Section 1: The Basics

To play a Magic game with physical cards, you’ll need a Magic deck, a friend

with a deck, and something to keep track of your life total.

deck. (You don’t need to sign up for an account to learn to play, though.)

Reduce your opponent’s life total to 0 before your opponent does the same to

you! You also win if your opponent has to draw a card when none are left in

his or her library.

You start the game with 20 life.

Roll dice (or flip a coin) to see which player gets to choose who goes first.

Whoever goes first skips the first draw step (that player doesn’t get to draw a

card). If you’ve just played a game, the loser of that game decides who goes

first.

Shuffle your deck. Then you draw the top seven cards. If you don’t like your

starting hand, you can mulligan. When you mulligan, your hand is shuffled

into your library and you draw a new hand of one less card. You can do this as

many times as you want, but you draw one less card each time.

Once both players are satisfied with their starting hands, the game starts.

Name. A card’s name appears in the upper left corner. When a card’s name

appears in its text box, it refers to only that copy of the card, not others

in play.

Mana Cost. Each symbol in the upper right corner is part of the cost to play

that spell. If the mana cost reads

Plains, for example) plus one mana of any kind to play it.

Card Type. This tells you whether the card is an artifact, artifact creature,

creature, enchantment, instant, land, or sorcery. If it’s a creature, its

creature type (such as Goblin or Soldier) appears next to the word

"Creature." If it’s the kind of enchantment that attaches to another card,

it will read "Enchant Creature," "Enchant Land," or something similar.

See page 7 for more details on each card type.

Expansion Symbol. This symbol tells you which Magic expansion the card is

expansion symbol is .) The

color of the symbol tells you the card’s rarity: black for common cards,

silver for uncommons, and gold for rares.

Text Box. This is where a card’s abilities appear. Flavor text might also appear

about the Magic world. Flavor text has no effect on game play. Some

abilities have italic reminder text to help you remember what they do.

Collector Number. The collector number makes it easier to organize your

cards. For example, "15/350" means that the card is the 15th of 350

different cards.

Power and Toughness. Each creature card has a special box with its power and

toughness. You use these numbers to figure out which creature wins in

combat.

Lands (and some other cards) make mana, which goes into your mana

pool. Your mana pool is where mana is stored until you spend it.

Like money in your wallet, mana left in your mana pool will "burn a hole

in your pocket." At the end of each phase, you lose 1 life for each unused

mana in your mana pool, and the mana disappears. This is called mana

burn.

a cost requires colored mana, you’ll see colored mana symbols (

of mana can be used to pay the cost, you’ll see a symbol with a number

in it

Permanent. Artifacts, artifact creatures, creatures, and enchantments are put

into play when they resolve. Lands also stay in play once you play them.

These cards are called permanents because they stick around unless

something removes them from play. (Instants and sorceries go to your

graveyard when they resolve.)

Tapping. Tapping is the Magic game’s way

of showing that a card has been used.

To tap a card, turn it sideways. At the

beginning of each of your turns, you

untap your tapped cards so you can

use them again. The symbol "

means "tap this card." It usually

appears in an activation cost.

Target. When a spell or ability contains the

word "target," you choose what the

spell or ability will affect when you play it. For example, Crossbow

Infantry’s ability reads, "

attacking or blocking creature." When you play this ability, you choose

an attacking or blocking creature for the Infantry to deal 1 damage to.

There are six types of Magic cards:

Artifacts are colorless permanents that represent

magical objects. You can play artifacts only during

your mainphases when the stack is empty. (You’ll

learn about phases and the stack later.) Artifact

creatures can attack and block just like other

creatures. An artifact creature can be affected by

affects creatures.

Creatures are permanents that can attack and block. You can play

creatures only during your main phases when the stack is empty.

Creature cards have numbers in a box in their lower right corners. The

number to the left of the slash is the creature’s power. That’s how much

damage the creature deals in combat. The number to

the right of the slash is the creature’s toughness. That’s

how much damage it takes to destroy the creature.

A creature can’t attack, and you can’t play any of its

abilities that have

has been in play under your control since the beginning

of your turn. (You can still use it to block—if it’s

untapped—and play its other abilities.)

Enchantments are permanents that represent magical resources. You can

There are two kinds of enchantments: those that stand alone while in

play and those that attach to other permanents. If an

enchantment’s card type is simply "Enchantment," you

put it into play just like an artifact or creature. If it’s

an "Enchant Creature" or "Enchant Land" (or any

"Enchant _______"), you can attach it only to that type

of permanent.

