State-Based Actions

The checks the game runs itself — no trigger, no stack, no choice.

The rule is CR 704. The condition list is 704.5, and 704.3–704.4 are the two timing rules that matter most.

State-based actions are the game's own housekeeping. There is no trigger, nothing goes on the stack, nobody makes a choice, and you cannot respond. The game checks for a fixed list of conditions whenever a player would receive priority, performs everything applicable simultaneously, and repeats the check until a pass finds nothing to do.

If a creature has lethal damage, it is already dead by the time you have priority. There was never a window.

The list worth knowing

• A player at 0 or less life loses.
• A player who attempted to draw from an empty library since the last check loses.
• A player with ten or more poison counters loses.
• A token in any zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist.
• A copy of a spell anywhere but the stack ceases to exist.
• A creature with toughness 0 or less is put into its owner's graveyard. Regeneration cannot replace this.
• A creature with toughness above 0 whose marked damage is greater than or equal to its toughness is destroyed. Regeneration can replace this.
• A creature dealt damage by a deathtouch source since the last check is destroyed.
• A planeswalker at 0 loyalty is put into its owner's graveyard.
• The legend rule: two or more legendary permanents with the same name controlled by the same player — that player chooses one, the rest go to their owners' graveyards.
• An Aura attached to something illegal (or to nothing) is put into its owner's graveyard.
• An Equipment attached to something illegal becomes unattached and stays on the battlefield.

The distinctions that decide games

"Put into the graveyard" is not "destroyed." Toughness 0 and planeswalker loyalty 0 put a permanent into the graveyard directly. Indestructible and regeneration only replace destruction, so they do nothing here. Lethal damage, by contrast, genuinely destroys — so a regeneration shield or indestructible saves the creature.

Indestructible ignores the lethal-damage check entirely. The damage is still dealt and still marked (which matters to anything asking whether damage was dealt); the creature just never dies from it. What still kills an indestructible creature: 0 toughness, sacrifice, and exile.

Auras die, Equipment falls off. Same condition, deliberately different outcomes.

Tokens really do change zones. A token that dies goes to the graveyard — anything triggering on a creature dying sees it perfectly well — and only then does the state-based action make it cease to exist. That's why token sacrifice engines work, and why you still can't reanimate one. A token that has left the battlefield can never come back.

The legend rule gives you a choice. Not "newest dies" — you pick which one survives, so you can keep the one that's enchanted or untapped. And it's per player, so two different players can each control a copy of the same legend quite happily.

The rule that makes survivable nonsense possible

State-based actions pay no attention to what happens during the resolution of a spell or ability.

You are at 3 life. A spell resolves reading "lose 5 life, then gain 6 life." You do not die. You pass through -2 and come out at 4, and because the game only looks once resolution has finished, nobody ever saw it.

The same principle lets a creature briefly have 0 toughness mid-resolution and survive, and it is why attempting to draw from an empty library doesn't kill you at that moment — the attempt is remembered, and the loss happens at the next check. A single resolution that empties your library and then refills it can leave you alive, though the attempt itself still counts, so read carefully before relying on it.

State triggers are something else

An ability like "when you control no creatures, sacrifice this" is a state trigger — a triggered ability that watches a game state instead of an event. It goes on the stack and can be responded to, unlike a state-based action. It also won't trigger again until it has left the stack, which is what stops a persistently true condition from putting infinite copies on the stack.

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

Rules covered: 111.7, 121.4, 310.11b, 405.6f, 603.8, 702.2b, 704.1, 704.1a, 704.2, 704.3, 704.4, 704.5a, 704.5b, 704.5c, 704.5d, 704.5e, 704.5f, 704.5g, 704.5h, 704.5i, 704.5j, 704.5m, 704.5n, 704.5p, 704.5q, 704.5r, 704.5s, 704.5v, 704.5y, 704.6a, 704.6b, 704.6c, 704.6d, 903.9b.