Rules glossary
302. Creatures
- 302.1 A player who has priority may cast a creature card from their hand during a main phase of their turn when the stack is empty. Casting a creature as a spell uses the stack. (See rule 601, “Casting Spells.”) (refs: 601)
- 302.2 When a creature spell resolves, its controller puts it onto the battlefield under their control.
- 302.3 Creature subtypes are usually a single word long and are listed after a long dash: “Creature — Human Soldier,” “Artifact Creature — Golem,” and so on. Creature subtypes are also called creature types. Creatures may have multiple subtypes. See rule 205.3m for the complete list of creature types. Example: “Creature — Goblin Wizard” means the card is a creature with the subtypes Goblin and Wizard. (refs: 205.3m)
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302.4
Power and toughness are characteristics only creatures have.
- 302.4a A creature’s power is the amount of damage it deals in combat.
- 302.4b A creature’s toughness is the amount of damage needed to destroy it.
- 302.4c To determine a creature’s power and toughness, start with the numbers printed in its lower right corner, then apply any applicable continuous effects. (See rule 613, “Interaction of Continuous Effects.”) (refs: 613)
- 302.5 Creatures can attack and block. (See rule 508, “Declare Attackers Step,” and rule 509, “Declare Blockers Step.”) (refs: 508, 509)
- 302.6 A creature’s activated ability with the tap symbol or the untap symbol in its activation cost can’t be activated unless the creature has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. A creature can’t attack unless it has been under its controller’s control continuously since their most recent turn began. This rule is informally called the “summoning sickness” rule.
- 302.7 Damage dealt to a creature by a source with neither wither nor infect is marked on that creature (see rule 120.3). If the total damage marked on that creature is greater than or equal to its toughness, that creature has been dealt lethal damage and is destroyed as a state-based action (see rule 704). All damage marked on a creature is removed when it regenerates (see rule 701.19, “Regenerate”) and during the cleanup step (see rule 514.2). (refs: 120.3, 704, 701.19, 514.2)