Card Types

     Within the game of Magic there are seven types of cards, each with their own rules:

- Creature

- Artifact

- Instant

- Sorcery

- Land

- Enchantment

- Planeswalker

     Below is the basic anatomy of a magic card, note that the power and toughness section only applies to creatures and their subtypes.

     Creatures are a type of permanent, meaning they stay on the field after being cast. Most will have at least one different subtype like Ooze, Human, ect. These subtypes will come into play later, but for now we will just acknowledge their existence. Creatures are the only card type that is allowed to attack or block and have their power/toughness levels denoted on the bottom right hand corner of the card.

     Artifacts are another type of permanent that sits on the field and has an ability specific to the card listed in the effect/rules portion of the card itself. Most artifacts are colorless, thus being able to be played with any color of Land. Some artifacts have the potential to become creatures, or may be a creature right off the bat. Those cards will then have the type of Artifact Creature.

     Instants are non-permanents, meaning that after they are cast and their effect has taken place they are removed from play and sent to the graveyard. Though, unlike all of the other card types, they are allowed to be played at any point in time during the game as long as you have the resources to cast it. The only exception to this rule is cards with the ability called Flash.

     Sorcery cards are also non-permanents and once their effects have been played out they are sent to the graveyard.

     Lands are permanents that may only be played once per turn and are used by the players as a resource to cast the cards from their libraries. Lands are also called Mana, and do not have a casting cost of their own.

     Enchantments are another type of permanent, similar to the Artifact although they are colored and do not require tapping to be activated once played.

     Planeswalkers are powerful cards that are treated like another player is on your side. They enter the field with a set amount hit-points, or "Loyalty Counters". Their abilities are activated by adding or removing these Loyalty Counters, only once per turn. Planeswalkers can be attacked by your opponents creatures, though your creatures are allowed to block for them. If damage is dealt to a Planeswalker, remove Loyalty Counters from him/her based on the amount of damage, when the amount of counters is reduced to zero or below the Planeswalker is dead.