Magic the Gathering Help Thread

[fat man with a monkey]

Here it is, hope the mods don't get bitchy. Let's start with the basics. You must have a deck of over 40 cards to play casually, and 60 cards to play in a tournament. First thing to know: every card is a spell, except for lands. Let's go over the anatomy of a card. Pardon me using a bitmap, I'm not at home (I'll convert it to jpg later), but it's not that big.

Lesson #1: Anatomy of a card

-Land

the big sun in the bottom middle of the card means "tap: add one white mana to your mana pool." on older cards, it is written out. You need to have the amount of mana listed at the top of a spell to pay for it. Numbers inside of a gray circle indicate that amount of mana may be paid for with any color. There are five different colors of mana. Colorless is not a color. Lands themselves, since they are not spells, do not have a color.

just thought I'd throw in another land for comparison.

-Creature

Mana Cost: this is how much the card costs to play. Each land produces a type of mana, as shown on the land. The creature's color is the same as the colored mana on the top of it, or the background color on the card.
Name: What's in a name? Kitsune shows this creature is a fox, Blademaster alludes to it being a samurai.
Picture: Does diddlyshit.
Type: I know I didn't include it, bad me, but the card type is "spell type - spell subtype" in this case, it's "Creature - Fox Samurai" The expansion symbol is to the right. In all new sets, the symbol is color coded. Black is common, silver is uncommon, gold is rare.
Game text: This text is relevant to gameplay.
Flavor text: this text is not relevant to gameplay, but provides some insight on the particular creature or spell.
Power/Toughness: Only creatures have this. I'll go in-depth on my next installment.

-Enchantments and Gold Cards

This card is a gold card. It is multicolored. This means it is a green card, a white card, a multicolored card, and a green and white card. It's probably the best common in the game, too. This is an "enchant creature" This card may be played on any creature and has the stated effect. This is a "local enchantment."

This is an enchantment. It is played on the field, and is referred to as a "global enchantment."
-Spells

This is a sorcery. That means this spell may only be played on your turn, and may not be played in retaliation to another spell.

This is an instant. It may be played at almost any time, including in retaliation to another spell. This is the only type of card that may be played when it is not your turn.

-Artifacts

This is an artifact. An artifact has no colors, unless its game text changes the rules.

This is an artifact creature. It can be considered an artifact, a creature or both.

This is an artifact land. It is not a spell, but bears the artifact subtype.

I know this post was pretty useless, but it'll come in handy when I post my next installment, probably on saturday or sunday.
Next installment: Random things. Probably basic gameplay, creature abilities, and legend rule.

[fat man with a monkey]

Lesson #2: start the game

Your deck must be at least 40 cards for casual play, 60 for tournament. You may have no more than 4 of any one card, basic lands (plains, swamps, forests, mountains, and islands) being the only exception. Limiting your decks to one or two colors is the best, but three can be tolerated. Here's the colors.
Red (r): red represents destruction, in its most pure and simple form. Many red spells are direct damage or land destruction spells. Wizards, goblins, and lizards are representative creatures. Allied with G and B. Enemy of W and U.
Black (b): black represents evil or death. The two domains are not always associated, but more often than not, they run hand in hand. Black cards are varied. The main staples are creature destruction and creature ressurection. Wizards and zombies are representative creatures. Allied with R and U, enemy of W and G.
Blue (u): Blue represents deception and legerdomain, as well as "pure magic." Blue contains nearly all of the counterspells in the game, as well as many spells to hinder players or to increase the amount of cards in your hand. Blue is the least offensive color, and is hardly played in a mono color deck. Blue is allied with B and W, enemies of G and R.
White (W): white represents white magic, the magic of healing and defense. Many cards reduce or nullify damage, or gain life. Many white creatures are defensive in nature, but many also pack a punch. White is enemies of R and B, allies with U and G.
Green (G): Green is the magic of nature and life. Green is very powerful in creatures, and has very little diect damage spells. Many green spells seek to power creatures or fetch lands. Many green creatures are beatsticks, but many also have very good mana or creature acceleration abilities. Green is allied with W and R, enemies of B and U. Allies and enemies are on the card back, a color is adjacent to its allies, opposite its enemies. The chain is pretty interesting, in that each color is allied with an enemy of its ally.

