The Very Basics
Take a few moments to glance at the cards in your deck. You'll notice that their backgrounds are white, blue, black, red, or green. These are the colors of Magic, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Understanding these characteristics can help you build more powerful decks as you become a more advanced player. As a beginner, however, you'll find that the colors will serve mostly to help you organize your hand and determine which cards you can play at any given time.

Any card with a background of one of the five colors is a spell; the remaining colorless cards are either artifacts (another type of spell) or lands. Take a closer look at your cards and separate the spells from the lands. (To determine which colorless cards are lands and which are artifacts, read the card type printed just below the artwork.) Lands are important, because they create the energy you need to play spells. The only spells you should be concerned with right now are summon spells, which produce creatures. You'll use creatures to attack your opponent, in an effort to reduce her life total to 0 or less and therefore win. Creatures are easily identified; each has a pair of numbers (written in an X/Y format) in the bottom right corner of the card. A sample creature is shown below.

Throughout a duel, you can cast summon spells that become creatures like the Hurloon Minotaur. Once you have them in play, you can use creatures to attack your opponent. If you launch enough successful attacks, you can drive your opponent's life total to 0 or less and win the duel. Winning a Magic duel often depends on the strategies you build with creatures like this Minotaur.

Of course, your opponent isn't going to just sit there while your creatures attack. She's going to put her own creatures into play and use them to attack you or to block your attackers. If she chooses to block, your attacking creatures fight her blocking creatures instead of damaging her.

Putting creatures into play is a little more complicated than just deciding you want to. You have to pay for them with mana, which is typically produced by lands. Not much can happen in the game if you don't have the mana to pay for your creatures (or, later, other spells).

Mana
Just as there are five colors in Magic, there are five colors of mana, each with its own mana symbol: white (), blue (), black (), red (), and green (). Mana can also be colorless, though colorless mana doesn't have a symbol associated with it.

The cost of playing a creature is called its casting cost. This cost includes one or more of the mana symbols and appears in the top right corner of the card. Each time a colored mana symbol appears as part of a cost, it means that you have to pay one mana of that color to satisfy the cost. Thus, a cost of "" can be paid only with two red mana.

A casting cost may also include generic mana, which can be paid with any type of mana, including colorless mana. Generic mana costs are shown as numbers inside a gray circle. For example, in order to play a spell with a casting cost of , you must pay one blue mana and two generic mana.

So what does this mean for the Hurloon Minotaur? The top right corner of the card lists its casting cost as , so you know you have to pay two red mana and one generic mana in order to play it. Of course, you have to get mana from somewhere, and lands are the usual source.

Producing Mana from Lands
In Magic, there are five basic land types, each producing a different color of mana. Plains make white (), islands make blue (), swamps make black (), mountains make red (), and forests make green (). Pull out a few lands from your deck. Note that although a land's background doesn't match any of the five colors, its text box is shaded to match the color of mana it produces. The ability of a land is to produce mana, so it's considered a mana source.

When you use a land to produce mana, you tap it, or turn it sideways; this is signified by the tap symbol (). A tapped card can't be used to do anything that requires tapping it. Thus, a land can produce only one mana each turn. At the beginning of your turn, untap all your cards in play (that is, turn them back upright) so that you can use them again.

For example, each mountain you play allows you to generate one red mana each turn. However, you can't store up mana for several turns by using your lands every turn. When a land produces mana, that mana is added to your mana pool and is stored there until you spend it. At the end of every turn, both players lose any mana they haven't spent. You may play only one land each turn, so building up your mana potential takes several turns.

The amount and type of mana available in your pool determines which spells you can cast. To demonstrate, let's return to the Hurloon Minotaur, which has a casting cost of . Suppose that after three turns you've played three lands: two forests (green mana) and one mountain (red mana). Even though you have three lands in play, you can't afford to cast the Minotaur until you play another mountain.

