Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 5: Understanding the Basics of the Game
• Part 2 of 5: Understanding the Different Types of Cards
• Part 3 of 5: Understanding the Gameplay
• Part 4 of 5: Understanding the Phases of a Turn
• Part 5 of 5: Additional Concepts
• Tips

Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game that combines strategy and fantasy. The idea is this: you play a powerful wizard named planswalker, who summons creatures, spells and weapons to assist in your battle against other planswalker's. You can exchange cards or play with your friends. Continue reading to find out more about this.

Steps

Part 1 of 5: Understanding the Basics of the Game

1. 1 Find players. Most often two or more people play. You can play against two or more players, but most often you play against one.
2. 2 Collect cards for your deck. Your deck is your army and weapons. A built deck that you can use to play with friends in an informal setting can contain 60 cards or more. Usually 60 cards are chosen.
   • According to the rules of the competition, you can play with a reduced deck, with a minimum of 40 cards or more.
   • A deck of 60 or 40 cards is sometimes referred to as a "library".
3. 3 At the beginning of each game, players draw 7 cards from their deck. These cards will be called the player's "hand". At the beginning of each turn, players draw one additional card to their hand.
   • When a player discards a card, uses a card, or when the card's creature dies or the spell is destroyed, that card is put on the discard pile. The discard is to the left of the player's deck.
4. 4 Each player starts with 20 lives. During the game, players can lose or gain health. In general, the more health the better.
   • Players inflict "damage / damage" on creatures and other players. Damage is dealt by creatures or magic. Damage is calculated based on the number of health levels taken away.
   • If the first player deals 4 damage to the second player, then the second player loses 4 life levels. If the second player started with 20 lives, he now has 16. (20 - 4 = 16.)
5. 5 There are three options for when a player can be defeated. A player loses when he loses all his lives, when his deck runs out of cards, or has 10 poison tokens.
   • If the player's lives are 0 or less, then the player loses.
   • If at the beginning of the turn the player has no cards left in the deck, then the player loses.
   • When a player has received 10 poison tokens, he / she loses.
6. 6 Collect different colors into your deck: White, Blue, Black, Red and Green.
   • White means protection and order. The white symbol is the white circle (orb). The strength of white cards is in small creatures that collectively become stronger; receiving life; reduce the strength of enemy creatures; balance the strength of the cards on the table, putting some of them in the discard pile.
   • Blue stands for gimmicks and intelligence. The blue symbol is a drop of water. The strength of blue cards is in drawing cards; cards that take control of your opponent's cards; cards that “counteract” and reduce the effect of enemy spells; and flying creatures or creatures that cannot be blocked.
   • Black means decay and death. The symbol of black cards is a black skull. The power of black cards in destructive creatures; forcing the opponent to get rid of the cards; loss of lives of the enemy; and creatures resurrected from the graves.
   • Red means fury and chaos. The symbol of red is a fireball. The power of red cards is in donating resources in exchange for power; in direct damage to players or monsters; and in the destruction of artifacts and lands.
   • Green means life and nature. The symbol of green cards is a green tree. The power of green cards in powerful creatures with "stomp"; the ability to restore creatures, or resurrect; and in the quick acquisition of land.

Part 2 of 5: Understanding the Different Types of Cards

1. 1 Find out what lands are and where "mana" comes from. Lands are a type of card that produces mana. There are 5 simple lands, one per color. Lands produce magical energy, or "mana," which is the "fuel" for casting spells.
   • 5 common land types:
     
