Enchantment Type A subtype that’s correlated to the enchantment card type. See rule 303, “Enchantments.” See rule 205.3h for the list of enchantment types. Encoded A term that describes the relationship between a permanent and a card exiled by a cipher ability. See rule 702.98, “Cipher.” Encounter To move a phenomenon card off the top of a planar deck and turn it face up. See rule 310, “Phenomena.” End of Combat Step Part of the turn. This step is the fifth and final step of the combat phase. See rule 511, “End of Combat Step.” End Step Part of the turn. This step is the first step of the ending phase. See rule 513, “End Step.” End the Turn To “end the turn” as the result of an effect is to perform an expedited process that skips nearly everything else that would happen that turn. See rule 713, “Ending the Turn.” Ending Phase Part of the turn. This phase is the fifth and final phase of the turn. See rule 512, “Ending Phase.” Enters the Battlefield A nontoken permanent “enters the battlefield” when it’s moved onto the battlefield from another zone. A token “enters the battlefield” when it’s created. See rules 403.3, 603.6a, 603.6e, and 614.12. Entwine A keyword ability that lets a player choose all modes for a spell rather than just one. See rule 702.41, “Entwine.” Epic A keyword ability that lets a player copy a spell at the beginning of each of his or her upkeeps at the expense of casting any other spells for the rest of the game. See rule 702.49, “Epic.” Equip A keyword ability that lets a player attach an Equipment to a creature he or she controls. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 702.6, “Equip.” Equipment An artifact subtype. Equipment can be attached to creatures. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 702.6, “Equip.” Evasion Ability An ability that restricts what creatures can block an attacking creature. See rules 509.1b–c. Event Anything that happens in a game. See rule 700.1.
Search To look at all cards in a stated zone and possibly find a card that matches a given description. See rule 701.15, “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 701.22, “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.” Shortcut A mutually understood way for the game to advance forward a number of game choices (either taking an action or passing priority) without players needing to explicitly identify each such choice. See rule 716, “Taking Shortcuts.” Shroud A keyword ability that precludes a permanent or player from being targeted. See rule 702.18, “Shroud.” Shuffle To randomize the cards in a deck (before a game) or library (during a game). See rule 103.1. Sideboard Extra cards that may be used to modify a deck between games of a match. See rules 100.4. Skip Effects that use the word “skip” are replacement effects. The word “skip” indicates what events, steps, phases, or turns will be replaced with nothing. See rule 614, “Replacement Effects.” Slivercycling See Typecycling. Snow A supertype that’s normally relevant on permanents. See rule 205.4, “Supertypes.” Snow Mana Symbol The snow mana symbol {S} represents a cost that can be paid with one mana produced by a snow permanent. See rule 107.4h.
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.” Status The physical state of a permanent. See rule 110.6. Step A subsection of a phase. See section 5, “Turn Structure.” Storm A keyword ability that creates copies of a spell. See rule 702.39, “Storm.” Subgame A completely separate Magic game created by an effect. See rule 715, “Subgames.” Subtype A characteristic that appears after the card type and a long dash on a card’s type line. See rule 205.3, “Subtypes.” Successfully Cast (Obsolete) A term that was printed on some older cards. In general, cards that referred to a spell being “successfully cast” have received errata in the Oracle card reference to simply refer to a spell being “cast.” Summon (Obsolete) Older creature cards were printed with “Summon [creature type]” on their type lines. All such cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to say “Creature — [creature type].” (Many of these cards’ creature types have also been updated.) See Creature. Summoning Sickness Rule Informal term for a player’s inability to attack with a creature or to activate its abilities that include the tap symbol or the untap symbol unless the creature has been under that player’s control since the beginning of that player’s most recent turn. See rule 302.6. See also Haste.
Sun Symbol A symbol found in the upper left corner of the front face of a double-faced card. See rule 711, Cards.” Sunburst A keyword ability that can have a permanent enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters or charge counters on it. See rule 702.43, “Sunburst.” Supertype A characteristic that appears before the card type on a card’s type line. Most cards don’t have a supertype. See rule 205.4, “Supertypes.” Supervillain Rumble A Free-for-All game in which each player is an archenemy. See rule 806, “Free-for-All,” and rule 904, “Archenemy.” Suspend A keyword ability that provides an alternate way to play a card. See rule 702.61, “Suspend.” A card is “suspended” if it’s in the exile zone, has suspend, and has a time counter on it. Swamp One of the five basic land types. Any land with this subtype has the ability “{T}: Add {B} to your mana pool.” See rule 305.6. Swampcycling See Typecycling. Swampwalk See Landwalk. Tap To turn a permanent sideways from an upright position. See rule 701.17, “Tap and Untap.” Tapped A status a permanent may have. See rule 110.6 and rule 701.17, “Tap and Untap.” See also Untapped. Tap Symbol The tap symbol {T} in an activation cost means “Tap this permanent.” See rule 107.5. Target A preselected object, player, and/or zone a spell or ability will affect. See rule 114, “Targets.” Team A group of players who share a common victory condition in a multiplayer game. See rule 808, “Team vs. Team Variant,” rule 809, “Emperor Variant,” rule 810, “Two-Headed Giant Variant,” and rule 811, “Alternating Teams Variant.” Teammate In a multiplayer game between teams, a player’s teammates are the other players on his or her team. See rule 102.3.