200. Parts of a Card

120 rules in this chapter

200.1 — The parts of a card are name, mana cost, illustration, color indicator, type line, expansion symbol, text box, power and…
200.2 — Some parts of a card are also characteristics of the object that has them. See rule 109.3.
200.3 — Some objects that aren’t cards (tokens, copies of cards, and copies of spells) have some of the parts of a card, but onl…
201.1 — The name of a card is printed on its upper left corner.
201.2 — A card’s name is always considered to be the English version of its name, regardless of printed language.
201.2a — Two or more objects have the same name if they have at least one name in common, even if one or more of those objects ha…
201.2b — Some spells and abilities refer to two or more objects with different names. Those objects have different names only if…
201.2c — Some spells or abilities check if one object has a different name than a second object or group of objects. The first ob…
201.3 — Some cards with different English names are treated as though they had the same English name. Pairs of cards with this p…
201.3a — For the purposes of all rules, abilities, and effects that refer to a card’s name, objects with interchangeable names ha…
201.3b — For the purposes of deck construction and format legality, cards with interchangeable names have the same name.
201.3c — If a card has later printings with interchangeable names, the later printings will have an interchangeable names indicat…
201.4 — If an effect instructs a player to choose a card name, the player must choose the name of a card in the Oracle card refe…
201.4a — If a player is instructed to choose a card name with certain characteristics, the player must choose the name of a card…
201.4b — If a player wants to choose the name of a split card, the player must choose the name of one of its halves, but not both…
201.4c — If a player wants to choose a flip card’s alternative name, the player may do so. (See rule 710.) If a player is instruc…
201.4d — If a player wants to choose the name of the back face of a double-faced card, the player may do so. (See rule 712.) If a…
201.4e — If a player wants to choose the name of the combined back face of a meld pair, the player may do so. (See rule 713.) If…
201.4f — If a player wants to choose an adventurer card’s alternative name, the player may do so. (See rule 715.) If a player is…
201.4g — Some cards have interchangeable names (see rule 201.3). For all game purposes, these cards have the same name. If a play…
201.5 — Text that refers to the object it’s on by name means just that particular object and not any other objects with that nam…
201.5a — If an ability’s effect grants another ability to an object, and that second ability refers to that first ability’s sourc…
201.5b — If an ability of an object refers to that object by name, and an object with a different name gains that ability, each i…
201.5c — Text printed on some cards refers to that card by a shortened version of its name. Instances of a card’s shortened name…
201.6 — Promotional or alternate-art versions of some cards feature a secondary title bar below the name line. The card’s name a…
202.1 — A card’s mana cost is indicated by mana symbols near the top of the card. (See rule 107.4.) On most cards, these symbols…
202.1a — The mana cost of an object represents what a player must spend from their mana pool to cast that card. Unless an object’…
202.1b — Some objects have no mana cost. This normally includes all land cards, any other cards that have no mana symbols where t…
202.2 — An object is the color or colors of the mana symbols in its mana cost, regardless of the color of its frame.
202.2a — The five colors are white, blue, black, red, and green. The white mana symbol is represented by {W}, blue by {U}, black…
202.2b — Objects with no colored mana symbols in their mana costs are colorless.
202.2c — An object with two or more different colored mana symbols in its mana cost is each of the colors of those mana symbols.…
202.2d — An object with one or more hybrid mana symbols and/or Phyrexian mana symbols in its mana cost is all of the colors of th…
202.2e — An object may have a color indicator printed to the left of the type line. That object is each color denoted by that col…
202.2f — Effects may change an object’s color, give a color to a colorless object, or make a colored object become colorless; see…
202.3 — The mana value of an object is a number equal to the total amount of mana in its mana cost, regardless of color.
