on the battlefield, tapped, and can be targeted as usual.
• Counting the number of creatures instead of their total power.
• Forgetting the effect lasts until end of turn. Next turn you crew again.

Infect vs toxic: how each gives poison

Infect replaces damage: players get poison counters instead of losing life, and creatures get −1/−1 counters. Toxic N adds N poison counters when the creature deals combat damage to a player, and that damage still causes normal life loss (702.90, 702.164). A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game (704.5c).

The same 3/3 with each keyword

An unblocked 3/3 with infect gives 3 poison counters and no life is lost. An unblocked 3/3 with toxic 1 deals 3 damage, so the player loses 3 life, and also gets 1 poison counter. If that creature also picks up toxic 2 from another effect, its total toxic value is 3 (702.164b). If the infect creature fights a 2/4, the 2/4 gets three −1/−1 counters and becomes a 0/1, and those counters stay after the turn ends. Normal damage, by contrast, wears off in the cleanup step (514.2).

Edge cases people ask about

• Planeswalkers. Damage to a planeswalker removes loyalty even from an infect source (120.3c).
• Lifelink. An infect creature with lifelink still gains its controller life, because damage was dealt (120.3f).
• Prevented damage gives no poison. Neither keyword works without damage.
• Zero power. A toxic creature with 0 power assigns no combat damage (510.1a), so no poison.
• Proliferate adds a poison counter to each chosen player who already has one (701.34a).
• Commander still uses ten poison counters. Only Two-Headed Giant changes it, to fifteen per team (704.6b).

Ward, hexproof and protection

Hexproof stops your opponents' spells and abilities from targeting the permanent at all; ward lets them target it, then triggers and counters that spell or ability unless its controller pays the ward cost (702.11b, 702.21a). Protection from a quality goes further: it blocks targeting, Auras, Equipment, blocks and damage from sources with that quality (702.16).

What ward does in practice

Your opponent casts a spell targeting your creature with ward {2}. The spell is cast normally, all costs paid. Then ward triggers and goes on the stack above it. When ward resolves, your opponent chooses whether to pay {2}; if they don't, their spell is countered and the mana they spent is gone. Ward costs aren't always mana, and some cards have ward that asks for a discard. If the cost includes X, X is worked out when ward resolves, not when it triggers (702.21b). Ward only watches opponents, so your own spells never trigger it.

Common mistakes

• Paying ward as an extra cost while casting. It's paid later, when the trigger resolves.
• Thinking hexproof stops "destroy all creatures". That effect doesn't target (115.10a).
• Reading protection from red backwards. It means red creatures can't block the protected creature (702.16f).
• Forgetting that a trampler still has to assign lethal damage to a protected blocker, even though that damage will be prevented (702.19b).

Trample: how much damage goes through

A blocked attacker with trample must assign lethal damage to all its blockers, and can assign the rest to the player, planeswalker or battle it's attacking (702.19b). When working out lethal damage, count damage already marked on each blocker and damage other creatures are assigning in the same step, but ignore effects that would later prevent or change the damage.

Assignment examples

• A 6/6 trampler blocked by a 2/2: 2 to the blocker, 4 to the player. You may put more on the blocker if you want.
• The same 6/6 blocked by a 2/2 and a 3/3 that already has 1 damage marked: lethal is 2 + 2, so 2 tramples over.
• With deathtouch, 1 damage is lethal (702.2c). A 6/6 with trample and deathtouch blocked by two creatures can put 1 on each and 4 on the player.
• A blocker with protection from the attacker's color still needs lethal assigned to it, even though it will be prevented (the rules' own example in 702.19b).
• If the attacker was blocked but no blockers remain when damage is assigned, all of it goes to the player or planeswalker (702.19d). Without trample it would deal no damage (510.1c).

Trample and planeswalkers

If the trampler attacks a planeswalker, the excess goes to that planeswalker, not its controller. Only "trample over planeswalkers" lets damage beyond the planeswalker's loyalty reach the player (702.19c, 702.19f). Trample does nothing when the creature blocks or deals noncombat damage (702.19a). The current rules no longer use a damage assignment order among blockers: the attacker divides damage among them as it likes (510.1c).

First strike and double strike

If any attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike as the combat damage step begins, there are two damage steps: only those creatures deal damage in the first, and everyone else, plus double strikers again, deals damage in the second (510.4). An unblocked double striker deals its damage twice.

