For sealed deck or draft play, only forty cards are required in a deck, and a player may use as many duplicates of a card as he or she has. Each player still needs small items to represent any tokens and counters, and some way to clearly track life totals. See rule 100.3.
If you’re required to search a zone not revealed to all players for cards of a given quality, such as type or color, you aren’t required to find some or all of those cards even if they’re present; however, if you do choose to find cards, you must reveal those cards to all players. Even if you don’t find any cards, you are still considered to have searched the zone.
If you’re simply searching for a quantity of cards, such as “a card” or “three cards,” you must find that many cards (or as many as possible). These cards often aren’t revealed.
To set aside a card is to remove it from the game; however, the effect will specify some condition that allows the set-aside card to return to the game. See also Removed from the Game.
Shadow is an evasion ability. Attacking creatures with shadow can’t be blocked by creatures without shadow, and attacking creatures without shadow can’t be blocked by creatures with shadow. See rule 502.8, “Shadow.”
The Two-Headed Giant multiplayer variant uses a shared life total. Each two-player team’s life total starts at 40, and the team loses if its life total reaches 0. Damage, loss of life, and gaining life happens to each player individually. The result is applied to the team’s shared life total. If an effect needs to know the value of any individual player’s life total, that effect uses the team’s life total divided by the number of players on the team (rounded up) instead. See rule 606, “Two-Headed Giant Variant.”
Replacement and prevention effects act like “shields” around whatever they’re affecting. See rule 419, “Replacement and Prevention Effects.”
To shuffle a deck, library, or pile is to make the order of that deck, library, or pile random. After a player shuffles a deck, library, or pile he or she owns, each opponent has the option to shuffle or cut that pile. See rule 101.1.
To skip an event, step, phase, or turn is to proceed past it as though it didn’t exist. Skipping an event, step, phase, or turn is a replacement effect. “Skip [something]” is the same as “Instead of doing [something], do nothing.” See rule 300.9 and rule 419.6e.
Once a step, phase, or turn has started, it can no longer be skipped-any skip effects will wait until the next occurrence.
Anything scheduled for a skipped step, phase, or turn won’t happen. Anything scheduled for the “next” occurrence of something waits for the first occurrence that isn’t skipped. If two effects each cause a player to skip his or her next occurrence, that player must skip the next two; one effect will be satisfied in skipping the first occurrence, while the other will remain until another occurrence can be skipped. See rule 419.6f.
Snow is a supertype. When a card refers to a “snow permanent,” it means a permanent with the snow supertype. When a card refers to a “snow Forest,” it means a Forest with the snow supertype, and so on. Some older cards were printed with the term “snow-covered” in their rules text. Except for card names, all instances of “snow-covered” are now “snow.” See rule 205.4e.
Snow landwalk is a special form of landwalk. A creature with snow landwalk is unblockable as long as the defending player controls at least one snow land of the specified subtype. See rule 502.6, “Landwalk,” and rule 205.4e.
The snow mana symbol {S} represents a cost that can be paid with one mana produced by a snow permanent. This is a generic mana cost that can be paid with any color or, or colorless, mana. Effects that reduce the amount of generic mana you pay don’t affect {S} costs.
Some older cards were printed with the term “snow-covered” in their rules text. Except for card names, all instances of “snow-covered” are now “snow.”
Sorcery is a type. The active player may play sorceries during his or her main phase when the stack is empty. A sorcery spell is put into its owner’s graveyard as part of its resolution. See rule 212.7, “Sorceries.”
Sorcery subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash: “Sorcery – Arcane.” Sorcery subtypes are also called sorcery types. A sorcery subtype that’s also an instant subtype is also called a spell type.
The list of sorcery types, updated through the
