Index	Table of Contents	Terms
	Terms - P

Pass
To choose to do nothing when you have priority. If all players pass in succession, the spell, ability, or combat damage on top of the stack resolves. If the stack is empty, the phase or step ends.
   See also Priority, Stack.

Paying a cost
Once you pay a mana cost or an activation cost, there's no way to get back what you paid, even if the spell or ability is countered.
   You can't pay a cost unless you can pay all of it. For example, if an activated ability costs 8 life and you have 3 life, you can't play the ability.
   Remember that you can't pay a creature's activation cost that includes  unless you've controlled the creature since the beginning of your turn.
   If an effect does something to a permanent that resembles paying a cost of its ability, it doesn't count as paying the cost. For example, Twiddle reads, "Tap or untap target artifact, creature, or land." Prodigal Sorcerer's ability reads, ": Prodigal Sorcerer deals 1 damage to target creature or player." If you play Twiddle to tap the Sorcerer, it won't cause the Sorcerer to deal 1 damage.
   See also Activation cost, Mana cost.

Paying life
Sometimes a spell or ability will ask you to pay life as part of its cost. You can't pay more life than you have. Paying life isn't damage, so it can't be prevented.
   See also Life, Losing life.

Permanent
A card in play. Permanents can be artifacts, creatures, enchantments, or lands.
   Once a permanent is in play, it stays there until it's destroyed, sacrificed, or removed somehow. You can't remove a permanent from play just because you want to, even if you control it.
   Except for lands, permanents are almost always spells while they're being played. For example, you play a creature spell, and when it resolves, it becomes a creature.
   Unless they say otherwise, spells and abilities only affect permanents. For example, Evacuation reads, "Return all creatures to their owners' hands." That means all creatures in play, not creature cards in graveyards or anywhere else.
   If a permanent leaves play and then comes into play again later, it doesn't "remember" anything about the last time it was in play.
   See also In play, Leaves play.

Permanent type
The permanent types are artifact, artifact creature, creature, enchantment, and land.
   Permanents can have more than one type. For example, Nature's Revolt reads, "All lands are 2/2 creatures that are still lands." While Nature's Revolt is in play, lands are affected by anything that affects creatures and anything that affects lands.

Phase
A section of a turn. Some phases are divided into steps. Click the following links for more information about each phase.

1. Beginning phase
2. Main phase (precombat)
3. Combat phase
4. Main phase (postcombat)
5. End phase

Plainswalk
A creature ability that makes the creature unblockable as long as the defending player controls a plains.
   See also Landwalk.

Play
For a land, to use your once-a-turn option to put a land into play from your hand.
   For a spell or ability, to take all necessary steps to put it on the stack.
   See also Activated ability, Land, Spell. Compare In play, Put into play.

Play/draw rule
The player who plays first skips his or her first draw step.

Player
Either you, an opponent, or a teammate. If a spell or ability lets you choose a player, you can choose yourself. However, if a card says "opponent," you can't choose yourself.

Power
The number to the left of the slash in the lower right corner of creature cards. Power represents how much damage a creature can deal in combat. Only creatures and artifact creatures have power. A creature with 0 power or less deals 0 damage in combat.
   Any time counters or effects modify a creature's power in the Magic Online game, the creature's modified power is shown on the creature in play. For example, Storm Shaman is a 0/4 creature with the ability, ": Storm Shaman gets +1/+0 until end of turn." If you activate the Shaman's ability once, the Shaman is shown as a 1/4 creature.
   See also Toughness.

Prevention effect
An effect that stops damage from being dealt. A prevention effect must resolve before the event it's trying to replace for the prevention effect to work.
   For example, Fog reads, "Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn." You can play Fog long before combat, and its effect will hang around for the whole turn. Then, if creatures try to deal combat damage during that turn, Fog prevents it.
   Effects that prevent a specific amount of damage act as "shields" and stay around until they prevent that much damage or the turn ends. The damage doesn't have to be dealt by a single source or all at once.
   An effect that prevents damage "the next time" a source would deal damage prevents all damage the source would deal at that time, regardless of the amount.
   See also Replacement effect.

Priority
You can play a spell or ability only when you have priority. At the beginning of most phases and steps, the active player gets priority. When you have priority, you may play a spell or ability or pass. If you pass, your opponent gets priority. Also, after a spell or ability resolves, the active player gets priority. When that player passes, the opponent gets priority.
   In the Magic Online game, you yield priority when you play a spell or ability. If you want to keep priority after you play a spell or ability, hold down the CTRL key while you play it.
   It's easy to tell whether you have priority in the Magic Online game. If you don't, you can't play spells or abilities.
   See also Stack.

Private chat
Magic Online players can have a two-way conversation by opening a private chat window. Right-click on the name of the player you want to chat with and choose Private chat from the menu.
   See Chat for more information.

Protection
A creature ability that protects creatures from a certain kind of spells and abilities.
   A creature with protection will always have "protection from ______." What's in the blank is what the creature is protected from. It might be "protection from red," for example, or "protection from white."
   Protection does a few different things for the creature:

• It can't be blocked by creatures of the color it's protected from.
• It can't be the target of spells or abilities of the color it's protected from.
• It can't be enchanted by enchantments of the color it's protected from
• All damage from sources of the color it's protected from is prevented.

Put into play
To bring something into the game. When a spell or ability tells you to put something into play, it's not the same as playing it. You just put it into play without paying its costs.

For example, Rampant Growth reads, "Search your library for a basic land card and put that card into play tapped." Usually, you can play only one land each turn. But if you play a land and then play Rampant Growth, you'll get to put a second land into play. That doesn't count as "playing" a land, so you get around the one-per-turn rule.