Retrace A keyword ability that lets a player cast a card from his or her graveyard. See rule 702.80, “Retrace.” Reveal To show a card to all players for a brief time. See rule 701.14, “Reveal.” Ripple A keyword ability that may let a player cast extra cards from his or her library for no cost. See rule 702.59, “Ripple.” Rules Text A characteristic that defines a card’s abilities. See rule 207.1. Sacrifice To move a permanent you control to its owner’s graveyard. See rule 701.15, “Sacrifice.” Scavenge A keyword ability that allows you to exile a creature card from your graveyard to put +1/+1 counters on a creature. See rule 702.96, “Scavenge.” Scheme A card type seen only on nontraditional Magic cards in the Archenemy casual variant. A scheme card is not a permanent. See rule 312, “Schemes.” Scry To manipulate some of the cards on top of your library. See rule 701.16, “Scry.” Search To look at all cards in a stated zone and possibly find a card that matches a given description. See rule 701.17, “Search.” Set Aside (Obsolete) “Set [something] aside” is an obsolete term for “exile [something].” Cards with that text have received errata in the Oracle card reference. See Exile. Set in Motion To move a scheme card off the top of your scheme deck and turn it face up. See rule 701.23, “Set in Motion.” Shadow A keyword ability that restricts how a creature may be blocked and which creatures it can block. See rule 702.27, “Shadow.” Shared Life Total In the Two-Headed Giant multiplayer variant, each team has a “shared life total” rather than each player having an individual life total. See rule 810, “Two-Headed Giant Variant.” Shared Team Turns Option An option that may be used in certain multiplayer variants, such as Two-Headed Giant and Archenemy. See rule 805, “Shared Team Turns Option.”
Special Action An action a player may take that doesn’t use the stack. See rule 115, “Special Actions.” Spell A card on the stack. Also a copy (of either a card or another spell) on the stack. See rule 111, “Spells.” Spell Ability A kind of ability. Spell abilities are abilities that are followed as instructions while an instant or sorcery spell is resolving. See rule 112.3a. Spell Type A subtype that’s correlated to the instant card type and the sorcery card type. See rule 304, “Instants,” and rule 307, “Sorceries.” See rule 205.3k for the list of spell types. Splice A keyword ability that lets a player copy a card’s text box onto another spell. See rule 702.46, “Splice.” Split Cards Cards with two card faces on a single card. See rule 708, “Split Cards.” Split Second A keyword ability that makes it nearly impossible for a player to respond to a spell. See rule 702.60, “Split Second.” Stack A zone. The stack is the zone in which spells, activated abilities, and triggered abilities wait to resolve. See rule 405, “Stack.” Starting Hand Size The number of cards a player draws as a game begins. In most games, each player’s starting hand size is seven. See rule 103.4. Starting Life Total The amount of life a player has as a game begins. In most games, each player’s starting life total is 20. See rule 103.3. Starting Player The player chosen to take the first turn of a game. See rule 103.2. Starting Team The team chosen to take the first turn of a game using the shared team turns option. See rule 103.2. State-Based Actions Game actions that happen automatically whenever certain conditions are met. See rule 704, “State-Based Actions.” State Trigger A triggered ability that triggers when a game state is true rather than triggering when an event occurs. See rule 603.8. Static Ability A kind of ability. Static abilities do something all the time rather than being activated or triggered. See rule 112, “Abilities,” and rule 604, “Handling Static Abilities.”