When you play an enchantment that attaches to a permanent, the

enchantment spell targets the thing that will be enchanted. That means you’ll

have to decide what the enchantment will be attached to when you play it.

If a permanent with an enchantment attached to it leaves play, the

enchantment is destroyed. It doesn’t just float around with nothing to

enchant.

Instants are spells that you can play any time you have

priority, even during your opponent’s turn or in

response to another spell. (You’ll learn about priority

later.) Instant spells don’t stay in play. They go to their

owners’ graveyards after they resolve.

Lands are different from other cards because they never

count as spells. That means they can’t be countered, and playing a land

doesn’t use the stack.

Most lands are permanents that have mana abilities (abilities that make

mana). You’ll usually use lands to pay for spells and abilities. You can

the stack is empty.

Each basic land has a mana ability that makes one mana of a particular

color. Here are the basic lands:

Each has a symbol in its text box that tells you what type of mana you get

when you tap it. Any other land is a nonbasic land.

Sorceries are spells that you can play only during

your main phases when the stack is empty. Sorcery

spells don’t stay in play. They go into their owners’

graveyards when they resolve.

Zone is the Magic word for an area of play. Cards can be

in one of six different zones:

Library. This is the deck of cards you use to play the game—your draw pile.

No one can look at the cards in your library, but you can know how

many cards are in each player’s library. It’s kept face down, and the

cards stay in the order they were in at the beginning of the game.

Hand. This is where cards go when you draw them, just as in most other card

games. No one except you can look at the cards in your hand. During

the cleanup step, if you have more than seven cards, you have to discard

until you have seven.

In Play. This is the area in front of you where you put your permanents. You

can arrange your permanents however you want (we recommend putting

lands closest to you), but your opponent must be able to see all of them

and tell whether they’re tapped.

Graveyard. This is your discard pile. Your spells go to your graveyard when

they resolve. Your cards go to your graveyard when they’re discarded,

destroyed, sacrificed, or put there by an effect. Cards in your graveyard

are always face up and anyone can look at them at any time.

The Stack. This is where spells and abilities go after you play them. They wait

there to resolve until both players are done playing stuff. Then the

spells and abilities on the stack resolve from top to bottom (the last one

\played is on top). All players use the same stack. See page 13 for more

about the stack.

Removed from the Game. This is an area off to the side where your cards go

when a spell or ability removes them from the game. Cards removed

from the game are normally face up.

Section 2:

Spells, Abilities, and Effects

Whenever a card’s text contradicts a game rule, the card wins. For example,

you get only one combat phase each turn, but Relentless Assault says, "After

this phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional

main phase." For a turn, it overrides the rule that you get only one combat

phase per turn.

A card is a spell from the time it’s played until it resolves. When the spell

resolves, it goes to its owner’s graveyard (if it’s an instant or sorcery) or is put

into play (if it’s anything else). Even creature cards are spells while they’re

being played. For example, when you play Spined Wurm, you’re actually playing

a Spined Wurm spell. When the spell resolves, it puts the Spined Wurm

creature into play (the spell becomes a permanent).

There’s one exception: land cards are never spells. They’re simply put

into play.

An ability is like a spell printed on a permanent. Many abilities have costs,

and you play and resolve most of them just like spells. Once you play an ability,

it doesn’t matter what happens to its source. If you play Crossbow Infantry’s

ability and then the Infantry is destroyed, the ability will resolve anyway.

There are three types of abilities:

Activated ability. You play an activated ability by

paying its cost. All activated abilities have a

colon (":") in them. The part before the colon

is the activation cost. The part after the colon

is the effect you get when you pay the

activation cost. For example, "

card" means if you tap the permanent with the ability, you draw a card.

You can usually play activated abilities with oT in their costs only once

a turn because you can’t tap a permanent if it’s tapped already.

You can play an activated ability without oT in its cost as many times

as you can pay the cost.

You can play an activated ability any time you could play an instant

(whenever you have priority). It goes on the stack and waits to resolve

just like an instant.

You can only play the activated abilities of permanents you control.

Triggered ability. An ability that starts with the word "when," "whenever," or

"at" is a triggered ability. You don’t play a triggered ability. It just goes on

the stack automatically when

its trigger event occurs.

For example, Venerable

Monk reads, "When Venerable

Monk comes into play, you

gain 2 life." The trigger event is the Monk coming into play. When that

happens, the Monk’s ability goes on the stack. When it resolves, you’ll

gain 2 life (if you were the one who played the Monk).

You can’t choose to ignore or delay a triggered ability. If the trigger

event occurs more than once, the ability goes on the stack once for each

time the trigger event occurs.

