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Magic the Gathering
So, if you’re brand new to Magic, what is it? Well, Magic the Gathering, often called "Magic" or "MTG", is a collectible trading card game where players summon creatures and cast spells to defeat their opponents usually by reducing their life total to zero, but there are other ways. It is set in a rich multiverse with fictional planes, each with its own unique lore and characters.
It was first released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast and is considered to be the first modern trading card game. It appeals to people who love tabletop strategy games, an immersive world experience, competitive play and most importantly community. Currently Magic has 50 million players worldwide, so you'll be far from alone if you join the community. The game also helps with critical thinking, maths, creativity and imagination. Magic has a strong competitive scene with various tournaments, including professional level events.
I will explain some of the basics of Magic below but I am by no means an expert. It can take years to become fully competent in the game and even then players will often need to research new cards and rules. But the learning is all part of the fun! And there are plenty of ways to learn the game.
- Websites
There are plenty of websites dedicated to fully explaining the complex rules of the game. A couple are listed below that might help you.
Wizards of the Coast: https://magic.wizards.com/en/how-to-play
Wiki: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
Dicebreaker: https://www.dicebreaker.com/games/magic-the-gathering-game/how-to/how-to-play-magic-the-gathering
- In-Person
It is recommended to meet people who already play the game to help learn while actually participating. Pre-con events are arranged at local game shops. These are held to allow players a chance to play with new cards just before the official release date. They are a great way for new players to meet other gamers and gain some valuable first cards and gameplay experience.
Game Store and Event locator: https://locator.wizards.com/
- Magic the Gathering: Arena
There is an online platform to learn and play the game if you don’t know anyone locally.
Magic: The Gathering Arena: https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgarena
- YouTube
YouTube is a great platform to learn the game. Tolarian Community Collage is a great way to learn everything about the current formats to upcoming new cards and rules, for beginners to the advanced player.
Follow Tolarian Community College: https://www.youtube.com/@TolarianCommunityCollege
Learn to play in 15 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI
So if you’re brand new and have just stumbled upon this, or you've had a hankering for a while to learn, no matter your age or what you’ve played before, join the community and enter an exciting world of adventure! See the next sections for the game basics. And if you need any further help, just drop me a message.
The Basics of Magic
A game of Magic involves two or more players acting as wizards engaged in a battle. Each player has their own deck of cards, purchased and constructed based on favourite strategies, colour and type. A player usually starts the game with 20 life points and loses the game when that reaches zero. A player can also lose the game if they must draw from an empty Library. Some cards specify other ways to win or lose the game.
The main thing to know with Magic is that reading the card, explains the card. I still forget this sometimes but its honestly the best advice I was ever given. You may need to read the card more than once to fully understand it, but all the rules of that card will be on there.
Card Types:
Players use various cards including creatures, planeswalkers, spells, enchantments and artifacts against their opponents in an attempt to reduce their life total to zero.
- Creatures (attack/defend)
- Planeswalkers (unique abilities to effect gameplay)
- Spells (these can be sorceries cast during your turn or instants cast during anyone’s turn)
- Enchantments (enhanced ongoing effects)
- Artifacts (powerful items)
- Lands (sources of mana – mana is used to cast any of the above)
Colour System:
Each card is associated with one or more colours (white, black, red, green or blue) which represent different playstyles and philosophies. Cards often having colour-specific abilities. Cards can be a variety of colours.
- White - law, order, and community. Employs creature-based strategies, lifegain, and removal spells, often with a focus on protecting the board and playing fair.
- Black - power, self-interest, and sacrifice. Direct damage, graveyard manipulation, and powerful creature abilities at the cost of life, often making sacrifices for advantage.
- Red - chaos, emotion, and aggression. Prioritises fast, aggressive play, direct damage spells and abilities, often sacrificing control for immediate impact.
- Green - nature, growth, and raw power. Focuses on large creatures, mana ramp, and creature-based combat, often utilising powerful creature abilities and growth mechanics.
- Blue - knowledge, control, and deception. Utilises card draw, counter spells, and manipulation of the battlefield to outwit opponents, often with strong defensive capabilities.
Tapping/Untapping:
Some spells and abilities require a player to tap a card in play as part of their mana cost, this means they cannot use the ability again for the rest of their turn. A creature that attacks is also tapped unless the card states otherwise. A creature that blocks is not tapped. A tapped creature cannot be declared as an attacker or a blocker. At the beginning of each player's turn, players untap all cards they control ready to be used again.
Mana System:
Players tap lands to generate mana, which is used to cast spells and summon creatures based on their mana cost. Lands can be basic and of one mana colour only or non-basic, where they can represent multiple mana colours, and/or allow players to have other unique game abilities when played.
