Index	Table of Contents	Terms
	Terms - D

Damage
This is what knocks down players' life totals and destroys creatures. Attacking and blocking creatures deal damage, as do some spells and abilities. Damage can only be dealt to creatures or players. If a creature is dealt damage equal to or greater than its toughness in one turn, the creature is destroyed. If a player is dealt damage, that damage is subtracted from the player's life total.
   See also Combat damage. Compare Losing life.

Damage prevention
See Prevention effect.

Deck
The collection of cards you start a Magic game with. A deck always contains lots of land cards, and probably has plenty of creatures as well. It's up to you what to put in your deck. When the game begins, your deck becomes your library.
   For Magic Online Sealed Deck or Draft play, you build your deck in the Deck Building screen after you draft or open your cards. You can use only the cards you got during the tournament. A Limited-format deck has at least forty cards.
   For Magic Online Constructed play, you build your deck in the Deck Editor screen. You can use any card you own in a Constructed deck, but you can't play with more than four of any one card except basic lands. Most tournaments let you play only with cards from certain card sets. You can check which cards are legal in a tournament by looking up the tournament's format. A Constructed-format deck has at least sixty cards.
    See also Library.

Deck Building
The screen where you build Limited-format decks. You'll only see the Deck Building screen when you're playing in a Limited-format event.

Deck Editor
The screen where you build Constructed-format decks. The Deck Editor is one of the three main Magic Online screens.

Declare attackers step
The second step of the combat phase. The first thing you do during your declare attackers step is decide whether you want to attack. If you do, you decide which of your creatures you want to attack with. (Only untapped creatures you've controlled since the beginning of your turn can attack.) Then those creatures become tapped and become attacking creatures.
   Remember that your creatures can only attack your opponent, not other creatures.
   After you've declared attackers, players can play instants and activated abilities.
   See also Combat phase.

Declare blockers step
The third step of the combat phase. If your opponent decided to attack during the declare attackers step, this is when you decide whether you want to block any attacking creatures. You choose which attackers you want to block and which of your creatures will block them (only untapped creatures can block). Remember, creatures don't become tapped when they block.
   Your creatures can block only one attacker each, but more than one of your creatures can gang up on an attacker.
   After you've declared blockers, players can play instants and activated abilities.
   See also Combat phase.

Defending player
The player being attacked.

Destroy
To remove a permanent from play and put it into its owner's graveyard. (Instants and sorceries can't be destroyed because they're not permanents.)
   Creatures are destroyed when they've taken damage equal to or greater than their toughness. Also, lots of spells and abilities can destroy permanents without dealing damage.
   If a creature is about to be destroyed, you can use spells and abilities to regenerate it and keep it in play.
   Remember that destroying a permanent is different from discarding a card. You can only discard cards from your hand, not cards in play.
   See also Regeneration. Compare Discard.

Discard
To take a card from your hand and put it into your graveyard.
   If a spell or ability makes you discard cards, you (or your opponent) get to choose which cards to discard unless the card states you must discard "at random." If the discard is at random, Magic Online will randomly choose the card you discard.
   See also At random.

"Domain" cards
A nickname for some Invasion block cards with effects that depend on the number of basic land types you control. The five basic land types are plains, island, swamp, mountain, and forest.

Draft
A play format in which players pick cards out of a shared pool. The most common Draft formats are Booster Draft and Rochester Draft.

Draw
To take the top card of your library and put it into your hand.
   You draw one card during each of your turns, at the beginning of your draw step. Spells and abilities that let you draw cards don't affect your normal draw for the turn.
   Putting cards into your hand only counts as drawing them if the spell or ability says "draw." For example, Sleight of Hand says, "Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the other on the bottom of your library." Even though you're adding a card to your hand, it doesn't count as a draw.
   The other Magic meaning of "draw" is a game that ends with no winner. For example, if a spell like Earthquake ("Earthquake deals X damage to each creature without flying and each player") deals enough damage to both players that they both lose, the game is a draw.
   See also Draw step.

Draw Step
The last step of the beginning phase. The first thing you do during your draw step is draw a card. Then players can play instants and activated abilities.
   See also Draw.