Throughout the game, you continue to play lands, increasing your mana potential. Remember, any type of mana can be used to pay generic mana costs; the color associated with a land is important only when you have to pay mana of a certain color. In other words, if your hand is full of green spells, playing mountains can still help you play the more expensive ones even though mountains produce red mana.

Here, Critter, Critter!
Now, pull a few creature cards out of your deck. They're easy to find because each one has two numbers (a power and toughness rating) in its bottom right corner. Creatures have a variety of power and toughness ratings. These numbers reflect a creature's effectiveness in combat. When a creature attacks, it deals combat damage equal to its power, whether to your opponent or to creatures that block it. A creature's toughness represents how much damage is required to kill it. If one of your creatures takes an amount of damage equal to or exceeding its toughness over the course of a turn, it's taken lethal damage and is put into your graveyard, or discard pile.

EXAMPLE

Creatures tap when they attack, and tapped creatures can't block. Therefore, committing a creature to an attack prevents you from blocking with it on your opponent's next turn, when she can attack you. Remember, though, that all your cards untap at the start of your turn, so you can attack with a creature numerous turns in a row, or attack with it now and block with it later on in the game.

The Flow of the Game
Before a duel begins, players randomly determine who goes first. Each player starts the game with 20 life and draws a hand of seven cards from his or her deck. The players then alternate taking turns, beginning with the "first" player. During a turn, a player can do any or all of the following: play a land, play creatures, and attack with creatures already in play. The following outlines the basic turn structure:

Untap: At the beginning of every turn, untap any creatures or lands that were tapped during the previous turn. Untapping a card makes it available for use.

Draw: Draw a card from your library.

Land: Play a land, if you have any in your hand.

Attack: You may attack with any or all of your creatures. (If you don't attack, skip ahead to "Play Creatures.") You can attack only with your creatures, and they can attack only your opponent. If you want to kill one of your opponent's creatures, you'll have to attack and hope he blocks with it. Attacking with a creature taps it.

Defense: When attacked, your opponent may block with some, all, or none of his creatures. Each creature can block only a single attacker, but more than one creature can gang up to block the same attacker. Blocking doesn't tap creatures, but tapped creatures can't block (so a creature that attacked during your opponent's last turn can't block this turn).

Damage Dealing: Each attacking creature that wasn't blocked deals its power in damage to your opponent. If this reduces his life total to 0 or less, you win. A creature that's blocked deals its damage to whatever blocked it and vice versa. If a creature has more than one blocker, you can distribute its damage among them as you like. For example, if your Hurloon Minotaur (2/3) is blocked by three Mons's Goblin Raiders (1/1), you can divide its 2 damage between two of the Raiders, killing them both, but the three Raiders will kill the Minotaur in return.

Play Creatures: You can play as many creatures as you can afford. Remember, you have to pay a creature's casting cost to play it, which requires tapping your lands for mana.

Discard: If you have more than seven cards in your hand at the end of your turn, discard down to seven.

Game Setup
During a game, it's easy to build up quite a few cards in play. For this reason, you'll want to find a dry, flat surface to use as a playing area. You'll also need something to help you keep track of your life total, such as spare change or a pencil and paper.

Each player begins the game with a deck of at least forty cards, which compose his or her library. Before play begins, each player shuffles his or her deck and offers it to the opponent, who may shuffle and/or cut it. Next, one player decides who will play first and who will draw first; whoever takes the first turn of the game doesn't draw a card that turn. If you and your opponent have just finished a game, the player who lost that game decides who plays first; if the game was a draw, whoever decided who went first that game does so again. If this is your first game in a series, determine randomly who decides.

Now, play a few games to get a feel for what you've learned. The point of these games is to become familiar with how lands and mana work and with the basics of creature combat. Whether you win a game isn't very important. In your first few games, if you draw a card that's not a basic land or a creature, set it aside and draw another card. When you play a creature, pay attention only to its power and toughness; for now, ignore its text box.

When you play these games you might want to leave the rulebook open to the turn sequence above or to the tipsheet below.

