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A permanent that gives a static power/toughness boost to your creatures.

Removes multiple permanents at once. Includes destroy-all, exile-all, mass bounce, and damage-based sweepers.

A spell that deals direct damage to creatures or players.

A spell that replaces itself by drawing a card as part of its resolution.

Puts additional cards into your hand. Includes direct draw, 'look/reveal and put into hand' effects, and conditional draw triggers.

An instant-speed spell that modifies combat — pump, protection, or removal during combat.

A permanent or effect that makes spells or abilities cheaper to cast or activate.

Prevents a spell or ability from resolving.

A permanent or ability that lets you discard cards for value or at will.

A card that makes a strategy possible or consistent without being the payoff itself.

Grants one or more additional turns. A powerful tempo and inevitability effect in any strategy.

Cards that directly win the game or threaten to end it quickly. Includes 'you win the game' effects and massive threats.

A spell that prevents all combat damage for a turn.

Returns cards from the graveyard to your hand, the battlefield, or the top of your library.

Forces opponents to discard cards from their hand. Targeted discard, mass discard, and discard-or-pay effects.

Exile-based card advantage — exile cards from the top of your library and cast them temporarily. Red's primary draw mechanic.

Gains you life. Relevant for lifegain-matters strategies and general survivability.

Draw-then-discard or discard-then-draw effects that improve hand quality without net card advantage.

Helps produce colors you need. Includes multicolor lands, color filtering, and 'any color' mana sources.

A permanent with a repeatable activated ability that converts excess mana into value.

A card that rewards you for doing something repeatedly — the reason to build around a theme.

Equipment, aura, or spell that protects key permanents from removal.

A spell or ability that gives a temporary power/toughness boost.

Accelerates mana production beyond the one-land-per-turn baseline. Umbrella tag — see ramp subtypes for land ramp, mana dorks, mana rocks, and rituals.

Returns cards from graveyard to hand or library (not battlefield — that is reanimation).

Answers an opponent's threat by destroying, exiling, bouncing, or otherwise removing a permanent or spell.

Lets you sacrifice your own creatures or permanents for value. Key enabler for aristocrats strategies.

An effect that puts cards from your own library into your graveyard for value.

Creates creature tokens, Treasure tokens, Food tokens, Clue tokens, or other token types.

Creates Treasure tokens for mana or sacrifice synergies.

Searches your library for a specific card. Named after Demonic Tutor. Excludes land search (that's ramp).

An effect that untaps permanents, enabling reuse of tap abilities or mana.

Puts additional lands onto the battlefield or searches for lands. Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, fetchlands.

Creatures that tap to produce mana. Llanowar Elves, Birds of Paradise, Elvish Mystic.

Artifacts that produce mana. Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone.

One-shot mana bursts that don't persist. Dark Ritual, Seething Song, Treasure token generators used for mana.

Specifically removes artifacts.

Specifically removes creatures — destroy, exile, damage, or -X/-X.

Specifically removes enchantments.

Removes threats by exiling rather than destroying — bypasses indestructible and death triggers.

Destroys or removes lands.

Removes any nonland permanent — the Vindicate, Beast Within, Generous Gift category. Most flexible single-target removal.

Specifically removes planeswalkers.

Attacks quickly and deals damage efficiently. Includes haste, double strike, first strike, prowess, and cards that grant these.

Has or grants deathtouch — kills anything it damages, effective deterrent and combat removal.

Suited for blocking and defense. Includes defender, reach, vigilance, and cards that incentivize blocking.

Difficult to block or grants evasion. Includes flying, menace, fear, intimidate, shadow, skulk, horsemanship, unblockable effects, and cards that grant these abilities.

Has first strike or double strike — trades favorably in combat.

Cannot be blocked or has an ability that makes it very hard to block.

Benefits from creatures dying — drain effects, death triggers, and sacrifice-for-value payoffs.

Rewards controlling, casting, or sacrificing artifacts.

Benefits from attacking — attack triggers, combat damage triggers, exalted.

Aura and enchant creature focused strategies — constellation, heroic, bogles.

