
AscendĪscend is an ability that grants the city’s blessing once you have ten permanents in play. It’s a triggered ability that occurs when attacking, and causes opponents to sacrifice a number of permanents.

AnnihilatorĪnnihilator is an ability unique to Eldrazi and appeared in Rise of the Eldrazi. AmplifyĪmplify appeared in Legions and allows you to reveal creature cards from your hand to put +1/+1 counters onto a creature. AftermathĪftermath is an ability that first appeared in Amonkhet, and it is on the second spell on dual-spell cards and allows the spell to be cast from the graveyard. AfterlifeĪfterlife appeared in Ravnica Allegiance and is a triggered ability that occurs when a creature dies, that allows you to create 1/1 White and Black Spirit tokens with flying. AfflictĪfflict was introduced in Hour of Devastation, and allows creatures to deal damage to the opponent even if they’ve been blocked. This ability reduces the cost for a spell based on the number of certain permanents you control, usually artifacts. AffinityĪffinity was introduced in Mirrodin. Absorb allows a creature to prevent some damage. Magic: The Gathering keywords explainedĪbsorb was introduced in Future Sight and hasn't been seen since. There’s a lot of them to get through, but each of them is either a part of the history of the game, or a key part of modern-day play.Ī lot of these are unlikely to be seen outside of niche Commander decks, but hey, knowledge is power, and we’re aiming to make you very powerful indeed. In order to help you learn more about them, including where we first saw each of the many MTG keywords, we’ve decided to go ahead and make a giant list explaining what keywords in Magic: The Gathering mean. While many will often have reminder text on the card, with some cards being so wordy already, it’s useful to know what each of these does. Hexproof and Shroud only prevent a creature from being targeted (ex.There are an awful lot of Magic: The Gathering keywords, and frankly, it’s hard to keep them all in mind. It just modifies how the creature deals damage. No, Infect is a static ability that doesn't target. And if one of them has first strike then it wouldn't die at all.Ģ. Nothing dies "first" here unless one of the creatures happens to have first strike - otherwise damage is dealt simultaneously. In this case, the 2/2 creature has two -1/-1 counters and is placed in the graveyard for having 0 toughness, while the 2/1 Infect creature is placed in the graveyard for being marked with lethal damage (damage greater than or equal to its toughness).

The creatures will both die at the same time when state-based actions are next checked (before the active player would gain priority). It happens at the same time all combat damage is dealt.

Is infect nullyfied by hexproof or shroud? That is, if my 2/1 creature with infect attacks a creature with hexproof, is the damage not dealt as -1/-1 counters?ġ. Does the infect happen before or after combat damage is dealt? What I'm asking is, does my 2/1 creature die first because the 2/2 creature deals it's damage first, or does the 2/2 die first because my 2/1 gave him 2 -1/-1 counters before he could attack.Ģ. If I have a 2/1 creature with infect attacking and a 2/2 creature blocks. Quote from DranieiI have two questions about infect.ġ.