What that changes

• A 3/3 first striker blocked by a plain 3/3 kills it in the first step and takes nothing, because the blocker is gone by the second.
• An unblocked 2/2 with double strike and lifelink deals 2 and 2: the opponent loses 4 and its controller gains 4, in two separate events.
• Players get priority between the two steps, so you can cast an instant after the first hit.
• Killing the blocker in the first step doesn't unblock the attacker (509.1h). Without trample, its second hit goes nowhere.

If the creature also has trample, that second hit does find a target. The diagram splits the damage in a typical case, a double striker with trample against a smaller blocker:

Gaining or losing it mid-combat

Giving first strike to a creature after the first step doesn't stop it dealing damage in the second. Removing it from a creature that already hit doesn't let it hit again (702.7c). Removing double strike during the first step stops the second hit, and giving double strike to a first striker that already hit lets it hit again (702.4c–d).

Deathtouch and indestructible

An indestructible creature survives damage from a deathtouch source: deathtouch makes the creature be destroyed as a state-based action, and indestructible means it can't be destroyed (702.2b, 702.12b). To get rid of it you need something else: exile, a sacrifice, bouncing it, or reducing its toughness to 0.

What each one does

Deathtouch is a static ability. Any amount of damage from a deathtouch source destroys a creature with toughness above 0, from any zone, so it also applies when a spell or ability of that source deals the damage (702.2d). In combat, 1 point counts as lethal for dividing damage (702.2c). Indestructible stops destruction both by "destroy" and by lethal damage (701.8b). The creature keeps its marked damage until cleanup.

What does remove an indestructible creature

• Toughness 0 or less. It goes to the graveyard under state-based action 704.5f, which isn't destruction. A −3/−3 removes an indestructible 3/3.
• −1/−1 counters, such as those from infect.
• Sacrifice and exile, which aren't destroying (701.21a).
• The legend rule, which puts it into the graveyard without destroying it.

Deathtouch plus trample

With both, an attacker only needs 1 damage on each blocker to push the rest through. An indestructible blocker survives that point, but trample only asks for lethal damage to be assigned, and with deathtouch 1 is lethal.

Sacrifice vs destroy

Destroying moves a permanent from the battlefield to the graveyard and can be stopped by indestructible or regeneration; sacrificing is its controller moving it straight to the graveyard, and neither indestructible nor regeneration stops that (701.8a, 701.21a). Either way, a creature that goes to the graveyard "dies" (700.4).

Four checks

1. Which verb does the text use? Only "destroy", lethal damage and deathtouch destroy (701.8b).
2. Who chooses? With "each player sacrifices a creature", each player picks among their own, and since nothing is targeted, hexproof doesn't help.
3. Cost or effect? A sacrifice that's part of a cost is paid while casting or activating, before anyone can respond (601.2h). A sacrifice in the effect happens on resolution.
4. Control and ownership. You can only sacrifice what you control (701.21a). A stolen creature you sacrifice goes to its owner's graveyard.

Equipment vs Aura

Equipment is cast as an artifact, enters unattached and attaches with its equip ability, which you can only activate at sorcery speed targeting a creature you control; an Aura is cast targeting whatever its enchant ability allows and enters already attached (301.5b, 702.6a, 303.4a). If the creature leaves the battlefield, the Equipment stays on the battlefield unattached (704.5n) and the Aura goes to the graveyard (704.5m).

Equipping a creature that just arrived gives it the bonuses but doesn't cure its summoning sickness. If an opponent takes control of your equipped creature, the Equipment is still yours even while attached to it, and you can move it by equipping a creature you control.

Layers: working out power and toughness

Power and toughness are calculated in layer 7 in this order: characteristic-defining abilities (7a), effects that set a value (7b), effects and counters that add or subtract (7c), and effects that switch power and toughness (7d) (613.4). Inside each sublayer, effects apply in timestamp order (613.7), unless a dependency changes it (613.8).

The seven layers in one line each

1. Copy effects (613.1a).
2. Control-changing effects.
3. Text-changing effects.
4. Type-changing effects.
5. Color-changing effects.
6. Ability-adding and ability-removing effects, plus keyword counters.
7. Power and toughness, in sublayers 7a to 7d.

That order explains results that seem odd. If a creature loses all abilities in layer 6, an ability of its own that defined its power no longer applies in 7a.