Exiles a permanent and returns it to the battlefield — re-triggers ETB effects.

Random, chaotic, or coin-flip effects that create unpredictable game states.

Clue token and investigate synergies — card draw and artifact interactions.

Creates copies of creatures, permanents, or spells.

Cares about +1/+1 counters — places, moves, doubles, or benefits from counters on creatures.

Cycling-focused strategy — payoffs for cycling, cycling triggers, Astral Drift effects.

Devotion-based strategies — caring about colored mana symbols in mana costs.

Benefits from creatures or permanents dying — death triggers, blood artist effects.

Benefits from discarding cards — madness, Waste Not effects, Oskar strategies.

Rewards controlling, casting, or interacting with enchantments.

Uses the energy counter mechanic from Kaladesh and related sets.

Equipment-focused strategy — attaching, equip cost reduction, equipment ETBs.

Triggers when a creature or permanent enters the battlefield. Prime blink targets.

Takes extra combat phases for additional attacks and triggers.

Flash-focused strategy — playing at instant speed for tempo and information advantage.

Exiles and returns permanents for ETB reuse — distinct from blink by sometimes including end step return.

Food token synergies — creation, sacrifice, and artifact interactions.

Cares about cards in the graveyard, puts cards into the graveyard, or benefits from things dying.

Benefits all players or gives opponents choices/resources. Political strategy.

Triggers when a land enters the battlefield under your control.

Land-focused strategies beyond ramp — land recursion, land sacrifice, Crucible of Worlds.

Triggers or payoffs when you gain life — not just life gain itself, but caring about it.

Effects that double or multiply mana production.

Monarch mechanic — becoming and keeping the monarch for card advantage.

Cares about casting noncreature spells — magecraft, prowess-adjacent strategies.

Discourages opponents from attacking you with taxes, penalties, and deterrents.

Creates copies of tokens — populate keyword and similar effects.

Cares about power of creatures — Fling effects, power-based draw, Xenagos strategies.

Proliferate-focused strategy — adds counters of all types.

Puts creatures into the graveyard then returns them to the battlefield cheaply.

Broadly benefits from sacrificing permanents — overlaps aristocrats but includes non-creature sacrifice.

Rewards casting instants and sorceries. Includes magecraft, prowess triggers, and spell-count payoffs.

Slows opponents down by taxing actions or restricting what they can do.

Storm count strategies — casting many spells in a single turn for storm triggers.

Planeswalker-heavy strategy — proliferate, Doubling Season, planeswalker synergies.

Cares about tokens being on the battlefield — payoffs for having or creating tokens. Distinct from token_generation (which creates them).

Cares about or manipulates the top card(s) of your library. Includes scry, surveil, and top-deck payoffs.

Cares about or manipulates the top of library — Sensei's Top, miracles, Future Sight.

Synergies with Treasure tokens beyond just mana — sacrifice triggers, artifact counts.

Cares about creature types — lords, type-matters effects, and changeling.

Powers up a single creature with equipment or auras. Includes equipment, aura payoffs, and suited-up creature effects.

Makes all players discard their hand and draw a new one. Named after Wheel of Fortune.

Specifically destroys, exiles, or shuts down artifacts.

Punishes or prevents creature-based strategies — makes creatures enter tapped, prevents attacking, taxes creatures.

Punishes or prevents opponents from drawing extra cards.

Specifically destroys, exiles, or shuts down enchantments.

Prevents enter-the-battlefield triggers from resolving. Torpor Orb and friends. Shuts down blink and ETB value.

Exiles cards from graveyards or prevents graveyard interaction. Shuts down recursion, flashback, and graveyard-matters strategies.

Destroys or denies opponents' lands — Strip Mine, Blood Moon, Back to Basics.

Prevents or punishes life gain — Erebos, Leyline of Punishment.

Specifically damages, destroys, or shuts down planeswalkers.

Prevents players from searching their libraries. Shuts down tutors and fetchlands.

Tax or prevent spellcasting — Rule of Law, Thalia, Sphere of Resistance.

Prevents token creation or punishes tokens on the battlefield.