202.3a — The mana value of an object with no mana cost is 0, unless that object is the back face of a transforming double-faced p…
202.3b — The mana value of a transforming double-faced permanent or spell’s back face is calculated as though it had the mana cos…
202.3c — The mana value of a melded permanent is calculated as though it had the combined mana cost of the front faces of each ca…
202.3d — The mana value of a split card not on the stack or of a fused split spell on the stack is determined from the combined m…
202.3e — When calculating the mana value of an object with an {X} in its mana cost, X is treated as 0 while the object is not on…
202.3f — When calculating the mana value of an object with a hybrid mana symbol in its mana cost, use the largest component of ea…
202.3g — Each Phyrexian mana symbol in a card’s mana cost contributes 1 to its mana value.
202.4 — Any additional cost listed in an object’s rules text or imposed by an effect isn’t part of the mana cost. (See rule 601,…
203.1 — The illustration is printed on the upper half of a card and has no effect on game play. For example, a creature doesn’t…
204.1 — The color indicator is printed to the left of the type line directly below the illustration. It consists of a circular s…
204.2 — An object with a color indicator is each color denoted by that color indicator.
205.1 — The type line is printed directly below the illustration. It contains the card’s card type(s). It also contains the card…
205.1a — Some effects set an object’s card type. In most such cases, the new card type(s) replaces any existing card types. Howev…
205.1b — Some effects change an object’s card type, supertype, or subtype but specify that the object retains a prior card type,…
205.2 — Card Types
205.2a — The card types are artifact, battle, conspiracy, creature, dungeon, enchantment, instant, kindred, land, phenomenon, pla…
205.2b — Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any…
205.2c — Tokens have card types even though they aren’t cards. The same is true of copies of spells and copies of cards.
205.3 — Subtypes
205.3a — A card can have one or more subtypes printed on its type line.
205.3b — Subtypes of each card type except creature and plane are always single words and are listed after a long dash. Each word…
205.3c — If a card with multiple card types has one or more subtypes, each subtype is correlated to its appropriate card type.
205.3d — An object can’t gain a subtype that doesn’t correspond to one of that object’s types.
205.3e — If an effect instructs a player to choose a subtype, that player must choose one, and only one, existing subtype, and th…
205.3f — Many cards were printed with subtypes that are now obsolete. Many cards have retroactively received subtypes. Use the Or…
205.3g — Artifacts have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called artifact types. The artifact types are Attrac…
205.3h — Enchantments have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called enchantment types. The enchantment types a…
205.3i — Lands have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called land types. The land types are Cave, Desert, Fore…
205.3j — Planeswalkers have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called planeswalker types. The planeswalker type…
205.3k — Instants and sorceries share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called spell types. The spell types are Adventu…
205.3m — Creatures and kindreds share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types. One creature type is two…
205.3n — Planes have their own unique set of subtypes; these subtypes are called planar types. The planar types are The Abyss, Al…
205.3p — One dungeon card (Undercity) has a subtype; this subtype is called a dungeon type. That dungeon type is Undercity.
205.3q — Battles have a unique subtype, called a battle type. That battle type is Siege.
205.3r — Phenomenon cards, scheme cards, vanguard cards, and conspiracy cards have no subtypes.
205.4 — Supertypes
205.4a — An object can have one or more supertypes. A card’s supertypes are printed directly before its card types. The supertype…
205.4b — An object’s supertype is independent of its card type and subtype, even though some supertypes are closely identified wi…
205.4c — Any land with the supertype “basic” is a basic land. Any land that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonbasic land, even…
205.4d — Any permanent with the supertype “legendary” is subject to the state-based action for legendary permanents, also called…
205.4e — Any instant or sorcery spell with the supertype “legendary” is subject to a casting restriction. A player can’t cast a l…
205.4f — Any permanent with the supertype “world” is subject to the state-based action for world permanents, also called the “wor…
205.4g — Any permanent with the supertype “snow” is a snow permanent. Any permanent that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonsnow…
205.4h — Any scheme card with the supertype “ongoing” is exempt from the state-based action for schemes (see rule 704.6e).