Artifacts are represented as tools or automatons, controlled by powerful wizards, not particularly allied or opposed to any colors.
Some creatures or lands are legendary, meaning that only one of them exists, IE only one Abraham Lincoln, but there are many different goblins. If a legendary card is played, only one of it may be in play. If another comes into play, each goes to its owners' graveyard (to all you veterans, this happened with kamigawa). Lands and mana represent the magical force being drawn from the earth itself. Yeah, I know I'm still going through the philosophy of the game, but understanding the metagame is a very important part of magic. I'll do a rules posting later tonight or tomorrow,

[fat man with a monkey]

They are, Roarkiller.
So, last night at midnight while watching mission hill, I decide to type up my next installment. And save it to my flashcard. And promptly decided to reformat said flashcard, forgetting said file was on there. Cursing ensued. Here it is,about ten f bombs and a half-hour of work later.
I've already taught you to make your deck, I'll teach deck strategy later, so I'll dissect a turn.
[1] Upkeep step. First, untap all permanents you control. Then draw your card.
[2] Pre-combat main phase. Sorceries, instants, artifacts, enchantments, creatures and lands may only be played during a main phase.
[3] Combat phase.
First, announce attackers. Then assign blockers. Each creature may only block one attacker, however many blockers may be assigned to one attacker. You may choose to not block with all of your creatures, or to not block with any creatures.
All creatures with first strike or double strike deal damage simultaneously. Instants may not be played during this step, but instants may be played between these two steps. Put all creatures with lethal damage in their owner's graveyard.
All creatures without first strike deal damage simultaneously. Instants may not be played during this step, but instants may be played between these two steps. Put all creatures with lethal damage in their owner's graveyard.
[4] Post combat main phase. Same as pre-combat main phase. Only post combat. If you played a land during the pre-combat phase, you may not play one during this phase.
[5] Cleanup phase. You must empty your mana pool during this phase. You must discard cards from your hand if your total is greater than 7. You may only have 7 cards in your hand at the end of the turn. you may not discard if you have 7 or less cards in your hand. You may choose which cards to discard. You will lose one life for all unused mana in your mana pool. You may only play instants.
Priority and the stack
Remember: LIFO. Last in, first out. The last card on the stack resolves first. Similar to the system used in YGO, since it's based on Magic. A creature or sorcery must be on the bottom of a stack. A creature, sorcery, enchantment, artifact, or land may be played only on an empty stack. Playing a land does not use the stack. An instant may be played at the bottom of the stack or in response to another spell.
Priority
At the beginning of a phase, the active player has priority. Whenever a spell is played, priority changes. Any player with priority may play a spell (only instants, unless they are the active player). Whenever two players pass in succession (choose to take no action), the stack resolves (each spell has its effect). Whenever two players pass in succession with an empty stack, the phase changes. During the cleanup phase, if the active player plays no spells, the opposing player does not receive priority. This is true of the upkeep as well.
It doesn't matter if this doesn't help you, because I'll be posting a list of terminology and a mock game in my next installment, probably tomorrow. So mull over this, and the mock game will make more sense. I'll also show how to set up the field. After I post my next installment, feel free to post any magic questions here. I'll do my best to give you the right answer. It'll be a couple of installments before I get to deck building strategy, so be patient. You have to learn to play the game before you can be good at it.

[fat man with a monkey]

Mike, I'm getting there. I have creatures with each in the game I'm posting, ****bag. And it's Double, not Dual. I'll explain it again.
I attack.
Creatures with first and double strike deal damage.
Destroy creatures with lethal damage.
Creatures with double strike and without first strike deal damage.
Destroy creatures with lethal damage.

