An Absolute Beginner's Guide To Magic: The

Gathering
Spandas Lui
Jul 1, 2016, 4:30pm
⋅ Filed to:

 Australian Stories

Share

Magic: The Gathering can be intimidating to people who have never played it before. It seems like
a game for enthusiasts and the cards themselves are so detailed it can be hard to wrap your head
around the many elements of this game. What is mana? Do the colours mean anything? What’s up
with the confusing text at the bottom (it's called flavour text, by the way)? But like most tabletop
games, once you get the basic concepts, Magic becomes a lot easier and is extremely enjoyable.
Here are a few tips to get you started.

Magic poster image from Shutterstock

Let's me just clarify that Magic: The Gathering is a complex card game with a rich history and a
detailed back story. Remember Pokémon cards back in the late '90s? Well, Magic is similar, except
more hardcore and rooting heavily in the fantasy genre.

We're trying to make Magic more accessible here, even for the absolute newbies, so we'll refrain
from going too in-depth in terms of all the details. The best way to learn is to play the game with an
experienced (and patient) opponent who can guide you through all the nitty gritty things you need
to know, but a basic knowledge of Magic will make the process much easier.

Do bear in mind that Magic can become an expensive habit if you do want to take it more
seriously. New cards are released regularly and, if you go by official rules, they're only valid for a
limited amount of time. But if you're intending to just play casually, you'll survive with a one deck
of cards.
Collecting cards image from Shutterstock
So let's get started on some of the fundamentals and go through some of the most essential jargon
and rules you will need to know:

 Points: Each player starts with 20 life points that can be depleted from an opponent's spells and
attacks.
 Hand: The cards in your hand. You start off by drawing seven cards.
 Turn: Each player can play their cards on their 'turn'. There are a few phases and here's the
simplified version: - If you have any cards that are 'tapped', untap them (we'll get into what this
means in a second). - Check if any of your cards require you to do anything before you draw an extra
card. Some cards, for example, gives you one life at the beginning of your turn. - Lay down one Land
card (if you have any) and if you have enough mana, you can 'tap' them and play a card. - If you
already have a card out on the table, and you can use it (see Summoning Sickness), then you can
 launch an attack. Or, if your opponent has launched an attack, you can block them with your active
cards (more on that later).
 Tap: Once you play a card, you 'tap' it to execute its powers. For example, if it's a creature and you
want to attack your opponent with it, you need to 'tap' it by flipping the card to a horizontal position.
Same goes for some spells you cast.
 Graveyard and Exile: When your creature/minion dies or a spell is used, you put them in the
graveyard pile. If a creature/minion dies and is 'exiled' by another player, then it goes into the exile
pile. Cards in the Graveyard can be retrieved through the use of spells but for exiled ones, they'll need
to be back in the Graveyard before you can resurrect them.
 Summoning Sickness: For most creature/minion cards, unless otherwise specified, you can't use it to
attack on the same turn that you played it. Instant spells can be cast immediately, regardless of whose
turn it is; summoning sickness doesn't apply to them.
 Blocking: Creature/minion cards have an attack and defence value, indicated at the bottom of the
card. If an opponent attacks with a creature/minion card, you can use another creature/minion card to
block the damage. Here's where you'll have to do some basic math. If the attack power of the
opponent's card is greater than the defence value of your card, then your card 'dies' and goes into the
Graveyard.

On a related note, some spells can cancel out or even reflect the damage. Damage to the player's
life points is negated through blocking, unless the attacking card has a mechanic that specifies
damage will still go through to the player (i.e. Trample).

What Deck Should I Pick?

At the core of Magic are the 'Lands', which produce mana specific to the colour on their cards.
There are six types of Land: Plains (White), Island (Blue), Swamp (Black), Mountain (Red), Forest
(Green) and Waste (Colourless). Most players will base a deck, which consists of 60 cards, on one
or two types of Land although I've seen people use all of them at once. There are certain spells that
you can cast and monsters that you can summon and each of them will have a different attribute
that is dependent on the Land.

So what colour combinations should you go with? We put this question up to Will Chan, brand
manager for Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic cards:

"I get this question a lot and to answer it I need to provide a little context. In Magic, the five
colours of mana have different strengths and weaknesses which lend themselves to particular play
styles. For example, Green (aligned with the forces of nature) often has the largest creatures in the
game while Red (aligned with fire and chaos) enables to you to cast devastating damage spells
(Fireball anyone?). The best colour combos for beginners will be in the colours that fit with their
play style, with the spells they most enjoy casting!"

Honestly, when I first started, I just picked two colours I liked: Red and Black. You can just get
starter packs that combine two colours and are pre-prepared so that you don't have to agonise over
what cards to use. It's all done for you. You don't even have to worry about the different mechanics
that can impact gameplay and these packs are pretty well balanced so if you're playing against
another player with a starter deck, it's a level playing field. You're welcome to substitute some of
the cards with news ones you get but that can come when you've had a few matches under your
belt.

