Spell

Template:Navigation CRIn Magic: The Gathering , the term spell has three meanings; one technical, one casual and one flavorful.

Technical: Comprehensive Rules

A spell is any card that has been played and thus placed on the stack. A card is only a spell when it is on the stack.

Any text on an instant or sorcery spell is a spell ability unless it's an activated ability, a triggered ability or a static ability.

Casual

Originally the game was considered to have six basic kind of spells: Summons, enchantments, sorceries, instants, interrupts and artifacts.

Nowadays, spell is the collective term for all non-permanents. This includes: sorceries, instants and the obsoleted mana sources and interrupts.

Flavor

In the storyline, spells are the effect of a ritual that involves mental activity and a varying amount of both physical activity and the channeling of mana.

See also

• Spells on the stack