Expanding the Game
The first few games you just played were probably rather simple. During your turn, you drew a card, played a land if you had any, attacked if you wanted to, and played creatures if you had any. During your opponent's turn, you could do nothing but block. Creatures themselves didn't do anything other than attack or block. These are the basic moves of Magic.

In a normal game of Magic, you can assist your creatures in battle by playing spells that make them bigger, help them evade other creatures, and so on. Spells may also hinder or kill your opponent's creatures, and some spells even let you affect your opponent directly.

The remainder of this section adds to the basics you've already learned. It looks at other types of spells, more detailed turn and attack sequences, and some basic creature abilities. Once you're comfortable with the contents of this section, you should be able to play quite a few games of Magic without having to refer to Section II.

Other Types of Spells
So far, you've only played spells that generated creatures: summon spells and artifact creature spells. As you played your first few games, you probably set aside spells of most of the other types. (If you haven't played yet, take a moment to examine the spells in your deck.) Those other spells are divided into two categories.

Spells in the first category remain in play when cast. Once in play, these cards become permanents. In addition to the summon and artifact creature spells you've already seen, artifact spells, enchantment spells, and lands become permanents when played (see "More about Permanents").

Spells in the second category don't become permanents when you play them, but instead take effect once and are then put into your graveyard. Each of these spells is identified on its card type line as "Instant," "Interrupt," "Sorcery," or "Mana Source." Remember that all spells, except artifacts, will have a background of one of the five colors.

More about Permanents
The four types of permanents are artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and lands. A permanent can be of more than one type; artifact creature spells, for example, become permanents that are both artifacts and creatures and that will be affected by spells and abilities that affect either.

Once you've played a land or paid to cast a spell that becomes a permanent, it remains in play until something specifically removes it. You don't have to keep paying its casting cost to keep it around, but you also can't get rid of it just because you want to. You've already seen that creatures leave play if they sustain lethal damage; in addition, it's possible to destroy or bury a permanent. Either sort of effect sends the permanent to its owner's graveyard. (See "Regeneration" for the difference between the two effects.)

Most permanents have special abilities of some kind. These are generally explained on the card, but some creature abilities are described in the rulebook (see "Basic Creature Abilities"). Some abilities take effect as soon as the permanent enters play and end only when the permanent leaves play; such abilities are called continuous abilities.

Continuous abilities are always "on," even if the ability's effect is working against you at the moment. Usually, the only way to stop a continuous ability from taking effect is to remove the appropriate permanent from play. If an artifact becomes tapped, however, its continuous abilities "shut off" until it untaps (unless it also counts as a creature and/or land). Many abilities have an associated cost that must be paid in order to use the ability. Such abilities are played when you pay the appropriate cost. These abilities are typically written in a "cost: ability" format and are said to have an activation cost.

An activation cost typically involves paying mana but may also require tapping the card itself. When the card must be tapped to use a special ability, the symbol appears. You can't use the abilities of an artifact that's tapped unless it also counts as a creature and/or land.

Every permanent has a controller, who decides when to use its abilities, when to attack or block with it, and so on. A permanent enters play under the control of whoever played it. Other effects may change who controls it, in which case it's moved to the territory of its new controller. Whenever card text says "you" or "your" or speaks in the imperative, it's referring to the card's controller.

Playing Spells and Abilities
Playing a spell or an ability of a permanent involves the following steps.

1. Review your hand and what you have in play and decide which spells or abilities to play. This decision is based largely on what you can afford and how many spells or abilities you think you'll want to use this turn. The chosen card isn't considered part of your hand for purposes of the following steps.

2. Pay any costs required to play the spell or ability. This is typically limited to the casting cost of a spell or the activation cost of an ability.

Some spells and abilities include "" as part of their costs. These have a variable effect that depends on the amount of mana that's paid. To determine how much of the effect is generated, pick a value for X and pay that amount of generic mana. The spell's text explains what the X value generates, with each X becoming whatever you paid. Because the cost is variable, you decide how much mana you spend, unless X is restricted to certain values.

