Magic the Gathering Card Game Rules

Materials Needed to Play

• Each player of Magic the Gathering will need a deck of Magic cards (called a library) composed by the player of at least 60 individual cards. The player also will need some form of counter to keep track of his life total throughout the game. This can be colored beads, a specifically created "life counter" or simply pencil and paper. Each player begins the game with 20 life.

Object of the Game

• A player may win a game of Magic the Gathering in one of two ways: reduce an opponent's life total to zero or wear an opponent down until he has no cards left to draw from his library. A player accomplishes the task of whittling life away from his opponent by using his deck to summon creatures and spells to fight on his behalf.

Components of a Basic Magic Deck

• Five colors exist in Magic the Gathering: white, green, blue, red and black. Each of these colors represents a different style of magic and has spells, land (for generating spell casting power) and creatures associated with it and unique strengths and weaknesses. The majority of decks for Magic are constructed using two colors. A basic two-color Magic the Gathering deck, white and green, would look something like this: 12 Forests and 12 Plains (land), 10 white creatures, 10 green creatures and a mixture of 16 white/green spells.

Card Restrictions

• Players are restricted in terms of how many of each named card a Magic deck may have. Generally, a limit of four copies of any creature, spell or artifact may be incorporated into the deck, though no restriction exists on how much land a player may use. Unique or "legendary" cards exist in Magic the Gathering and are denoted as such on the playing card. Only one of these cards (one of each legendary card) is permitted per Magic deck.

  The idea is to construct a Magic deck incorporating cards integral to the player's winning strategy in quantities of four, while including cards that may come in handy only in certain game situations in quantities of one or two. This drives the probability of getting useful cards higher and situational cards lower.

Turn Structure

• The game is broken up into turns in which a player attempts to cast spells and summon creatures from his Magic deck in order to destroy his opponent. A player begins the game by drawing seven cards from his deck. If no land (essential for casting spells and summoning creatures) is drawn on this first pull from the deck, a player will show his to hand to his opponent, shuffle and draw again.

  The turn begins by drawing one card from the player's own library, then playing a land (such as a Plain or Forest) card. Only one land card may be played per player turn. Next a player may use this land, which generates one mana of its appropriate color (Plain is white, and Forest is green) to cast spells/summon creatures from his hand. Each card in Magic the Gathering will have a casting cost in its upper right corner. This will indicate the color of mana and quantity needed to place that card into play. Some creatures and spells are played very quickly, while more powerful spells/creatures make take several turns to build up the necessary mana to cast. Once a land has been used for its mana to cast a spell or summon a creature into play, it may not be used again until the player's next turn.

Attacking an Opponent

• In general, creatures in Magic the Gathering are said to have "summoning sickness" in that a creature may not attack an opponent the turn it is brought into play. To attack an opponent, a player "taps" his creature by turning it sideways to indicate an attack is underway. His opponent uses his own creatures in play in an attempt to block the attack. Each creature will have a strength and toughness value at the bottom right hand corner of its card indicating how much damage it deals and how damage it can take.

  If a player's opponent has creatures available to block the attack, creatures deal damage to one another. If the total damage dealt meets or exceeds a creature's toughness value, it is removed from play and placed in a discard pile referred to as the "graveyard." If an opponent has no creatures in play to block, the damage is dealt directly to him (subtracting from his 20 life total). A creature may attack only once a turn.