The small icon normally printed below the right edge of the illustration on a Magic card is the expansion symbol. It indicates the set in which the card was published. Cards reprinted in a core set or another expansion receive its expansion symbol. Spells and abilities that affect cards from a particular expansion only affect cards with that set’s expansion symbol. The first five editions of the core set had no expansion symbol. See rule 206, “Expansion Symbol. Visit the products section of
Players may include cards from any printing in their constructed decks if those cards appear in sets allowed in that format (or allowed by the Magic Floor Rules). See the Magic Floor Rules for the current definitions of the constructed formats (
Some spells and abilities can give a player extra turns. They do this by adding the turns directly after the current turn. If a player gets multiple extra turns or if multiple players get extra turns during a single turn, the extra turns are added one at a time. The most recently created turn will be taken first. See rule 300.6.
The Grand Melee multiplayer variant has a special rule to handle when extra turns are taken: If a player would take an extra turn after the current turn and it’s not currently that player’s turn, that player instead takes the extra turn immediately before his or her next turn. See rule 608, “Grand Melee Variant.”
Face-down spells on the stack, face-down permanents in play, and face-down cards in the phased-out zone have no characteristics other than those listed by the ability or rules that allowed the card, spell, or permanent to be turned face down. Any listed characteristics are the copiable values of that object’s characteristics.
At any time, you may look at a face-down spell you control on the stack, a face-down permanent you control, or a face-down card in the phased-out zone you controlled when it phased out. You can’t look at face-down cards in any other zone, face-down spells or permanents controlled by another player, or face-down cards in the phased-out zone last controlled by another player.
The ability or rules that allowed a permanent to be turned face down may also allow the permanent’s controller to turn it face up. Spells normally can’t be turned face up.
If you control multiple face-down spells on the stack or face-down permanents in play, you must ensure at all times that your face-down spells and permanents can be easily differentiated from each other.
See rule 504, “Face-Down Spells and Permanents,” and rule 502.26, “Morph.”
Fading is a keyword ability that represents two abilities. “Fading N” means “This permanent comes into play with N fade counters on it” and “At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a fade counter from this permanent. If you can’t, sacrifice the permanent.” See rule 502.20, “Fading.”
Fear is an evasion ability. A creature with fear can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures. See rule 502.25, “Fear.”
First strike is a static ability that modifies the rules for the combat damage step. At the start of the combat damage step, if at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike (see rule 502.28), creatures without first strike or double strike don’t assign combat damage. Instead of proceeding to end of combat, the phase gets a second combat damage step to handle the remaining creatures. See rule 502.2, “First Strike.”
The term “fizzle” is an informal term, used when a spell or ability was countered as a result of all its targets being missing or illegal when it resolved. See rule 413.2a.
Flanking is a triggered ability that triggers during the declare blockers step of the combat phase. “Flanking” means “Whenever this creature becomes blocked by a creature without flanking, the blocking creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.” See rule 502.3, “Flanking.”
Flash
Flash is a static ability that functions in any zone from which you could play the card it’s on. “Flash” means “You may play this card any time you could play an instant.” See rule 502.57, “Flash.”
Flashback appears on some instants and sorceries. It represents two static abilities: one functions while the card is in a player’s graveyard and the other functions while the card is on the stack. “Flashback [cost]” means “You may play this card from your graveyard by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost” and “If the flashback cost was paid, remove this card from the game instead of putting it anywhere else any time it would leave the stack.” Playing a spell using its flashback ability follows the rules for paying alternative costs in rules 409.1b and 409.1f-h. See rule 502.22, “Flashback.”
This is text in italics (but not in parentheses) in the text box of a card. It provides a mood or gives interesting background detail for the game world but has no effect on play. See rule 207.2.
To flip a coin for an object that cares whether a player wins or loses the flip, the affected player flips the coin and calls “heads” or “tails.” If the call matches the result, that player wins the flip. Otherwise, the player loses the flip. Only the player who flips the coin wins or loses the flip; no other players are involved.
To flip a coin for an object that cares whether the coin comes up heads or tails, each affected player flips a coin without making a call. No player wins or loses this kind of flip.
If the coin that’s being flipped doesn’t have an obvious “heads” or “tails,” designate one side to be “heads,” and the other side to be “tails.” Other methods of randomization may be substituted for flipping a coin as long as there are two possible outcomes of equal likelihood and all players agree to the substitution.