If you're strapped for cash or simply don't want to pay anything for cards, there's also Magic Duels,
which is a free-to-play digital version of the game. Personally, I like the feeling of handling the
cards in real life, but this is still a fantastic way to get into Magic.

What Do All The Stuff On The Cards Mean?

Another thing you need to understand is what all the texts and icons are there for.

I'll use a spell card as an example:

Image: supplied
And here's an example of a creature/minion card, highlighting where its attack and defence values
can be found:
Image: supplied
Having played a fair few games with absolute newbies, one of the most common mistakes they
make relates to the number of mana/Land required to cast a spell. The number in the circle seems
to throw them off. You have to remember: the amount of mana you need to cast a spell or summon
a creature/minion is the encircled number plus the number of Land icons that are on the card.

For the Instant card above, you need one White mana plus one more mana of any colour so you
need a total of two mana points to play it.

The flavour text on the cards are usually quite detailed but there are a bunch of mechanics that can
be confusing. There's a lot of jargon and some terms can be a bit ambiguous. My advice for
wrapping your head around the Magic lexicon is to learn by playing, even if you don’t know what
everything means.

If you are stumped by a term during gameplay, just Google it. No, really. You can start by referring
to this very handy Magic: The Gathering Glossary Wikipedia page which gives you an overview of
all the terms used in the game. If you're still not sure if you're doing it right, get some clarity from
long-time players on dedicated Magic forums or your local tabletop games specialist. There's a
place called The Nerd Cave in Sydney and the staff are always helpful in answering questions about
Magic and other tabletop games.

When you're playing with friends casually, it won't kill you if you accidentally misinterpret how
some cards work. If you continue on with Magic and end up playing more experienced people,
someone will correct you soon enough.
If You Dare, Give Multiplayer A Go
When I first started playing Magic, I avoided doing multiplayer because I thought it would get too
chaotic and I didn't want to overwhelm myself. Now, having played a few multiplayer games, it's
actually not that scary. In fact, it's quite entertaining, even for beginners.

Chan has some simple tips to make the most of a multiplayer game:

"Multiplayer Magic is my favourite – games become a part Magic, part politics with the art of
diplomacy being as important as your play skill! We have a multiplayer lunch time league here in
Wizards HQ and usually have games in pods with odd numbers of players (i.e.: 3 or 5 players).
Odd numbers to keep players from forming 2 sides and games with more than 3 or 5 players tend
to take longer than our lunch break, which makes the boss crabby, unless of course we let him
win!"

Just Give It A Try And Have Fun

There's still a lot of other elements of Magic that I haven't gone through. But do you really want to
spend any more time reading about the game? Go on. Go out there and start playing! Get your
friends in on it too because you'll need victims opponents. That's the best way to learn and you'll
have a ton of fun along the way.
How to Play: Magic the Gathering
by Canadianthunder in card-games

Download
6 Steps

Share

Favorite I Made it! Collection

'In the Magic game, you play the role of a planeswalker—a powerful wizard who fights other
planeswalkers for glory, knowledge, and conquest. Your deck of cards represents all the weapons
in your arsenal. It contains the spells you know and the creatures you can summon to fight for
you.'-Wizards of the Coast
Welcome to the wonderful world of Magic the Gathering! Magic is a card game that combines;
strategy, fantasy, and fun to create one of the most popular card games ever known. So Sit back
and relax because you are about to take a journey into Magic the Gathering

Step 1: The Cards

Magic is just as much a trading card collection as it is a strategy game. Cards are classed in
rarity,from least rare to most rare cards come in; common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare, you
can also get a foil version of every card that makes the card slightly more valuable. You can't play
magic without having the cards so obviously the first step into magic, is to buy some cards. You
can obtain cards in a number of different ways. Cards come in Booster packs, Intro packs,
Clash packs, Fat packs, and Booster boxes. A booster pack contains 10 commons, 3
uncommon, and 1 rare or mythic rare card. An intro pack contains a 60 card deck (i'll explain why
60 later on) 2 booster packs, and an instructions manual (which you won't need after this
instructable). A clash pack contains two 60 card decksso you can play with your friends if they
don't have a deck,there is also a guide on how to combine the two decks to make a single more
powerful deck. A fat pack contains; nine booster packs, 80 basic lands, and 2 deck boxes, along
with a couple of other trinkets. Finally, a booster box is pretty much when you buy the entire box of
booster packs from a store, it contains 36 booster packs. If you are just getting started with Magic,
i suggest buying an intro pack. An intro pack is exactly what it sounds like, its a deck made for
beginners like you and it comes at a fairly cheap price. You can pick these up at your local comic
or card store, or even at a department store. I've found though that it is cheaper to buy cards at a
comic store.