Worked example

You have a 2/2 with a +1/+1 counter, so a 3/3. An opponent's effect gives it "base power and toughness 0/1". Setting goes in 7b and the counter in 7c, so it's 1/2; the counter isn't wiped out. Then an effect switches its power and toughness: 7d, so 2/1. If it then gets +2/+0 until end of turn, that effect also goes in 7c, before the switch. The unswitched value becomes 3/2, and once switched it's 2/3. The rules show the same mechanism in their examples under 613.4d.

Token vs copy

A token is an object representing a permanent that isn't a card, and it stops existing if it leaves the battlefield; a copy takes the copiable values of another object, and can be a token, a card entering as a copy, or a copy of a spell on the stack (111.1, 111.7, 707.2). They aren't the same thing: some tokens copy nothing, and some copies aren't tokens.

What gets copied

Name, mana cost, color indicator, types, rules text and printed power and toughness are copied, as modified by other copy effects (707.2). Counters, status such as tapped, attached Auras and non-copy effects are not. A token created with its own characteristics, such as a 1/1 Soldier, has no mana cost or anything the effect didn't give it (111.3).

Copies of spells

Copying a spell puts a copy on the stack with the same choices, including X and modes. A copy isn't cast (707.10), so "whenever you cast" triggers don't fire. A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token when it resolves (707.10f).

Five quick cases

• "Create a Treasure token": a token, not a copy (111.10a).
• A creature card entering as a copy of another creature: a copy, not a token. It's a card, so it doesn't vanish when it dies.
• "Create a token that's a copy of": both.
• A token bounced to hand: it stops existing (704.5d).
• A token isn't a card (108.2b), so it doesn't count for effects that mention cards.

Phasing vs blink

A permanent that phases out is treated as though it doesn't exist, but it never changes zones: it keeps its counters, Auras and Equipment, and no enters or leaves triggers fire (702.26b, 702.26d); a blink exiles it and returns it, so it comes back as a new object with no memory of its past (400.7). "Blink" is a player term; the rules just talk about exiling and returning.

Both can dodge removal, in different ways. A phased-out permanent isn't affected by "destroy all creatures" (the example in 702.26b) and is removed from combat (506.4). A blink in response also dodges removal and repeats enters abilities, at the cost of counters and Auras.

Mutate: which card goes on top

When you cast a creature for its mutate cost, it targets a non-Human creature you own; when it resolves, it merges with that creature, and the result has the characteristics of the top card plus the abilities of every card in the pile (702.140a, 702.140c, 702.140e).

• You choose top or bottom as it resolves (702.140c).
• It's not a new permanent. The merged permanent is the same object as before and isn't treated as having just entered (730.2b–c). If the creature underneath could already attack, the mutated one can too; if it had summoning sickness, it still does. The mutating card's enters abilities don't fire, which is why mutate cards say "whenever this creature mutates".
• Illegal target. If the target is gone when it resolves, the spell stops mutating and enters as a normal creature (702.140b).
• Counters, damage and Auras stay on the permanent.
• Leaving the battlefield. One permanent leaves and each card goes to the right zone (730.3). A token in the pile stops existing.

Ninjutsu and sneak

Ninjutsu is an activated ability from your hand: pay its cost, reveal the card and return an unblocked attacker you control to hand, and the card enters tapped and attacking (702.49a); sneak is an alternative cost to cast a spell during your declare blockers step by returning an unblocked creature (702.190a). The key difference is that ninjutsu doesn't cast the card and sneak does.

Either way the new creature is attacking without having been declared as an attacker, so "whenever this attacks" doesn't trigger (508.4). Returning the creature is part of the cost and is paid on activation or casting, so nobody can respond to stop it. Commander ninjutsu also works from the command zone (702.49d), and since the card isn't cast, it doesn't increase commander tax.

Manifest and cloak

Manifest puts a card onto the battlefield face down as a colorless 2/2 creature with no name or abilities; cloak does the same, but the face-down creature also has ward {2} (701.40a, 701.58a). If the card is a creature card, you can turn it face up any time you have priority by paying its mana cost. That is a special action and doesn't use the stack (701.40b, 116.2b).