Static ability. You don’t play and resolve static abilities like the other two

ability types. When a permanent with a static ability comes into play,

the ability’s effect simply "turns on." It stays on as long as the permanent

stays in play. (Static abilities create continuous effects.)

Most enchantments have

static abilities. For example,

Telepathy reads, "Your

opponents play with their

hands revealed." Once

Telepathy is in play, you don’t

have to pay a cost to have

your opponent reveal his or her hand. Your opponent’s hand is just kept

face up on the table until Telepathy leaves play.

You can play spells and abilities only when

• it’s your main phase,

• nothing is on the stack,

• and you have priority.

Instants and activated abilities are the exception. You can play them on your

opponent’s turn and when another spell or ability is on the stack waiting to

resolve. You can play them whenever you have priority.

When do you get priority? The active player (the player whose turn it is)

gets priority at the beginning of each step and each main phase—except for

the untap step and the cleanup step. (See Section 3: Turn Structure for more

on phases and steps.)

pass, your opponent gets priority. Also, after a spell or ability resolves, the

active player gets priority again. When that player passes, the opponent gets

priority again. This goes back and forth until both players pass in a row. (This

isn’t really as complicated as it sounds. Just remember that you get the first

chance to do things on your turn.)

To play a spell or ability, follow these steps:

1. Tell your opponent what spell or ability you’re playing. If it’s a spell,

show the card to your opponent.

2. If the spell or ability uses the word "target," choose the target(s). If the

spell or ability’s text starts with "Choose one —", make the choice. If the

spell is an "Enchant _______", choose the permanent you want to attach it to.

3. For a spell, pay the mana cost. For an activated ability, pay the activation

cost. If the spell or ability has

and then pay that amount of mana.

4. That’s it! You’ve played the spell or ability and it goes on the stack. See

"The Stack" and "How Do Spells and Abilities Resolve?" below to find out

what happens to the spell or ability after you play it.

You don’t play triggered abilities. A triggered ability waits for its trigger event

to happen. When it does, the ability goes on the stack automatically as soon

as any player gets priority.

The player who controlled the permanent with the triggered ability makes

the choices and picks the target(s) when the ability goes on the stack. Once the

ability is on the stack, the player who would’ve gotten priority gets it back.

What happens if more than one ability triggers at the same time? The

active player’s abilities are put on the stack, in whatever order that player

chooses. Then the opponent’s abilities are put on the stack, in whatever order

the opponent chooses.

The stack is where spells and abilities wait to resolve after they’ve been

played. They stay on the stack in the order they were added to it.

How does it work? A player with priority plays a spell or ability, and it

goes on the stack. That player can add more spells or abilities to the top of

the stack or pass. If the player passes, the opponent gets priority and may add

spells or abilities to the top of the stack or pass. Priority goes back and forth

this way until both players pass in a row.

one played last—resolves. After each spell or ability resolves, the active player

gets priority again.

Here’s an example. You control Glory Seeker, a

2/2 creature. Your opponent plays Shock to

deal 2 damage to it. Shock goes on the stack.

You respond to the Shock with Giant Growth,

which gives the Glory Seeker +3/+3 until the

end of the turn. Giant Growth goes on the

Growth resolves first, making the Glory Seeker

5/5 until the end of the turn. Then Shock

resolves, but it doesn’t deal enough damage to

destroy the pumped-up Glory Seeker.

Here are some things that don’t go on the stack:

• If an ability produces mana, it doesn’t go on the stack. You get the mana

immediately.

• Static abilities don’t go on the stack. They "turn on" as soon as the permanent

with the ability comes into play.

• When you play a land, you just put it into play. Land cards aren’t spells, so

they don’t go on the stack.

legal if it has left play. It also isn’t legal if it doesn’t match the requirements

targets are legal when it tries to resolve, it’s countered. Otherwise, any

illegal targets are just ignored when the spell or ability resolves.

2. The spell or ability’s effect happens. Do what the spell or ability says in

the order it’s written. (Replacement effects may change what you do.) If

the text tells you to make any choices other than targets and "Choose one

—", you make those choices.

3. For an ability, that’s it. For a spell, the card is put into play (for artifact,

artifact creature, creature, and enchantment spells) or into its owner’s

graveyard (for instant and sorcery spells) after its effect is carried out.

When a spell or ability resolves, it has an effect. There are four basic kinds of

effects:

One-shot effects do something once, such as deal damage or destroy a

creature. For example, Concentrate reads, "Draw three cards." When it

resolves, its effect is done.

Continuous effects do something for some length of time.

