In the post-Magic 2014 world, “indestructible” is now a keyworded ability! Instead of cards having the wording “Darksteel Ingot is indestructible”, the Ingot now simply has the ability “indestructible.”

The indestructible ability does the exact same thing that “this permanent is indestructible” used to: a permanent with indestructible can’t be destroyed by lethal damage or effects that use the word “destroy.” (Damage will still be marked on the creature, though — which could be relevant if the creature loses indestructible later in the turn. Of course, the creature can still be sacrificed, exiled, killed by having toughness less than one, and so on, since those aren’t destruction.)

Before, because indestructible wasn’t an ability, permanents that were made indestructible by resolving spells and abilities (like that of Falkenrath Aristocrat or Withstand Death) remained indestructible even if they lost all abilities. Now that “indestructible” is officially an ability, an indestructible creature that loses its abilities will be, well, destructible.

Additionally, since indestructible previously wasn’t an ability, it behaved differently from spells that grant abilities to a group of permanents. Spells that made creatures or permanents you control indestructible–such as Boros Charm, Ready // Willing, or Rootborn Defenses–set up a special condition that changed the rules of the game. As a result, even if you gained control of a creature after Boros Charm resolved, it would also be indestructible.

Now that indestructible is an ability, this is changing. Much like Overrun will only give +3/+3 and trample to creatures you control when Overrun resolves, any one-shot effect that grants indestructible to a set of creatures and other permanents will only affect creatures or permanents you control when that effect resolves. A permanent that enters the battlefield or that you gain control of after that effect resolves won’t have indestructible, because it wasn’t around when the original effect resolved.

One important exception is if a static ability is granting the indestructible ability to your creatures, like Elspeth, Knight-Errant’s emblem, Avacyn, Angel of Hope, or Darksteel Forge. Those abilities will continue to reevaluate the game state for any new applicable permanents.

And that’s what you need to know about the indestructible ability! This rules change should make rules interactions with indestructible more intuitive and more similar to how other cards work. Approximately 60 cards have received errata for the update, to change “is/are indestructible” to “gain(s)” or “has/have indestructible,” or for those permanents that used to say “{This} is indestructible” to simply say “indestructible.”

Here are some tips that have changed because of this rule! I’ve summarized the most relevant changes, but click through on each link to see the fully-revised tip!

* Fusing Turn and Burn will kill Falkenrath Artistocrat. Even if your opponent activates its ability to give it indestructible in response, Turn will now remove indestructible.
* Rootborn Defenses, Boros Charm, and similar spells now work like Overrun; they only affect creatures you control as the spell resolves.
* Geist of Saint Traft and his angel buddy now interact a little differently with Frontline Medic.

Today’s Rules Tip written by Paul Baranay