Worth knowing

• Lands, instants and sorceries stay face down as 2/2s for good, because they aren't creature cards. If something tries to turn them up, they're revealed and stay face down (701.40g).
• Turning it face up isn't entering. Its enters abilities don't trigger, because it was already on the battlefield (708.8). Counters and effects on it keep applying.
• Summoning sickness. Turning it face up doesn't change how long you've controlled it. If you manifested it on your last turn, it can attack.
• Morph and disguise. A manifested card with morph or disguise can also be turned up for that cost (701.40c–d).
• Manifest dread: look at the top two cards, manifest one and put the other into your graveyard (701.62a).
• Information. You may look at your own face-down permanents at any time; opponents can't (708.5). When one leaves the battlefield, its owner must reveal it (708.9).

The stack and priority: how responding works

The stack holds spells and abilities waiting to resolve, and priority decides who can add something; when all players pass in a row, the last thing put on the stack resolves (117.4, 405.5). The player who casts a spell gets priority right afterwards (117.3c), so they can respond to their own spell before the opponent acts.

The loop, step by step

1. The active player gets priority at the start of most steps and after each resolution (117.3a–b).
2. Whoever has priority casts, activates or passes. Passing hands priority to the next player in turn order (117.3d).
3. If everyone passes without doing anything in between, the top object resolves. With an empty stack, the step or phase ends (117.4).
4. After each resolution the active player gets priority again and the loop restarts.

What doesn't use the stack

Mana abilities (405.6c), special actions such as playing a land or turning a manifested creature face up (405.6d), state-based actions (405.6f), static abilities (405.6b) and turn-based actions like the draw in the draw step (405.6e). None of these can be responded to.

A three-object example

You cast a damage spell at an opponent's creature. They respond with a spell giving it +0/+3. You respond with a second damage spell. From bottom to top: your first spell, their pump, your second spell. Your second spell resolves first, then their pump, then your first spell against a tougher creature. Targets and costs are locked in when each spell is cast (601.2c–h), not on resolution. If all of a spell's targets are illegal when it tries to resolve, it doesn't resolve (608.2b).

Here is the same example as a diagram: on the left, how the stack looks; on the right, the priority loop that decides when each object resolves. The loop restarts after every resolution, so anyone can respond again between one object and the next.

Common mistakes

• Confusing passing priority with passing the turn.
• Trying to act in the middle of a resolution. Nobody has priority while something resolves (117.2e).
• Thinking that removing a source cancels an ability already on the stack. It exists independently of its source (113.7a).

Scry vs surveil

Scry N means look at the top N cards of your library, put any number on the bottom and the rest back on top in any order; surveil N is the same, except the cards you don't keep go to your graveyard instead of the bottom (701.22a, 701.25a). Neither one draws a card.

Details that change decisions

• Looking isn't revealing. Your opponent doesn't see the cards, though they see how many went to the bottom or the graveyard.
• "Whenever you scry" or "whenever you surveil" triggers happen after you've finished placing the cards (701.22d, 701.25d).
• Order relative to drawing matters: "Surveil 1, then draw a card" lets you see the card before drawing it, while "Draw a card, then scry 2" sets up the next ones.
• With fewer cards in your library than N, you look at what's there.

Landfall: is it a triggered ability?

Yes. Landfall is an ability word with no rules meaning of its own, and the abilities it labels are triggered abilities that trigger each time a land enters the battlefield under your control (207.2c). Because they are triggered abilities, they use the stack and your opponent can respond to them (113.3c).

What counts as a land entering

• Playing your land for the turn and putting a land onto the battlefield with a spell or ability count the same. What matters is that it enters under your control.
• A land that enters tapped still counts.
• Your opponent's lands don't trigger your landfall.
• A fetchland triggers landfall twice: once when you play it and once when the land it finds enters.
• Two lands entering at the same time trigger the ability twice (603.2c).

Responding to landfall

If your opponent removes your creature in response to its landfall trigger, the ability still resolves (113.7a), but an effect like "this creature gets +2/+2" has nothing left to pump. When several of your landfall abilities trigger at once, you choose the order they go on the stack (603.3b), and the last one you put there resolves first.

Planning a landfall turn

Cast your landfall creatures first and play the land afterwards, as long as you have the mana. Count two triggers for a fetchland. And if an ability says it triggers only once each turn, the second trigger never arrives (603.2h).

Dungeons and the initiative

Venturing into the dungeon puts a dungeon of your choice into the command zone with your marker on its first room, or moves you to the next room if you're already in one; the initiative is a designation that makes you venture into Undercity when you take it and at the start of each of your upkeeps, and you lose it when another player's creatures deal you combat damage (701.49, 726.2).