EXAMPLE

Some spells and abilities list additional costs in their text. Such costs aren't part of the casting cost but are still paid at this time. Spells with additional costs typically list them in the "cost: effect" format. This format may resemble an ability's, but the spell is still played and paid for only once; it doesn't grant a long-term ability.

3. Choose any required target(s). Some spells and abilities can be played under any circumstances, while others must have one or more targets. Such spells and abilities describe what they target in a phrase beginning with the word "target," such as "target creature" or "target blue enchantment." You can play such a spell or ability only if you choose valid targets for it; for example, you can't play a spell that targets a creature if there aren't any creatures in play. If a spell or ability requires choosing more than one target, you can't choose the same target twice.

4. Make any other choices called for by the spell or ability. Certain spells and abilities can be used in one of several ways. Decide what the spell or ability will do when it's played this time.

5. When you complete steps 2 through 4, the spell or ability is played. (If you couldn't complete any of those steps--for example, if you didn't choose a valid target for a targeted spell--you couldn't play the spell or ability in the first place.) If you played a spell, it leaves your hand; when it takes effect, it goes into play if it becomes a permanent, and into your graveyard otherwise. If you played an ability, its effect is considered separate from the source--but that effect "remembers" everything true of the source at the time you played the ability. Removing or altering the source of an effect won't alter the effect.

Enchantments
There are two types of enchantments: global and local. Global enchantments are simply put into play, but local enchantments are played only on permanents. Every local enchantment targets a category of permanents. Rather than using a phrase such as "target creature" in its text, however, it defines its target in its card type.

EXAMPLE

If the target of a local enchantment becomes invalid or leaves play, the enchantment is buried in its owner's graveyard. Changing control of a permanent doesn't change who controls any enchantments played on that permanent.

Special Lands
In addition to the five basic land types, there are various special lands with their own abilities. Many of these lands produce mana, but only if a mana-producing ability is listed in the text box. Special lands count as basic land types only if they say so, and even then they aren't considered basic lands.

Creatures
Creatures are the battle troops of Magic. Some act as support personnel, helping other creatures, but most of them do their work on the battlefield.

A creature's power and toughness ratings are written in an X/Y format, where X is power and Y is toughness. Effects that modify a creature's rating use the same format.

When you gain control of a creature (when you play a spell that becomes a creature, for example), you can't tap it to pay for its ability or attack with it until the beginning of your next turn. This is called summoning sickness and affects all creatures, including artifact creatures. Once a creature has had at least one turn to recover, it's no longer "sick" and is free to attack or use its abilities.

Some creatures are Walls and can't attack. This includes any creature whose card type is "Summon Wall." Walls are treated like other creatures in all other respects.

Damage
Certain spells or abilities deal damage to creatures and/or players. Also, a creature in combat deals an amount of damage equal to its power. When a player receives damage, it's simply deducted from his life total, but damage dealt to creatures accumulates for the whole turn. If the damage accumulated by a creature is equal to or greater than its toughness, it suffers lethal damage and is destroyed.

Whenever damage is dealt, players have the opportunity to play spells or abilities that prevent or redirect damage; this step is called damage prevention. Effects that prevent damage remove it as if it never occurred. Effects that redirect damage change who the damage is being dealt to; the damage will affect its new target unless prevented or again redirected.

When both players are done with such effects, any remaining damage is applied to the creature or player it's dealt to. Once damage has been applied to a creature or player, you don't get another chance to prevent or redirect it. For example, if your opponent does something during her discard phase that damages you, you can't take advantage of that opportunity to prevent damage that was dealt to you during combat.

Regeneration
When a creature is destroyed, whether as the result of a destroy effect or of lethal damage, it can be regenerated instead of being put into its owner's graveyard. Spells or abilities that regenerate a creature can't be used if the creature is being put into a graveyard by other types of effects, such as burial. Because regeneration is used in place of putting the creature into its owner's graveyard, rather than after the creature is in that graveyard, you can't regenerate a creature that's already in your graveyard.