     • White Lands, or Plains, Produce White Mana
     • Blue lands, or islands, produce blue mana
     • Blacklands, or swamps, produce black mana
     • Red lands, or mountains, produce red mana
     • Green lands, or forests, produce green mana
   • Lands are different (for example, double and triple), but it is important for beginners to know that simple lands only produce mana for the corresponding color, and that non-ordinary lands can produce mana of two or more colors.
2. 2 Learn what "witchcraft" is. Witchcraft are magical spells that can only be used on your own turn. You cannot use sorcery as a response to another spell (you will get the idea later). Witchcraft disappears after use, that is, it is sent directly to the discard.
3. 3 Find out what "instant" cards are. Instant cards are similar to witchcraft, but unlike them, you can use instant cards during your opponent's turn and respond with them to the spell you just used. Disappear after use, that is, they are sent to the dump heap.
4. 4 Find out what "magic" is. Magic is "permanent" cards. There are two types: improvement of the card of your creature, it affects only this card, in this case it is called an aura; or located next to battle cards, next to lands, without joining cards, but affects all your cards (and, possibly, enemy cards).
   • The magic is constantly on the table, that is, it does not disappear after use. It can only be destroyed.
5. 5 Find out what "artifacts" are. Artifacts are magical items that are permanent too. Artifacts have no color, that is, they do not need to be summoned with a specific mana color. There are three types of artifacts:
   • Common Artifacts: Similar to magic.
   • Equipment Artifacts: These cards can be used on creatures, giving them additional skills.If the creature leaves the battlefield, the equipment remains; equipment does not follow a creature into the discard, even if it was attached to the given monster.
   • Creature Artifacts: These are creature and artifact cards at the same time. They are the same as creatures, only they do not require specific mana to summon: you can summon, use any mana. They are colorless and immune to certain spells.
6. 6 Learn what creatures are. Creatures are one of the most basic types of cards in this game. Creatures are permanent, in other words, they leave the battlefield only after they are destroyed or removed in some other way. The main feature of creatures is that they can attack and defend. The two numbers in the lower right corner (for example, 4/5) are the attack and defense strength of this creature, respectively.
   • Creatures come into play with what is called "evocation disease". Disease of evocation means that the creature cannot attack the same round it was summoned. The creature can block; the block is not subject to disease causing.
   • Creatures have special skills such as “flying,” “dexterity,” or “trampling” - we'll talk about this a little later.
7. 7 Find out what role planeswalkers play. The Plainswalker is a powerful ally, essentially a powered creature. They are very rare, do not always appear in the game and can change the essence of the game when they appear.
   • Each planewalker has a certain number of loyalty points shown in the lower right corner. The “+ X” symbol means “give this planeswalker loyalty points in X size”, while “-X” means “remove X size loyalty points”. Only when using magic (and once per turn), you can activate these skills and opportunities that appear.
   • Planeswalkers can be attacked by your opponent's creatures and spells. You can block such attacks with your creatures and spells. In the case when your opponent deals damage to a planeswalker, loyalty points are taken away instead of health.

Part 3 of 5: Understanding the Gameplay

1. 1 Learn how to summon a creature or spell. Depending on the cost of the creature, you can summon it, usually a number in a circle, of a certain mana color - white, blue, black, red or green. To summon a creature, you need to produce the required amount of mana for it.
   • Take a look at the map above. You will notice the number “1” and next to it is the white mana symbol - a white orb. To summon this particular card, you need the right amount of lands to produce mana of each color and 1 white mana.
2. 2 Check out other examples of maps. Try to guess how much mana it will take to summon them.
   • The first card, "Sylvan Bounty," costs 5 units of colorless mana — mana of any color — and one green mana — the mana produced by the forest, for a total of 6 mana. The second card, Angelic Shield, costs one white mana from the plains and one blue mana.
3. 3 Learn what engaging / turning and inaction are. The action / rotation of the card is a way of getting mana in lands or a way of your attack with creatures. Pay attention to the arrow, so you turn the card on its side and put it in "action".
   • Using a card means that you cannot use certain skills on your turn. For example, if you used a card to activate some skill, the card will be used until the next turn. You cannot use "used" skills as long as the card is in action.
   • To attack, you need to use your creatures. The creature expends its energy when entering the battle, which makes it used up. Do not rotate a card if it says you don’t need to rotate it (some cards don’t need to be used to attack), otherwise you will have to.
   • You cannot block with a creature that is tapped.
4. 4 Learn what strength and vitality mean. Creatures have one number for strength and another for vitality. For example, Phyrexian Broodlings has a strength of 2 and a vitality of 2. In other words, 2/2.
   • Strength is the amount of damage a creature can deal. If the creature has a power of 5, it deals 5 damage to the opponent's creature, if he decided to use it to block, or 5 damage to his vitality.
   • Vitality is the amount of vitality of a given creature. If a creature with 4 vitality takes 3 damage, it survives. If the damage is 4 or more, then the creature dies and goes to the discard pile.
5. 5 Find out how the amount of damage is calculated during the battle. When one player decides to attack another player, they put up cards that will attack and block. Attacking creatures are exposed first. Then the defending player sets up creatures that will block.
   • Let's say Anathemancer attacks Magus of the Moat, which is blocking. Anathemancer has 2 strengths and 2 vitality. This is 2/2. Magus of the Moat has a strength of 0 and a vitality of 3. This is 0/3. What will happen during the battle?
   • The Anathemancer deals 2 damage when Magus deals 0 damage to the Anathemancer.
   • The 2 damage that Anathemancer dealt to Magus'y will not be enough to kill. Magus can survive 3 damage before being discarded. On the other hand, 0 damage dealt by Anathemancer'y is not enough to kill either. Both creatures survive.
6. 6 Learn how to activate special skills of creatures, magic and artifacts. Most often, creatures have skills that can be activated by players. By using these skills, you are essentially summoning creatures. See an example.
   • The Ictian Crier card says, “Use two 1/1 white Citizen tokens in play.” But, there are also mana signs and text. This is the mana cost required to use this skill and another condition.
   • To activate the skill, tap (use) a simple land card of any color (this is for one colorless mana), also one plains card (for white mana). Now turn the map itself, Ictian Crier is because of the "tap" sign. Finally, remove the card from the higher deck - preferably the most unnecessary card. You can now put two 1/1 Citizen tokens into play. They work like regular 1/1 creatures.

