At the beginning of the end step vs until the end of turn.

There are a few things that happen at the end of every turn; players discard down to their maximum hand size, damage on creatures goes away etc. One area that often confuses players is the difference between effects that last until the turn ends and triggered abilities that trigger at the end of a turn. […]

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Tokens do go to the graveyard when destroyed.

Token creatures are actual creatures and they will cause relevant abilities to trigger when they leave play. For example, ‘s ability will trigger when a token creature controlled by an opponent goes to the graveyard. This also applies if the source of the ability itself goes to the graveyard. If a token copy of a […]

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Lifelink is not cumulative.

When initially introduced Lifelink was a triggered ability. If a permanent had multiple instances of lifelink, then each of these separate abilities would trigger independently ultimately causing the controller of of these abilities to gain more life than the damage dealt. However when the Magic 2010 base set was released how Lifelink works was changed. […]

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Nested Ghoul’s ability triggers once per source of damage.

Some abilities in Magic care about specific amount of damage and others care about the sources of damage regardless of the amount. Abilities that prevent damage and redirect damage are obvious examples. For example, compare and . Shiledmate’s Blessing prevents a specific amount of damage and Auriok Replica’s ability prevents all damage from a specific […]

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‘Becomes blocked’ vs. ‘becomes blocked by a creature’

Many triggered abilities trigger when an attacking creature becomes blocked. However some of them trigger just once regardless of the number of creatures that are blocking the attacking creature and others trigger once per each blocking creature. The difference is in how the trigger condition is written. Abilities that say ‘Whenever ~this creature~ becomes blocked’ […]

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How Kuldotha Flamefiend’s triggered ability works.

Triggered abilities are not played or cast, then automatically trigger when their trigger condition is met. Because of this, there is not a cost to have these abilities trigger. However many trigger do have costs associated with them when they resolve. This matters with cards like from Mirrodin Besieged. The Flamefiend’s ability triggers when it […]

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