Keyword Abilities

Deathtouch, trample, lifelink, protection — and where the reminder text stops being the whole truth.

Keyword abilities are the part of the rules everyone thinks they already know, which is exactly why they cause so many table arguments. The reminder text is a summary, not the rule — and for about six keywords, the gap between the two decides games.

Deathtouch and lifelink: static, and they work from anywhere

Both are static abilities. Neither uses the stack, so neither can be responded to.

Deathtouch works through a state-based action: a creature with toughness greater than 0 that's been dealt damage by a deathtouch source is destroyed. That word is load-bearing — indestructible ignores deathtouch entirely. And it applies to any damage, not just combat damage; a deathtouch ping kills.

The deathtouch rule everyone should memorise is the trample one: any nonzero combat damage assigned by a deathtouch source counts as lethal for working out excess. A 5/5 with deathtouch and trample blocked by a 4/4 assigns 1 to the blocker and 4 to the player. Note it lives in the deathtouch rules, not the trample ones.

Lifelink causes its controller to gain that much life in addition to, and simultaneously with, the damage. That simultaneity is why a lifelinking blocker can save you from lethal. Two different sources with lifelink dealing damage at once cause two separate life-gain events — which matters for "whenever you gain life" triggers — but two instances of lifelink on one creature are redundant.

Both keywords work from any zone, and if the source has left the zone it was expected to be in, last known information decides whether it had the keyword. A lifelinker that dies trading still gains the life.

Trample: attacking only, and blockers only

Trample modifies how an attacking creature assigns damage. It does nothing while blocking and nothing for noncombat damage.

Two cases worth knowing cold:

• A creature with trample that is blocked but has no blockers left when damage is assigned deals all its damage to the defending player. Without trample, that damage would simply vanish.
• Plain trample cannot assign damage past a planeswalker to the player — not even if the planeswalker leaves combat. That's a separate variant keyword, trample over planeswalkers.

Protection is DEBT, and nothing more

Protection from a quality stops exactly four things:

• Damage from sources with that quality is prevented — so no lifelink, no damage triggers;
• Enchanting and equipping: Auras with the quality go to the graveyard, Equipment merely becomes unattached;
• Blocking by creatures with that quality;
• Targeting by spells with the quality and abilities from sources with it.

Everything else gets through. A non-targeting "destroy all creatures" kills straight through protection. Sacrifice works. −X/−X works. Even protection from everything is only DEBT against every object.

Two details: the quality doesn't have to be a colour — it can be any characteristic value or information — and "protection from red and from green" is two separate protection abilities, not one compound one.

The small ones people still get wrong

• Hexproof vs shroud — hexproof stops opponents targeting it; shroud stops everyone, its controller included, so you can't even Aura or equip your own shrouded creature.
• Menace — "two or more" is a floor, not a target. Three blockers is fine.
• Flying — a restriction on being blocked only. A flier can block anything it likes. Reach is the mirror: it lets you block fliers and nothing else.
• Vigilance — attacking doesn't cause the creature to tap. It doesn't tap and untap, so nothing that watches for becoming tapped ever fires. It also doesn't let a tapped creature attack.
• Haste — lifts summoning sickness for attacking and for {T}/{Q} abilities. Blocking was never restricted in the first place.
• Flash — changes when you may cast it and nothing else. The card isn't an instant and doesn't gain haste.
• Defender — can't attack; blocks perfectly well.
• Indestructible — not destroyed. Sacrifice, exile and 0 toughness all still work, because none of those is destruction.
• Ward — a triggered ability, so it goes on the stack and can be responded to. Unpaid, it counters the spell, after the opponent has already spent the mana.
• Double strike — already includes the first-strike step, so first strike adds nothing.

27 questions in this track, checked against the 2026-06-19 Comprehensive Rules.

Rules covered: 302.6, 702.2a, 702.2b, 702.2c, 702.2d, 702.2e, 702.2f, 702.3, 702.3a, 702.4, 702.7, 702.8, 702.9, 702.10, 702.11, 702.12, 702.15a, 702.15b, 702.15c, 702.15d, 702.15e, 702.15f, 702.16a, 702.16b, 702.16c, 702.16d, 702.16e, 702.16f, 702.16g, 702.16h, 702.16i, 702.16j, 702.16k, 702.16m, 702.17, 702.18, 702.19a, 702.19b, 702.19d, 702.19g, 702.20, 702.21, 702.111, 704.