206.1 — The expansion symbol indicates which Magic set a card is from. It’s a small icon normally printed below the right edge o…
206.2 — The color of the expansion symbol indicates the rarity of the card within its set. A red-orange symbol indicates the car…
206.3 — Previously, a spell or ability that affected cards from a particular set checked for that set’s expansion symbol. These…
206.3a — One card (City in a Bottle) refers to permanents and cards with a name originally printed in the Arabian Nights™ expansi…
206.3b — One card (Golgothian Sylex) refers to permanents with a name originally printed in the Antiquities™ expansion. Those nam…
206.3c — One card (Apocalypse Chime) refers to permanents with a name originally printed in the Homelands™ expansion. Those names…
206.4 — Players may include cards from any printing in their constructed decks if those cards appear in sets allowed in that for…
206.5 — The full list of expansions and expansion symbols can be found in the Card Set Archive section of the Magic website (Mag…
207.1 — The text box is printed on the lower half of the card. It usually contains rules text defining the card’s abilities.
207.2 — The text box may also contain italicized text that has no game function.
207.2a — Reminder text is italicized text within parentheses that summarizes a rule that applies to that card. It usually appears…
207.2b — Flavor text is italicized text that, like the illustration, adds artistic appeal to the game. It usually appears below t…
207.2c — An ability word appears in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Ability words are similar to keywords in that the…
207.2d — Similar to ability words, flavor words appear in italics at the beginning of some abilities. Flavor words provide a flav…
207.3 — Some cards have decorative icons in the background of their text boxes. For example, a guild icon appears in the text bo…
207.4 — The chaos symbol appears in the text box of each plane card to the left of a triggered ability that triggers whenever ch…
207.5 — One card (Cryptic Spires) has a set of symbols below the text box that represent each color and an ability that instruct…
208.1 — A creature card has two numbers separated by a slash printed in its lower right corner. The first number is its power (t…
208.2 — Rather than a fixed number, some creature cards have power and/or toughness that includes a star (*).
208.2a — The card may have a characteristic-defining ability that sets its power and/or toughness according to some stated condit…
208.2b — The card may have a static ability that creates a replacement effect that sets the creature’s power and toughness to one…
208.3 — A noncreature permanent has no power or toughness, even if it’s a card with a power and toughness printed on it (such as…
208.3a — If an effect would be created that sets the base power and/or toughness of a noncreature permanent, or otherwise modifie…
208.4 — Some effects refer to a creature’s “base power,” “base toughness,” or “base power and toughness.”
208.4a — Effects that set a creature’s power and/or toughness to specific values may refer to base power and/or toughness. Other…
208.4b — Some effects check a creature’s base power and/or toughness. These effects see that creature’s characteristics after app…
208.5 — If a creature somehow has no value for its power, its power is 0. The same is true for toughness.
209.1 — Each planeswalker card has a loyalty number printed in its lower right corner. This indicates its loyalty while it’s not…
209.2 — An activated ability with a loyalty symbol in its cost is a loyalty ability. Loyalty abilities follow special rules: A p…
210.1 — Each battle card has a defense number printed in its lower right corner. This indicates its defense while it’s not on th…
211.1 — Each vanguard card has a hand modifier printed in its lower left corner. This is a number preceded by a plus sign, a num…
212.1 — Each vanguard card has a life modifier printed in its lower right corner. This is a number preceded by a plus sign, a nu…
213.1 — Each card features text printed below the text box that has no effect on game play. Not all card sets were printed with…
213.1a — Most card sets feature collector numbers. This information is printed in the form [card number]/[total cards in the set]…
213.1b — A card’s rarity is indicated with a single letter following the collector number.
213.1c — Some promotional cards include information to indicate the specific promotion the card is associated with.
213.1d — Some cards with interchangeable names include information about a specific version of a card with that interchangeable n…
213.1e — The three-character code representing the set in which a card is printed and the two-character code representing the lan…
213.1f — The illustration credit for a card follows the paintbrush icon or, on older cards, the abbreviation “Illus.”
213.1g — Legal text (the fine print at the bottom or bottom-right of the card) lists the trademark and copyright information.