Step 2: Constructed Deck

There are a few different ways to play Magic the Gathering, but for this Instructable we will be
focusing on Standard constructed play. Constructed means that you have made a deck before
hand and brought it to wherever your playing. The deck must have a minimum of 60 cards and
there is no upper limit although most players prefer to stick to 60 cards. Standard is a bit confusing
at first, especially because Magic is undergoing a change. In Magic, cards are released in blocks,
each block has a story behind it and the cards usually fit that story. Blocks rotate in and out of
standard play, meaning that once a block has been out for a certain amount of time, you can no
longer play with the cards from that block in standard. This may seem like a waste of money, but it
keeps the game fresh and you can still use those old cards in different styles of the game. The
block rotation fight now( the old way) is that 3 sets come out in a year, all three combined are
referred to as the block, and one core set comes out in the summer. The core set is just a one off
thing that has nothing to do with the blocks. The rotation goes like this, 3 sets come out to make
block-A, then core-A set comes out. Next, Block-B comes out, and core-B set comes out. Now 2
Blocks and 2 Core sets are standard legal. Once the first set of block-C comes out, Block-A and
Core-A get rotated out and it cycles like that. Now, if that wasn't confusing enough, The rotation
and blocks are being changed. Beginning in 2016, Blocks will be only 2 sets, one big one, and one
little one. Also, there will be three Blocks that are standard legal at a time. so rotation will be; Set-
A1, Set-A2, Set-B1, Set-B2, SetC1, SetC2. when SetD1 comes out, SetA1 and A2 will rotate out.
Also there will no longer be core sets. The Gif/video above explains this rotation pretty well,
everything before the block block is the old rotation.

Step 3: Mana
There are 5 different colours of mana in Magic, Red, Black, Blue, White, and Green. Mana is used
to cast spells, enchantments and creatures that will fight for you and defend you against your
opponent. Each of these cards requires a certain number of mana to cast. How do you get mana
you ask? Mana is obtained by casting cards called lands. There are 5 types of lands, one for each
mana colour, Mountain(red), Swamp(black), Island(blue), Forest(green), and Plains(white).During
the game, you will be able put one land onto the board every time its your turn and each of these
land can yield one mana a turn, so you will need alot of lands. It is up to you which colours you
like, and which ones you want to make a deck with. you can combine as many colors as you want,
but personally i stick with two or three. Some colors go better with some than others, often it
depends on the block that your playing with. To keep it simple in the beginning, you might choose
to have only one colour in your deck, although most intro packs start you off with 2. If you notice
the picture of 'blood-fire colossus' you can see whats circled. There's a 6, and 2 red mana
symbols, this is the casting cost of that creature. This means it will cost you 2 red mana, and 6
mana of any colour to cast.

Step 4: Card Types

 Show All 7 Items

There are a few different types of cards in Magic,

Land- As you learned in the Mana section, land are what gives you mana to cast spells and
creatures. Land cards do not cost any mana to cast. Lands are permanent meaning they stay on
the battlefield unless removed or destroyed and can only be used on your turn. One land card can
be placed down every turn. To use a land card and get mana, you need to Tap the card. This
means you turn the card sideways, it remains sideways until your next turn where you Untap all of
your cards if they where tapped last turn. Tapping a land gives you one mana.
Creature-Next card type are the foundations of your deck. Creatures are what you will primarily
use to attack your opponent and defend yourself. Each creature has a certain mana cost that you
must use land cards to pay for, creatures are also permanent. Upon casting a creature onto the
battlefield you must tap them for that turn, this is called summoning sickness. Some creatures
have abilities that override summoning sickness, but most do not. On the bottom right of a
creature card, there are two numbers divided by a slash. the number before the slash is the power
of the creature, it tells how much damage a creature deals, the number after the slash is it's
toughness, that tells you how much damage must be dealt to it to destroy it. on your turn, you can
use untapped creatures to attack your opponent, or you can leave it untapped so they can defend
you against your opponents creatures. When you block an attack with your creature on your
opponents turn, you do not tap that creature. For you life points to go down, your opponent must
attack you directly, and if you block his/her creatures with your own creatures then it is harder for
him/her to deal damage to you, here is a tip though, look at your life points as a resource to be
used to win the battle.
Artifacts-Artifacts permanent cards that act as magical items and equipment. Artifacts require that
you pay to cast them onto the battlefield, than you must pay to use one of their abilities, you can
use their abilities as many times as you want. A type of artifact called equipment has an ability that
lets you attach it to a creature, usually giving that creature a boost of some kind.
Enchantment-Enchantments are much like artifacts except that they don't have a cost to use their
abilities, but you can usually use the ability only once. Auras are a kind of enchantment that you
attach to a creature, so pretty much like an equipment.
Planeswalker-Planeswalkers are powerful cards that really give you a boost in the game.
Planeswalkers are different from creatures and all other cards, they run on loyalty points. A
planeswalker starts with a certain amount of points, and 3-4 abilities, each ability either adds or
subtracts loyalty points. The abilities that add point are usually weak but decent attacks or actions,
while the abilities that subtract points are powerful and can completely obliterate your opponent.
Sorcery-Sorcery cards are like magic spells cast by you against the opponent or the opponents
creatures. Sorcerys can only be cast on your turn, and after you have finished what the card tell
you to do, you put it into your graveyard.
Instants-Instants, like sorcerys , are cards that once cast are put into your graveyard. Unlike
sorcery cards, instants can be used at anytime during the game, even on your opponents turn! this
makes instants very critical cards for your deck, and your stratagy.
These are all the card types in Magic. One important rule to note in magic is that you can only
have 4 of one card in your deck. For example, i can have 4 lightning strike cards but not 5. This
rule is for all cards except for basic land cards. you may have as many basic lands as you want.

