Imprint is an activated or triggered ability, written “Imprint – [text],” where “[text]” is an activated or triggered ability. Cards that are in the removed-from-the-game zone because they were removed from the game by an imprint ability are imprinted on the source of that ability. See rule 502.34, “Imprint.”
The phrase “imprinted [type] card” means the card of that type that’s imprinted on the permanent. If a permanent has more than one card of that type imprinted on it, each of those cards is an “imprinted [type] card.” See rule 502.34, “Imprint.”
In play is the zone in which permanents exist. When an artifact, creature, or enchantment spell resolves, it’s put into the in-play zone as a permanent. When a land is played, it’s put into the in-play zone as a permanent. Tokens also exist in this zone. See rule 217, “Zones.”
An effect is said to “depend on” another if it is applied at the same time as the other effect, and applying the other would change the text or the existence of the first effect, what it applies to, or what it does to any of the things it applies to. Otherwise, the effect is considered to be independent of the first effect. See rule 418.5, “Interaction of Continuous Effects.”
If a permanent is indestructible, rules and effects can’t destroy it. Such permanents are not destroyed by lethal damage, and they ignore the lethal-damage state-based effect (see rule 420.5c). Rules or effects may cause an indestructible permanent to be sacrificed, put into a graveyard, or removed from the game.
There’s no such thing as “infinity” in Magic rules. Occasionally the game can get into a state where a set of actions could be repeated forever. The “infinity rule” governs how to break such loops. See rule 421, “Handling ‘Infinite’ Loops.”
Instant is a type. A player may play instants whenever he or she has priority. An instant spell is put into its owner’s graveyard as the last step of its resolution. See rule 212.5, “Instants,” and rule 409, “Playing Spells and Activated Abilities.”
Instant subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash: “Instant – Arcane.” Instant subtypes are also called instant types. An instant subtype that’s also a sorcery subtype is also called a spell type.
The list of instant types, updated through the Time Spiral set, is as follows: Arcane.
Effects that use the word “instead” are replacement effects. Most replacement effects use the word “instead” to indicate what events will be replaced with other events. See rule 419, “Replacement and Prevention Effects.”
Some older cards used the term “interrupt” on the card’s type line. All interrupt cards are now instant cards. All abilities that were played as interrupts are now played like normal activated abilities (and are mana abilities if they produce mana).
Intervening “If” Clause
Triggered abilities with a condition directly following the trigger event (for example, “When/Whenever/At [trigger], if [condition], [effect]”) check for the condition to be true as part of the trigger event; if it isn’t, the ability doesn’t trigger. The ability checks the condition again on resolution. If it’s not satisfied, the ability does nothing. Note that this mirrors the check for legal targets. Note that this rule doesn’t apply to any triggered ability with an “if” condition elsewhere within its text. See rule 404.3.
“Island” is one of the five basic land types. Any land with the land type Island has the ability “{T}: Add {U} to your mana pool.” See rule 212.6d.
See Landcycling.
Some older cards were printed with the term islandhome, which means “This creature can’t attack unless the defending player controls an Island” and “When you control no Islands, sacrifice this creature.” Cards that previously had islandhome now simply have the two parts of islandhome written out without using the keyword.
See Landwalk.
Some abilities are very common or would require too much space to define on a card. These abilities list only the name of the ability as a “keyword”; sometimes reminder text summarizes the game rule. See rule 502, “Keyword Abilities.”
Kicker is a keyword ability with a cost and an effect. Paying a spell’s kicker cost causes the spell to have an additional or alternative effect. See rule 502.21, “Kicker.”
“Kicker [cost]” means “You may pay an additional [cost] as you play this spell.” You declare whether you intend to pay a spell’s kicker cost at the same time you would choose the spell’s mode (see rule 409.1b), and you actually pay the cost when you pay the rest of the spell’s costs (see rule 409.1f-h). Paying a kicker cost is always optional.
A spell’s controller chooses targets (see rule 409.1d) for a kicker effect only if he or she declared the intention to pay the kicker cost for that effect. If the spell’s controller declared that he or she wouldn’t pay a particular kicker cost, he or she doesn’t choose the targets for the effect associated with that kicker cost.
Land is a type. Lands aren’t spells and don’t go on the stack; they are simply played from the hand. The active player may play a land once each turn during his or her main phase when he or she has priority and the stack is empty. If an object is both a land and another type, it can only be played as a land. It can’t be played as a spell. See rule 212.6, “Lands.”
Land subtypes are always a single word and are listed after a long dash: “Land – Locus, Land – Urza’s Mine,” etc. Land subtypes are also called land types. Lands may have multiple subtypes. Note that “basic,” “legendary,” and “nonbasic” aren’t land types. See rule 212.6, “Lands.” See also Basic Land Type.
The list of land types, updated through the Time Spiral set, is as follows:
Desert, Forest, Island, Lair, Locus, Mine, Mountain, Plains, Power-Plant, Swamp, Tower, Urza’s
“Landcycling” is a generic term; a card’s rules text usually names a specific type of land, such as “plainscycling.”