Card Types Explained

Magic: The Gathering is played utilizing many different types of cards. You'll fill your deck out with Land cards, and use the Mana from these lands to cast spells. In Magic, spells are every card with a Mana cost, so Creatures, Artifacts, Instants, and so on all count as a spell. Every card has a card type, which help determines what a card can and can't do, and how to use them using the game's specific timing restrictions.

Some cards also have subtypes and supertypes. Subtypes appear on a card after the card type, after "-". Subtypes are present on every Creature card to help determine what sort of creature it is -- Elf, Goblin, Zombie, etc. Enchantments also have a common subtype with Auras, which are Enchantment cards that can only be attached to other permanents and players. Supertypes are keywords that appear before the main card type. This includes modifiers like "Legendary" cards, Basic lands, and Snow permanents.

There are many cards that combine card types. There are Artifact Lands, Enchantment Creatures, Artifact Enchantments, to name a few, and even some Planeswalkers become Creatures and retain the Planeswalker card type.

Permanents are any card that stays on the battlefield, including Lands and Tokens. Many cards describe targeting a permanent or "non-land permanent". Instants and Sorceries are one-time use cards and are not permanents.

Some cards, like Tarmogoyf, care about what card types are in your graveyard. This guide will help you learn the different card types in the game.

List of All Card Types

• Creature: A creature is a permanent that you'll use to engage in combat. Every creature comes with a corresponding power and toughness, represented by "X/Y" on the bottom right of the card. X represents power, or how much damage the creature deals in combat. Y represents toughness, or how much damage it can take either in combat or from other effects before it dies and is sent to the graveyard.
• Land: These are the building blocks of any Magic deck. Lands are required to add Mana into your Mana pool, which you'll use to pay the costs of all other cards. Lands can produce one of the five colors in Magic (White, Blue, Black, Red, or Green), or combinations of multiple colors. Some lands produce colorless Mana, and many have their own triggered and activated abilities.
• Planeswalker: First introduced in the original Lorwyn block in 2007, Planeswalkers are a powerful permanent that have their own unique activated abilities. War of the Spark (2019) was the first set to print Planeswalkers in static abilities. Planeswalkers have their set "life", called Loyalty. Their abilities are activated by either using the + or - Loyalty abilities, and - abilities can only be activated if they have enough Loyalty to do so. If a Planeswalker's Loyalty is reduced to 0, it dies. Planeswalkers can be attacked by Creatures as if it were a player and dealt damage with spells and abilities.
• Artifact: Artifacts are permanents with many different subtypes. The most common Artifacts are "Mana rocks", or cheap Artifacts that can be tapped to produce mana. A popular subtype of Artifact cards are Equipment cards, which can be attached to creatures to boost their power and toughness or provide powerful new effects.
• Enchantment: Similar to Artifacts, Enchantments are permanent cards with their own bespoke set of subtypes, such as Auras and Shrines.
• Battle: First introduced when March of the Machines (2023), Battles are the newest card type to be added to Magic, utilizing the Siege subtype previously only seen on Enchantments. Battles have specific activated and triggered abilities. They enter under their owner's control, and can be attacked by that player to "defeat" it by depleting its defense counters. Defense counters function similarly to Planeswalker Loyalty. Once a Battle is defeated, its exiled, and its reverse side is cast. These can range from Sorcery effects, Creatures, and even Planeswalkers.
• Sorcery: Sorceries are one-time use spells that interact with an opponent's game plan, draws you cards, and destroys permanents, among countless other abilities. These can only be played during your own Main Phases, commonly referred to as "Sorcery Speed".
• Instant: Instants function similarly to Sorceries, but can be played at any time, including your opponents turn. The most common Instant cards are "counter spells", which interact directly with an opponents attempt at casting their own spells.
• Tribal/ Kindred: First introduced in Future Sight (2007), Kindred (formerly Tribal) made its return with Lorwyn Eclipsed (2026) after years absent from the game. This is a unique supertype that gives non-Creature spells Creature subtypes, which help trigger abilities that say "When you cast a Goblin spell", for example.
• Token: While Tokens don't technically count as cards, they are extremely impactful in almost any game of Magic. Tokens can take the form of any permanent and are created by other cards, but if they are removed they simply cease to exist. If a Token is targeted by a "return this to hand" effect, it vanishes, since only cards can be in any players hand. Tokens can also have subtypes and supertypes, such as the Legendary Token Creature Marit Lage, which is created by the Dark Depths Land card.