Looking for a quick refresher on Magic: The Gathering rules or a new trick to spring on your next opponent? Browse this page for up-to-date information from the most recent Magic sets.
Tip: Bant
In the golden utopia of Bant, war is a grand ceremony. Heroes win the sigils of their supporters—emblems of advocacy imbued with might—then stride into battle as the sole champions of their cause.
Keyword: Exalted
Exalted focuses the strength of your army into a single heroic creature. Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, each creature you control with the exalted ability (including itself, if it has exalted too) gives that attacker +1/+1 until end of turn. To get the bonus, a creature must be the only one declared as an attacker. If two creatures attack, then one of them leaves combat, the remaining creature won't get the bonus.
Tip: Esper
Etherium is a metal infused with Æther, the energy of the planes. The denizens of Esper use eldritch magic to enhance their own bodies with etherium, believing it will bring them closer to immortality.
Theme: Colored Artifacts
The Esper shard is populated with colored artifacts. In fact, every Esper creature is an artifact creature! Colored artifacts have colored mana in their mana costs, they say "Artifact" on their type lines, and their frames incorporate elements of both artifacts and their native colors. As you'd expect, many Esper cards affect artifacts. These cards affect any kind of artifact, whether it has a color or not.
Tip: Grixis
Grixis is a hellscape of decay, riddled with ghouls and ruled by demons. Life force, called vis, is a precious resource here. Without it, only vile necromancy remains as a sickly substitute for natural life.
Keyword: Unearth
A creature with the unearth ability can be temporarily returned to play from your graveyard for its unearth cost. You can do this only during your turn at the time you could play a sorcery. After a creature is unearthed, it'll behave differently than it normally does. Specifically, it'll have haste, you'll have to sacrifice it at end of turn, and if it would leave play for any reason (including when you sacrifice it), it's removed from the game instead.
Tip: Jund
On Jund, a primordial realm of fire and blood, only the strong survive. Here barbaric humans and feral goblins fight to survive Jund's vicious food chain. All the while they watch the skies for Jund's ultimate predators: dragons.
Keyword: Devour
As a creature with devour comes into play under your control, you may sacrifice any number of your other creatures (or none at all). The creature with devour comes into play with a certain number of +1/+1 counters on it for each creature sacrificed this way. (That number is listed on the card after the word "devour.") The creature may also have another ability that does something based on the number of creatures it devoured!
Tip: Naya
The titanic monsters of Naya's tropical forests are worshipped as gods. The nomadic elves try to read their movements, but the humans and leonin of the steaming jungles just try to stay out of the gargantuans' way.
Theme: Power 5 or Greater
In the lush Naya shard, you'll find plenty of ways to produce extra mana—and lots of beefy creatures to play with all that mana. They're supported by a cluster of cards whose abilities care about creatures with power 5 or greater. Some of them make your huge creatures even better, some help you get huge creatures into play, and some just check to see if you control a huge creature. Since they care only about a creature's current power, effects that pump a creature's power can really pay off!
Rules Tip: Domain
The domain mechanic first appeared in the Invasion set and was so well liked that it's back for a return engagement.
This time around, domain is an ability word.
That means the italicized word "Domain" appears before each domain ability just to make it easily recognizable.
The ability word has no hidden rules meaning; each domain ability is completely explained on the card.
Every domain ability provides a variable benefit that gets better based on the number of basic land types that appear among the lands you control.
Looking at the lands you have in play, ask yourself whether the subtypes Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest appear within that group.
The number of times you say yes—topping out at five—tells you how powerful your domain cards will be.
While domain cards can do quite good work in a three-color deck, they ramp up to maximum power in a deck that's playing all five colors.
Rules Tip: Cascade
Cascade is a keyword that gives you a free bonus spell from your deck!
As soon as you play a spell with cascade, start revealing cards from the top of your library.
Stop when you get to a nonland card whose converted mana cost is lower than the original spell's.
You may play that card without paying its mana cost, ignoring any timing restrictions based on the card's type.
Then you take all the cards you removed from your library this way—including the last card, if you chose not to play it—and mix them together before putting them on the bottom of your library.
If you play another spell with cascade this way, you get to do it all again!
Tip: Parts of a Turn
Each turn has five phases that you follow in order:
Beginning phase
a. Untap step
b. Upkeep step
c. Draw step
Main phase
Combat phase
a. Beginning of combat step
b. Declare attackers step
c. Declare blockers step
d. Combat damage step
e. End of combat step
Main phase (again)
Ending phase
a. End step
b. Cleanup step
You do something at the start of some steps—like draw a card or declare blockers or deal combat damage—after which players get the chance to cast spells or activate abilities (except during untap and cleanup).
