Zones

Jaded Analyst card art

Today I wrap up the month looking at zones. 

From the official rules, 

400.1. A zone is a place where objects can be during a game. There are normally seven zones: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, stack, exile, and command. Some older cards also use the ante zone. Each player has their own library, hand, and graveyard. The other zones are shared by all players.

I'll ignore the ante zone, as that has long been obsolete.

Zones can be public or private (see 400.2). Some cards can move between zones, but some cannot (see 400.4). "An object that moves from one zone to another becomes a new object with no memory of, or relation to, its previous existence." [with some exceptions; see 400.7] *note: this is an important concept in blink decks.

Most zones are intuitive:

- library: your face-down deck from which you draw cards. "When a game begins, each player’s deck becomes their library."

- hand: "where a player holds cards that have been drawn."

- battlefield: where all permanents exist once they are successfully cast

- graveyard: where cards go after being cast (instant, sorcery), destroyed (land, creature, artifact, enchantment, etc.), or discarded/milled (any card type).

- stack: where spells go before they resolve. I covered that in a separate post

- exile: "essentially a holding area for objects. Some spells and abilities exile an object without any way to return that object to another zone. Other spells and abilities exile an object only temporarily."

- command: "a game area reserved for certain specialized objects that have an overarching effect on the game, yet are not permanents and cannot be destroyed."

Let's take a closer look at the command zone, focusing on the Commander format.

903.6. At the start of the game, each player puts their commander from their deck face up into the command zone. 

903.8. A player may cast a commander they own from the command zone. A commander cast from the command zone costs an additional {2} for each previous time the player casting it has cast it from the command zone that game. This additional cost is informally known as the “commander tax.” 

903.9. A commander may return to the command zone during a Commander game. 

That last line is important. Uniquely, a commander can come out of the graveyard, exile, hand, or library to go back into the command zone:

903.9a If a commander is in a graveyard or in exile and that object was put into that zone since the last time state-based actions were checked, its owner may put it into the command zone. This is a state-based action. See rule 704. 

903.9b If a commander would be put into its owner’s hand or library from anywhere, its owner may put it into the command zone instead. This replacement effect may apply more than once to the same event. This is an exception to rule 614.5. 

Zones are intuitive outside of some moving between zone and commander nuances.

Evergreen Actions

Fblthp, Lost on the Range card art

Continuing the series, today I look at evergreen actions (I would say "terminology"). I will use MTG Wiki's list.

An action is something the game instructs you to do. Per MTG Wiki, there are 18 evergreen actions, 13 of which have been used since Alpha (the first set) but only 8 of which have been keyworded since Alpha. These terms are covered in glossary of the official rules and assume you know the zones of the game (which I mention here). Below, quotes from said rules are in italics.

- Activate (To put an activated ability onto the stack and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect.)

- Attach (To take an Aura, Equipment, or Fortification from where it currently is and put it onto a specified object or player.)

- Cast (To take a card from where it is (usually the hand), put it on the stack, and pay its costs, so that it will eventually resolve and have its effect)

- Counter (1. To cancel a spell or ability so it doesn’t resolve and none of its effects occur 2. A marker placed on an object or player that modifies its characteristics or interacts with a rule or ability.)

- Create (To create a token is to put a token onto the battlefield.)

- Destroy (To move a permanent from the battlefield to its owner’s graveyard)

- Discard (To move a card from its owner’s hand to that player’s graveyard)

- Exchange (To swap two things, such as objects, sets of objects, or life totals)

- Exile (1. A zone. Exile is essentially a holding area for cards. It used to be known as the “removed-from-the-game” zone. 2. To put an object into the exile zone from whatever zone it’s currently in. An “exiled” card is one that’s been put into the exile zone.)

- Fight (When two creatures fight, each deals damage equal to its power to the other)

- Mill (To mill a number of cards, a player puts that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard)

- Play (To play a card is to play that card as a land or cast that card as a spell, whichever is appropriate)

- Reveal (To show a card to all players for a brief time)

- Sacrifice (To move a permanent you control to its owner’s graveyard)

- Scry (To manipulate some of the cards on top of your library)

- Search (To look at all cards in a stated zone and possibly find a card that matches a given description)

- Shuffle (To randomize the cards in a deck (before a game) or library (during a game))

- Tap/Untap (To turn a permanent sideways from an upright position/To rotate a permanent back to the upright position from a sideways position)

Most Magic players know these terms by heart, and would not explain them during a game unless a novice is playing.

Evergreen Abilities

Akroma has many evergreen abilities

As promised last time, today I look at evergreen abilities (not evergreen actions; perhaps I'll cover those next time). Such abilities are described by keywords. Let's start with some terms.

'Evergreen' is a term not mentioned in the official rules, but refers to something in the game (today, abilities) that is not specific to a set or block. It is now part of the game's basic principles and thus not defined on the card itself.

