Die
- For rolling a die, see Dice roll. For the creature type, see Die (creature type).
| Die | |
|---|---|
| Mechanic | |
| Introduced | Alpha |
| Last used | Evergreen |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
To die, dies and died are descriptive terms on Magic cards that refer to when a creature or planeswalker goes to the graveyard from the battlefield. This can be caused by damage, destruction, and other effects, and is often referred to by triggered abilities.
Description
Dies replaces the phrases "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield" and "has been put into a graveyard from the battlefield", respectively. In contrast to the similar destroy, these are not keyword actions. Their main function is to be used as a condition for triggered abilities, colloquially called death triggers. As such, it mirrors enter effects.[1]
Creatures die if they take lethal damage or have their toughness reduced to 0 or less, as a State-based action. Planeswalkers die if they have no loyalty counters on them. Both of them die if they get destroyed, or any other effect or spell that makes them go from the battlefield to the graveyard, such as Sacrifice.
A creature or planeswalker does not die if it is sent to another zone (usually Exile), either directly or by a replacement effect. It ceases to exist as an object on the battlefield, but abilities that check if a creature or planeswalker dies do not trigger.
History
"Dies" used to be a slang term for this occurrence before and was reintroduced in Magic 2012, in anticipation of Innistrad and the Morbid mechanic. It used to be exclusive to creatures while other card types still use the old phrasing. As of Core Set 2019, a planeswalker is also considered to "die" when sent from the battlefield to the graveyard (Ajani’s Last Stand).
As of Final Fantasy R&D is allowing cards that affect creatures and one or more other permanent types to use “dies”. Al Bhed Salvagers thus is the first card that features an artifact "dying", as opposed to “being put into a graveyard from the battlefield.”[2]
Rules
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)
- Dies
- A creature or planeswalker “dies” if it is put into a graveyard from the battlefield. See rule 700.4.
From the Comprehensive Rules (November 14, 2025—Avatar: The Last Airbender)
- 700.4. The term dies means “is put into a graveyard from the battlefield.”
Death triggers
While creatures that trigger on their own death act as value-preserving effects in the face of removal, triggers that occur whenever other creatures die are a different texture of mechanic that rewards generating many expendable creatures and a large board state. It is sometimes referred to as "rewards for death". While morbid and its ilk also reward when creatures die, those use a one-time check rather than one for each death, which favors attrition and a smaller board state.
Black is primary with triggers off from other things dying, usually flavored as gaining strength from others' pain.[3] White, secondary, usually gains life, creates a token creature, or helps the creature go somewhere other than the graveyard, often your hand. Red is tertiary and tends to create creature tokens or deal damage.
One of the most influential death triggers is Blood Artist and its family of draining effects, which is strongly associated with Aristocrats decks. Such effects mean that a destruction-based board wipe will not be sufficient to save a player from a horde of token creatures until the death trigger creature is removed.
Related to this are sacrifice triggers, which are more specific but can still be considered a death trigger. However, it is both more specific and more resilient, as it will trigger through graveyard-hate exiling effects but will not trigger against removal or in combat.
Khabál ability
The Khabál ability was a slang term used by Magic R&D formerly to describe the ability that whenever another creature dies, you put a +1/+1 counter on the creature with the ability.[4] This ability was nicknamed after the first creature to have it: Khabál Ghoul from Arabian Nights. Khabál is Arabic for "Night"[5] or "Maddened".[6]
As the ability was broadened and became available in other colors, the slang term was obsoleted.[3]
Sengir ability
The Sengir ability is a slang term used by Magic R&D to describe the following effect: "When a creature damaged by this creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature."[4] This effect is named after the card Sengir Vampire from Alpha. An alternate nickname, as proposed by Mark Rosewater, could be hunger.[7]
The effect is primary used in black as a subset of death triggers.[8] The ability has proven hard to use as players either avoid blocking it or make sure to block it with enough creatures to kill it, meaning that it doesn't often result in the creature getting +1/+1 counters.[9] Because of this, R&D now does variations of it:
- Zurgo Helmsmasher having indestructible during his attack phase
- Vampiric Dragon directly damages creatures
- Markov Enforcer has a trigger that fights
- Having the payoff be independent of the creature surviving, i.e., Wight, creating a Zombie token
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (October 10, 2018). "If a color can have and ETB on a creature can if to the same effect on a death trigger?". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (May 20, 2025). "Is “being put into a graveyard from the battlefield” being retired for noncreature, nonplaneswalker permanents??". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (October 18, 2021). "Mechanical Color Pie 2021 Changes". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-10-18.
- ↑ a b Mark Rosewater (June 5, 2017). "Mechanical Color Pie 2017". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (December 02, 2015). "Khabal (ghoul) is "night"". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ What is the meaning of the Arabic word خبل (khabal)?
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 22, 2018). "Okay but if you were to keyword the sengir...". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 23, 2018). "What colors would you put the hunger thats what...". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (January 18, 2019). "Can I get some trivia on Zurgo Helmsmasher?". Blogatog. Tumblr.