Demystifying Permanents in Magic: The Gathering
So, you’re diving into the strategic depths of Magic: The Gathering (MTG)? Excellent choice! One of the fundamental concepts you’ll need to grasp is the idea of a permanent. Simply put, a permanent in Magic: The Gathering is a card or token that, once on the battlefield, stays there unless it’s explicitly removed by a game effect. These are the building blocks of your battlefield presence, the forces you deploy to dominate your opponent. Understanding permanents is crucial for mastering the game’s strategies and interactions.
The Six Permanent Types
There are six primary types of permanents in Magic: The Gathering:
- Artifacts: These represent magical items, constructs, or devices. They can range from simple mana-generating rocks to powerful equipment that boosts your creatures.
- Battles: These represent conflicts occurring on a plane that you and your opponents are fighting over. Battles are a relatively new card type.
- Creatures: These are your attacking and blocking forces. They come in a vast array of shapes, sizes, and abilities, forming the core of many strategies.
- Enchantments: These are ongoing magical effects that can benefit you, hinder your opponent, or alter the rules of the game in subtle but powerful ways.
- Lands: These are the source of your mana, the essential resource you need to cast spells. While they don’t usually attack or block, they are vital for any deck.
- Planeswalkers: These represent powerful characters from across the multiverse who fight alongside you, providing unique abilities and ultimate game-winning effects.
Once a card of one of these types is successfully cast and resolves, or a token of these types is created, and enters the battlefield, it becomes a permanent. It remains a permanent until an effect causes it to leave the battlefield (e.g., by being destroyed, exiled, sacrificed, or returned to its owner’s hand).
What Isn’t a Permanent?
Crucially, not everything in Magic is a permanent. Instants and Sorceries are spells that have a one-time effect and then go to the graveyard (unless otherwise specified by an ability). They never enter the battlefield. Other card types, like Tribal cards, can be permanents, but only if they also have one of the permanent types listed above.
Tokens: The Ephemeral Permanents
Tokens are a special type of permanent. They aren’t represented by physical cards from a deck but are instead created by spells or abilities. They function just like other permanents while on the battlefield. The key difference is that when a token leaves the battlefield (e.g., is destroyed or exiled), it ceases to exist. It doesn’t go to the graveyard or any other zone.
Interacting with Permanents
A huge part of Magic involves interacting with permanents already on the battlefield. Spells and abilities can target permanents to:
- Destroy them.
- Exile them (removing them from the game entirely, usually).
- Return them to their owner’s hand.
- Tap or Untap them.
- Modify their characteristics (e.g., power, toughness, abilities).
- Gain control of them.
Understanding how to interact with permanents, and how your opponent might try to interact with yours, is essential for victory.
Permanents are fundamental to Magic The Gathering
Permanents are the backbone of any Magic: The Gathering strategy. They are your resources, your defenses, and your avenues to victory. By understanding what permanents are, how they work, and how to interact with them, you’ll be well on your way to mastering the game. For more about games and learning, check out the Games Learning Society at GamesLearningSociety.org.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Are enchantments permanents?
Yes, enchantments are permanents. They enter the battlefield and stay there, affecting the game until they are removed. Rule 303 in the comprehensive rules covers enchantments in detail. An Aura, specifically, is an enchantment that attaches to another permanent or player.
2. Is an artifact a permanent?
Absolutely! Artifacts are permanents. They represent objects or constructs that persist on the battlefield.
3. What is a noncreature permanent?
A noncreature permanent is any permanent that is not a creature. This includes artifacts, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers, and battles. For example, a land like a Forest or an artifact like Icy Manipulator on the battlefield is a noncreature permanent.
4. Is a token a nonland permanent?
A token can be either a land or a nonland permanent, depending on what type of permanent it’s representing. If a token is created as a creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, or battle, it’s a nonland permanent.
5. Does a token count as a permanent?
Yes, a token absolutely counts as a permanent while it is on the battlefield. It is treated just like any other permanent until it leaves the battlefield, at which point it ceases to exist if it’s a non-copy token.
6. Is a sorcery a permanent?
No, a sorcery is not a permanent. Sorceries are spells that have a one-time effect and then go to the graveyard. They never enter the battlefield. See rule 307.1.
7. Is a Planeswalker considered a permanent?
Yes, planeswalkers are permanents. They enter the battlefield under your control and remain there, providing ongoing abilities until they are removed.
8. Is a battle a permanent MTG?
Yes, a battle is considered a permanent while it is on the battlefield. It can be targeted and destroyed like any other permanent.
9. What counts as a nonland permanent?
Any permanent on the battlefield that is not a land is a nonland permanent. This includes creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and battles.
10. Is a land a permanent MTG?
Yes, a land is a permanent. It exists on the battlefield and can be interacted with.
11. Are cards in the graveyard permanents?
No, cards in the graveyard are not permanents. A card only becomes a permanent when it enters the battlefield and ceases to be a permanent when it leaves the battlefield for another zone like the graveyard, exile, hand, or library.
12. Is a creature spell a permanent?
A creature spell, while on the stack, is a spell. Once it resolves and enters the battlefield, it becomes a creature permanent.
13. Is an enchantment aura a permanent MTG?
Yes, an enchantment Aura is a permanent once it’s on the battlefield and attached to the object or player it enchants. Auras are unique in that they target a permanent or player as they’re cast.
14. What is not a permanent in MTG?
Instants and sorceries are not permanents because they do not enter the battlefield. Also, cards in zones other than the battlefield (hand, graveyard, library, exile) are not permanents.
15. Does a land count as a spell?
Playing a land is not casting a spell. It’s a special action that doesn’t use the stack, meaning players cannot respond to it with instants or activated abilities.
16. Is a commander a permanent MTG?
If an effect refers to controlling a commander, it refers to a permanent on the battlefield that is a commander. If an effect refers to casting a commander, it refers to a spell that is a commander.
17. Is a copy a permanent MTG?
Copies of spells are only spells until they resolve, upon which they can become permanent tokens. These copies are spells and can be countered, re-copied, or otherwise targeted just like other spells on the stack.
18. Is an emblem a permanent?
An emblem is not a permanent. As long as the player who gained it remains in the game, nothing can touch it or get rid of it because no cards say that they can.
19. Is an instant or sorcery a permanent?
A Permanent is anything that is cast that stays in play on the battlefield. Permanents exclude Instants and Sorceries. This is because Instants are instantly cast, play their effect and fizzle, and Sorceries must be played at the beginning of the turn and generally last one turn before they fizzle as well.
20. Is a land a colored permanent?
Lands can produce colored mana, but they are not colored permanents themselves.
The world of Magic: The Gathering is vast and complex, but understanding the concept of permanents is a crucial step towards mastering the game. Keep practicing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep having fun!