The Rules of Magic
If you're gonna strive far in the Magic Universe, you're going to need to know what you're actually doing. Here in the rules section, you'll find out what you can do, what you can't do, what the enemy can do and what you can do in advanced, special or rare situations.
The Basics
Assuming you already have a deck, you firstly need to shuffle your deck to make sure that the cards you draw are completely random. The image below is an example of a Magic playfield. This should give you an idea of where to place your cards. All players have the objective of reducing their opponent(s) Life total to 0, while keeping their own Life total above 0.
1. This is where your deck is placed. You draw a card from this pile this every time it's your turn.
2. This is your graveyard. This is where you place cards after they have either been destroyed or used. When creatures, artifacts, lands, enchantments or artifact creatures are destroyed, they enter this space, unless the card destroying them says otherwise. Sorceries and instants enter the graveyard when they are used, unless they say otherwise. Some cards can bring other cards from the graveyard, into the owner's hand or onto the battlefield.
3. This is where you play your land cards. You tap (turn them sideways) to gain mana to cast spells.
4. This is the battlefield; where you place your creatures. When summoned, creatures cannot attack or use their tap abilities until your next turn (a term we call "summoning sickness"), unless they have the ability "haste". However, they can still block.
5. This is where you place artifacts and enchantments. They can have passive abilities or active abilities, which can depend on the colour of mana you play or what situation you are in.
There are situations where a card is exiled from play. This means that unless by other means, the card exiled cannot return to play at any cost.
Also not shown is your hand, which is where you keep cards until you play or discard them.
2. This is your graveyard. This is where you place cards after they have either been destroyed or used. When creatures, artifacts, lands, enchantments or artifact creatures are destroyed, they enter this space, unless the card destroying them says otherwise. Sorceries and instants enter the graveyard when they are used, unless they say otherwise. Some cards can bring other cards from the graveyard, into the owner's hand or onto the battlefield.
3. This is where you play your land cards. You tap (turn them sideways) to gain mana to cast spells.
4. This is the battlefield; where you place your creatures. When summoned, creatures cannot attack or use their tap abilities until your next turn (a term we call "summoning sickness"), unless they have the ability "haste". However, they can still block.
5. This is where you place artifacts and enchantments. They can have passive abilities or active abilities, which can depend on the colour of mana you play or what situation you are in.
There are situations where a card is exiled from play. This means that unless by other means, the card exiled cannot return to play at any cost.
Also not shown is your hand, which is where you keep cards until you play or discard them.
Starting the Game
Both/all players have a starting life total of 20 Life Points. You may note this down on paper, or have D20 Dice for your Life total. All players draw 7 cards from their shuffled deck. The recommended starting hand would be 2-3 land cards and the rest being cheap, easily playable cards, however this can be different with different playing styles. If the hand you start off with is bad or not preferred, the player can "mulligan" for a new hand. A mulligan is shuffling your deck and drawing new cards. However, with each mulligan, you draw one less card. For example, I have 7 cards. I mulligan, shuffling my deck and drawing 6 cards. I decide to mulligan again and draw 5 new cards. If you have to mulligan, it is recommended to stay at 5 cards, otherwise you would be at a severe disadvantage.
Players decide who goes first. This can be decided via Rock, Paper, Scissors, or any other decisive mini-game with a clear winner. The winner of the mini-game decides who goes first and second. The player who goes first does not draw a card for their first turn, but draws for their first time on their second turn. Any player after the first player can draw on their first turn. This may be something to consider when choosing the order of play.
To start, players should start with playing Land cards, so they can cast other spells. As the game advances, players will start playing spells, where you will need to hold your own if you want to win. For the basics on combat, attacking and blocking, please go to the combat information page.
Players decide who goes first. This can be decided via Rock, Paper, Scissors, or any other decisive mini-game with a clear winner. The winner of the mini-game decides who goes first and second. The player who goes first does not draw a card for their first turn, but draws for their first time on their second turn. Any player after the first player can draw on their first turn. This may be something to consider when choosing the order of play.
To start, players should start with playing Land cards, so they can cast other spells. As the game advances, players will start playing spells, where you will need to hold your own if you want to win. For the basics on combat, attacking and blocking, please go to the combat information page.
