How to play Magic: The Gathering
Each player starts on 20 life. Cast creatures and spells using mana from your lands and bring your opponent to zero.
Your deck
Most formats use at least 60 cards with no more than 4 copies of any card except basic lands. Lands make mana in five colours: white, blue, black, red and green. Card types include creatures, instants, sorceries, artifacts, enchantments, planeswalkers, battles and lands.
Starting the game
- Shuffle and draw 7 cards.
- Don't like your hand? Mulligan: shuffle, draw 7 again, then put one card on the bottom for each mulligan you've taken.
- The player who goes first skips their first draw.
Turn structure
- Beginning: untap your cards, deal with upkeep effects, draw a card.
- First main phase: play one land per turn and cast spells.
- Combat: declare attackers, your opponent declares blockers, then damage happens.
- Second main phase: play more cards.
- End: end-of-turn effects, discard down to seven cards, damage wears off.
Mana and casting
Tap lands for mana and pay a card's cost, shown at its top right. Sorceries, creatures and most permanents are cast in your main phase when nothing else is happening. Instants and abilities can be used at almost any time, including on your opponent's turn.
The stack
When a spell is cast, it goes on the stack and both players can respond. The last thing added resolves first. This is how you counter a spell or save a creature in response to removal.
Combat
Creatures can't attack the turn they arrive unless they have haste. Each attacker can be blocked by one or more creatures. Creatures deal damage equal to their power; damage equal to toughness destroys a creature. Unblocked attackers damage the player (or a planeswalker or battle they attacked).
How to win
- Bring your opponent to 0 life.
- Your opponent has to draw from an empty library.
- Your opponent gets 10 poison counters.
- A card that says you win the game.
Commander in a nutshell
The most popular casual format: 100 cards, one copy of each card except basic lands, led by a legendary creature in the command zone. Players start on 40 life, and 21 combat damage from a single commander also knocks a player out. Usually played with three or four players.