Glossary
Plain-language definitions for every term the guide bolds on first use. Each
entry is a linkable anchor, so chapters can deep-link straight to a definition
(e.g. 10-glossary.md#commander-tax). Where a term has extra nuance, a callout
adds depth:
🆕 New players: start with the one-line definition; ignore the callouts until you need them. 🔁 Returning players: callouts flag what’s changed or what trips up lapsed players. 🎯 Commander-specific: callouts note how a term behaves in Commander specifically.
Back to the README · Quick Reference
Artifact
Section titled “Artifact”A permanent type representing an object — equipment, mana rocks, gadgets. Often colorless. Some are also creatures (“artifact creatures”).
Banned list
Section titled “Banned list”The set of cards not legal to play in Commander, maintained and updated periodically by the Commander Format Panel. It changes over time, so check the live list rather than memorizing it. See Brackets & Rule 0.
Basic lands
Section titled “Basic lands”The five basic land cards — Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest — that produce white, blue, black, red, and green mana. The lone exception to the singleton rule: you may run any number of them.
Battle
Section titled “Battle”A newer permanent type that enters with defense counters; players attack it, and dealing with it can flip it into a reward. Can be attacked in combat like a player or planeswalker.
🔁 Returning players: battles were introduced in 2023 — genuinely new if you stopped playing before then.
Battlefield
Section titled “Battlefield”The shared zone where permanents live once played. Older players knew this as “in play.”
Beginning of combat
Section titled “Beginning of combat”The first step of the combat phase — a window before attackers are declared.
Board wipe
Section titled “Board wipe”A spell that destroys (or removes) many permanents at once, usually most or all creatures. A common form of removal for catching up against a wide board.
🎯 Commander-specific: with three opponents, a well-timed board wipe can reset the whole table — but it can also paint you as the threat. Timing is political.
Card draw
Section titled “Card draw”Effects that put cards from your library into your hand beyond your normal draw, keeping you from running out of resources. A core deckbuilding category.
Cleanup step
Section titled “Cleanup step”The final step of the turn: if you have more than seven cards in hand you discard down to seven, and damage marked on creatures wears off. Players normally don’t act here.
Color identity
Section titled “Color identity”A card’s colors plus the colors of any colored mana symbols in its mana cost and rules text (and any color indicators / characteristic-defining abilities). Set before the game; every card in a deck must fit within the commander’s color identity. See The Commander.
Colorless
Section titled “Colorless”Having no color. Colorless mana is written C; generic costs (plain numbers) can be paid with any color or with colorless mana. Colorless cards fit into any deck’s color identity.
Combat damage
Section titled “Combat damage”Damage dealt by creatures during the combat damage step, equal to their power. Distinct from damage dealt by spells or abilities.
Command zone
Section titled “Command zone”The special zone where your commander starts the game and can return to. You can cast your commander from here (paying the commander tax). See The Commander.
Command-zone replacement
Section titled “Command-zone replacement”The rule that lets a commander headed to its owner’s hand, library, graveyard, or exile go to the command zone instead, at the owner’s choice. Keeps your commander from being lost.
Commander
Section titled “Commander”The single legendary card your deck is built around. Per the 2026 rules it may be a legendary creature, Vehicle, or Spacecraft (with a power/toughness box). It starts in the command zone and defines your deck’s color identity.
Commander Brackets
Section titled “Commander Brackets”An official but optional framework that sorts decks into five power tiers (1–5), from ultra-casual to cEDH, so a table can match power levels. Currently a Beta system. See Brackets & Rule 0.
Commander damage
Section titled “Commander damage”A Commander-only rule: a player dealt 21 or more combat damage by a single commander over the game loses, tracked separately per commander. See Combat.
Commander tax
Section titled “Commander tax”The extra {2} generic mana per previous cast added when you cast your commander from the command zone. The first cast is free of tax; each subsequent one climbs by 2.
Companion
Section titled “Companion”A card kept outside your deck that can be brought into the game if you met its deckbuilding condition. In Commander it must obey your commander’s color identity and the singleton rule — effectively a 101st card.
Competitive EDH
Section titled “Competitive EDH”Short cEDH — the most competitive way to play Commander: fully optimized decks playing to win as efficiently as possible. The top of the bracket scale (Bracket 5).
Concede
Section titled “Concede”To quit the game voluntarily; a conceding player leaves as a loss. Legal at any time.
Creature
Section titled “Creature”A permanent that can attack and block. Has power (damage it deals) and toughness (damage it can take before dying).
Deathtouch
Section titled “Deathtouch”A keyword: any amount of combat (or other) damage this deals to a creature — even 1 — is enough to destroy it.
Decking out
Section titled “Decking out”Losing because you must draw a card from an empty library. Also called “milling out” when an opponent empties your library for you. See Winning and Losing.
Declare attackers
Section titled “Declare attackers”The combat step where the active player chooses which untapped creatures attack and what each one attacks (a player, planeswalker, or battle).
Declare blockers
Section titled “Declare blockers”The combat step where each defending player assigns blockers to the attackers aimed at them.
Double strike
Section titled “Double strike”A keyword: deals combat damage in both the first-strike step and the normal step — effectively hitting twice.
Draw step
Section titled “Draw step”The third step of the beginning phase: you draw a card. The starting player skips this on the very first turn of the game.
Enchantment
Section titled “Enchantment”A permanent type representing a persistent magical effect that stays on the battlefield and keeps doing its thing.