How a dungeon works

• Dungeons start outside the game and aren't part of your deck (309.2). You can only have one of yours in the command zone at a time (309.3).
• Each room has a triggered ability that goes on the stack when your marker enters it (309.4c), so it can be responded to.
• Where there are several arrows, you choose the path (701.49b).
• Once your marker is on the last room and that room's ability has left the stack, the dungeon is removed and you complete it (309.6–309.7). The next time you venture, you pick a new one.

Undercity and the initiative

"Venture into Undercity" is a variant: if you're not in a dungeon you enter Undercity, and if you're already in another dungeon you advance in that one (701.49d). The Undercity card itself says you can't enter it unless you venture into Undercity, so a plain "venture into the dungeon" can't pick it. Only one player has the initiative at a time (726.3). If you take the initiative while you already have it, you venture into Undercity again (726.5). Losing the initiative doesn't erase your progress; your marker stays where it is.

A multiplayer example

You take the initiative and venture into Undercity: first room. At your next upkeep you move to the second. An opponent hits you with a creature for 2 combat damage and takes the initiative, venturing into Undercity on their own dungeon card. Your marker is still on the second room. If you deal combat damage to that opponent on your turn, you take it back and advance again. If the player who has it leaves the game, the active player takes it (726.4).

Proliferate: one more of each counter

To proliferate, choose any number of permanents and players that have a counter, then give each one an additional counter of each kind it already has (701.34a). It doesn't double: 3 counters become 4. You can choose whoever you like, including no one, so you can leave out your opponent's planeswalker.

• Under the current rules you can't pick which kind of counter a chosen permanent gets: it gets one of each kind it has. If your creature has a +1/+1 and a −1/−1 counter, leave it out.
• Marked damage isn't a counter (122.1), so proliferate doesn't add to it.
• It works with loyalty, poison, time counters and every other kind. A poisoned player gets more poison.
• Proliferate doesn't target: you choose on resolution, so hexproof doesn't stop you choosing a permanent.

At the table, choose and announce everything before moving any counters, so nothing gets missed.

Oracle text: when your card says something else

You play a Magic card using its current Oracle text, even when your printed copy is worded differently (108.1); Oracle wordings are kept in English in Gatherer, Wizards' official card database. Your card doesn't change edition or value, only the text that governs it in a game.

Why the wording changes

Wizards updates wordings when rules or type names change. Older planeswalkers were given the legendary supertype when the uniqueness rule went away (306.4), and cards that redirected damage to planeswalkers were rewritten (306.7). An old printing, or one in another language, can be worded differently or translated less precisely than the current text.

How to check

1. Search Gatherer for the English card name. If you only know the name in another language, Gatherer's language search can find it.
2. Play with the Oracle text. For buying or trading, though, the exact printing matters: set, language and finish.
3. Format legality is a separate question, answered by the official banned and restricted list.

To answer it without checking several lists, the format legality checker shows a Magic card's status in every format using Scryfall data, which follows Wizards' banned and restricted announcements.

If you trade cards in other languages, the TCG card language and edition guide covers how that affects value and identification.

Mana value of X spells

While a spell with {X} in its mana cost is on the stack, each X counts as the number chosen when it was cast; in every other zone, including the battlefield, X counts as 0 (202.3e). A {X}{R} spell cast with X = 4 has mana value 5 on the stack and 1 in hand, library, graveyard or on the battlefield.

Useful cases

• Two X. A cost of {X}{X}{G} cast with X = 3 has mana value 7 on the stack.
• Cast without paying its mana cost. If cascade or suspend lets you cast it for free, the only legal X is 0 (107.3b).
• Additional costs and reductions don't change mana value. What you pay can differ from it (118.8d, 118.9c).
• Hybrid and Phyrexian. A hybrid symbol counts its larger component and a Phyrexian symbol counts as 1 (202.3f–g).
• A permanent that entered with X has X = 0 as a permanent, although its enters abilities remember the X that was chosen (107.3m).

Before resolving anything that "looks at mana value", ask where the object is right now. A counterspell checking a spell on the stack sees the chosen X. Removal checking a permanent sees X as 0.

Suspend: time counters and casting from exile

Suspend N—[cost] lets you pay that cost to exile the card from your hand with N time counters; at the start of each of your upkeeps you remove one, and when the last one comes off you may cast it without paying its mana cost (702.62a). A creature cast this way has haste. Casting it is optional: if you don't, it stays in exile.