A creature that regenerates becomes tapped as a part of the regeneration's effect; note that since it's tapping as part of the effect, not as a cost, a tapped creature can regenerate. All damage successfully dealt to the creature so far this turn is erased. Because a regenerated creature doesn't actually leave play, any effects applying to it continue for their normal duration, all enchantments played on it remain in place, and so on. If the creature is attacking or blocking, regenerating it removes it from combat.

Basic Creature Abilities
Certain abilities are standard among creatures. This section explains some of the simpler abilities, and Section II details some that are more complex. It's important to remember that abilities without a cost are continuous and so are in effect regardless of whether you want them to be.

Flying: Creatures without flying can't be assigned to block those with flying. In other words, creatures with flying must be blocked in the air. Creatures with flying can be assigned to block those without the ability, however.

Landwalk: Landwalk is a group of abilities; a creature never has "landwalk," but "islandwalk," "swampwalk," and so on instead. If the defending player controls any lands of the appropriate type, that player can't assign any creatures to block an attacking creature with a landwalk ability.

Landhome: Landhome is a group of abilities similar to landwalk. Creatures with a landhome ability can't attack if the defending player controls no lands of the appropriate type. Also, any creatures with landhome a player controls are buried if at any time that player controls no lands of the appropriate type.

First Strike: When damage dealing begins, creatures are divided into two groups: those with first strike, and those without. Creatures in the first group deal their damage during the first damage-dealing step of combat; the others deal their damage during the second one. If a creature is killed in the first damage-dealing step, it won't deal damage during the second one, as dead creatures don't deal damage.

Trample: Attacking creatures with trample attempt to deal as much damage as possible to the defending player, even when they're blocked. If an attacker with trample is blocked, all damage it deals to its blockers over what is needed to destroy them is redirected to the defending player. If it can't deal damage to the blocking creatures (if none of them can receive combat damage this turn, for example), it assigns its full damage to the defending player.

The amount of damage redirected from a blocking creature to the defending player is calculated at the end of damage prevention, not when damage is assigned (see "Damage Prevention"). Thus, if you prevent damage dealt to that creature, you reduce the amount redirected to you, rather than saving the creature while leaving the trample damage intact.

Parts of the Turn
As a player takes her turn, she's required to go through each of the phases outlined below even if she's not required to do anything during a given phase. Either player can play fast effects (instants, interrupts, and mana sources) during any of these phases except for untap and cleanup.

Untap: Untap all of your permanents. Untapping your lands, creatures, and so on makes them available for use again.

Upkeep: If a permanent does something every turn, it typically does it during this phase.

Draw: Draw one card from your library. Drawing a card usually gives you new options during a turn.

Main: This phase is where most of the action occurs. During your main phase, you can play any kind of card, including lands and non--fast effects. You may play only one land each turn. Once during your main phase, you may attack (see "Attack!"). Once the attack is over, your main phase resumes, and you may get the opportunity to play more spells or to play a land if you haven't already. Remember, creatures enter play with summoning sickness, so if you play a creature before the attack, you can't attack with it this turn.

Discard: If you have more than seven cards in your hand at the end of this phase, discard down to seven.

Cleanup: All damage dealt to creatures during this turn is erased. Effects that last "until end of turn" wear off at the same time damage is erased. Effects that occur "at end of turn" happen at the end of this phase.

If either player has less than 1 life at the end of any phase or at the beginning or end of an attack, that player loses and the game is over. If both players have less than 1 life at that time, the game is a draw and neither player wins.

Attack!
Once during the main phase of your turn, you can declare that you're going to attack instead of starting a batch of effects or declining to do so (see "Series and Batches"). You then send one or more of your creatures over to attack your opponent. She may choose to block them and avoid damage. You attack your opponent with the intention of reducing her life total; you can't attack her creatures directly. Your creatures will fight hers if and only if she chooses to block them.