Gameplay:
Players take turns drawing cards, playing lands to generate mana, summoning creatures, casting spells, and attacking their opponents to lower their life total. Players start with 7 cards in their hand. Unless they have a card stating otherwise, this is the maximum hand size during gameplay. There are a number of phases to work through as follows:
- Beginning Step - The beginning phase has three steps:
- Untap - Untap any spent mana and creatures from the previous round.
- Upkeep - Triggered abilities will occur.
- Draw – Draw a card from your deck.
- Precombat main - This is the first main phase, which occurs before combat, players can play lands, cast spells, and activate abilities.
- Combat - This has five steps:
- Beginning of combat: Triggered abilities are activated.
- Declare attackers: The current player declares their attackers.
- Declare blockers: The defending player declares their blockers and which attacking creatures they will block.
- Combat damage: Each attacking or blocking creature assigns its combat damage to players, planeswalkers, and/or creatures.
- End of combat: The combat phase ends
- Postcombat Main - This is the second main phase, which occurs after combat, players can play lands if they haven’t done so already, cast spells, and activate abilities.
- End Step - The final phase, which is the last opportunity for the player to perform actions on their turn. Triggered abilities will also occur.
The Playmat Zones
At any one time, every card has to be in one of the zones on the playmat. You don't have to have a playmat but most players like too as it helps keep your cards in order, and it just looks good!
- Hand: The hidden cards in hand that can be played on your turn. You can only have 7 cards in hand at the end of your turn. Unless you have played a card that states overwise.
- Library: The portion of your deck that is kept face down, it is shuffled into a random order before the start of the game.
- Land Zone: Where you place your land cards ready to tap for mana. (Mana is needed to play any other card.) Visible to all players.
- Battlefield: Cards that are in play and actively influencing the game. Unlike the hand or the library, the battlefield is a public zone, visible to all players. Any player can check any card at any time on anyone's battlefield. And you will find you will be asking a lot when you first start and before you know names of cards off hand and what they do. This is not only acceptable but expected. Everyone should know what every other card on the battlefield is doing so you can plan accordingly.
- Graveyard: Essentially your discard pile. Cards can sometimes be played from your graveyard, so they're not completely dead at this point. Visible to all players.
- Exile: Cards that have been exiled and can no longer have any part in the game. Visible to all players. Unlike the graveyard, exile means ultimate death!
- Command Zone: In the commander deck format, your commander is put here at the start of the game. It can be played from here to the battlefield. When it "dies" unlike other cards that may go to the graveyard or exile, the commander will return to his zone and can be replayed, at a higher mana cost called the commanders tax.
- You should also leave space to keep track of your life total, this usually starts at 20, and during a game you can lose or gain life. You can keep track by means of counters or phone/tablet apps, whichever you prefer.
The Magic Deck
When playing Magic each player will use their own deck to play the game. You can buy decks pre-made; this is advised when you first start playing. Or you can construct your own deck. Deck types start at 40 cards. There is no maximum deck size but you must be able to shuffle your deck without assistance. Players construct their decks by choosing cards that synergize with their chosen strategy, with restrictions on card types and colour combinations. New cards are regularly released in themed sets, introducing new mechanics, planes, lore, characters and stories to the game. Decks will determine the type of Magic game played; they can be simple one-on-one games that last 20 minutes to multi-player games lasting several hours. Deck customisation isn’t easy but is very satisfying and with thousands of unique cards to collect and play with, you definitely won’t get bored!
A 40 card deck might look like this:
- 17 Lands - Add a mixture of lands depending on the colour of your deck.
- 15-18 Creatures - Try to add creatures that have evasion abilities like Flying, Trample and Menace.
- 5-8 Other Spells - Look out for spells that can make your creatures stronger, destroy/disable your opponents creatures and deal damage to your opponent.
The other thing to consider is something called mana curve. Above is an example of a good mana curve. You don't want to have all of your cards costing either too little or too much mana. If they cost too little then they probably won't have much effect on the game. Equally if they cost too much it would take too many rounds for you to make a difference to the game. If you're interested you can view one of my decks that I built, by clicking the link below.
Card Abilities
- +1/+1 or -1/-1
Some cards will allow your creatures to get stronger or your opponents weaker. These will be written on the card like the above. They can be any number for power and toughness.
- Deathtouch
Deathtouch on a card means that any amount of damage dealt by the creature is enough to kill the opponent’s creature, no matter how low the damage is. So, for example a creature may only have a power of 1 but could kill a creature with greater toughness.
- Defender
This creature can only be used as a defender not an attacker.
- Double Strike
A creature with double strike deals both first strike and normal combat damage. So, in effect if damage is dealt, it is dealt twice.