And although I said mock game, it ended up being a real game.
Alright, here's the game.
Let's go over some basic rules I think I missed: If a spell or ability asks for a target, you must say the target as you play/use the spell/ability. A creature may not attack the first turn it is summoned unless it has haste.
Kamigawa White Weenie vs Raz's Deck (old black cleric/zombie deck I apparently had saved in my apprentice deck folder).
--Turn 1. I go first. I draw my hand of seven cards.
3x plains, Bushi Tenderfoot, Devoted Retainer, Vigilance, and Kitsune Blademaster. I play a plains, tap it, and play Devoted Retainer. I have to wait a turn to attack, since I just played it, so my opponent goes.
--Turn 2. My oponnent draws his card and plays a swamp, taps it, and plays Dark Supplicant.
--Turn 3. I draw a Kitsune Blademaster. I play an additional plains. I tap a plains, play Bushi Tenderfoot. It resolves, I tap my other plains and play Vigilance on my Devoted Retainer. I attack with Devoted Retainer. My opponent takes the damage.
ME: 20 life. Him: 19 life.
--Turn 4. My opponent draws. He plays Barren Moor, which comes into play tapped. He taps a swamp and plays Carrion Feeder.
--Turn 5. I draw Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
. I play another plains and play Kitsune Blademaster. Now, I would attack, but my opponent would have an advantage. He could block each of my creatures, sacrifice Dark Supplicant to Carrion Feeder, and destroy both of my creatures, and have a 2/2 on the field. I choose not to attack yet, waiting to seize my moment.
--Turn 6. My opponent draws. My opponent plays a swamp and Rotlung Reanimator. I see that I am ****ed. My opponent sacrifices Dark Supplicant to Carrion Feeder and puts a 2/2 black zombie into play.
Cards in play: Swamp x2, Barren Moor, Carrion Feeder 2/2, Rotlung Reanimator 2/2, token 2/2.
--Turn 7. I draw indomitable will. I am now given an amazing foothold. I choose not to attack, as my opponent has the offensive advantage over me, by being able to block me and then power up his Carrion Feeder. Any creature lost would be a gain to him. I choose to play Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho.
in play: BTenderfoot 1/1, Devoted Retainer (Vigilance) 1/1, KBlademaster FS, B1, plains x3 (tapped).
--Turn 8. My opponent draws. My opponent taps three and plays another Rotlung Reanimator. I am now really ****ed. Every time a cleric would go to a graveyard, he puts t 2/2 zombies into play. I am holding too strong of a defensive position to risk the loss of a creature, so my opponent doesn't attack.
Cards in play: Swamp x3 (t), Barren Moor, Carrion Feeder 2/2, (2)Rotlung Reanimator 2/2, token 2/2.
--Turn 9.I draw Reciprocate. I tap 2 and equip Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
to Devoted Retainer. Devoted Retainer is now 4/2 and doesn't tap when he attacks. I attack with the Devoted Retainer for 4. My opponent blocks with a token and Devoted Retainer gets +1/+1. My opponent sacrifices the token to Carrion Feeder, giving it another +1/+1.
in play: BTenderfoot 1/1, Devoted Retainer (vigilance, oathkeeper) 4/2, KBlademaster FS, B1, plains x3 (x2 tapped).
--Turn 10. My opponent draws and plays a swamp. He taps said swamp and plays another Dark Supplicant. I'm starting to get slightly boned.
Cards in play: Swamp x3 (1x t), Barren Moor, Carrion Feeder 2/2, (2)Rotlung Reanimator 2/2, dark supplicant 1/1.
--Turn 11. I equip Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
to Bushi Tenderfoot, in an attempt to set up my strategy. I attack with Kitsune Blademaster. My opponent takes the damage, dropping him down to 16. I stick my thumb up my ass and hope for the best.
in play: BTenderfoot (oathkeeper) 4/2, Devoted Retainer (vigilance) 1/1, KBlademaster FS B1 2/2, plains x3 (x2 tapped).
--Turn 12. My opponent draws. My opponent plays Mortal Combat. My opponent taps Dark Supplicant and sacrifices it and the two Rotlung Reanimators. He searches his deck and puts into play a Scion of Darkness. The Rotlung Reanimators see themselves and the Dark Supplicant leave play, giving him 6 zombie tokens.
cards in play: 4x swamp (t), barren moor, carrion feeder 3/3, scion of darkness (6/6), 6x zombie tokens (2/2).
--Turn 13. I draw my card. Plains. I play it. My strategy is to wait for him to attack, block and get my Bushi Tenderfoot flipped, Reciprocate a couple of crits (including the scion) and block as many zombies as possible.
in play: BTenderfoot (oathkeeper) 4/2, Devoted Retainer (vigilance) 1/1, KBlademaster FS B1 2/2, plains x4.
--Turn 14. My opponent draws his card, and attacks with 4 zombies and the scion. I play Indomitable Will, boosting Bushi Tenderfoot to 5/4. I block a zombie. I block a zombie with the Devoted Retainer, losing it but destroying the zombie. I block a zombie with Kitsune Blademaster, which deals its damage first. I Reciprocate the scion, after being dealt 6 damage. The zombie deals 2. My opponent sacrifices each zombie he attacked with to his Carrion Feeder, giving it another +3/+3. I Reciprocate the final zombie, and he sacrifices it in response.
in play: 4x swamp, 1x baron moor, 1x mortal combat, 2x tokens (2/2), and carrion feeder (7/7)
--Turn 15. The tide has shifted in my favor. I draw Nagao, Bound by Honor. Kenzo the Hardhearted is flipped now, with the following stats: 7/7, B2, DS. I attack with it. My opponent sacrifices a token, boosting Carrion Feeder to 8/8. It takes 7 points of first strike damage. In regular combat, it deals 8 to Kenzo the Hardhearted, destroying him. Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
triggers, returning Kenzo the Hardhearted to play as the Bushi Tenderfoot. Indomitable Will goes to the graveyard. After combat, I play Kitsune Blademaster.
in play: 4x plains (3x tapped), oathkeeper (unattached), Btenderfoot 1/1, kblademaster 2/2, B1, Fs (x2)
--Turn 16: My opponent draws a card, taps 3 swamps and plays Nantuko Husk.
In play: 4x swamps (3x tapped), mortal combat, barren moor, nantuko husk 2/2, token 2/2
--Turn 17: I draw Konda's Hatamoto. I attack with both Kitsune Blademasters. My opponent blocks one with his token, sacrificing it to Nantuko Husk. He blocks the other with the now 4/4 Nantuko Husk, destroying it. I tap two plains, play Konda's Hatamoto. I tap another two, equip Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
to it.
In play: 4x plains t, Konda's Hatamoto 4/3, bushi tenderfoot 1/1.
--Turn 18: my opponent draws, plays a swamp. taps barren moor, plays Dark Supplicant.
In play: Dark supplicant, nantuko husk, mortal combat, 5x swamp, barren moor (t)
--Turn 19: I draw Takeno, Samurai General. A good card, useless to me. I play Nagao, Bound by Honor, boosting the Konda's Hatamoto to 5/5. I attack. My opponent blocks with the Dark Supplicant, activating bushido and boosting Konda's Hatamoto to 6/6.
In play: KH (oathkeeper) 5/5, tenderfoot 1/1, nagao 3/3, 4 x plains (3x tapped)
--Turn 20: My opponent draws, taps three swamps and plays Cabal Archon.
In play: mortal combat, cabal archon, nantuko husk, 5x swamps (3x t), barren moor.
--Turn 21: I draw a Bushi Tenderfoot and play it. I attack with Konda's Hatamoto. He blocks with the Nantuko Husk, Nantuko Husk dies. I move Oathkeeper, Takeno's Daisho
over to Nagao, Bound by Honor.
In play: lands, Hatamoto (2/4, t), 2x tenderfoot 1/1, nagao 6/4
--Turn 22: my opponent draws, does nothing.
--Turn 23: I draw Indomitable Will. I alpha strike. My opponent blocks Nagao, Bound by Honor, and takes 5 damage.
--Turn 24: My opponent draws, looks exasperated. He plays duress and has me discard Indomitable Will. In response, I play it as an instant on a Bushi Tenderfoot.
--Turn 25: I alpha strike. My opponent takes 12 damage, putting him at -1. He reveals in his hand three Scion of Darkness and curses. Loudly.

