Glossary
This glossary provides definitions for both Magic: The Gathering game terms and Rummage-specific technical terms.
A
Ability
A feature of a card that gives it certain characteristics or allows it to perform certain actions. There are three main types: activated, triggered, and static abilities.
Activated Ability
An ability that a player can activate by paying its cost (e.g., tapping the card, paying mana).
Active Player
The player whose turn it is currently.
APNAP Order
The order in which players make decisions when multiple players need to take actions: Active Player, Non-Active Player.
Attachment
A card or effect that modifies another card (e.g., Auras, Equipment).
B
Battlefield
The zone where permanents (lands, creatures, artifacts, enchantments, and planeswalkers) exist while in play.
Bevy
The game engine used to build Rummage, featuring an entity-component-system (ECS) architecture.
Bevy ECS
The entity-component-system architecture used in Bevy, which separates entities (objects), components (data), and systems (logic).
Bundle
(Bevy) A collection of components that are commonly added to an entity together. In Bevy 0.15.x, many bundles are deprecated in favor of individual components.
C
Card Type
The classification of a Magic card (e.g., creature, instant, sorcery, land).
Cast
To play a spell by putting it on the stack and paying its costs.
Color Identity
The colors in a card's mana cost, color indicator, and rules text. In Commander, a card can only be included in a deck if its color identity is within the commander's color identity.
Combat Phase
The phase of a turn where creatures can attack and block, consisting of Beginning of Combat, Declare Attackers, Declare Blockers, Combat Damage, and End of Combat steps.
Commander
- The legendary creature or planeswalker that leads a Commander deck.
- A casual multiplayer format of Magic where each player builds a 100-card deck around a legendary creature or planeswalker.
Commander Tax
The additional cost of {2} that must be paid for each time a commander has been cast from the command zone.
Component
(Bevy) A piece of data that can be attached to an entity, representing a specific aspect of that entity.
Context
(Rummage) An object containing information about the current game state, used when resolving effects.
Counter (noun)
A marker placed on a card to track various characteristics (e.g., +1/+1 counters, loyalty counters).
Counter (verb)
To respond to a spell or ability by preventing it from resolving.
D
Damage
A reduction in a creature's toughness or a player's life total. Unlike loss of life, damage can be prevented.
Deck
A collection of cards a player brings to the game. In Commander, decks consist of 99 cards plus a commander.
Deserialization
(Rummage) The process of converting serialized data back into game objects, used for loading games or processing network data.
Deterministic RNG
(Rummage) A random number generator that produces the same sequence of values when initialized with the same seed, crucial for networked gameplay.
Detrimental
(Rummage) When using Bevy's component lifetimes system, a tag indicating that an entity can exist without the marked component.
E
Effect
The result of a spell or ability resolving, which may change the game state.
Entity
(Bevy) A unique identifier that can have components attached to it, representing objects in the game.
Entity Component System (ECS)
(Bevy) A software architectural pattern that separates identity (entities), data (components), and behavior (systems).
Exile
A zone where cards removed from the game are placed.
F
Flash
A keyword ability that allows a player to cast a spell any time they could cast an instant.
Floating Mana
Mana in a player's mana pool that hasn't been spent yet. It disappears at the end of steps and phases.
G
Game State
The complete status of the game at a given moment, including all zones, cards, and player information.
GlobalTransform
(Bevy) A component that stores the absolute position, rotation, and scale of an entity in world space.
Graveyard
The zone where cards go when they're destroyed, sacrificed, discarded, or countered.
H
Hand
The zone where players hold cards they've drawn but haven't yet played.
Haste
A keyword ability that allows a creature to attack and use tap abilities the turn it comes under a player's control.
I
Indestructible
A keyword ability that prevents a permanent from being destroyed by damage or effects that say "destroy."
Instant
A card type that can be cast at any time, even during an opponent's turn.
IsServer
(Rummage) A resource indicating whether the current instance is running as a server or client.
K
Keyword Ability
An ability that is represented by a single word or phrase (e.g., Flying, Trample, Deathtouch).
L
Library
The zone where a player's deck is kept during the game.
Life Total
The amount of life a player has. In Commander, players typically start with 40 life.
Legendary
A supertype that restricts a player to controlling only one copy of a specific legendary permanent at a time.
M
Mana
The resource used to cast spells and activate abilities, represented by the five colors (White, Blue, Black, Red, Green) and colorless.
Mana Cost
The amount and type of mana required to cast a spell, shown in the upper right corner of a card.
Mana Pool
A holding area where mana exists from the time it's generated until it's spent or lost.
Marker Component
(Bevy) A component with no data that is used to tag entities for queries or to indicate a state.
Mulligan
The act of drawing a new hand at the start of the game, with one fewer card each time.
N
NetworkConfig
(Rummage) A resource containing configuration for networking, such as ports and connection settings.
Non-Active Player
Any player whose turn it is not.
P
Permanent
A card or token on the battlefield: creatures, artifacts, enchantments, lands, and planeswalkers.
PendingSnapshots
(Rummage) A resource that tracks snapshots waiting to be processed.
Phase
A segment of a turn. Each turn consists of five phases: Beginning, Precombat Main, Combat, Postcombat Main, and Ending.
Plugin
(Bevy) A module that adds specific functionality to the game, typically containing resources, components, and systems.
Priority
The right to take game actions, which passes between players throughout the turn.
Q
Query
(Bevy) A way to access entities and their components in systems, optionally filtered by component types.
R
Replicate
(Rummage/Replicon) A component that marks an entity for network replication.
Replicon
(Rummage) The networking library used for multiplayer functionality.
Resource
(Bevy) Global data not tied to any specific entity, accessed by systems.
Response
Playing a spell or ability after another spell or ability has been put on the stack but before it resolves.
S
Serialization
(Rummage) The process of converting game objects into a format that can be stored or transmitted.
Snapshot
(Rummage) A serialized representation of the game state at a specific point in time.
SnapshotEvent
(Rummage) An event that triggers taking, applying, saving, or loading a game snapshot.
Snapshotable
(Rummage) A marker component indicating that an entity should be included in snapshots.
Sorcery
A card type that can only be cast during a player's main phase when the stack is empty.
Stack
The zone where spells and abilities go while waiting to resolve.
State-Based Action
Game rules that automatically check and update the game state, such as putting creatures with lethal damage into the graveyard.
Step
A subdivision of a phase in a turn.
System
(Bevy) A function that operates on components, implementing game logic.
SystemSet
(Bevy) A collection of systems that can be configured together for ordering and dependencies.
T
Tap
To turn a card sideways to indicate it has been used.
Target
An object or player chosen to be affected by a spell or ability.
Transform
(Bevy) A component that stores the relative position, rotation, and scale of an entity.
Triggered Ability
An ability that automatically triggers when a specific event occurs.
Turn
A full cycle through all phases for a single player.
U
UI
User interface elements that display game information and accept player input.
Untap
To return a tapped card to its upright position, typically done at the beginning of a player's turn.
Update
(Bevy) The main schedule where most game systems run each frame.
W
Winning the Game
In Commander, a player wins by reducing all opponents' life totals to 0, dealing 21 or more combat damage with a single commander to a player, or through alternative win conditions on cards.
World
(Bevy) The container for all entities, components, and resources in the ECS.
Z
Zone
A place where cards can exist during the game: library, hand, battlefield, graveyard, stack, exile, and command.
Note: This glossary is continuously updated as new terms are added to the codebase or as Magic: The Gathering terminology evolves.