Indestructible in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on March 21, 2026

Avacyn, Angel of Hope | Illustration by Jason Chan

There are plenty of mechanics and keywords in Magic. Some were short-lived, and some have survived for quite a long time. Some are inherently better than others. For the most part, though, any mechanic can be good if it’s paired with the right strategy.

A great strategy for traditional kill-you-with-creatures decks is keeping your creatures alive long enough to finish the job. There’s protection, sure, but what about straight up just tanking damage and destruction? Enter indestructible.

Let’s talk about that.

Good Mythical Morning

How Does Indestructible Work?

Darksteel Plate | Illustration by Daniel Ljunggren

Indestructible is a static ability that prevents a permanent from being destroyed by lethal damage or anything that says “destroy”. That’s… pretty much it; it's simple, and it’s about what you’d expect from the name.

Notice that indestructible is not the same as effects that prevent all damage: With indestructible, the damage is still being dealt (and thus abilities that care about dealt damage will still trigger).

History of Indestructible

Our first introduction to this keyword was all the way back in 1993’s Alpha with Consecrate Land. Not a bad first use of indestructible, but we’ve seen better for sure. Guardian Beast was the next time this destruction-proof keyword was seen, in Arabian Nights later that same year.

It’s also important to note that it wasn’t considered a keyword back then, just a normal descriptor of an attribute that some permanents had, up until Darksteel. If this sounds kind of confusing to you, then you’d be right. Plenty of players were confused about it and R&D eventually just made indestructible an official keyword in Magic 2014. The next notable event in indestructible’s history would be with Kaladesh in 2016 when regeneration was replaced with “gain indestructible until end of turn”.

I’m not going to go over every set that indestructible has ever featured in since it’s been in quite a few. Indestructible features on hundreds of cards, white being the main benefactor. Black and green have their fair chunk of indestructible baddies and, finally, blue and red boast pretty minor features. Little fun fact: White sometimes uses temporary indestructibility instead of protection.

Is Indestructible Evergreen?

Yes, indestructible is evergreen. In case you’re not familiar, a keyword being evergreen means that it’s one of the core keywords in Magic. Basically, that means you should expect to see it in basically every set.

What Things Does Indestructible Protect Against?

The most concise way to explain it is to say that indestructible permanents can’t be destroyed by lethal damage. The fun thing is that there are a few different ways to deal lethal damage, and indestructible can prevent death from all of them. Deathtouch, combat damage, spell and ability damage, and “destroy” effects are all covered in indestructible’s wheelhouse.

How Can You Actually Kill Things with Indestructible?

Technically you can’t kill indestructible things. That’s what makes them indestructible. If we’re talking just getting them off the board, then you’re not completely out of luck.

Does Exile Work on Indestructible?

Yes, you can exile an indestructible permanent, be it a creature, artifact, enchantment, or land. Exile isn’t a destroy effect and doesn’t involve lethal damage. Exile effects work because they remove a permanent from the game without destroying it.

Can You Send an Indestructible Permanent to Another Zone?

Yes, this is another trick to get around indestructible. Any effect that specifically sends a permanent to a graveyard also gets around indestructible, since you don’t deal lethal damage but simply move the permanent from one zone to another. The same goes for sending permanents back to their owners’ hands or into their library.

Does Zero or Negative Toughness Kill Indestructible Creatures?

Yes, an indestructible creature still dies if it has 0 toughness or less. Damage doesn't reduce a creature's toughness, so that won't work, but a -X/-X effect or an accumulation of -1/-1 counters do the trick. Cards like Toxic Deluge or Tragic Slip can effectively reduce an indestructible creature to 0 or negative toughness, and it will die.

How Does Sacrifice Work with Indestructible?

Indestructible doesn’t protect against sacrifice. If you want to betray your precious indestructible permanent, you’re more than welcome to sacrifice it. To the graveyard it goes! Same goes for opposing sacrifice effects. If someone plays Chainer's Edict or Consuming Vapors and your only creature is indestructible, it'll still be sacrificed.

Age counters can force your opponent to sacrifice their precious indestructible baby if they can’t keep up with the cumulative upkeep cost, so making something like Mystic Remora indestructible won't achieve much.

Other Methods for Neutralizing Indestructible Permanents

Other ways to “do away” with indestructible permanents (while not technically killing them) would be artifacts or enchantments that prevent them from doing things. You could use Entrancing Lyre’s ability on an indestructible creature to keep them tapped or Pacifism to simply prevent them from attacking and blocking. You could also use cards like Damping Matrix and Torpor Orb to prevent certain abilities and triggers. Dress Down can strip a creature of indestructibility for a turn, giving you a window to actually destroy it.

There are also cards that remove indestructible, even if only temporarily. Hour of Devastation and Day of Black Sun are board wipes that leaves indestructible creatures vulnerable before sweeping them away. Soul Sear is another one that does damage at the same time, if you were looking for a starting point to wreck your indestructible friends.

Does Indestructible Prevent Damage?