Step by step

1. Suspending is a special action that doesn't use the stack. You can take it whenever you could begin to cast the card (116.2f): a sorcery in your main phase with an empty stack, an instant any time you have priority.
2. At your upkeep the counter-removal ability triggers and goes on the stack.
3. When the last counter is removed, another ability triggers. As it resolves you may cast the card for free. You're casting it during a resolution, so its card type and normal timing don't matter (608.2g).

Limits

• Casting without paying the mana cost is an alternative cost: mandatory additional costs still apply (118.9d) and X can only be 0 (107.3b).
• If you choose not to cast it, it stays exiled with no time counters. It's no longer suspended (702.62b) and you won't get another chance.
• It counts as casting a spell, so cast triggers fire and it can be countered.
• The haste lasts as long as you control the spell or the permanent it becomes.

At the table, put physical counters on the exiled card and call it out every upkeep. That's the step people forget.

Adventure cards and casting from exile

An adventurer card is one card you can cast either as its Adventure spell or as its main half; if the Adventure resolves, the card goes to exile and you can later cast the main half from there, paying its normal costs (715.3, 715.3d).

• When cast as an Adventure, only the Adventure's characteristics count (715.3a–b).
• If the Adventure is countered or fails to resolve, it goes to the graveyard and the permission is lost, because exile only happens on resolution.
• From exile you can't recast it as an Adventure with that permission (715.3d).
• The permission isn't free and doesn't change timing: a creature is still cast in your main phase with an empty stack unless it has flash.
• Everywhere except the stack, the card only has its normal characteristics (715.4). In hand its mana value is the creature's.
• It's one card: drawing or discarding it counts as one (715.2c).
• In Commander, the Adventure's mana symbols count toward color identity (903.4e).

Cascade: what you can cast for free

When you cast a spell with cascade, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with lower mana value than that spell; you may cast it without paying its mana cost if the resulting spell also has lower mana value, and the rest go to the bottom in a random order (702.85a).

• Cascade triggers on cast, so it resolves before the spell that has it. Countering that spell in response doesn't stop the trigger.
• The second check matters for cards with another way to be cast, such as split cards or Adventures: the spell you actually cast must have lower mana value.
• Free doesn't skip mandatory additional costs (118.9d), and X can only be 0 (107.3b).
• If you don't cast the card you hit, it goes to the bottom with the rest.
• Two instances of cascade trigger separately (702.85c).

At the table, keep cascaded cards in their own row so they don't mix with other zones, and shuffle them face down before putting them on the bottom.

Convoke: paying with creatures, even new ones

Convoke lets you tap untapped creatures you control to pay part of a spell's total cost: each one pays for one generic mana or one mana of its color (702.51a). Creatures with summoning sickness can convoke, because you aren't activating their {T} abilities.

• Total cost is worked out first, with increases and reductions, and convoke applies after (702.51b). The rules use Siege Wurm, {5}{G}{G}, with Heartless Summoning making it {2} cheaper: you're left with {3}{G}{G}, payable with two green creatures and three of any color.
• A multicolored creature pays one mana, of one of its colors or generic.
• A mana creature can't do both: it taps for mana or taps for convoke.
• Convoke doesn't change the spell's mana value.
• Creatures you tap on your turn won't be able to block on your opponent's turn.

Delve: paying with your graveyard

Delve lets you exile cards from your graveyard to pay for generic mana in a spell's total cost, one card per generic mana (702.66a). It doesn't pay colored symbols, doesn't lower mana value and doesn't let you cast anything from your graveyard.

Like convoke, it applies after the total cost is set (702.66b). Exile only what you need, because your graveyard may be fuel for flashback, dredge or other effects. And delve isn't flashback: the delve card itself is cast from your hand.

Cycling: an ability, a discard and how to respond

Cycling [cost] is an activated ability that works only while the card is in your hand and means "[Cost], Discard this card: Draw a card" (702.29a). You aren't casting the card. The discard is part of the cost and happens on activation, and the draw comes on resolution.

• A counterspell that hits spells can't counter cycling, because it's an ability. You need something that counters abilities.
• "When you cycle this card" triggers work from wherever the card ends up, usually the graveyard (702.29c).
• "Whenever you cycle or discard" triggers only once per cycle (702.29d).
• Typecycling, such as basic landcycling, doesn't draw: it searches for a card of that type (702.29e). For everything else it counts as cycling (702.29f).

