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How to Play Magic: The Gathering

WHAT IS MAGIC: THE GATHERING®?

Welcome to Magic: The Gathering! Magic™ is a trading card game where players summon incredible creatures and cast powerful spells to defeat their foes. The game has thousands of cards so you can always find a way to express yourself on the battlefield. 

How to Play Magic: The Gathering

  • Setting Up Your Play Area

  • How To Read A Magic Card

  • Card Types

  • Planeswalkers

  • Casting A Spell

  • Starting a Game

  • Taking Your Turn

  • Combat

  • Ending a Game

LEARN TO PLAY. PLAY TO LEARN. 

Magic: The Gathering® Foundations covers Magic’s greatest hits across its storied history and is the perfect way to get the essentials for your first games of Magic: The Gathering!

Learn More

1. SETUP

Setting up the play area is easy.

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Each player shuffles their deck and places it face down in front of them, then draws a HAND of seven cards from their LIBRARY. If a player is unhappy with their hand, they may take a MULLIGAN.
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Choose a way to TRACK YOUR LIFE, then decide which player goes first. Whoever goes first will skip drawing their first card. Don’t lose track of life totals—to win the game, you must reduce your opponent’s life to zero!

2. Casting Spells

To use a card, you must cast it.

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To cast a spell, you must pay MANA equal to the symbols in the top right corner of the card. GENERIC MANA costs are represented by a number.
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To generate mana, you must TAP a land. Lands produce a color of mana indicated on the card. Land cards are not spells. You may play one during each of your turns for free.
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Once cast, PERMANENT spells like creatures, artifacts, and enchantments stay on the BATTLEFIELD.
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Once cast, instants and sorceries go to the GRAVEYARD after you resolve their effect.

3. Taking a Turn

Each of your turns is broken up into five phases.

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Beginning Phase- UNTAP your cards, resolve any UPKEEP effects, then DRAW a card.
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First Main Phase- You may play a land card and cast any spells you can afford in your hand.
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Combat Phase- This is when you ATTACK your opponent. Section 4 will explain how combat works.
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Second Main Phase- This works the same as the first. If you played a land during your first main phase, you can’t play one now.
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End Step- Remove any damage from creatures still in play. Resolve any end-of-turn effects, then pass the turn to your opponent.

4. Combat

The combat phase is broken into several steps that always happen in the same order.

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Declare attackers- Choose which of your creatures you’d like to attack your opponent with. Tap them.
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Declare blockers- The defending player may choose any number of untapped creatures they control to BLOCK attacking creatures.
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Calculate damage- Attackers and blockers DAMAGE each other, and unblocked creatures damage the player being attacked. Creatures that have taken damage equal to or greater than their TOUGHNESS die and are sent to the graveyard.

THAT’S THE BASICS

THAT’S THE BASICS

You’ve learned the basics. Way to go! If you want to learn more, we suggest you shuffle up and experience the game for yourself. If you’re hungry for knowledge, you can visit our KEYWORD GLOSSARY or check out our card database over at GATHERER See you on the battlefield!

VIEW KEYWORD GLOSSARY

ENTER THE ARENA

Get started with Magic: The Gathering Arena. Play Magic on any device—starting with a helpful tutorial!