This game is a very good example of when you get land-locked. Neither of us had enough land to really get our decks going, but in the end my low cost cards pulled through and won the game. [EDIT: Not a problem with shuffling since apprentice did it. Although my white deck was being played by hand, but it was shuffled about 10 times.] This deck was a bitch though. Had my opponent had just slightly more land out, I would have had to grab my ankles and hope for the best. This game was also a very good example of why to have pencil and paper on hand. Keeping track of the p/t of my creatures was hell. Sorry if this got kinda hard to follow towards the end, it got pretty tense, and I wasn't paying attention to my typery. I did my best to link the cards and explain what was happening.

Attached are some excerpts from the official magic rules.

NEXT LESSON: Deck building strategies, in depth, by color. It's really hard for me to teach how to play the game, but it should be considerably easier going over deckbuilding strategies.

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[Water Pokemon Master]

If you have any question on how to play MTG, or want to learn how to play it, post in this thread only.

[fat man with a monkey]

Since the other topic is closed, would you mind if I condensed and re-posted (as well as clarifying) my lessons in here, or would you just prefer I leave them where they are?

[Water Pokemon Master]

Yeah, you can do that if you want. Don't edit the posts that I just moved here, though. Copy and paste them into new posts, then edit them, then post them again in here, and then I will move the originals back to the old thread.

[fat man with a monkey]

Alright, I'm going to go into some stuff in more detail, and clarify/post deck building strategies, both tournament and casual.

[SWAMPERT1]

I posted this earlier in a topic but no one supplied so here it is.

Well lately, my friend and I have gotten interested in starting Magic the Gathering. I need some major suggestions though. You see I have a small stack, about 10 packs or so, of cards all of which are not that great. So since I need to learn hoe to play and I need more themed cards I was wondering which Starter Deck to get and what singles I should get.

Right now the two deck types I am pryed between are Zombie / Vampire and a Dragon deck. I am thinking right now it would just be easiest to start with the Legions Zombie deck since it has a few support and such and then buying a few singles of zombie support. But that is because I am not sure if there is an easy way to start a Dragon deck.

[fat man with a monkey]

Frankly, I'd recommend buying some of the new kamigawa theme decks that are floating around. They're built pretty well on their own, but they provide pretty good standalone cards and pretty good combos. A good portion of the cards in my white weenie are from the white pre-con (pre built deck), with some taken out/added in/balanced out. If you want to take the time to make a list of every card you have, you could pm or email it to me ( kusajamey@gmail.com ) and I help you with some strategies based on those cards. And my updates are coming along a little slowly, and I apologize.

[SWAMPERT1]

Thanx for the suggestion but I really want to us zombies / black. Right now I am not really concerned about tournament play but more casual play. I'll post all my black cards here later since there is only like 15 matbe and that way more people can help.