Dredge: replacing a draw

Dredge N works while the card is in your graveyard: if you would draw a card, you may instead mill N cards and return the dredge card to your hand, as long as you have at least N cards in your library (702.52a–b). It isn't an extra draw; it replaces one.

• Each draw is replaced separately. Drawing two, you can dredge the first and draw normally for the second.
• With fewer than N cards in your library, you can't dredge that card.
• Since the draw never happens, "whenever you draw" doesn't trigger (603.2g).
• Returning the card to hand isn't drawing it.

Flashback: casting from the graveyard, then exile

Flashback [cost] lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard by paying that cost instead of its mana cost, and if you did, the card is exiled whenever it leaves the stack, even if it's countered (702.34a).

• Timing doesn't change: a sorcery with flashback is still cast in your main phase with an empty stack.
• It's an alternative cost, so it can't be combined with another alternative cost (118.9a). Additional costs are still paid.
• The card goes straight from graveyard to stack, never back to hand.
• If it's countered, it's exiled: no second try.

Fetchlands and shocklands: how they work together

A fetchland searches for a land card by basic land type, and a shockland has two basic land types without being a basic land, so a fetchland that finds "a Plains or Island card" can find a shockland that's a Plains Island (305.6, 305.8). "Fetchland" and "shockland" are community nicknames, not rules terms.

Basic land type is not the same as basic land

The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest. A land with one of those types has the intrinsic ability to tap for that color even if its text box doesn't say so (305.6). It's only a basic land if it has the basic supertype (305.8). That's why searching for "a basic land card" won't find a shockland while searching by type will.

Paying life twice

The rules quote a shockland, Breeding Pool, which reads in part "As this land enters, you may pay 2 life" (an example under rule 614). If you don't pay, it enters tapped. With a fetchland you pay the life its own ability asks for, then decide separately whether to pay 2 more so the shockland enters untapped. It's worth it when you need that mana this turn.

In Commander and with landfall

A land with basic land types is only legal in a Commander deck if every color of mana it could produce is in your commander's color identity (903.5d). And every time a fetchland finds a land, your landfall abilities trigger twice.

Commander color identity (and Backgrounds)

A card can go in a Commander deck only if every color in its color identity is also in your commander's, and color identity includes mana symbols in the mana cost and the rules text, the color indicator and color-defining abilities (903.4, 903.5c). A Background doesn't have to match your commander's colors: with two commanders, the deck's identity is the combination of both (702.124c).

How to work it out

• Check the cost and the text. A colorless card with "{3}{R}, Sacrifice an artifact: …" in its text has a red identity. The rules use Bosh, Iron Golem as the example (903.4).
• Reminder text doesn't count (903.4c).
• The back face of a double-faced card counts (903.4d), and so does the Adventure half (903.4e).
• Hybrid symbols add both colors. A card with {R/G} doesn't fit a mono-red deck.
• Lands with basic land types also follow rule 903.5d.
• Colorless cards with no colored symbols fit any deck.

A quick exercise

Your commander is red and green. A white card doesn't fit. A green card with a {W} symbol in its text doesn't either, because its identity is green and white. A colorless artifact with no colored symbols fits. Pair your red-green commander with a white Background and the deck becomes red, green and white, so both of those cards now fit. Run this check against the Oracle text before buying or trading for a card for your deck.

Partner, Backgrounds and commander pairs

You can have two commanders only if both meet the same pairing ability: partner, "partner—[text]", "partner with [name]", "choose a Background" or Doctor's companion (702.124a). Different variants can't be mixed (702.124f), and you can never have more than two commanders (702.124g).

During the game

• The deck is 100 cards counting both commanders, and both start in the command zone (702.124b).
• Each has its own commander tax and its own commander damage count (702.124d).
• A Background can't be your commander unless your other commander has "choose a Background" (702.124k).
• "Partner with [name]" also lets a player search for the named card when it enters, which matters when it isn't your commander (702.124j).

Commander tax: how to calculate it

Casting your commander from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time you cast it from the command zone that game (903.8). The formula is normal cost + 2 × previous casts from the command zone. It counts casts, not deaths or trips back to the zone.

What counts and what doesn't

• Casting it from your hand, after a bounce for example, neither pays nor increases the tax.
• Putting it onto the battlefield without casting it, as with commander ninjutsu, doesn't either.
• If an effect lets you cast it from the command zone "without paying its mana cost", you still pay the tax, because cost increases apply to alternative costs (118.9d).
• With two commanders, each keeps its own count (702.124d).
• The tax doesn't change your commander's mana value.

