Status

Status is a collective term referring to four states of permanents. They are: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Unless an effect says otherwise, a permanent will enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in.

Notably, "transformed" is not a status, even though a permanent may "enter the battlefield transformed" (its is covered by face up/face down).

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Status

The physical state of a permanent. See rule 110.5.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 110.5. A permanent’s status is its physical state. There are four status categories, each of which has two possible values: tapped/untapped, flipped/unflipped, face up/face down, and phased in/phased out. Each permanent always has one of these values for each of these categories.
  • 110.5a Status is not a characteristic, though it may affect a permanent’s characteristics.
  • 110.5b Permanents enter the battlefield untapped, unflipped, face up, and phased in unless a spell or ability says otherwise.
  • 110.5c A permanent retains its status until a spell, ability, or turn-based action changes it, even if that status is not relevant to it.

    Example: Dimir Doppelganger says “{1}{U}{B}: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Dimir Doppelganger becomes a copy of that card and gains this ability.” It becomes a copy of Jushi Apprentice, a flip card. Through use of Jushi Apprentice’s ability, this creature flips, making it a copy of Tomoya the Revealer with the Dimir Doppelganger ability. If this permanent then becomes a copy of Runeclaw Bear, it will retain its flipped status even though that has no relevance to Runeclaw Bear. If its copy ability is activated again, this time targeting a Nezumi Shortfang card (another flip card), this permanent’s flipped status means it will have the characteristics of Stabwhisker the Odious (the flipped version of Nezumi Shortfang) with the Dimir Doppelganger ability.

  • 110.5d Only permanents have status. Cards not on the battlefield do not. Although an exiled card may be face down, this has no correlation to the face-down status of a permanent. Similarly, cards not on the battlefield are neither tapped nor untapped, regardless of their physical state.