Assigning Combat Damage
During your combat phase, you declare attackers, then your opponent declares blockers.
If multiple creatures block the same attacker, you order the blockers to show which is first in line for damage, which is second, and so on.
When the combat damage step starts, combat damage is assigned.
If an attacker you control is blocked by multiple creatures, you can divide its combat damage among them.
You start by assigning damage to the first blocking creature in line.
If that creature is assigned damage equal to its toughness, you may assign any further damage to that creature and/or the next one in line.
Assign enough damage to the second one, and you can move on to the third, and so on.
Once all combat damage has been assigned, it's dealt immediately.
(This is a change from previous rules.)
Tokens & Counters
Tokens
Some abilities tell you to put a creature token onto the battlefield.
If you don't have enough copies of the right kind of token card, don't worry!
You can use glass beads, dice, or anything else you have lying around as tokens.
When a token leaves the battlefield, it ceases to exist after it gets to its new zone.
Just set it aside until you need it again.
Counters
Some abilities tell you to put a counter on a permanent.
The counter marks a change to the permanent that lasts for as long as it's on the battlefield.
A counter usually changes a creature's power and toughness or tracks a planeswalker's current loyalty.
You can use anything you want as counters: glass beads, dice, or whatever.
Rules Tip: Legends
Legendary cards represent unique characters, places, and items in the Magic multiverse. If two or more legendary permanents with the same name are ever on the battlefield at the same time, put all of them into their owner's graveyard.
Tip: Building a Deck
A Constructed deck must contain at least 60 cards. It can include up to 4 copies of any card, but there's no limit on how many basic lands a deck can have. Choosing just two colors for your deck offers you a good mix of choices.
Lands. A 60-card deck usually has about 24 lands.
Creatures. Creatures account for 20 to 30 cards in a typical 60-card deck. Choose creatures that have a variety of mana costs. Low-cost creatures are potent early on, but high-cost creatures can quickly win a game once they hit the table.
Other cards. Artifacts, enchantments, instants, and sorceries round out your deck.
Limited Formats
When you play a Limited format, building your deck is part of the fun. You and your opponents build decks of at least 40 cards out of cards you open and extra basic lands. (A 40-card deck should have 17–19 lands and about 15–20 creatures.)
Sealed Deck (2 or more players)
Each player opens a 75-card tournament pack and two or three 15-card boosters. Build the best 40-card deck you can using the cards from your packs.
Booster Draft (4 to 8 players)
Each player at the table starts with three unopened booster packs. Each player opens his or her first pack, chooses a card, and passes the rest to the left. Don't show anyone your picks or what's in the packs! Take one card from each pack passed to you and pass the rest to your left until all the cards have been taken. Repeat this process with the second pack, but pass it to the right. For the last pack, pass to the left again. Use your picks and any number of basic lands to build your 40-card deck.
Tip: Sideboarding
In sanctioned Magic tournaments, you and your opponents don't play just a single game. Rather, the first player to win two games wins the match. Your sideboard lets you react to your opponent's strategy for the second and third games. After the match, you restore your deck to its original configuration.
Your sideboard contains exactly 15 cards. Your deck and your sideboard together can include up to four copies of any card (other than basic lands). If you choose to put cards from your sideboard into your deck, you must move the same number of cards from your deck to your sideboard.
Tip: The Gatherer Online Database
Visit http://gatherer.wizards.com to go straight to the official Magic: The Gathering card database. You can search for a word, phrase, or number that appears on any part of a card—even the name of your favorite artist—and get an interactive list of cards that match what you're looking for.
Gatherer is the perfect tool to help you build decks. If you're making a Goblin deck, you can search Gatherer for cards with the word "Goblin" on them. You can filter your search to show just the cards from an given set or those allowed in a particular play format.
Tip: The Stack
A spell or ability doesn't resolve (have its effect) right away—it has to wait on the stack. Both players get a chance to play an instant or an activated ability in response. If a player does, that instant or ability goes on the stack on top of what was already waiting there. When both players decline to play anything, the top spell or ability on the stack resolves.
Here's an example. You control Grizzly Bears, a 2/2 creature. Your opponent plays Incinerate to deal 3 damage to it. The Incinerate goes on the stack. You respond to Incinerate with Giant Growth, which gives the Bears +3/+3 until the end of the turn. Giant Growth goes on the stack, on top of Incinerate. Giant Growth resolves first, making the creature 5/5. When Incinerate resolves, it doesn't deal enough damage to destroy the pumped-up Bears. (If Incinerate had been played in response to the Giant Growth, things would have turned out very differently . . . .)