A continuous effect from a spell, an activated ability, or a triggered

ability lasts as long as the effect says it does. For example, Giant Growth

reads, "Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn." Its effect lasts from

the time the spell resolves until the end of the turn.

A continuous effect from a static ability lasts as long as the permanent

with the static ability is in play. For example, Unholy Strength reads,

"Enchanted creature gets +2/+1." Its effect on the enchanted creature lasts

as long as it’s attached to that creature.

Replacement effects wait for something to happen and then change it

somehow. They "replace" one effect with a different one. A replacement

effect always uses the word "instead."

For example, Furnace of Rath reads, "If a source would deal damage to a

creature or player, it deals double that damage to that creature or player

instead." It waits for damage to be dealt to a creature or player, and then

changes it so that twice that much damage is dealt.

Prevention effects wait for something to happen and then keep it from

happening. They always use the word "prevent."

Prevention effects work like shields. Once the spell or ability that makes

the effect resolves, the effect hangs around waiting for damage to be dealt.

Then it stops some or all of it.

For example, Holy Day reads, "Prevent all combat damage that would be

dealt this turn." You can play Holy Day long before combat, and its effect

will hang around for the rest of the turn. Then if creatures try to deal

combat damage that turn, Holy Day prevents it.

Prevention "shields" stick around until they’re used up. For example,

Master Healer reads, "

target creature or player this turn." The ability creates an effect that stops

up to 4 damage during the turn. If 1 damage is prevented, it can still

prevent 3 more.

Section 3: Turn Structure

Each turn has five phases. Each phase occurs even if nothing happens during it.

At the end of each phase, you take mana burn if there’s mana left in your mana

pool.

This phase has three steps:

During your untap step, untap all your tapped cards. No one can play spells

or abilities during this step.

Abilities that trigger at the beginning of your upkeep go on the stack.

Players can play instants and activated abilities during this step.

At the beginning of your draw step, draw a card. Players can play

instants and activated abilities during this step.

You can play every type of spell and ability during this phase of your turn,

but your opponent can play only instants and activated abilities. You can play

a land during this phase, but remember that you can play only one land each

turn.

This phase has five steps:

Players can play instants and activated abilities during this step, but they

usually don’t.

You decide which of your creatures will attack. (You can decide not to

attack at all.) When you declare that a creature is attacking, it becomes

tapped. Walls, creatures that are already tapped, and creatures you

haven’t controlled since the beginning of the turn can’t attack.

Remember that your creatures can attack only your opponent. You

can’t have them attack particular creatures. Once you’re done declaring

attackers, players can play instants and activated abilities.

Your opponent decides which of his or her creatures will block your

attacking creatures. Each blocking creature can block only one attacking

creature, but your opponent can have two or more creatures gang up and

block an attacking creature. Tapped creatures can’t block.

Once your opponent is done declaring blockers, players can play

instants and activated abilities.

This is when creatures actually deal their damage in combat.

• Unblocked attackers deal damage equal to their power to the

defending player.

• Blocked attackers deal their damage to the creatures blocking them.

If more than one creature blocks one of your attackers, you decide

how to divide the attacker’s damage among the blockers.

‡"

• Blockers deal their damage to the creatures they’re blocking. If a

creature has become tapped since it was declared as a blocker, it

still deals damage normally.

doesn’t deal any damage to the defending player. This is true even if all

the blockers have left play.

Once you decide how combat damage will be dealt, the damage goes

on the stack. After that, the damage is "locked in." It will be dealt even if

some of the creatures leave play.

Players may then play instants and activated abilities. Once these have

all resolved, combat damage is actually dealt. If a creature tries to deal

damage to a creature no longer in play, it can’t and the damage isn’t

dealt.

Players can play instants and activated abilities during this step, but they

usually have no reason to.

Your second main phase is just like your first main phase. You can play every

type of spell and ability, but your opponent can play only instants and

activated abilities. Also, you can play a land during this phase if you didn’t

during your first main phase.

This phase has two steps:

Players can play instants and activated abilities during this step.

If you have more than seven cards in your hand, choose and discard

cards until you have only seven. Next, all damage on creatures is

removed and all "until end of turn" effects end.

No one can play spells or abilities during this step unless an ability

triggers during the step. That rarely happens.

Section 4: Creature Abilities

Some creatures have abilities that aren’t fully explained on the cards. Most of

these have reminder text that gives you a brief description of the ability’s

effect. Here are full explanations of the most common creature abilities:

A creature with fear can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or

black creatures. Fear only matters when the creature with the ability is

attacking.

