2 Strategey
3 Tournament Play
4 deck listings
This is a strategy game and has been around for nearly 11 years. Sometimes getting started and learning rules is hard but once you learn the fine points of the game, things become more clear. This game is similair to games like Yu-gio and pokemon but unlike those games this is more complex and requires more thought. The simplest objective/strategy of mtg (magic the gathering) is to bring your opponents life total to zero. Each player starts the game with a total of 20 life. To do this, you must directly deal damage to them using either spells or creatures. Creatures have the abilty to attack your opponent dealing damage but your opponent can also have creatures and block yours; meaning either a) both creatures live and your opponent takes no damage. b) your creature dies c) both creatures die d) his/her creature dies. There are many more outcomes but those are the most common. The second way to deal damage is with spells. There are some spells that deal damage, meaning you can target your opponent and deal sure fire damage! In addition, these spells can target their creatures killing them at the cost of a spell.
part 2 land: The most complicated but probably most inportant aspect to this game is land. In this game, every card has a subtype; spell-creature, spell-intant, spell-sorcery, spell-enchantment, and land. Those are the most common subypes. To activate a land you need to (tap) it, turn it 90 degrees to show it has been used once this turn. When a card is tapped, it is no longer useable until untapped. When land is tapped, it produces mana (magical energy) of a specific type which can be used to cast spells. On spells, their are numbers and symbols. For every number and symbol on the top right corner of the card, that is how much mana is necessary to cast the spell. There are five colors(mana types) in magic; blue, black, green, red, and white. For each of these, there is a land; island, swamp, forest, mountain, and plains. Each of these land taps for a mana of its color. To use a red card costing one red mana, you need to tap a red land, a mountain. There is also a 6th mana type which is colorless. When colorless mana is required, any land type can be tapped for mana.
part 3 phases and turns: Players alternate turns. Each turn has phases. Players start with 7 cards and player one skips his draw phase meaning. Meaning player two is not stuck at too much of a disadvantage. Also on the first turn a creature is cast it cannot attack or use abilities that require it to tap. When creatures attack they tap to show, they cannot block.
untap phase-all tapped creatures are untapped and creatures cast last turn can be used.
draw phase-draw your card for the turn.
upkeep-use abilities or pay costs of cards that require them to be done during the upkeep..
main phase-cast spells play land (one land may be played from your hand per turn)
attack phase-attack with creatures
second main phase-cast spells play land (one land may be played from your hand per turn)
discard phase-discard cards in your hand is they exceed 7
end of turn-end of turn effects can be played now.
Phases are the order in which you take each turn. For example: Player one begins his turn by untapping his cards (assuming this is his first turn there are no cards currently in play). Second, he will draw a card. After that, is the upkeep. In current formats this phase is fairly unimportant. After upkeep, is your main phase. Here is where you may play your one land for the turn if you have one in your hand. If you have any cards that cost one mana of the type produced by your one land, then you can tap your land to produce one mana and cast it. Next is your attack phase. Since this is your first turn, even if you have a creature it will have summoning sickness (inability to attack or use activated abilities) during the first round that it is summoned. In subsequent rounds, your creature will be able to attack. You declare attackers in this phase by tapping all creature you want to attack with if your opponent has no creatures in play he/she has to take combat damage. The amount of damage a creature deals is its power the first of the two numbers on the bottom right corner of the card. If you attack with a 1/1 creature he/she will take one damage, bringing your opponent's life total to 19 from its starting value of 20. If the defender has untapped creatures, he may choose any number of them to block an attacking creature. Blocking does not cause a creature to tap. If your opponent blocks, you determine which creature lives by its power and toughness. Its toughness is the second of the two numbers on the bottom right corner. If a 5/7 creature attacks and a 4/6 creature blocks, nothing will happen. The reason is that the 5/7 deals 5 damage but the 4/6 can live until it has taken 6 damage in a single turn and the 4/6 deals 4 damage but the 5/7 lives until it has taken 7 damage in a single turn. If the damage done to a creature in a round exceeds its toughness, it leaves play and goes to the graveyard (discard pile). After the attack phase is your second main phase. This does not mean you can play a second land. All it means is that you can have a second chance to play your one land for the turn or another spell. The reason for this is that you might want to wait to play spells or play lands until after combat is resolved. The discard phase is rarely used. During this phase, if you have over 7 cards in your hand, you need to chose cards to put in your graveyard until you've reached a 7 card hand size.
for more information on beginning players go to the wizards link on the top of the page.