Decoding Permanents: Your Comprehensive Guide to MTG’s Enduring Elements
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A permanent in Magic: The Gathering (MTG) refers to a card or token on the battlefield. These are the core components of the game state, representing the lasting elements that players control and interact with to achieve victory. They endure, providing ongoing effects and capabilities, until removed through destruction, exile, sacrifice, or other game mechanics. Essentially, if it’s on the battlefield and it isn’t an instant or sorcery, it’s likely a permanent.
Understanding the Foundation: Permanent Types
Permanents come in various forms, each with unique characteristics and roles in the game:
- Artifacts: Man-made objects, often providing utility or enhancing other permanents.
- Creatures: The combatants of the game, attacking and blocking to reduce opponents’ life totals or defend your own.
- Enchantments: Spells that provide ongoing effects, often modifying permanents or affecting gameplay rules.
- Lands: The source of mana, the resource needed to cast spells and activate abilities.
- Planeswalkers: Powerful allies with loyalty abilities that can swing the game in your favor.
- Battles: A newer permanent type, introduced in the March of the Machine set, that represents sieges of various planes and can be attacked by multiple players.
Distinguishing Permanents from Non-Permanents
It’s crucial to differentiate permanents from instants and sorceries. These card types are spells that resolve and then are placed in the graveyard. They don’t remain on the battlefield. Some card types, like Tribal, can exist as either permanents or non-permanents depending on their other types. For instance, a Tribal Sorcery is not a permanent, while a Tribal Enchantment is.
Permanents: The Building Blocks of Strategy
Understanding permanents is crucial for strategic deck building and gameplay. The way you manage, protect, and remove permanents is central to MTG. From crafting efficient mana bases to constructing resilient creature strategies to deploying devastating enchantment-based combos, the mastery of permanents is paramount. The study of games and their impact on learning and education are explored in detail by organizations like the Games Learning Society, which offers resources and insights at https://www.gameslearningsociety.org/.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About MTG Permanents
1. What exactly is a noncreature permanent?
A noncreature permanent is any permanent that isn’t a creature. This includes artifacts, enchantments, lands, planeswalkers, and battles. A classic example is Icy Manipulator, an artifact, or a simple Forest.
2. Is a token considered a permanent?
Yes, a token is a permanent. It’s a marker representing a permanent not represented by a regular card. Tokens on the battlefield adhere to permanent rules and, unless stated otherwise, generally exist in all zones. However, certain zone changes (especially leaving the battlefield) may cause tokens to cease to exist.
3. What qualifies as a nonland permanent?
A nonland permanent is any permanent on the battlefield that is not a land. So, a creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker, or battle all count as nonland permanents.
4. Is a battle considered a permanent in MTG?
Yes, a battle is a permanent. This newer card type enters the battlefield and can be attacked, defended, and interacted with like other permanents, until its defense is depleted or is otherwise removed from the battlefield.
5. Are lands always colorless permanents?
Generally, lands are colorless. However, certain effects or abilities can change their color. For instance, a card like Deathlace can make a land black. By default, however, lands have no inherent color.
6. Does a land card count as a spell when you play it?
No, playing a land doesn’t count as casting a spell. When you “play” a land, it’s simply placed on the battlefield without using the stack (the zone where spells and abilities wait to resolve), unlike when you cast a spell.
7. Can I tap any permanent?
No, you can only tap untapped permanents. Tapping a permanent often signifies its use for mana generation or ability activation. Once tapped, it must be untapped before it can be tapped again.
8. Can you counter a permanent that’s already on the battlefield?
No, you cannot counter a permanent that’s already on the battlefield. Counterspells work on spells on the stack (before they resolve and become permanents). Once a spell resolves and becomes a permanent, it’s too late to counter it. Removal spells would be used to interact with permanents.
9. Is a Forest a green permanent?
No, a basic Forest is not inherently a green permanent. It’s a colorless land. Its association with green mana comes from its ability to be tapped for green mana. It takes effects from other spells or abilities to actively make a Forest a green permanent.
10. Is a commander considered a permanent?
If a commander is on the battlefield, it’s considered a permanent. Effects referring to “controlling a commander” refer to a permanent on the battlefield that is your commander.
11. What happens when a permanent moves to the graveyard?
When a permanent moves to the graveyard, it ceases to be a permanent. The term “permanent” specifically applies to cards and tokens on the battlefield.
12. Is a sorcery a permanent?
A sorcery is not a permanent. Sorceries are spells that are cast from your hand during your main phase when the stack is empty, and then they go to the graveyard after they resolve. They never enter the battlefield.
13. What about “Goaded”, is that a permanent status?
No, being “Goaded” is not a permanent status. It’s a temporary effect that forces a creature to attack during its controller’s next turn if able. The effect wears off when that player’s next turn begins.
14. If I mutate a token, is it still a token?
Yes, if you mutate a token, it is still a token. If a token is on top of a mutated creature, the entire merged creature is considered a token. If a card is on top, the resulting permanent is a nontoken permanent.
15. What if my opponent’s permanent has deathtouch, and so does mine?
Deathtouch is a static ability, and the effects of multiple instances of the ability don’t stack. In a combat situation, deathtouch does not cancel out another creature’s deathtouch. If a creature with deathtouch deals damage to another creature, that creature is destroyed.