Part 4 of 5: Understanding the Phases of a Turn

1. 1 Learn about the different phases of a turn. Each player's turn consists of 5 phases or steps. Understanding the 5 phases and how they work is an essential part of the gameplay. Five phases:
2. 2 Initial: the initial phase includes three different stages:
   
   • Stop action stage: the player stops the actions of the cards.
   • Tax Tier: Not normally used, but sometimes players must pay mana to use lands during this turn.
   • Step when pulled: the player draws one card.
3. 3 First main phase: during this phase, the player may put one land from his / her hand. Also, in this phase, the player can play one of the cards in his hand, while turning a land card to produce mana.
4. 4 Battle phase. This phase is divided into 5 steps.
   
   • Announcement of an attack: When a player announces his attack. The defender can use spells after declaring an attack.
   • Assign Attackers: After declaring an attack, the attacker can assign creatures to attack. The attacking player cannot defend with the creatures chosen to attack.
   • Assign Blocking Creatures: The defending player can assign creatures to attacking creatures that will block damage. You can assign multiple blocking creatures to one attacker.
   • Assign Damage: Creatures deal damage to each other during this step. Attacking creatures with a force greater than the blocking creature's survivability will destroy them. Blocking creatures with the same strength as the attacking creature's vitality will destroy them. There is a possibility that the creatures will destroy each other.
   • End of battle: nothing special happens during this phase; both players can use instant cards.
5. 5 Second main phase. After the battle, there is a second main phase, similar to the first, in which players can summon creatures and use spells.
6. 6 Final phase or cleaning. During this phase, you can use any skill or spell. This is the last chance for players to use Instant Cards.
   • During this phase, the player discards 7 cards if he has more than 7.

Part 5 of 5: Additional Concepts

1. 1 Learn what flying is. Creatures that can fly cannot be blocked by creatures without flying.
   • Flying creatures can block creatures without flying.
2. 2 Learn what first strike is. The first blow is the essence of the attack. When one creature attacks and the player chooses to block that attack with a creature, you count their difference in strength and survivability.
   • Usually damage is calculated at the same time; if the strength of the attacking creature is higher than the survivability of the blocking creature, and if the strength of the blocking creature is higher than the survivability of the attacker, both creatures die.
   • If one of the creatures has the right to the first attack, this creature is endowed with a "chance to first strike", in other words, if the attacking creature kills the blocking creatures, while the blocker's strength was also higher than the attacker's survivability - the attacking creature survives.
3. 3 Learn what dexterity is. Dexterity means that the creature can attack without using a card.
   • Dexterity means that the creature can attack and block in subsequent rounds. Usually, when a creature attacks, it cannot block in the next round.
4. 4 Find out what "speed" is. Speed ​​means that a creature can be engaged and used to attack in the same round.
5. 5 Learn what trampling is. Trample is the ability of creatures to deal damage to your opponent, even if he is blocking an attack by another creature. The difference in the strength of the creature with trampling and the survivability of the blocking creature will be counted as damage to your opponent.
   • For example, let's say Kavu Mauler attacks and Bonethorn Valesk blocks. The first is 4/4 with stomping, while the second is 4/2. The first deals 4 damage to the second, when the second responds 4 damage to the first. Both creatures die, but the first creature also deals 2 damage to your opponent, why? Because the vitality of the second creature was 2, and the strength of the first was 4, and it has trampling.
6. 6 Find out what a "shadow" is. Shadow is a creature skill: creatures with this skill can only be blocked by creatures with the same skill.
7. 7 Find out what "infect" is. The contagion deals damage to creatures in the form of -1 / -1, and to players in the form of poison tokens, instead of normal damage. -1 / -1 counters are constant.
   • Let's say Hand of the Praetors attacks and Kresh the Bloodbraided blocks. The former has a contagion, which means that it deals damage in the form of permanent -1 / -1 counters. The first deals 3 -1 / -1 counters to the second, kills him. The second deals 3 damage to the first, kills eo.
   • Kresh was 4/4 instead of 3/3, 3 -1 / -1 counters would stay on him forever, leaving him with 1/1.

Tips

• If you don't like your hand, you can discard it in the deck and choose a new one, but one less card.
• Practice, if you don't understand the first time, continue with your practice. The game becomes a lot of fun when you get it right.
• Try to keep as many cards of the same mana as possible to gain quick access to spells and creatures.
• Buy a box for your cards.