Intro

Welcome! This website is about Magic: The Gathering (hereafter: Magic), a fantasy-themed trading card game made by Wizards of the Coast (Wizards) that's been around for almost 30 years.  

I've played Magic on and off since (almost) the beginning of the game in 1993.  It's a quick game of deep strategy and endless variety.  It's captivated the world since its inception, kicking off the collectible card game craze of the mid-90s and encouraging an industry that has since given us household names like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh.  I believe it's the best collectible game out there, and maybe the best game, period.

Though a veteran, I'm not a good Magic player.  I don't buy every card, I've never played in a tournament, and I lose . . . a lot.  I play on and off, indulging in or ignoring expansions as life or desires dictate.  I play casually with friends and family, or online using Magic: Arena, enjoying the game in such settings.  

Most Magic sites are either one-off overviews for beginners or in-depth resources for experts. This site is geared towards beginners and casual players, like me, who like Magic and want to better understand it, but don't care if they win tournaments (or even games); they just want to have fun.  

In the months to come, I'll be posting about rules, terms, cards, decks, formats, and other random thoughts about this great game, all geared towards the casual fan.  I won't reinvent the wheel- if good resources are out there (and they most certainly are), I'll link to them- but my goal is to serve the casual crowd and provide a one-stop resource.

Magic in a Nutshell

In Magic, you and your opponent(s) are 'planeswalkers'- powerful beings capable of great magic.  Each player starts with 20 life and a deck of 60 cards.  The game is played over a series of turns. Each turn, you'll battle your opponent(s) by casting spells (playing cards) from your hand. You eliminate opponents by dropping their life to 0.  The last one standing wins!

Each player brings their own deck to a Magic game. Decks have two types of cards: those that generate resources (land cards) and those that use resources (spell cards).

• Lands produce the mana you need to pay for spells.  Mana comes in five different colors (white, blue, black, red, green).  All spell cards (see next bullet) need mana.  One land can generate one mana per turn.

A forest land card.  It produces one green mana.

• Spell cards are basically any non-land cards. They have a mana cost (upper right-hand corner) that tells you the amount and color of mana you need to play it. Spells can be creatures, artifacts, enchantments, sorceries, and more (see the cards page). 

A creature card.  It costs one green mana and one white mana to play

How do you get a deck?  You make one! One of the coolest parts of Magic is building a deck- you get to design it however you want!  You decide how many spells (and what colors/types) to include; you decide how many (and what kinds of) lands to put in. The possibilities are endless, and the choice is all yours.

How do you get cards for your deck? Magic is a collectible game.  Cards are released in sets called expansions; several expansions are released every year.  You can obtain cards by purchasing randomized packs of a given expansion, or by buying other products (see the Collecting page for more information).  As your collection of cards grows, your deck construction possibilities increase.

Where do you play? Magic is played on a tabletop (unless you're playing digitally, of course).  On their side, each player has a:

- library (draw deck)

- graveyard (discard pile)

- battlefield (area to put creatures, lands, and other non-land permanents)

- life tracker of some sort (a 20-sided dice, a pen and paper, app, etc.)

play area, taken from the official site

How do you play?  To begin, each player shuffles their deck and draws seven cards. The first player takes their turn. A player's turn in Magic has 5 phases.  Simplified, these are*:

• BEGIN
• Untap** lands and creatures
• Draw a card
• MAIN PHASE
• Play a land (only 1 per turn)
• Cast spells
• COMBAT
• Declare attacking creatures
• Your opponent declares blocking creatures
• Combat damage is dealt
• MAIN PHASE (AGAIN)
• Play a land (if you haven't already)
• Cast spells
• END
• All creatures who survived combat heal
• Pass the turn to your opponent

Turns proceed clockwise around the table.  A player is eliminated when they have 0 life.  The last one standing wins! 

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That's Magic in a nutshell. See other sections for more details, like

- the official rules and common terms

- the different ways to play (formats)

- how to understand and find individual cards

- how to build a deck

- how to collect and store your cards

- reflections on the game

*This simplified turn structure is taken from Wizards as presented in a "Spellslinger Starter Kit."  I've made mild modifications.  For a more detailed look at turns, see here.

**Tapping and untapping are terms you need to know.  In Magic, you pay for spells by tapping lands (rotating them 90 degrees clockwise).  Once tapped, a land cannot be used again that turn.  Likewise, during combat, you declare attacking creatures by tapping them.  Tapped creatures cannot block.  At the beginning of your turn, you untap (rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise, or 'right') both your lands and creatures, enabling you to use them again that turn. See the rules page for more information.