Advanced Situations
If you play regularly at an event, chances are you'll end up with an experienced player, who has tweaked their deck to rule out a lot of weak points it has and to counter possible strategies you have. Here in this section, we'll give you the best advice we can so you can hold out against them.
Power ramp Instants
This is quite a common phenomenon throughout the green, black and red colour decks. The idea behind this is to fool the other side into a sense of security, then buff your attacking creature(s) with power bonuses and extra abilities until it becomes something you wish you had stopped when you had the chance. This can vary with different card packs, but the best colour to deal with this strategy is blue, as their cheap costing instants that counter their instants can easily bring an outrageous victory for the other side back into your favour.
Card Depletion
Another common occurrence is that over time, the enemy discards your cards. This can be a huge problem if you only have one strategy in your whole deck. It can also be a problem if you don't have as many cards as the opponent, however returning cards from your graveyard is no huge feat. There is no proper way to defeat this strategy, however destroying the source of the card depletion, whether it be an enchantment, artifact or sorcery, would probably be handled by red and green, as red's aggressive destruction and black's deception and corruption could easily destroy and recover cards that were in play.
Special Situations
There will be times when the rules you know just don't match up with the predicament you are in. Let this section fill you in on some of those moments.
Withdraw
When you target a creature that has been particularly annoying with a spell you know for sure will kill it, the enemy casts an instant and returns that card to his/her hand. Unfortunately, the spell you cast has to go on without a target, therefore doing nothing at all. The worst of it is that the mana you paid is still paid.
First Strike and Double Strike
First Strike is literally a creature hitting another before the other creature can hit back. However, Double Strike says that it hits twice, but not that it goes first. So, surely First Strike would hit first? Nope, First Strike and Double Strike's first hit both take action at the same time, then the "normal" combat damage, where Double Strike's second hit takes place. Be wary of this when blocking a Double Strike creature.
Enchantment Creatures
Let's say a card you cast lets you see what the opponent is holding. They have two creatures; one with 5/5 and the other (the enchantment creature) with 3/2 and vigilance. In this situation, it isn't just as simple as choosing the highest power and toughness. A straight up 5/5 can deal quite a bit of damage, but the enchantment creature can be in a league of its own if played correctly. Say the enemy already had a 3/3 on the field, and you got rid of that dangerous-looking 5/5. The enemy then casts the enchantment creature, but for its bestow cost (approx. 2-3 mana more than its normal mana cast) and applies the creature as an aura enchantment to the 3/3 already on the field. The result being the 3/3 morphs into a 6/5 with vigilance. That's significantly worse than that 5/5 you took out earlier. In short, enchantment creatures can be seriously overpowered, but only in the hands of an experienced player.
Rare Situations
These are unlikely to happen, but if they do, you may be inadequately prepared to deal with the uncommon threats. The threats you read here may never happen when you play, but every little helps, right?
Forced Expense
There are a few cards scattered few and far between that increase the mana it takes to play spells. For example, Defense Grid is an artifact that increases all costs on all spells for all players other than the caster of the artifact by 3 mana. This means that an Elvish Mystic (shown in card types) would take 4 mana to summon! This is an extreme control card, so make sure you can destroy or counter it before it takes its toll on you.
Planeswalkers
Planeswalkers act like another player, with their own life total and abilities to help guide you or hinder the enemy. However, they are very rare and most people buy them because they can't find any in their deck packs. Certain abilities the individual Planeswalkers have either makes them lose life or gain life, and most abilities they have can easily turn the tables on their own. They can be targeted by attacking creatures but can be defended by the player that controls them. They are a serious force to be reckoned with.
The Unhinged/Unglued Packs
These packs were made either as joke cards or seriously overpowered cards. Fortunately, they can't be used in real MTG events, but in friendly matches, these cards can easily overturn and finish a game. For example, the Unhinged pack's Mox Lotus and Gleemax artifact combo allows for complete domination of the game. Mox Lotus (mana cost 15) can tap for infinite, yes, infinite mana, and Gleemax (mana cost 1,000,000) allows the player who casts it to control every sorcery, every instant, every enchantment, even every creature card. Beware these cards, for they can and will destroy.