You can attack with as many creatures as you like, but you can attack only once a turn. This means that you can't send over one wave of attackers and then another later on in the turn. (Abilities that happen to deal damage aren't attacks, so they're not bound by these restrictions.) Whenever you try to attack, your opponent can avoid it by beginning a batch of effects; in this case, you can declare the attack again later in your main phase.

The attack follows certain steps, outlined here (see also "Step by Step").

Declare Attackers: You declare the total number of attackers. A creature can attack as long as it's untapped, doesn't have summoning sickness, and isn't a Wall. Attacking with a creature causes it to tap. Creatures normally attack individually rather than in groups. Once a creature attacks, it remains in the attack until the end of combat; tapping or untapping an attacker doesn't remove it from combat.

Fast Effects before Blocking: Both players can play as many fast effects as they wish.

Declare Blockers: Your opponent can now assign her creatures, one at a time, to block yours. Tapped creatures can't block, although creatures with summoning sickness can. A creature is assigned to block only one attacker; however, you may assign several creatures to block the same attacker. Once an attacking creature is blocked, it remains blocked for the rest of the combat even if all of its blockers are killed (or otherwise leave play) before damage dealing. If an attacker is blocked, the defending player will not receive combat damage from that attacker. Even if the attacker has more than enough power to kill a given blocking creature, the block keeps the defending player from receiving damage.

Fast Effects after Blocking: Both players can play fast effects again; these effects are generally influenced by the blocking assignments or lack thereof. Players can play as many fast effects as they wish.

Damage Dealing: Unblocked creatures deal their damage to the defending player. Blocked creatures deal their damage to the creatures blocking them, and blocking creatures deal their damage to the attackers they're blocking. Once all damage has been assigned, players may prevent damage. Any creatures that still have lethal damage after that are destroyed.

Timing Simplified
Magic has fairly rigid rules about when players can and can't do certain things. We'll touch on the major points here and then cover the topic in detail in Section II.

Instants are the foundation of timing; they form the largest group of spells and abilities. Whenever an instant is successfully cast, there's a pause before it takes effect in order to give each player an opportunity to respond with another instant. If any player responds, the first instant is put on hold, there's another pause to see if there's a response to the second instant, and so on. If both players want to respond to a given instant, the active player (the player whose turn it is) gets the first chance. A group of instants played this way is called a batch. The first instant played starts the batch; the last finishes it.

When both players have finished playing instants, those in the batch start to resolve, or take effect, in last-in, first-out order. Each effect in the batch resolves completely before the next one begins, and no new batches may be started while a batch is resolving.

When a phase begins, the active player gets the first chance to begin a batch of effects. If that player declines, the opponent may begin a batch. If the opponent also declines, the phase ends. If either player starts a batch, this process is repeated once that batch has resolved.

Noncontinuous abilities of permanents are played as if they were instants unless they require special circumstances to be usable, such as spells or abilities that prevent damage. Remember, once an ability has been played, removing or changing the source will do nothing to the effect.

Interrupts will be covered in Section II (see "Interrupts"). It's best to ignore them for now. Instants, interrupts, and mana sources are collectively called fast effects; the term includes both spells and abilities. You may play fast effects during any phase of either player's turn unless otherwise noted.

Sorceries, and spells that become permanents, can only start a batch. Otherwise, they follow the same rule as instants, so although they can't be played in response to other spells or abilities, instants can always be played in response to them. You can play such spells only during your main phase and not while an attack is in progress.

And You're Off!
You should have a basic idea of how to play Magic now, so go ahead and try it out. Refer back to the rules as often as necessary, but don't get bogged down with cards you don't understand or that have abilities that haven't been explained yet. If you draw a card with unfamiliar abilities, just set it aside and draw again. Right now, learning to play is more important that winning.

When you're comfortable with what's been covered so far, start reading Section II. Once you've learned what's there, you should be able to understand any card in the basic set.