Rulebook
Centuries have passed since the war between Urza and Mishra, and the landscape is now a frozen wilderness. Dominaria's inhabitants struggle for survival even as the cold slowly lessens. Here, you will encounter hardy souls, chilling creatures, and twisted sorcery.
Welcome to Ice Age, the latest Magic: The Gathering expansion. Like other Magic expansions, Ice Age is completely compatible with Magic and brings you new artifacts, creatures, and spells to use in your duels. But that's not all-you can also play Ice Age itself, without any other Magic cards! This gives you a playing flexibility never before experienced in Magic, as well as a fresh new enviroment to explore.
Because Ice Age is a Magic expansion, play it using all the normal Magic rules.In addition, Ice Age has the following rules:
Cumulative Upkeep: If a card has a cumulative upkeep, its upkeep costs increase by the amount listed with each one of your upkeeps. In other words, it's an arithmetic progression. For example, a card that says: "Cumulative Upkeep: B and 2 life"requires a payment of B and 2 life during the first upkeep for that card, BB and 4 life during the second, BBB and 6 life during the third, and so on. If you don't pay the cumulative upkeep cost, bury the card. Effects that prevent or redirect damage can't be used to counter any loss of life required as part of a cumulative upkeep.
Snow-Covered Lands: Snow-covered lands are considered basic lands
Like most games, Magic: The Gathering is easier to learn from another player than from a stuffy old rulebook. That's not always possible, though, so we've tried to make this book as straightfoward and easily understood as possible. Don't let the size of the rulebook throw you; a lot of the stuff in here can wait until you've played a few games.
To start, read through this book until you get to the end of the first sample game. Taht should give you enough information to play a little bit and get used to the game. Words in bold type have special technical explanations and deffinitions associated with them. These are outlined in the glossaryin the back of the rulebook, but you really don't need to worry about them until after you've tried the game a few times.
Occasionally, you may run across a card that contradicts the rules. In such a situation, the card always take precedence.
Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield and produced by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. There are more than three hundred different cards in the core set of Magic: The Gathering, and new cards are being designed every day
In Magic, the players represent powerful wizards battling for control of a plane of Dominia. The object of the game is to drive you opponent from the plane, leaving you in sole control. The cards in your deck represent the lands, creatures, spells, and artifacts at your disposal. Players pit one deck against another in an arcane duel, and the winner keeps one random card from the loser's deck. Over time, your deck will develop strenghts and weaknesses as it grows and shrinks. Meanwhile, you will encounter new myasteries as the multiverse of Dominia grows.
Players begin with 20 life each. If you're lucky, you may be able to get more than that during the game; some spells can boost your life total to more than 20. You win if your opponent's life total drops to 0 or less or if your opponent can no longer draw a card. You can damage your opponent by casting spells, attacking with your creatures, or using the effects of other cards in play. When your opponent tries to damage you, you can defend yourself with other spells, block or destroy your opponent's creatures, or even turn her own cards against her.
To play, each player needs a deck of at least forty cards. You can build your deck from a selection of all the cards you own; you don't have to confine yourself to cards from a particular starter deck. You'll also need some way of keeping score. Some players use pencil and paper, while others prefer conters or some other method. It's best to have a large, flat area for laying out your cards; expect a game in progress to take up most of a standard card table.
To begin the game, both players shuffle their decks. You must also give your opponent the opportunity to shuffle or cut your deck. Once bot hdecks have been shuffled, they're put face down on the table. If you're playing for ante, then each player turns over the top card and lays it face up. This card is the ante; whoever wins the game will get to keep both cards. Set the ante cards aside, because you're going to need plenty of room!
Each player then draws an opening hand of seven cards from his or her deck. After you draw your initial hand, the rest of your deck becomes your draw pile, or library. Near your library, leave some space for a graveyard, or discard pile. Most of the cards you bring into play will go into yourterritory, or your half of the playing surface. A few of your cards may go into your opponent's territory, be sure to retrieve them when the game is over. As some experienced players have discovered many times, this is an easy way to lose a great card!
You are now ready to start a game, or duel. Determine radomly who goes first. If you and your opponent duel again afterward, whoever loses this duel will get to go first next time.
There are two basic types of cards, spell and lands. Lands are easy to spot; they say "land" in between the picture and the text box. Lands are the most common kind of card in Magic, since they usually provide the mana, or magical energy, for all your spells. You can lay out one land per turn, and you may use the landfor mana as soon as it is in play.
When you get mana from a land, you have to tap that land. Tapping a card means turning it sideways. This indicates to you and to your opponent that the card's effects have been temporarily used up. Don't worry; your cards will untap at the beginning of your next turn. The symbol T (tap) on a card indicates that if you use that card to generate a particular effect, you have to tap it (turn it sideways). The particular effect that card generates is listed right after the T symbol.
When you tap a land, you get a point of mana to add to your mana pool. You can then use this mana to cast spells.
There are five different types of basic lands, each of whick produces mana of a different color. Correspondingly, there are five different colors of spells, each of which has a particular character (see "Color Chart" below). There are also colorless and multicolored spells. We'll discuss spell color in greater detail a little later.
B Black Magic: Black magic's power comes from the swamps and bogs; it thrives on death and decay. Many wizards shun black magic's self-destructive nature even as they long for its ruthlessness. Black's traditional foil are green and white.
B Blue Magic: Blue magic flows from the islands and thrives on mental energy. Other wizards fear the blue magicians' ability with artifice and illusion, as well as their mastery of the lemental forces of air and water. Blue's traditional foils are red and green.G Green Magic: Green magic gets its life from the lush fecundity of the forest. Like nature itself, green magic can bring both soothing serenity and thunderous destruction. Green's traditional foil's are blue and black.