An easy way to track it is a die in the command zone, raised by 2 every time you cast the commander from there.

Graveyard or command zone: where your commander goes

If your commander goes to the graveyard or exile, it gets there first and you can then move it to the command zone as a state-based action; if it would go to your hand or library, you can replace that move and send it straight to the command zone (903.9a, 903.9b). Wizards' official Commander page sums both up in one line: you may return it to the command zone instead of any of those four zones.

Why the difference matters

• Because it reaches the graveyard, your commander does die, and death triggers fire, including its own.
• The graveyard or exile option only exists if it got there since state-based actions were last checked (903.9a). If you leave it in the graveyard, you can't change your mind later.
• The hand or library replacement is decided before the move (903.9b). Choose the command zone and it never reaches your hand.
• The owner decides, even if an opponent controls it at the time.
• Returning to the command zone doesn't increase the tax. Only casting from there does.

Commander damage: the 21-point rule

A player who has been dealt 21 or more combat damage by the same commander over the course of the game loses (903.10a). Keep one count for each "specific commander → player dealt damage" pair. Damage from two different commanders doesn't add up, even when they are one player's partner pair (702.124d).

What counts

• Only combat damage. Damage from your commander's spells or abilities doesn't count toward 21.
• The count follows the commander through zone changes. According to Wizards' Commander page, if another player takes control of your commander, the damage it already dealt still counts.
• With double strike, both hits count.
• It's separate from the 40 starting life (903.7), so you can lose to commander damage with plenty of life left.
• A commander with infect still deals combat damage, even though the result is poison counters, so that damage also goes into the count.

At the table, keep a grid with one row per commander and one column per player, and write the damage down as soon as combat damage is dealt.

Commander mulligan

In a multiplayer game, such as a normal four-player Commander game, each player's first mulligan is free: it doesn't count toward the cards you put on the bottom of your library (103.5c). Later mulligans count as usual. Otherwise it's the normal mulligan: shuffle, draw seven and, once you keep, put one card on the bottom for each mulligan that counts (103.5).

Three-player example

Ana keeps her opening hand. Berta mulligans, draws seven and keeps all seven, because the first one is free. Carlos mulligans twice and puts one card on the bottom of his third seven-card hand. Decisions are declared in turn order starting with the starting player, and mulligans are taken at the same time (103.5).

The free first mulligan is for multiplayer games. A two-player Commander game (903.2) isn't multiplayer, so there the first mulligan counts, unless it's Brawl, which always gets a free one (103.5c).

If you're unsure whether to keep a hand, the opening hand probability calculator tells you how often you'll see a specific card. Pick Magic and change the deck to 99 cards (98 with two commanders), because your commander starts the game in the command zone, not in your library (903.6).

Finding the cards you're missing

If a deck needs a particular Vehicle, a shockland or the right Background for your commander, TradeMatches lets you list the cards you have and the ones you want, see matching collectors near you and talk in your province's chat. To see which Magic cards tend to move most in trades, check the best Magic cards to trade.

FAQ

Do planeswalkers gain loyalty every turn?

No. Loyalty only changes when you pay one of its loyalty costs, when it's dealt damage, or when an effect adds or removes counters, such as proliferate.

Do Vehicles have summoning sickness?

Yes, once they are creatures. One that entered this turn can't attack even if crewed. Creatures that just entered can still crew it, because tapping them is a cost of the Vehicle's ability.

Is landfall a triggered ability?

The abilities it labels are. Landfall itself is just an ability word, while the text after it is a "whenever a land you control enters" trigger that uses the stack.

Do infect and toxic stack?

A creature can have both. Against a player, infect turns its combat damage into poison and toxic adds its value on top, so a 2/2 with infect and toxic 1 gives three poison counters.

Do Backgrounds have to match your commander's colors?

No. The deck's color identity is the combined identity of both commanders, so a Background can add new colors.

What is the mana value of an X spell in your hand?

Its cost with X as 0. Only on the stack does X equal the number chosen when it was cast.

Sources and checks

On 21 October 2026 we checked every rule in this guide against the full text of the Comprehensive Rules effective 25 September 2026, and read Wizards' official Commander format page for the command zone, commander damage and starting life rules.

• Magic: The Gathering official rules (Wizards of the Coast)
• Comprehensive Rules effective 25 September 2026 (TXT)
• Commander format (Wizards of the Coast)