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Magic: Standard Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Parts of a turn

Glossary

completed
A keyword ability that causes a planes­walker to enter the battle­field with fewer loyalty counters if a player chose to pay life for Phyrexian mana symbols in its cost.
counter a spell
If a card counters a spell, you can cast it in response to a spell your opponent is casting. The countered spell has no effect, and it’s put into the graveyard.
crew
A keyword ability that lets you tap creatures to turn a Vehicle into an artifact creature.
deathtouch
A creature dealt damage by a creature with deathtouch is destroyed.
defender
A creature with defender can’t attack.
destroy
A permanent that’s destroyed is put into the graveyard. Creatures that are dealt damage at least equal to their toughness in a single turn are destroyed. Spells and abilities can also destroy perman­ents.
double strike
A creature with double strike deals damage twice each combat: once before creatures without first strike or double strike, and then again when creatures normally deal damage.
equip
If you have an Equipment card on the battle­field, you can pay its equip cost to attach it to one of your creatures on the battle­field. If the equipped creature leaves the battle­field, the Equipment card stays. fight —When two creatures fight, each deals damage equal to its power to the other. This is different from creatures dealing damage in combat.
first strike
A creature with first strike deals its damage in combat before creatures without first strike or double strike.
flash
You may cast a spell with flash any time you could cast an instant, even in response to other spells.
flying
A creature with flying can be blocked only by other creatures with flying and creatures with reach.
haste
A creature with haste can attack and you can activate its abilities as soon as it comes under your control.
hexproof
A creature with hexproof can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control, including Aura spells. Your spells and abilities can still target it.
indest­ruc­tible
An indest­ruc­tible permanent can’t be destroyed by damage or by effects that say “destroy.” It can still be sacrificed or exiled. If an effect reduces an indest­ruc­tible creature’s toughness to 0 or less, it’s still put into its owner’s graveyard.
intimidate
A creature with intimidate can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.
lifelink
If a creature with lifelink deals damage, its controller also gains that much life.
london mulligan
A variation of a mulligan. Shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw a new 7 card hand. You can take multiple mulligans, but when decide to keep your hand, you have to return one card for each mullidan you took.
modified
A modified creature is a creature that has a counter on it, is equipped, or is enchanted by an Aura its controller also controls.
mulligan
At the start of the game, if you don’t like your hand, you can take a mulligan. Shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw a new hand with one fewer card. You can take as many mulligans as you like, but your starting hand gets smaller each time. Usually players take mulligans because they don’t have enough land cards, or because they have too many lands and not enough spells.
ninjutsu
A keyword ability that lets a creature suddenly enter combat.
permanent
Lands, creatures, artifacts, enchan­tments, and planes­walkers are perman­ents. They enter the battle­field after you cast them. Token creatures are also perman­ents. Instants and sorceries are not perman­ents. They go to the graveyard after they resolve.
protection
A creature with protection from a color can’t be blocked, dealt damage, enchanted, or targeted by anything of that color.
reach
A creature with reach can block creatures with flying (and creatures without flying).
reconf­igure
A keyword ability that allows an Equipment creature to tempor­arily stop being a creature and become attached to another creature.
regenerate
Regene­rating a creature keeps it from being destroyed. Instead of being destroyed, the creature gets tapped, it’s removed from combat (if it’s in combat), and all its damage is healed.
sacrifice
Sometimes a card tells you to sacrifice a creature or some other perman­ent.To sacrifice a permanent, you move it from the battle­field to your graveyard. You can’t regenerate it or save it in any way. You can sacrifice only your own perman­ents.
target
If a spell uses the word “target,” you choose what the spell will affect when you cast it. The same is true for abilities you activate.
trample
If a creature with trample would assign enough damage to its blockers to destroy them, you may have it assign the rest of its damage to the player or planes­walker it’s attacking.
vigilance
A creature with vigilance doesn’t tap to attack. (Vigilance doesn’t allow a tapped creature or a creature that entered the battle­field this turn to attack, though.)
ward
A triggered ability that can counter spells or abilities that target the permanent with ward.
 

Standard format

Standard is a dynamic format where you build decks and play using cards in your collection from recently released Magic sets. Evolving gameplay and fresh strategies make it one of the most fun and popular ways to play Magic.
• Your deck must be at least 60 cards.
• Up to fifteen cards may be included in your sideboard, if you use one.
• Include no more than four copies of any individual card in your main deck and sideboard combined (except basic lands).
• There's no maximum deck size, as long as you can shuffle your deck in your hands unassi­sted.
 

Included sets

Rotation

Each year, four Magic sets are released and added to Standard. Once per year, when the fall set releases, the four oldest sets in Standard rotate out.
Tip: Some cards in Standard have alternate versions or were also printed in older sets, and it's okay to use those cards in your deck. If you're not sure about a card, look it up in the Magic The Gathering Card Database.