Dead card

A dead card is a card which a player that drew it is either incapable of playing, or which has simply become irrelevant. This may also be expressed with the phrase dead draw if the card was just drawn from the deck.

For example, drawing basic land cards late in the game are dead draws, as they do not have any advantageous effect on their own, and no other cards are available for which additional mana is necessary. A card may also be dead because it is incapable of stopping an opponent's advances, such as drawing Doom Blade against an opponent who plays a mono-black deck, or who plays no creatures.