{"id":388,"date":"2022-04-28T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.virlan.co\/play\/?p=388"},"modified":"2022-04-28T08:48:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T12:48:05","slug":"what-is-magic-the-gathering-card-game-how-to-play-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.virlan.co\/play\/games\/what-is-magic-the-gathering-card-game-how-to-play-it\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Magic: The Gathering Card Game? How To Play It? Is It Still Popular?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magic: The Gathering<\/strong> (colloquially known as Magic Cards<\/strong>) is a tabletop and digital collectible card game<\/strong> created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), Magic was the first trading card game<\/strong> and had approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.<\/p>\n

A game of Magic: the Gathering<\/strong> represents a showdown between two powerful mages.<\/p>\n

What is Magic: The Gathering?<\/h2>\n

Players can customise their deck before each battle, choosing cards from their library and – depending on the format – the current legal pool of sets and expansions. More than 20,000 different cards<\/strong> have been released for Magic: The Gathering<\/strong> since it first released more than 25 years ago, with over 20 billion cards printed between 2008 and 2016 alone.<\/p>\n

The magic cards<\/strong> typically won by reducing your opponents\u2019 life total to zero, some you achieve by siccing an army of summoned critters on them, and backing them up with mighty spells. Unfortunately, your opponent will have the exact same goal, resulting in an arcane tug-of-war, each player trading blows until one stands victorious. At the beginning of a match, both players begin with seven cards in their hands, and you\u2019ll draw one more at the start of each of your turns. These magic cards<\/strong> will either be permanents (Creatures, Artifacts, and more) which remain on the battlefield once played, or Instants and Sorceries, which have an immediate effect and then disappear.<\/p>\n

How to Play Magic: The Gathering<\/h3>\n

GAME ACTIONS<\/strong>
This section describes the actions that you\u2019ll take during a game, including tapping your cards, casting spells, and attacking and blocking with creatures in combat.<\/p>\n

TAPPING AND UNTAPPING<\/strong>
To tap a card in Magic: The Gathering<\/strong> is to turn it sideways to show that it has been used for the turn. You do this when you use a land to make mana, when you attack with a creature, or when you activate an ability that has the symbol as part of its cost ( means “tap this permanent”). When a permanent is tapped, you can\u2019t tap it again until it\u2019s been untapped (turned back upright). As your turn begins, untap your tapped cards so you can use them again.<\/p>\n

To cast a spell in Magic: The Gathering<\/strong>, you must pay its mana cost (located in the upper right corner of the card) by tapping lands (or other permanents) to make the amount and Game Actions type of mana which that spell requires. For example, if you were casting Serra Angel, which costs , you could tap three basic lands of any type to pay plus two Plains to pay .<\/p>\n

Once a spell has been cast, one of two things happens. If the spell in Magic: The Gathering <\/strong>is an instant or a sorcery, you follow the instructions on the card, and then you put the card into your graveyard. If the spell is a creature, artifact, or enchantment, you put the card on the table in front of you. The card is now on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Cards on the battlefield are called permanents to differentiate them from instants and sorceries, which are never on the battlefield.<\/p>\n

Attacking<\/strong>
Between your first and second main phase is the combat phase. Regardless of whether or not an opponent controls any creatures of their own, you chose to attack the player with your creatures (not their specific creatures). You don\u2019t have to attack with all of your creatures in Magic: The Gathering <\/strong>(or attack at all). Whichever creatures you choose to attack with become tapped. Already-tapped creatures and those with summoning sickness may not be assigned as attackers. At the end of combat, attacking creatures deal their power (it\u2019s the first number found on the bottom right of the card). A creature that shows \u201c2\/3,\u201d for example, deals two points of damage and can withstand three.<\/p>\n

Eidolon of Obstruction (TBD)Blocking<\/strong>
Blocking is the other half of combat. When a player is attacked in Magic: The Gathering<\/strong>, they may choose to block those attacking creatures with their own untapped creatures. Attacking creatures deal their power (the first number in the \u201cX\/X\u201d found on the bottom right of the card) in damage to the blocking creature\u2019s toughness (the second number in the \u201cX\/X\u201d) and visa-versa. If a creature\u2019s toughness is reduced to zero, the creature dies and is discarded from play. Damage to creatures last until the turn ends.<\/p>\n

Graveyard<\/strong>
When a card is discarded, whether from a player\u2019s hand, from casting (playing) an instant or sorcery, or a permanent is destroyed, it goes to the discard pile. In Magic terms<\/strong>, that would be the \u201cGraveyard.\u201d There are certain cards that interact with cards in players\u2019 graveyards.<\/p>\n

Exile<\/strong>
If a card is in \u201cExile\u201d in Magic: The Gathering , <\/strong>it\u2019s effectively been completely removed from the game. Exiled cards cannot typically be interacted with during the course of a game.<\/p>\n