Ability can mean several things in the game, but today, I'm focused on static abilities. From the rules:

604.1. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. They are written as statements, and they’re simply true.

Keywords: over the years, Magic has 'keyworded' more and more abilities, most of which are static abilities. Keywords helps the veteran and cleans up the cards but can confuse the newcomer. (I look briefly at this idea here.) Some of these keywords appear only in a specific set or block: they are thematic and tied to other aspects of the expansion(s) in question. But other keywords can (and do) appear across all types of Magic releases, be they core sets, expansions, special releases, and so on. Such keywords are evergreen.

Keywords specific to a set or block are generally defined in italics on the card itself, but evergreen keywords are usually not. Consider Bridled Bighorn:

This creature has one evergreen keyword (Vigilance), presented without explanation on the card. Players are expected to know it, because it has appeared for years in various Magic products. It has an activated ability (the next paragraph), and, finally, a set-specific keyword (Saddle). That one is explained with text in italics.

Some Magic cards define evergreen keywords (generally those core sets), but not most. And sometimes, one evergreen keyword on a card will be defined, but another won't. Griffin Sentinel, below, does not define Flying but does define Vigilance. When you see such things, it generally indicates the 'age' of the keyword: older ones (Flying, here, which has had a keyword since 1993) are less likely to be defined on the card, whereas newer ones (Vigilance, here, which got a keyword in 2004) might.

To date, there are 16 evergreen keywords that are abilities on creatures, most of which are covered in section 702 of the official rules. Below, quotes from said rules are in italics.

- Deathtouch (Any nonzero amount of combat damage assigned to a creature by a source with deathtouch is considered to be lethal damage)

- Defender (A creature with defender can’t attack.)

- Double strike (this creature assigns combat damage twice; see next entry )

- First strike (modifies the rules for the combat damage step; If at least one attacking or blocking creature has first strike or double strike as the combat damage step begins, the only creatures that assign combat damage in that step are those with first strike or double strike.)

- Flash (means “You may play this card any time you could cast an instant.”)

- Flying (A creature with flying can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach.)

- Haste (If a creature has haste, it can attack even if it hasn’t been controlled by its controller continuously since their most recent turn began.)

- Hexproof (means “This permanent can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.”)

- Indestructible (A permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed.)

- Lifelink (Damage dealt by a source with lifelink causes that source’s controller . . . to gain that much life)

- Menace (A creature with menace can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

- Protection [from ____] (A permanent or player with protection [from ____] can’t be targeted by spells with the stated quality and can’t be targeted by abilities from a source with the stated quality.)

- Reach (A creature with reach can block creatures with flying.)

- Trample (The controller of an attacking creature with trample first assigns damage to the creature(s) blocking it. Once all those blocking creatures are assigned lethal damage, any excess damage is assigned . . . to the player, planeswalker, or battle the creature is attacking)

- Vigilance (Attacking doesn’t cause creatures with vigilance to tap.)

- Ward [cost] (“Whenever this permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless that player pays [cost].”)

Those interested in learning Magic would do well to commit the definitions of these terms to memory.

Evasion

Lu Meng, Wu General has the horsemanship evasion ability

This month I'll focus on various facets of the rules. Today: evasion abilities.

From the comprehensive rules, an evasion ability is

An ability that restricts what creatures can block an attacking creature.

Evasion abilities can be powerful and game-changing. They are mentioned in the 'declare blockers' section of the rules. After the attacker declares which of his creatures are attacking that turn, the defending player must declare blockers (if any). Part of that process:

509.1b The defending player checks each creature they control to see whether it’s affected by any restrictions (effects that say a creature can’t block, or that it can’t block unless some condition is met) . . . A restriction may be created by an evasion ability (a static ability an attacking creature has that restricts what can block it).

In essence, evasion abilities make it easier for your creatures to do damage.

The official rules mention eight evasion abilities (parentheses enclose official rules text):

- Flying (A creature with flying can’t be blocked except by creatures with flying and/or reach.)

- Intimidate (A creature with intimidate can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)

- Landwalk (A creature with landwalk can’t be blocked as long as the defending player controls at least one land with the specified land type . . .)

- Shadow (A creature with shadow can’t be blocked by creatures without shadow, and a creature without shadow can’t be blocked by creatures with shadow.)

- Horsemanship (A creature with horsemanship can’t be blocked by creatures without horsemanship.)

- Fear (A creature with fear can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures.)

- Menace (A creature with menace can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

- Skulk (A creature with skulk can’t be blocked by creatures with greater power.)

Of these, I would consider only Flying and Menace evergreen keywords (more on that term next time). The others have made their appearances but haven't been seen in standard releases for some time (though they can show up in compilation sets, Commander, and so on).

Evasion is one of those terms that is never listed on cards but you will hear mentioned by players during games or when discussing card/deck features.