Want to Learn Magic the Gathering

If you have then here are some of the basics, remember that we are here at number 8 Tarmount Lane in Shoreham and will be happy to teach you how to play, it only takes a few minutes to learn the basics and before you know it you will be joining in with one of our casual events or even Friday Night Magic.

Here are some of the basic concepts...

To be able to play you will need a deck, we have some pre-built ones that you can buy and will will also give you, your first 30 card deck when you get a demo in store. Your deck is your army, your arsenal. In a "constructed" deck — one that you might use to play friends in an informal setting — the minimum amount of cards is 60, with no upper limit. Players, however, usually choose to stick to the minimum of 60 cards

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In a tournament setting, you might play a "limited" deck, which has a minimum number of 40 cards, with no upper limit.

A player's 60- or 40-card deck is also called their library.

At the beginning of each game, have each player draw 7 cards from his or her library. These 7 cards compose a player's "hand." At the beginning of each turn, a player draws one card and adds that card to their hand.

When a player discards a card, uses a card, or when a creature dies or a spell is destroyed, that card is put in a player's graveyard. The graveyard is a face-up pile that players usually place adjacent to their library.

Each player starts with 20 points of life. During the course of a game, a player can gain or lose life. Generally, having more life is better than having less life.

Players deal "damage" to both creatures and to each other. Damage is dealt either by creatures or by spells. Damage is measured by the number of hit points it causes.

If player one deals 4 damage to player two, player two loses 4 life. If player two started out with 20 life, she now was only 16 life. (20 - 4 = 16.)

Generally there are three ways a player can lose. A player has lost the game when that player loses all of his or her life, or runs out of cards in their deck to draw, or has 10 poison counters.
When a player's life total is at or below 0, that player has lost.

When, at the beginning of their turn, a player can no longer draw any cards from his or her library, that player has lost.

When a player has received 10 poison counters, that player has lost.

There are 5 colours of magic: White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green.

White is the color of protection and order. The symbol of white is a white orb. White's strengths are a host of small creatures that collectively become powerful; life-gaining; reducing the powers of opposing creatures; and "equalizing" cards that wipe large swaths of cards off the board.

Blue is the color of deceit and intellect. The symbol of blue is a blue water drop. Blue's strengths are drawing cards; taking control of opponents cards; "countering," or negating opponent's spells; and "flying" creatures or creatures that cannot be blocked.

Black is the color of decay and death. The symbol of black is a black skull. Black's strengths are destroying creatures; forcing opponents to discard cards; making player lose life; and returning creatures from graveyards.

Red is the color of fury and chaos. The symbol of red is a red fireball. Red's strengths are sacrificing resources for great power; dealing "direct damage" to players or creatures; and destroying artifacts and lands.

Green is the color of life and nature. The symbol of green is a green tree. Green's strengths are powerful creatures with "trample"; the ability to regenerate creatures, or bring them back from the graveyard; and getting lands faster.

Lands are very important cards and where "mana" comes from. Lands are one type of card and are the building blocks of spells. There are five basic lands, each associated with a color. Lands produce magical energy, or "mana," which is the fuel used to cast other spells.

The five basic lands are as follows:

White lands, or Plains, which produce white mana
Blue lands, or Islands, which produce blue mana
Black lands, or Swamps, which produce black mana
Red lands, or Mountains, which produce red mana
Green lands, or Forests, which produce green mana

There are also different kinds of lands (dual- and tri-lands, for example), but the most a beginner needs to know is that basic lands produce mana of one color only, and that irregular lands can produce mana of two or more colors

Sorceries are magical incantations that you can only cast during your own turn. You cannot cast a sorcery in response to another spell (you'll learn about this idea later). Sorceries usually fizzle after they are played, meaning they go directly into the graveyard after they resolve.

Instants are like sorceries, except you can cast them during the other player's turn in addition to your own, and you can cast them in response to a spell. Instants usually fizzle after they are played, meaning they go directly into the graveyard after they resolve.

Enchantments are like stable manifestations. Enchantments come in two flavors: either they are attached to a creature, affecting only that one card, in which case they are called an "Aura"; or they sit around the battlefield, close to lands, unattached to any card in particular, but affecting all cards on your side (and possibly all cards on either side).

Enchantments are "permanents," meaning that they stay on the battlefield, unless they are destroyed. They do not immediately fizzle right after they are cast.

Artifacts are magical items, and also permanents. Artifacts are colorless, meaning they don't need to be summoned by a particular land or mana type. There are three basic kinds of artifacts:

Normal artifacts: these artifacts are similar to enchantments.

Equipment artifacts: these cards can be attached to creatures, giving them extra abilities. If the creature leaves the battlefield, the equipment stays on; it doesn't follow the creature into the graveyard, even if it was attached to it.

Artifact creatures: these cards are creatures and artifacts at the same time. They are just like creatures, except they don't take specific mana to summon: you can summon them with any mana you want. Because they are colorless, they are also immune to certain spells that affect specific colors.