No, indestructible creatures are still dealt damage, they just don't die if lethal damage is dealt to them. Using an indestructible creature to block a lifelinker will still result in the opponent gaining life, and blocking a creature with wither will still cause -1/-1 counters to be placed on your creature (which could actually kill it!).

This gets a little tricky with planeswalkers that can become creatures. Since indestructible doesn't prevent damage, an indestructible planeswalker will still have loyalty counters removed if it's hit with a burn spell, and that planeswalker will die if it hits 0 loyalty. That's only true if the card is still a planeswalker, not for planeswalkers that lose the planeswalker type for the turn, like Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. This is also why most Gideon planeswalkers prevent damage on top of becoming indestructible, as seen on Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.

Can You Deal Damage to Indestructible Creatures?

You can deal damage to indestructible creatures. It just doesn’t kill them. Think of it like an action hero getting up after a huge explosion and dusting themselves off like nothing happened. They take the damage, it just doesn’t hurt them.

Can You Target Indestructible with “Destroy”?

You can still target indestructible permanents with “destroy” effects. Unless you have some big-brain plan going on, though, it would be a waste since the targeted permanent won’t actually be destroyed.

Maybe you have Hex in hand and some of the only valid targets are indestructible creatures. You can still choose them as targets, but they'll stick around while the other creatures are destroyed.

How Does Trample Work with Indestructible?

Trample works pretty much the exact same against indestructible creatures as with any other creature. If the attacker would deal more damage than the indestructible creature’s toughness, the excess damage is dealt to the blocking creature’s controller. The only difference is that the indestructible creature doesn’t die from the damage it’s dealt.

An indestructible creature doesn't “soak up” all the damage just because it won't die in combat, and still needs to be assigned lethal damage before any trample damage is assigned to a player.

Can Deathtouch Kill Indestructible Creatures?

No, deathtouch can’t kill an indestructible creature. Just like with combat and other sources of damage, deathtouch is just not enough to circumvent indestructibility.

Can an Indestructible Creature be Killed by Counters?

Yes, you can use counters to kill indestructible creatures. -1/-1 counters are obviously the first choice if you’re looking to just reduce their toughness. Stun counters can also lock an indestructible creature down without killing it.

Does Indestructible Survive “Destroy All Creatures”?

Yes, indestructible creatures survive “destroy all creatures” board wipes since they can’t be destroyed. Indestructible protects against any mass damage or mass destruction board wipes.

Can Indestructible Creatures Be Killed in Combat?

No. Indestructible creatures can’t be killed by combat or noncombat damage. Deathtouch or first strike, none of it actually kills the indestructible creature.

What Is an Indestructible Counter?

An indestructible counter is a keyword counter given to a permanent that grants it the keyword of indestructible. Keyword counters were introduced in the Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths set. Several cards like the Dominus and Myojin creatures enter with or can give themselves an indestructible counter.

Can Planeswalkers Be Indestructible?

Yes, they can. An indestructible planeswalker can’t be destroyed by lethal effects like Bitter Triumph. However, if a planeswalker’s loyalty counters hit 0, they die with or without indestructible. It’s a similar thing to 0 toughness for an indestructible creature. They both still die.

Planeswalkers can have indestructible that protects them from destroy effects, but they can still be removed by losing all their loyalty counters, being exiled, being sacrificed, or being sent to a different zone.

Best Indestructible Cards

Honorable Mention: Indestructibility

I couldn’t make a list of the best indestructible cards without mentioning Indestructibility, now, could I? It’s simple and it gets the job done without all the complicated nonsense. If you’re looking to keep one of your permanents on the battlefield come hell or high water, consider this namesake aura.

#9. Indestructible Artifact Lands

Dual lands are always in high demand. They make it easier to manage your mana base and can also provide some extra incentives. But what if your duals were also indestructible? Enter the artifact lands from Modern Horizons 2.

These bad boys included both the allied and enemy color pairs as indestructible lands. They enter the battlefield tapped, but your opponent has to work to get them off the battlefield if they’re looking to mess with your mana base. A solid choice if you’re up against some land-hate shenanigans or are maxing out on artifact and affinity synergies.

Darksteel Citadel is also lumped in with this group. Any artifact-focused deck can run it without issue and be appropriately rewarded. You can even use it to get around sacrifice costs!

#8. Mana and Lands

I know I just covered a full cycle of 10 dual lands, but I’m not quite done with mana-producing cards yet.

First up is another land, Cascading Cataracts. This indestructible beauty can tap for a single colorless mana, or you can tap any 5 mana to get any combination of 5 mana to play with. Plus the art is absolutely stunning. I wasn’t exaggerating when I called these waterfalls a “beauty”.

Darksteel Ingot is up next. A very simple and yet indestructible 3-drop artifact that taps for one mana of any color. A good option for some mana fixing if you want to keep your opponent from messing with your mana.

And finally we have Terra Eternal, which is a very fitting name for this enchantment. Not interested in the MH2 lands but still want to keep your mana base protected from destruction? Well, this enchantment will give everyone‘s lands the indestructible treatment.