- First Strike
A creature with first strike will deal its combat damage before a creature that doesn't have the ability.
- Flash
Flash allows the card to be used at any time that you could use an instant. For example, if you were attacked and had no blocker, you could use a card with flash from your hand straight to the battlefield, subject to having the mana to pay the cost.
- Flying/Reach
Creatures with flying cannot be blocked except by other creatures with either flying or reach. Creatures with flying can block other creatures with or without flying. Creatures with reach can block flyers.
- Haste
Haste is an ability that allows creatures to ignore the affliction informally known as "summoning sickness". Usually when you play a creature to your battlefield from your hand, they cannot attack straight the way. But if they have haste, they can attack and use their abilities on the same turn they enter the battlefield.
- Hexproof
Your creature/card with hexproof cannot be targeted by spells or abilities your opponent’s control.
- Indestructible
Any permanent that has indestructible cannot be destroyed and cannot die as a result of lethal damage.
- Lifelink
When a creature with lifelink deals damage, the controller of that card also gains an amount of life equal to the amount of damage dealt. For example, if you dealt 4 combat damage to an opponent you would gain 4 life.
- Menace
A creature with menace can only be blocked by two or more creatures. So if you attacked you opponent with 2 creatures with menace they would have to use 4 blockers.
- Trample
An attacking creature with trample which is blocked may deal any excess damage, above what is needed to kill the blocker, directly to the defending player or the next blocker. For example if you are attacking with a creature that has power of 6, and the blocker only has 3, 3 more damage will still go to your opponent.
- Vigilance
This means the affected creature does not have to be tapped once declared as an attacker. Therefore, it can be used as a blocker in the next rounds.
All the Information is on the Card
It is surprising just what you can fit on a small bit of card and it can seem a little daunting at first. Each card will have all the details on it in order for you to know how and when to use it. I will try to explain each section; there are lots of variations but the above examples give you a good idea of what you can expect to see. Some headings are self explanatory, like the Card Name or the Collector Number.
In the top right you have Mana Cost/Colour, this tells you how much Mana you need to generate from land cards in order to cast a card to the battlefield. Some land cards, like the one above will have additional abilities. Valgavoth's Lair comes onto the battlefield tapped, so it cannot be used straight the way. But it can be used for any chosen mana colour and is hexproof meaning it cannot be the target of spells from your opponents. To play Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate you would need 1 Mana of any colour, 1 black Mana and 1 red Mana - 3 in total.
The Card Type line will be either a Planeswalker, Creature, Spell (Sorcery or Instant), Enchantment or Artifact. Some will have a Sub-Type, so Alesha above is a Legendary Creature but also a Human Warrior. This can make a difference if you have cards that add things to a specific type of Creature. For example, you may have a card that gives all other Humans you control +1/+1 to their Power and Toughness. You can also have one or more types on the same card, for example you can have Artifact Creatures or Enchantment Lands.
The Rarity/Set will have a colour and icon to show this. The colours are Red/Orange for Mythic, Yellow/Gold for Rare, Grey/Silver for Uncommon and Black/White for Common. Each set will have its own icon also. Above you have Valgavoth's Lair showing a gold butterfly, this means it is from the Duskmourn Set and is a Rare card. This can effect the value of cards.
The Text Box will give you the details of the card, what it does and any Flavour Text in italics (this text has no effect on gameplay and is there simply to add a little bit of interest to the card, its story and how it fits into the Magic Universe).
The numbers in the bottom right are the Power and Toughness of a Creature card. The Power is the amount of damage a Creature can deal in combat. The Toughness is the amount of damage needed to destroy a Creature. These can be increased or decreased depending on other cards in play on the battlefields of both you and your opponents. It is important to keep track - counters can help with this.
Planeswalkers are abit different to other Creature cards. They can assist you in battle with special abilities that are on their cards. They start with an amount of Loyalty Tokens, so Domri above will start with 3 Tokens. Then each round you either increase the Loyalty or decrease it depending on which ability you wish to use. The Loyalty also counts for Toughness when it comes to combat. They cannot attack but they can be attacked and will die if their Loyalty reaches zero. Unlike other Creatures, Planeswalkers cannot have Artifacts or Enchantments put on them.
There are also Token cards; these will have different types and abilities. Tokens are not part of your deck but they are generated by the effects of other cards. For example, a card may say "At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a Food Token". They are permanent cards on the battlefield until they are used or destroyed. They have a Mana value of zero because they cost nothing to cast. During the game you can use Tokens subject to the text written on them. For example, a Food Token can be sacrificed to gain 3 life during a game, as long as you have the required Mana for the ability.
More Magic Card Examples
