

Aura SwapĪura Swap appeared in Future Sight and lets you swap the card with an Aura in your hand. AssistĪssist is a Battlebond mechanic that allows other players to pay mana towards a spell you’re casting. It was in Rivals of Ixalan and usually offered benefits for having the blessing. AscendĪscend is an ability that grants the city’s blessing once you have ten permanents in play. It’s a triggered ability that occurs when attacking, and causes opponents to sacrifice a number of permanents. AnnihilatorĪnnihilator is an ability unique to Eldrazi and appeared in Rise of the Eldrazi.

AmplifyĪmplify appeared in Legions and allows you to reveal creature cards from your hand to put +1/+1 counters onto a creature. AftermathĪftermath is an ability that first appeared in Amonkhet, and it is on the second spell on dual-spell cards and allows the spell to be cast from the graveyard.

AfterlifeĪfterlife appeared in Ravnica Allegiance and is a triggered ability that occurs when a creature dies, that allows you to create 1/1 White and Black Spirit tokens with flying. AfflictĪfflict was introduced in Hour of Devastation, and allows creatures to deal damage to the opponent even if they’ve been blocked. This ability reduces the cost for a spell based on the number of certain permanents you control, usually artifacts. AffinityĪffinity was introduced in Mirrodin. Absorb allows a creature to prevent some damage. Magic: The Gathering keywords explainedĪbsorb was introduced in Future Sight and hasn't been seen since. There’s a lot of them to get through, but each of them is either a part of the history of the game, or a key part of modern-day play.Ī lot of these are unlikely to be seen outside of niche Commander decks, but hey, knowledge is power, and we’re aiming to make you very powerful indeed. In order to help you learn more about them, including where we first saw each of the many MTG keywords, we’ve decided to go ahead and make a giant list explaining what keywords in Magic: The Gathering mean. While many will often have reminder text on the card, with some cards being so wordy already, it’s useful to know what each of these does. There are an awful lot of Magic: The Gathering keywords, and frankly, it’s hard to keep them all in mind.