Creatures are one of the main building blocks of Magic. Creatures are permanents, meaning they stay on the battlefield until they are destroyed or otherwise removed from the game. The main feature of creatures is that they can attack and block. The two numbers in the bottom right hand corner (4/5, for example) help you determine a creature's attacking and blocking strength, respectively.

Creatures enter the battlefield with what's called "summoning sickness." Summoning sickness means that a creature cannot be "tapped," or used, on the same turn it was brought into play. This means it cannot attack or use certain abilities that cause the creature to tap. On the other hand, the creature is allowed to block; blocking is not affected by summoning sickness.

Creatures have many special abilities, such as "flying," "vigilance," or "trample" that we'll learn more about later.

A planeswalker is a powerful ally that is like a supercharged creature. They are very rare and don't always make appearances in games, and they change the fundamentals of the game slightly when in play.

Each planeswalker comes with a certain number of loyalty counters, indicated in the bottom right side by a number. The symbol "+X" means "put X number of loyalty counters on this planeswalker," while "-X" means "remove X number of loyalty counters from this planeswalker." You can activate these abilities, and the powers that come with them, only when you can use a sorcery, and only once per turn.

Planeswalkers can be attacked by your opponent's creatures and spells. You can block the oncoming attack on the planeswalker with your creatures and spells. In the case that your opponent deals damage to a planeswalker, it removes as many loyalty counters as points of damage dealt.

You summon a creature by looking at its casting cost, which is usually a circled number followed by a specific color of mana — either white, blue, black, red, or green. In order to summon a creature, you need to produce mana equivalent to the card's casting cost.

Take a look at the card above. You'll notice a "1" followed by a white mana symbol — the white orb. In order to summon this particular card, you need to have enough lands to produce one mana of any color, along with one white mana.

"Tapping" is how you "use" the mana in lands, or how you attack with creatures. It's denoted by the little right arrow sign. In order to tap, you turn the card sideways.

Tapping a card means that you cannot use certain abilities for one turn. If, for example, you tap a card in order to use its ability, it stays tapped until the beginning of your next turn. You can't use its tapping ability again until it is untapped.

In order to attack, you need to tap your creature. A creature expends its energy going into battle, causing it to be tapped. You do this unless the card specifically says you should not tap it. (Some cards do not tap when they attack.)

You cannot block with a creature that is tapped. When a creature is tapped, it is ineligible to block.

Creatures have one number for power and another number for defense.

Power is the number of points a creature can deal in combat. If a creature has a power of 5, it deals 5 damage to any creature who chooses to block it in combat. If that creature goes unblocked in combat, it deals 5 damage directly to the opponent, who subtracts that number from his or her total life.
Defense is the number of points a creature can withstand in combat before it dies and is sent to the graveyard. A creature with a defense of 4 can withstand 3 points of damage in combat without dying. Once it is dealt 4 points of damage, it goes into that player's graveyard at the end of combat.

When a player chooses to attack another player in combat, attackers and blockers are declared. Attacking creatures are declared first. The defending player then gets to choose which of his or her creatures s/he wishes to use as blockers, along with which attacking creatures s/he wants to block.

Much of the time, creatures come with abilities that players get to activate. Using these abilities is much like summoning the creature, in that you need to pay a "cost," in mana, to use them. 

Each player's turn has five phases, or steps. Understanding what these five phases are and how they work is an essential part of understanding gameplay. In order, the five phases are:

Beginning phase. The beginning phase has three different steps:

Untap step: the player untaps all his cards unless that card stays tapped during Untap.

Upkeep step: not usually used, but sometimes a player has to pay mana — i.e. tap lands — during this step.

Draw step: the player draws one card.

First main phase. During this phase, a player may put down one land from his or her hand. Also during this phase, a player may choose to play a card from his or her hand by tapping lands to produce mana.

Combat phase. This phase is split into five steps.

Declare attack: this is where the player first declares attack. The defender may play spells after the attack has been declared.

Declare attackers: after attack has been declared, the attacking player chooses which creatures he wishes to attack with. Attacking player cannot choose which defending creatures he wishes to attack.

Declare blockers: the defending player chooses which, if any, attacking creatures s/he wishes to block. Multiple blockers can be assigned to a single attacker.

Assign damage: creatures deal damage to one another during this step. Attacking creatures with equal (or higher) power compared the blocking creature's defense destroy that blocking creature. Blocking creatures with equal (or higher) power compared the attacking creature's defense destroy that attacking creature. It is possible for both creatures to destroy each other.

End of combat: nothing much happens during this phase; both players are given the opportunity to cast instants.

Second main phase. After combat, there is a second main phase, identical to the first, in which the player can cast spells and summon creatures.

Ending phase, or cleanup. During this phase, any abilities or spells that "trigger" take place. This is a player's last chance to cast instants.

During this phase, the player whose turn is about to end discards down to 7 cards if s/he has more than 7

Thanks to wikiHow for these images and I hope it helped give you a basic overview. There is of course a lot more to the game and we will be happy to give a demo, whatever your experience of the game is. You can also use the video's created by Wizards of the Coast which are available on Youtube, here is the first in the series ...