How to play Magic the Gathering

magic the gathering how to play the object of the game is to eliminate your opponent by bringing their life to zero assemble a deck of at least 60 cards you may not have more than four copies of any individual card with the exception of basic lands which you can have as many as you want also some cards are banned and should not be used unless both players agree or the tournament allows each player shuffles their deck then they may shuffle or cut their opponent's deck if they desire and set it face down on the table each player draws seven cards from their own deck which is called their library roll dice to determine who goes first each player starts with 20 life which can be displayed and kept track on a 20-sided die the top left of each card is the card's name and to the right of that is its mana cost mana is the resource that is used to play cards and activate abilities if the cost is a specific color you must pay with that color if the cost is gray with a number you can use any combination of mana colors to pay for it you gain colored mana by tapping lan cards of that color you can tap any card in play by turning it sideways you may not tap a card that has already been tapped and you must wait for it to be untapped before you can tap it again when mana is used it is removed from the mana pool and no longer available to use each player's unused mana pool empties at the end of each step and phase you are only allowed to play one lan card from your hand per turn you may play any number of other cards on your turn so long as you can pay their mana costs when you play a card you look at its typeline to determine how it is played land creatures artifacts and enchantments play directly to the battlefield until they are removed sorceries and instance grant the effect in their text box then are placed in the discard pile called the graveyard which is located above your library all types of cards except lands are spells while you are playing them once they are resolved then they become their type when you play a creature this is called summoning the creature may not attack or use a tap ability on the same turn it is summoned this is called summoning sickness place the creature face up on the battlefield oriented vertically not sideways there is no limit to the number of creatures you can have on the battlefield during your turn you have the ability to attack your opponent with your untapped creatures to attack tap your creatures you want to attack with if an attack isn't blocked the creature deals damage to your opponent's life equal to its power a creature's power is indicated by the number on the left side of the slash in the lower right corner of the card if your opponent has untapped creatures on the battlefield they may tap any number of them to block your attacks the defender then assigns its creatures to block the attacking creatures multiple creatures may block a single attacking creature once all blockers have been chosen and assigned each creature both attacking and blocking simultaneously deals damage equal to its power the attacker decides how to divide its combat damage among them you must assign at least enough damage to the first blocking creature to destroy it before you can assign damage to the second one and so on if a creature is dealt damage equal to or greater than its toughness over the course of a single turn through combat abilities or spell cards that creature is destroyed and it goes to its owner's graveyard toughness is indicated by the number to the right of the slash in the bottom right corner of the card if a creature takes damage that isn't enough to destroy it in a single turn that creature stays on the battlefield and the damage wears off at the end of the turn here are some examples of how combat can be played out a 2-2 attacks and no creature blocks the defending player loses two life a 2-2 attacks and a 5-4 blocks the attacking 2-2 is destroyed no player loses life a 1-3 attacks and a 2-2 blocks both creatures survive and no player loses life a 4-4 attacks and a 2-2 defends the defending 2-2 is destroyed no player loses life a 4-4 attacks and a 2-1 and a 2-4 defend the attacker chooses the order of damage to first go towards the 2-1 then to the 2-4 the 4-4 deals 1 damage to the 2-1 and destroys it then the 4-4 deals its three remaining damage to the 2-4 which survives simultaneously the blocking 2-1 and the 2-4 deal a combined 4 damage to the attacking creature destroying it no player takes any damage a 3 3 2 2 and 2 1 attack the defending 5 5 is already tapped and therefore cannot defend the defender defends with two two twos choosing to block the 2 2 and 2 1 all of which get destroyed the 3 3 deals 3 damage to the player causing them to lose 3 life after all the battles have been resolved you end your combat phase there are five phases in a turn the beginning phase first main phase combat phase second main phase and ending phase you may reference the on your turn card for a reminder of all the details of each phase here is a highlight of the most important steps in the beginning phase you first untap all your tapped cards after this is complete this is called your upkeep and certain cards can trigger next you must draw one card from your library unless it is the very first turn of the game in which case the first player does not draw if you run out of cards in your library and need to draw but cannot you lose the game next is your first main phase the time when you can play cards and activate abilities your opponent can also cast instance and activate abilities then you enter combat followed by your second main phase which is just like the first main phase finally you end your turn with the ending phase you can trigger abilities and then you clean up if you have more than seven cards in your hand choose and discard cards until you only have seven next all the damage on all the creatures is removed and all until end of turn effects end no player can cast instance or activate abilities unless an ability triggers specifically during this step your turn is now over and your opponent goes play continues this way until there is a winner there are a tremendous number of unique cards you can play with which in turn provides an incredibly wide range of things that could happen in any given game i can't cover everything in detail but some important special rules to know are as follows you may only have one legendary card of the same name on the battlefield at a time if you control two legendaries with the same name you must put one of them in your graveyard some spells and abilities use the word target to describe something that the spell or ability will affect you must choose all targets when used if you can't meet the targeting requirements you can't cast the spell or use the ability a target can be a creature player or planeswalker once you choose your targets you cannot change your mind later when the spell or ability resolves it checks the targets to make sure they're still a legal target if the target isn't legal the spell or ability can't affect it the stack is an imaginary gaming zone shared by all players where spells and abilities wait to resolve when you cast a spell or activate an ability it doesn't resolve right away it goes on the stack spells and abilities remain on the stack until both players choose not to cast any new spells or activate any new abilities triggered abilities also go on the stack until they are resolved a general rule is that spells and abilities on the stack resolve one by one beginning with the last one put on the stack following the last on first out principle abilities are fire and forget meaning even if the source is removed the ability in the stack still resolves for example your opponent casts sunlance targeting your 4-3 creature sun lance goes on the stack your opponent doesn't have anything else to play at this time so you respond to sun lance by casting swell of courage swell of courage goes on the stack on top of sun lance you and your opponent both decline to do anything else swell of courage resolves first making your 4-3 creature a 6-5 until the end of the turn then sun lance resolves and deals 3 damage to your 6-5 creature which is not enough to destroy it there are so so many more rules and specific abilities and nuances to the game that i could never cover in one video so i encourage you to consult the comprehensive rules of magic for specific rule clarification or to look up your question online this video should be enough to get you going check out the description for some useful links

Channel: Triple S Games

Views: 96,529

Keywords: board game, how to, Tutorial, instructions, rules, how to play, game, magic, magic the gathering, mtg, trading card game, card, trading, red, black, white, blue, green, tcg, magic rules, how to play magic, magic how to, magic instructions

Id: bkixJTRUbGQ

Length: 10min 55sec (655 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 20 2020