What Are Permanents in MTG? A Clear Magic: The Gathering Guide
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If you’re asking what are permanents in MTG, you’re probably staring at a card that says something like “destroy target nonland permanent” and realizing the game is being very specific on purpose. That happens a lot in Magic. It uses normal words, then turns them into rules words, and suddenly a simple question gets a little slippery.
The good news is this one is fixable fast. In Magic: The Gathering, a permanent is any card or token that’s on the battlefield. If it stays in play instead of resolving and leaving right away, it’s probably a permanent. That includes your lands, your creatures, your enchantments, your artifacts, your planeswalkers, and yes, battles too.
And this matters more than people think. Once you understand permanents, a bunch of other game text gets easier to read. “Nonland permanent.” “Target permanent.” “Sacrifice a permanent.” “Return target permanent to its owner’s hand.” All of that starts making sense.
What Are Permanents in MTG, Exactly?
The cleanest way to think about permanents is this: they are the objects that live on the battlefield.
That means a card in your hand is not a permanent. A card in your graveyard is not a permanent. A spell on the stack is not a permanent yet. But once the right kind of card resolves and enters the battlefield, it becomes a permanent. If it later gets destroyed, exiled, bounced to hand, shuffled away, or moved somewhere else, it stops being a permanent because it is no longer on the battlefield.
Older players sometimes still say “in play,” which gets the idea across, but the actual zone name is the battlefield. That is the place where permanents exist.
Here’s a quick check that helps:
| Object | Is It a Permanent? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A creature on the battlefield | Yes | It is on the battlefield |
| A creature spell on the stack | No | It is still a spell |
| A land on the battlefield | Yes | Lands are permanents |
| A land card in your hand | No | It is a card, not a permanent |
| A Treasure token on the battlefield | Yes | Tokens on the battlefield are permanents |
| An instant after it resolves | No | It does not stay on the battlefield |
That last one is where a lot of confusion starts. Magic has plenty of things that affect the game without becoming permanents.
The Six Permanent Types in MTG
Current rules list six permanent types in MTG. These are the card types that can exist on the battlefield as permanents.
- Artifact: objects, gear, mana rocks, utility pieces
- Battle: a newer permanent type that many returning players forget about
- Creature: your attackers, blockers, and utility bodies
- Enchantment: ongoing magical effects, including Auras
- Land: your main mana sources
- Planeswalker: powerful noncreature permanents with loyalty abilities
That list is worth memorizing. Not because you need to impress anybody, but because card text keeps asking for it. If a spell says “destroy target permanent,” it can hit any of those six types. If it says “destroy target nonland permanent,” lands are safe but the other five types are not.
And yes, battles count. That is one of the easiest misses for players who learned the game before battles showed up.
Permanent Card, Permanent Spell, And Permanent
This is the part that clears up most of the confusion.
Magic uses three related terms that sound almost the same, but they do not mean the same thing:
Permanent card means a card that could be put onto the battlefield.
Permanent spell means a spell that will become a permanent when it resolves.
Permanent means the object that is already on the battlefield.
I think the easiest way to understand this is to follow one card through the process.
Let’s say you have a creature card in your hand. In your hand, it is a permanent card. When you cast it, it becomes a creature spell on the stack. When that spell resolves and enters the battlefield, now it is a creature permanent.
That same pattern works for artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and battles.
Lands are the odd little rules goblins here. A land card in your hand is still a permanent card, because it can exist on the battlefield. But when you play a land, it does not go on the stack as a spell. It just gets played onto the battlefield. So a land is a permanent card, but not a permanent spell.
That one distinction explains a lot. It’s also why you can counter a creature spell, but you cannot “counter” a land being played the same way.
What Does Not Count as a Permanent?
This is where what are permanents in MTG stops being abstract and starts helping during real games.
Here’s what does not count as a permanent:
Instants and sorceries. They resolve, do their thing, and then leave. They are not battlefield objects.
Cards in other zones. Your hand, library, graveyard, and exile are not the battlefield. A creature card in your graveyard is still a creature card, but it is not a creature permanent.
Spells on the stack. Even if a creature or artifact is about to become a permanent, it is still a spell until it resolves.
There is one important add-on here, though. Tokens do count as permanents while they are on the battlefield. They are not cards, but they are permanents. A Treasure token, a Food token, a creature token, all of those are permanents if they are sitting on the battlefield.
Why Permanents Matter So Much in Real Games
A lot of Magic rules text is really just shorthand for “something on the battlefield.”
When a card says target permanent, it means almost anything on the battlefield can be chosen, including lands.
When a card says target nonland permanent, it means creatures, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, and battles are fair game, but lands are excluded.
When a card says sacrifice a permanent, you can sacrifice a land, token, creature, artifact, enchantment, battle, or planeswalker if the effect allows it and you control it.
When a card says tap target permanent, it can hit more than creatures. That can matter a lot. A land, an artifact, or a battle can all be valid targets if the card does not narrow it down further.
This is why permanents show up everywhere in rules text. Magic is usually asking one of three things:
- What is on the battlefield right now?
- What kind of object is it?
- Can this effect legally interact with it?
Once you understand permanents, removal spells get clearer. Board wipes get clearer. Control-changing effects get clearer. Even simple combat turns get cleaner because you stop lumping “card,” “spell,” and “permanent” together like they are the same thing.
They are not.
Common Permanent Questions That Trip Players Up
Are tokens permanents?
Yes. If a token is on the battlefield, it is a permanent. It is not a card, but it is still a permanent.
Is a land a permanent?
Yes. Lands are permanents once they are on the battlefield. But lands are never spells, which is the nuance people often miss.
Is a creature spell on the stack a permanent?
No. It is a spell while it is on the stack. It only becomes a permanent after it resolves and enters the battlefield.
Do battles count as permanents?
Yes. Battles are one of the six permanent types.
If a card says “nonland permanent,” does that include tokens?
Yes, if the token is on the battlefield and it is not a land. A creature token is a nonland permanent. A Treasure token is a nonland permanent.
Why do some people say there are five permanent types?
Usually because they learned before battles were added to the permanent lineup, or they are using an older explanation. The current rules list six.
When newer players ask what are permanents in MTG, this is usually the real problem. They are not struggling with the dictionary meaning of the word permanent. They are trying to figure out what the game engine recognizes as a battlefield object right now.
That’s a very different question. And once you frame it that way, the rules text becomes a lot less annoying.
Final Thoughts
So, what are permanents in MTG?
They are cards or tokens on the battlefield. If an object is on the battlefield and belongs to one of the permanent types, it is a permanent. The six permanent types are artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, land, and planeswalker. Tokens count too while they’re on the battlefield.
The two big things to remember are simple. First, not every card is a permanent just because it can affect the game. Instants and sorceries are not. Second, a card, a spell, and a permanent are not the same stage of an object. Magic cares about that distinction constantly.
Once that clicks, a lot of the game’s wording stops feeling cryptic. Or at least a little less cryptic. Which, for Magic, is honestly a win.