Creatures with first strike deal their combat damage before creatures

without it. When you reach the combat damage step, check to see if one

or more creatures that are attacking or blocking have first strike. If so,

an extra combat damage step is created just for them. The extra combat

damage step works just like a normal one, except that creatures without

first strike don’t get to deal their combat damage.

When the first-strike combat damage step is over, you go through the

normal combat damage step for the rest of the creatures—if they survived.

A creature with flying can’t be blocked by creatures without flying. Flying

creatures can block other creatures with flying. They can also "swoop

down" and block creatures without flying.

Creatures with haste can attack the turn they

come under your control. You can also play

their activated abilities with

other words, a creature with haste can do the

stuff it’s normally not allowed to do during

the turn it comes into play.

Landwalk is the name for a group of abilities that includes plainswalk,

islandwalk, swampwalk, mountainwalk, and forestwalk. A creature with

landwalk is unblockable if the defending player controls at least one land

of the specified type.

Landwalk abilities don’t cancel each other out. For example, let’s say

your creature with forestwalk attacks a player who controls a Forest.

That player can’t block your forestwalker at all—not even with another

forestwalker.

Protection is a creature ability that protects the creature from certain

kinds of spells and abilities.

A creature with protection will always have "protection from _______."

What’s in the blank is what the creature is protected from. It might be

protection from red, for example, or protection from white. Protection

does several different things for the creature:

• It can’t be blocked by creatures of the color it’s protected from.

• It can’t be the target of spells or abilities of the color it’s protected from.

• It can’t be enchanted by enchantments of the color it’s protected from.

• All damage from sources of the color it’s protected from is prevented.

Protection isn’t always tied to a color. For example, a creature could have

"protection from artifacts" or "protection from Goblins."

Regeneration helps keep creatures from being destroyed. Regeneration

effects work like shields. Once the regeneration spell or ability resolves,

the effect hangs around waiting for the

creature to be destroyed. If the creature’s

destroyed, the effect saves the creature.

(Regeneration is a replacement effect.)

When a creature regenerates, it remains in

play. So do all enchantments and counters on

it. Three things do happen if a creature uses

its regeneration shield:

• The creature becomes tapped.

‡"

• If it’s in combat, it’s removed from combat.

• All damage is removed from it.

Trample is a creature ability that lets the creature’s extra damage spill

over to the defending player when it’s blocked.

When a creature with trample is blocked, you have to deal at least

enough of its combat damage to the creatures blocking it to destroy all

those creatures. Then you can have any of its damage that’s left over

"trample through" to the defending player.

Section 5:

Each of the five colors in the Magic game specializes in certain kinds of spells

and abilities. It’s up to you whether to master one color or all five.

The sprawling plains, populated by soldiers, clerics, and angels, provide white

mana. In the Magic world, white is the color of law, order, and structure. It

can stop an attacking creature in its tracks by

making it see the error of its ways. White magic

heals and protects creatures. White mages prefer

to send an army of smaller creatures into battle,

but sometimes a single, awesome champion is

necessary to teach the enemy a lesson.

Islands provide blue mana, the color of the deep sea and the endless sky. The

strength of blue magic lies in trickery and manipulation. Blue mages work

behind the scenes, scheming and stealing secrets,

controlling their environments completely before

making a move. Blue spells and abilities focus on

"borrowing" opponents’ cards and drawing the

right card at the right time. With the power of

blue, call wizards and weird beasts of the air and

oceans to serve you.

Black mana comes from dank swamps, where things fester and rot. Death,

disease, selfishness, power at any cost—these are the twisted values of the

darkness. Black magic is powerful and easy to wield, but it comes with a high

price. Its spells and abilities can warp the mind,

poison the land, and turn creatures into nothing.

Dark minions, undead creatures, and unspeakable

horrors are native to the swamp, and they’re as

self-serving and treacherous as the mages who

command them.

Red mana comes from the mountains and the fiery heart of the world itself.

Red magic is filled with fire, frenzy, and storms of rock and lava. Its creatures

are warlike and dangerous, ranging from mighty

dragons to hordes of rampaging goblins. Mages

who master red magic have no patience for talk

or subtlety. They act quickly and recklessly. Red

mages can channel their wild emotions to crush

the ground you walk on or to wield flame like a

living weapon.

The teeming forests overflow with green mana, which represents the pulse of

nature. Green magic is about growth, life, and brute force. Green mages

understand that the world obeys the law of the

jungle—everything is either predator or prey.

Some green creatures are rich, living sources of

mana, but no other color can boast creatures as

powerful. Green creatures are the biggest and

mightiest around, from towering nature

elementals to carnivorous wurms.