Step 5: Playing the Game

Once you have compiled your deck and have someone to play with, you can start your first game
of Magic the Gathering. If you are confused about the areas of the field there is a picture above
that outlines the areas. Face your opponent, shuffle your deck thoroughly then set it on the table
and have your opponent cut your deck, you will also do the same to his deck. Decide who will go
first in anyway you want. As in the pic above, set your deck to your right, out of your way and pick
the top 7 cards from it, this is your hand. From now on, every turn you have you draw one card
from the top of your library at the beginning of that turn and add it to your hand, 7 cards is the
maximum amount of cards you're allowed to have at the end of your turn(i'll explain later).
Whenever you use a card, discard a card, or a creature dies, put it into your graveyard face up.
Your graveyard it a pile below your deck and cannot be drawn from.
At the beginning of a game, each player has 20 life points which can go up or down depending on
what happens, if your life points reach 0 then your opponent wins. you can deal damage to your
opponent using creatures or spells.
If you are going first, look in your hand for any land card, if you have some place one down in your
play zone(closer to you as to leave space for your creature cards). Next, if you have anything in
your hand that you are able to play that cost only on mana you can now put that down. Just
remember if its a creature, turn it sideways for the first turn as summoning sickness takes effect.
Not much usually happens on the first turn for you and your opponent, but having a good hand
when you start the game is instrumental to winning in the long run.
From now on, you must start paying attention to the phases in each turn Starting with your second
turn in the game. When you opponent finishes his/her turn You go into your Beginning
phase. This is where you do 3 things 1.Untap all of your cards if they were tapped, 2.This is the
step were if your cards have any abilities that trigger every turn, they trigger now, 3. The draw
step, draw one card from your library and add it to your hand, you have to draw in this step even if
you already have 7 cards in your hand. Next is the First Main Phase. In this phase, first you want
to put down one mana card from your hand if you have one. Next, look at your deck and see if
there are any cards you can put down which you can afford with the mana on the table, most likely
you will place combat cards down in this step, but anything goes. Combat Phase is a 5 step
phase where you battle it out with your opponent. Step.1- Beginning, this is where you have a last
chance to place cards that you might want to use in battle. Step.2- Attack step, this is where you
say what creatures you want to attack your opponent with, you cannot choose where to attack with
your cards, all of your attacks are focused on your opponent unless blocked. Step.3-Blocking step.
This step is where your opponent, can choose whether or not to block your creature attacks with
his/her own creatures, or to let the attacks hit him/her. Your opponent can choose which creature
blocks which of your attackers, but blockers must be untapped. Step.4- combat damage step. this
step is where the damage hits either you or you creatures. you can play instants before the
damage hits if you choose. Step.5- End step. You and your opponent can use spells and abilities
in this step if you want. After the end phase comes the Second main phase. This is the same as
the first main phase, but it is more strategically wise to play creatures and other permanents in this
step. End phase. In this phase, at the beginning, all your cards with an ability that triggers at 'the
end your turn' will be triggered now. After that you must look through your hand again, if you have
more than 7 cards, disscard a card until you have 7.
Those are all the phases to play magic. Just keep going through these steps until one person is at
0 life.

Step 6: That's It!

Well, that wraps up this Instructable. Thanks for sticking around until the end i hope you enjoyed it.
Magic is ultimately a game, try not to get mad if you loose or gloat if you win, magic is all about
respect to your fellow player. Thank you to people and websites that taught me to play this game.
Also, just a disclaimer, I d not own the rights to any of these pictures, they were all found on the
internet. Now, Go get yourself some cards, and get out there! Don't be afraid to go to your local
comic book shop and play Friday night magic with the regulars, they were all new at some point.
Have fun!