End of combat
Section titled “End of combat”The last step of the combat phase — a final window before combat ends.
End step
Section titled “End step”The first step of the ending phase: a final window where “at the beginning of the end step” effects trigger and players can cast instants.
A “removed from the game” zone for cards set aside by certain effects. Older players knew this as “removed from game.”
First strike
Section titled “First strike”A keyword: deals its combat damage before normal combat damage. If it kills its opponent first, it may take none back.
Game Changers
Section titled “Game Changers”A curated list of especially powerful legal cards used to gauge a deck’s bracket (53 cards as of the 2026-02-09 update). Not a banned list; check the live list. See Brackets & Rule 0.
Graveyard
Section titled “Graveyard”Your face-up discard/dead pile. Destroyed creatures, spent instants and sorceries, and discarded cards go here.
The cards you’re holding, hidden from opponents. You discard to seven during cleanup if you have more.
A keyword that lets a creature attack and use tap abilities the turn it arrives, ignoring summoning sickness.
Infect
Section titled “Infect”A keyword whose damage to players is dealt as poison counters instead of life loss. Niche but worth recognizing.
Instant
Section titled “Instant”A spell you can cast almost anytime you have priority — including on opponents’ turns and in response to other spells.
Your mana engine. You may play one per turn (no cost, doesn’t use the stack), and tap lands for mana. Basic lands are the five named types.
Last player standing
Section titled “Last player standing”The default win condition in multiplayer Commander: when every opponent has lost or conceded, the remaining player wins.
Legendary
Section titled “Legendary”A supertype on certain cards. Only legendary cards can be commanders, and the “legend rule” means you can’t control two of the same legendary permanent at once.
Library
Section titled “Library”Your face-down deck. You draw from the top; being forced to draw from an empty one makes you lose (decking out).
Life total
Section titled “Life total”Your life points. You start Commander at 40; reaching 0 or less loses you the game.
The game’s resource, produced by tapping lands and other sources. Comes in five colors (WUBRG) plus colorless.
Mana cost
Section titled “Mana cost”What you pay to cast a card, shown in its top-right corner: generic (numbers) plus any colored symbols. Lands have none.
Mana curve
Section titled “Mana curve”The spread of your deck’s cards by mana cost. A healthy curve has enough cheap plays that early turns aren’t dead.
Mulligan
Section titled “Mulligan”Redrawing your opening hand: shuffle back, draw seven, then put a number of cards on the bottom equal to how many times you’ve mulliganed (the “London” mulligan).
Multiplayer
Section titled “Multiplayer”A game with more than two players. Commander’s default is a four-player free-for-all. See Multiplayer & Politics.
Permanent
Section titled “Permanent”A card that stays on the battlefield once played: lands, creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and battles. (Instants and sorceries are not permanents.)
Planeswalker
Section titled “Planeswalker”A permanent type representing a powerful ally with loyalty abilities you activate (typically once per turn). Can be attacked in combat.
🔁 Returning players: planeswalkers arrived in 2007 and the old “redirect damage to a planeswalker” rule is long gone — you now attack them directly.
Poison counters
Section titled “Poison counters”A separate loss track: 10 or more poison counters and you lose, regardless of life total. Comes from infect and toxic.
The number in a creature’s bottom-left: how much combat damage it deals.
Priority
Section titled “Priority”The right to take an action. The active player gets it first each step; when all players pass in succession, the top of the stack resolves (or the step ends). See Anatomy of a Turn.
Cards that produce extra mana or accelerate your mana (mana rocks, mana dorks, land-fetch), letting you cast bigger things sooner. A core deckbuilding category.
Removal
Section titled “Removal”Cards that answer opponents’ threats — destroying, exiling, bouncing, or otherwise neutralizing them. Includes single-target “spot” removal and board wipes.
Rule 0
Section titled “Rule 0”The pre-game conversation where a table agrees on power level, house rules, and what’s allowed. The most important tool for a fun game. See Brackets & Rule 0.
Singleton
Section titled “Singleton”The deckbuilding rule that you may include only one copy of any card by name — basic lands excepted.
Sorcery
Section titled “Sorcery”A spell you can cast only during your own main phase with an empty stack (“sorcery speed”). Does its thing once, then goes to the graveyard.
The zone where spells and abilities wait to resolve. It works last in, first out: the most recently added thing resolves first, which is why responses work. See Anatomy of a Turn.
Summoning sickness
Section titled “Summoning sickness”The rule that a creature can’t attack or use tap abilities until you’ve controlled it continuously since your most recent turn began — unless it has haste.
Tapping
Section titled “Tapping”Rotating a card sideways to show it’s been used this turn — to produce mana, attack, or pay a cost. It untaps in your next untap step.
Text box
Section titled “Text box”The part of a card containing its rules text (abilities, keywords, reminder text).
Toughness
Section titled “Toughness”The number in a creature’s bottom-right: how much damage it can take in a turn before it’s destroyed.
A keyword that adds poison counters to a player it damages, on top of dealing normal combat damage.
Trample
Section titled “Trample”A keyword: if a creature is blocked, damage beyond what’s needed to destroy the blockers spills over to the player or planeswalker it was attacking.
Untap step
Section titled “Untap step”The first step of the turn: you untap your tapped permanents. Players don’t act here.
Upkeep step
Section titled “Upkeep step”The second step of the beginning phase: a window after untapping where many triggered abilities happen and players can respond.
One of the distinct places a card can be: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, exile, stack, and the Commander-only command zone.
Back to the README · Quick Reference