Layers

The seven layers, timestamps, and dependency — the hardest thing in the rules, made ordinary.

The rule is CR 613, "Interaction of Continuous Effects". Layer order is 613.1, layer-7 sublayers are 613.4, timestamps are 613.7, and dependency is 613.8. Worth knowing the numbers: this is the section you will actually want to look up at a table.

Layers are the game's answer to a single question: when two effects disagree about what a permanent is, who wins? Not "whoever came last" and not "whoever's turn it is" — the answer is a fixed pipeline that the game runs continuously, automatically, and instantaneously. Nobody ever "applies layers" as a step; there is no window in which a creature is briefly the wrong size.

Start from the actual object — for a card, the values printed on it — then apply every continuous effect in this order:

1. Copiable values. Copy effects, and face-down status.
2. Control. Who controls it.
3. Text. Effects that change the words on it.
4. Type. Card type, subtype, supertype.
5. Colour.
6. Abilities. Adding, removing, keyword counters, "can't have".
7. Power and toughness.

The order is not arbitrary: you can't work out how big something is until you know what it is, and you can't know what it is until you know whose it is and what its text says.

Layer order beats timestamps, always

This is the mistake to unlearn first. A type-changing effect created ten turns ago still applies after a control-changing effect created this turn, because layers are absolute. Timestamps only ever break ties within one layer.

Inside a layer, earlier timestamps apply first — so the later effect is normally the one that "wins" a contradiction, because it is applied on top. Objects get a timestamp when they enter a zone; Auras and Equipment get a new one each time they become attached, which is a genuine trick: unequip and re-equip and your effect jumps ahead of a rival in the same layer.

Layer 7 has four sublayers

Everything about power and toughness resolves in this order:

• 7a — characteristic-defining abilities that define P/T ("power equal to the number of cards in your hand").
• 7b — effects that set P/T to a specific value. The phrase base power and toughness means 7b.
• 7c — effects and counters that modify P/T (+2/+2, -1/-1, +1/+1 counters).
• 7d — effects that switch P/T.

If you learned a five-sublayer layer 7 with counters in their own sublayer, that is out of date — counters live in 7c alongside ordinary pump effects.

Two consequences worth memorising:

• Setting beats modifying, regardless of order. Give a 2/2 +2/+2, then set its base P/T to 1/1, and it is 3/3. Do it the other way round and it is still 3/3. The base is set in 7b, then +2/+2 lands in 7c on top.
• Switching is last. A 1/3 with +2/+0 is 3/3, then switched is 3/3. A 1/4 with +2/+0 is 3/4, then switched is 4/3. Always finish the creature, then switch.

In layers 2 through 6 there is no sublayer list; instead, characteristic-defining abilities apply first, and then everything else in timestamp order.

Dependency: the one thing that overrides timestamps

Sometimes applying effect B first would change what effect A even does. Applying them in timestamp order would then give a nonsense answer, so the rules let A wait.

Effect A depends on effect B when all three hold:

1. They apply in the same layer (and sublayer, if there is one).
2. Applying B would change A's text or existence, what A applies to, or what A does to any of those things.
3. Neither is from a characteristic-defining ability, or both are.

A dependent effect waits until just after everything it depends on has been applied. Miss any one of the three conditions and the effects are simply independent — back to timestamps.

Two safety valves: if several dependent effects form a loop, dependency is ignored for the loop and they go in timestamp order; and the order of whatever is left is re-evaluated after each application, because applying one effect can create or destroy a dependency among the others. So work layers one effect at a time, re-asking the question — don't sort the list up front and march through it.

A worked example: Humility and Opalescence

Opalescence: each other non-Aura enchantment is a creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value. Humility: all creatures lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.

Say Opalescence is already out and Humility enters afterwards. Walk the pipeline:

• Layer 4. Opalescence makes every other non-Aura enchantment a creature. Humility is a non-Aura enchantment, so Humility is now a creature. Opalescence says "other", so it never makes itself a creature — which is why Humility never strips Opalescence's ability.
• Layer 6. Humility removes abilities from creatures.
• Sublayer 7b. Now the interesting part: both effects set power and toughness — Opalescence to mana value, Humility to 1/1. Same sublayer, so timestamp order applies, and Humility's timestamp is later. Humility is applied second, on top.

Result: those enchantment creatures are 1/1. Reverse the entry order and the same permanents would instead be their mana values. Nothing about this needed intuition — it needed the pipeline.

The habit to build

When a board state confuses you, don't argue about it. Say the layers out loud, in order, and stop at the first one where the effects actually collide. Nine times out of ten the collision is in 7b versus 7c, and the answer falls straight out.

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

Rules covered: 101.4, 604.3, 604.3a, 613.1, 613.1a, 613.1b, 613.1d, 613.1e, 613.1f, 613.1g, 613.2, 613.2a, 613.2b, 613.2c, 613.3, 613.4, 613.4a, 613.4b, 613.4c, 613.4d, 613.5, 613.6, 613.7, 613.7a, 613.7b, 613.7d, 613.7e, 613.7f, 613.7g, 613.7m, 613.8, 613.8a, 613.8b, 613.8c, 613.9, 613.10, 613.11, 707.2.