Learn
How to Play
The goal, the turn, and how a game of Magic flows.
Magic: The Gathering is a duel between two or more planeswalkers — that's you — casting spells and summoning creatures from a custom deck of cards. Reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0 and you win.
Your deck
A constructed deck has at least 60 cards: lands that produce mana, and spells (creatures, sorceries, instants, enchantments, artifacts, planeswalkers) that you pay for with that mana. You may include up to four copies of any non-land card.
The five colours
Mana comes in five colours — White, Blue, Black, Red and Green — each with its own style of play. Most decks combine one to three colours.
Anatomy of a turn
- Untap — straighten your tapped cards.
- Upkeep & Draw — trigger effects, then draw a card.
- First main phase — play one land, cast sorceries, creatures and other spells.
- Combat — declare attackers, your opponent declares blockers, then damage is dealt.
- Second main phase — cast more spells.
- End step — end-of-turn effects; discard down to seven cards.
Casting spells & combat
Tap lands for mana to pay a spell's cost. Creatures can't attack the turn they arrive (no haste); after that they attack for their power and block to defend. Instants can be cast any time you have priority — even on your opponent's turn.
Winning
The usual way to win is to bring an opponent to 0 life. You also lose if you must draw from an empty library, or reach 10 poison counters. Keep the keyword glossary close — it explains the ability words printed on cards.