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Learn to Play

Magic: The Gathering

Magic the Gathering

Magic: The Gathering Game Play and Description

One of our all-time favorite games to play and teach is Magic: The Gathering. This fantasty card game is so much fun to play with friends – old and new. If you like fantasy elements, friendly competition, and strategic game play, you’ll love Magic: The Gathering.
At its most basic level, Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game set in various fantasy universes. There’s so much more to this card game than what meets the eye. For example, you get to play as a powerful spell caster who spends time casting spells which summon allies together to help you defeat your enemies.
The best part about this game is that there are so many different formats you can choose from before playing. Essentially, every game has the chance to be wildly different from the last because every format, deck, card, and player can significantly change the outcome of your game.

Magic: The Gathering Game Play

When it comes to playing a game of Magic: The Gathering, there are many different actions you can make. Here is a list containing each of the game play rules for Magic:
When you “tap a card”, you turn it sideways to show that it has been used for the turn. Some possible reasons to tap a card include using a land to make mana, attacking with a creature, or activating an ability on certain cards. If a permanent is tapped, you cannot tap it again until it has been “untapped”. When you untap a card, you turn it back to an upright position.
If you want to cast a spell, you must first pay its mana cost by tapping lands or other permanents to make the amount and Game Actions type of mana which a spell requires. The mana cost is located in the upper right corner of the card.
The most common way to win the game is to attack with your creatures. If a creature that is attacking an opponent isn’t blocked, it will deal damage which is equal in value to that opponent. The middle phase of each turn is the combat phase. In your combat phase, you choose your creatures and which of your opponents you will attack. Once you’ve made your decisions, your opponent can choose which of their creatures will block, if any. After all blockers have been chosen, each creature must simultaneously deal out damage equal to its power. If one of your attacking creatures is blocked by multiple creatures, you must decide how to divide its combat damage among them. You must assign at least enough damage to the first blocking creature to destroy it before you can assign damage to the next creatures.
One of the most compelling aspects of Magic: The Gathering is that it allows for a tremendous number of unique cards to be played. The game has been around for almost thirty years! As you feel more comfortable with the basics of this game, you will start to learn about the more advanced game play options available to you.

Magic: The Gathering Game Formats

There are several different game formats available for Magic: The Gathering at Dungeon Cat Gaming. Here is a list of each format and a brief description of how it impacts the game:
The standard format uses only the most recently released Magic sets. This Constructed format uses a minimum 60 card deck, with a fifteen card sideboard.
Each player chooses a legendary creature to be the “commander”. From there, you must make a 99-card deck around that creature. The only duplicates you can have in your deck are basic lands.
The only legal cards in this format are from Core Set Eighth Edition and Mirrodin through today. Remember that decks require a minimum of 60 cards and that you may have a sideboard of up to fifteen cards.
In the constructed version of Two Headed Giant, only four copies of any non-basic land card are allowed to be shared between the two decks.
The Pauper format restricts players to only use cards with the common rarity.
This is a nonrotating format which features cards from Return to Ravnica and forward.
In this format, players open booster packs and take turns picking cards from boosters. They then use these cards to build 40-card decks.
When you play a Sealed Deck format, each player has the chance to open six booster packs and compete with a 40-card deck made exclusively with those cards Pre-Releases use this format.

Magic: The Gathering holds a very special place in the hearts of our dungeon masters, Tom and Mike. They met and immediately bonded over a game of Magic: The Gathering and have been friends ever since. It’s actually what inspired them to open Dungeon Cat Gaming in the first place. If you are interested in learning more about our available games, or want to join one of our Magic: The Gathering game play events, check out our game schedule or visit our store in person!

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