#7. Summon: Knights of Round

Summon: Knights of Round is a saga that’s screaming to be reanimated or cheated onto the battlefield. This indestructible saga knight creates a ton of tokens over three chapters as it gains lore counters, and then it gives you a massive pump with indestructible counters. This saga is a great target for reanimation from cards like Ghen, Arcanum Weaver.

#6. The Gods

There are plenty of gods in Magic’s history, some more recent than others. They almost always have some variation of protection, but I’d like to highlight three indestructible gods in particular.

My personal favorite is Athreos, Shroud-Veiled. And before you ask, yes, it is because Orzhov is my favorite color combo. How did you know? Anyways, this god has a neat ability that lets you steal your opponent’s creatures when they lose them with coin counters.

Then there’s Iroas, God of Victory, a Boros god that gives all your creatures menace and protects your attacking creatures from damage.

Finally, we have Mogis, God of Slaughter. This god might not seem too intimidating at first glance, but I just really enjoy forcing your opponent to take damage or sacrifice a creature. It’s just the kind of cruel chaos I strive to sow.

#5. Avacyn and Her Memorial

This legendary angel may no longer be with us, but Avacyn, Angel of Hope is still a pretty boss card. Not only is it indestructible but it’s also got flying and vigilance, and it gives all of your other permanents indestructible. As long as it doesn’t get bounced and your opponent doesn’t have a gameplan to get around indestructible, you’re basically set once the Angel of Hope hits the battlefield.

And in the angel’s honor we have Avacyn's Memorial. This legendary artifact isn’t nearly as impressive as the creature it memorializes, but it’s still pretty sweet. Definitely pricey at , but the angel’s Memorial is indestructible and also blesses other legendary permanents you control with indestructible. Definitely nowhere near as good as when the Angel of Hope was still alive, but it’s not entirely useless.

#4. Dark Depths

Okay, I will admit that this one just brings me way too much joy to not include in this list. Dark Depths is a legendary snow land that basically hides a ridiculously powerful avatar creature beneath 10 ice counters. These counters can be removed by paying for each one, which means a total of 30 mana to get that which lurks below onto the battlefield.

The monstrosity that you’re trying to crack out of the ice is the actual indestructible threat, and the legendary 20/20 Marit Lage also has flying. If you can manage to get it onto the battlefield, you’re about to have a really fun time.

#3. The Soul Stone

The Soul Stone is a wonderful black utility artifact at all parts of a game. The early benefit is the cheap mana value and mana production. This ramp does wonders for some black decks. The late-game activated ability is a great way to come back from typical removal in a game to overwhelm opponents. I’m excited to see what this infinity stone will do as more roll out in future Marvel sets.

#2. Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

I love the Eldrazi. The concept, the art, the story, everything about them makes the horror nerd in me really happy. Ulamog is one of my favorites, and it fits right in on this list. We have two indestructible versions of this legendary monster: Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. Ulamog, the Defiler decided to switch it up with ward instead.

The Ceaseless Hunger allows you to exile two permanents the second it hits the stack on top of being a huge 10/10 with indestructible and a triggered ability that’s going to deck your opponent in a handful of turns. The Infinite Gyre, on other hand, destroys a single permanent when cast along with forcing your opponent to sacrifice four permanents whenever it attacks them. Oh, and it has a built-in “I’m just gonna reset my library” ability if your opponent ever manages to send it to the graveyard despite its indestructibility.

#1. The One Ring

Hard to say anything constructive about The One Ring that hasn't already been said, though most of the discourse surrounding this artifact isn't constructive in the slightest. It's not exactly an extra turn spell, but it certainly feels like a Time Warp and an Opportunity stapled to a card that any deck can play. Protection from everything might not mean much on a 10-drop creature like Progenitus, but granting that same level of protection to a player for a full turn cycle is down-right silly, and exactly the reason you see The One Ring in just about any format where it's [questionably] legal.

Iroas’ Indestructible Army of Destruction: A Decklist

Iroas, God of Victory | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

Wanna be indestructible and also annoy all of your friends by constantly destroying all of their precious, destructible permanents? Well, look no further!

This pile of absolute ridiculousness led by the indestructible Iroas, God of Victory (writing on the wall right there) is sure to ensure a fun time. For you, at least. Packed with plenty of damage-dealers to round out your army of indestructible everythings, this deck is sure to get a rise out of everyone at your EDH table.

Wrap Up

Avacyn's Memorial | Illustration by Kasia ‘Kafis' Zielinska

I really like indestructible. There’s just so much nonsense that can happen with this keyword. Especially when you pair it with the destruction of everyone else’s permanents, just to rub some salt in the wound. People love playing with me, I swear.

What are your thoughts on indestructible? Do you like it? Do you hate it? I’d love to hear your experience in the comments below, or you can tweet us if you spend more time on the bird/X app. There’s also Arena Tutor if you’re an MTGA player and you want to make sure you’re on top of your game. That is in fact the best segue you’re getting from me today.

And I have nothing more for you for now. Stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll see you in the next one!