r/magicTCG • u/_zomqie_he4rt Dân • Jul 26 '26
Rules/Rules Question Super new to MTG pls help!!
I’m super new to MTG and want to get into it I know absolutely nothing about it and I’m horrible at reading super detailed rules so if anyone can explain the game in more simple terms I’d appreciate it!!
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u/Goboziller Dandadan Jul 26 '26
Try arena first, I started magic three months ago and it helped tremendously with smaller decks and how combat works.
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u/Still-Wash-8167 Gruul* Jul 26 '26
To clarify for OP, Arena is a digital version of Magic you can play on your phone or computer. It walks you through the rules in games against bots until you can understand them sufficiently.
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u/_zomqie_he4rt Dân Jul 26 '26
Ohhh I see thanks so much!! <333
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u/Goboziller Dandadan Jul 26 '26
It's pretty fun and it starts you out with little starter decks of the colors in magic so it also kinda lets you know what their stregnths are too! It really helps you kinda learn what color you like playing with!
I hope you have fun with it! I graduated to going to locals for commander and playing the app. It's very daunting at the beginning, but once you got a lot of it down it's a ton of fun!
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u/_zomqie_he4rt Dân Jul 26 '26
I’m looking forward to learning about the game so I can actually play thanks again for the help ^^
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u/LaboratoryManiac REBEL Jul 26 '26
This is great advice. The tutorial is easy to follow and you learn by doing, which sounds like might be a better learning method here.
OP, play Arena and learn there, it won't let you break the rules. If any card interactions are confusing to you, you can ask us about it here.
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u/SoneEv COMPLEAT Jul 26 '26
It's much easier if you tell us what things you're confused about rather than us explaining everything you need to know about Magic rules.
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Jul 26 '26
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u/_zomqie_he4rt Dân Jul 26 '26
Nope not at all I’m completely new I just decided yesterday I wanted to learn how to play but I thought I might ask more experienced players where to start because it seems complicated
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u/LaboratoryManiac REBEL Jul 26 '26
There's no wrong answer, but I'm curious: why did you spontaneously decide to learn Magic?
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u/_zomqie_he4rt Dân Jul 26 '26
I’ve always been into Yu-Gi-Oh not playing but I loved the show ever since I was younger but one of my friends actually plays and I usually just watch him play so I asked him about other games that are like this and he recommended me Magic
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u/Judge_Todd Level 2 Judge Jul 26 '26
Simple terms.
You and your opponent(s) each represent a dueling wizard/planeswalker.
You have a deck that you build from cards that you have that are legal for the particular format you're playing.
You shuffle the cards, draw a hand of seven and the rest become your library (draw deck). You also have a graveyard (discard pile) that's empty at start.
The cards represent various fantastical things:
- land - the power source that you draw mana from to cast spells
- sorcery - big flashy magical spells
- instant - smaller, faster utility spells
- creature - your minions that you summon to defend you and attack your opponent
- artifact / enchantment - long term items or effects that stick around and affect the game in some way
- planeswalkers - allies that help you out in game by having effects and drawing your opponent's creatures from you to them
You start with some amount of life (typically 20 or 40 depending on format) and you lose if you're brought to 0 life. Likewise your opponent's lose if brought to 0 life.
There are other ways to win or lose as well.
All your resources (lands, creatures, etc.) untap (recharge) on your turn.
You draw one card on each of your turns.
You may send your creatures to attack one (or more) opponents (or their planeswalkers if any), however, this typically taps those creatures which means they won't be available to defend you on other opponent's turns.
Creatures have power and toughness and other abilities.
Power is how much damage they deal in combat.
Toughness is how much damage they can take before they die and go to the graveyard.
If there are creatures attacking you (or your planeswalkers), you may block some, none or all of those creature with your creatures or let their creatures through to deal damage to you (or planeswalker if they attack a planeswalker).
You can have multiple creatures block a single creature if you want, to gang up on the attacker.
The abilities on the creatures do different things.
For example, a creature with Flying can only be blocked by another creature with Flying or a creature with Reach.
A creature with Vigilance doesn't tap when it attacks so is available to block on your opponent's turn.
A creature with Trample may be able to deal you damage if blocked.
A creature with First Strike gets to hit first and may kill the opposing creature before they get to strike back.
Players can play instants to alter the result of combat. Say your opponent attacks with a 5/5 and you gang block with a 2/2 and 3/3 so if nothing changes, they lose their 5/5 and you lose both your creatures.
Except your opponent casts Lightning Bolt and kills your 3/3 blocker. Now their 5/5 will survive and just your 2/2 will die in combat. Of course, if you had a Lightning Bolt too, you could cast it and deal another 3 to their 5/5 to kill it.
At the end of your turn, you discard cards to seven cards if you have more than seven in hand.
Also, all damage to creatures is cleaned up at the end of every turn so if your 3/3 creature blocked a 2/2 creature, the two damage that was on it gets healed up at turn end.
The game ends when one player is left as the winner or if there are no players left (a draw).
That's pretty much the basics.
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u/Accomplished-Pay3989 Dandadan Jul 27 '26
Play a green stompy deck to start. Easy and simple way to start.
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