Now we'll talk about how to play.........
Understand how to summon a creature or use a spell. You summon a creature by looking at its casting cost, which is usually a circled number followed by a specific color of mana — either white, blue, black, red, or green. In order to summon a creature, you need to produce mana equivalent to the card's casting cost.
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Take a look at the card above. on the corner You'll notice a "3" followed by a red mana symbol — the red fireball orb. In order to use this particular card, you need to have enough lands to produce 3 mana of any color, along with one red mana.
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This requires 2 white mana.
Another Example- Spoiler:
This will require 2 green mana, and 3 of any other colour.
Try another example of how to summon. See if you can't figure out how many mana total, and which specific kinds, it takes to summon the following card:
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ANSWER:
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The first card, "Mogis's warhound," costs 1 colorless mana (mana of any kind/colour you want ) along with one red mana (mana produced by a mountain) for a total of 2 mana. The second card, "Angel of Masks," costs 3 colourless mana (mana of any colour of your choice)— along with 1 white mana (mana produced by a plain) for a total of 4 mana
Understand what tapping and untapping are. "Tapping" is how you "use" the mana in lands, or how you attack with creatures. It's denoted by the little right arrow sign. In order to tap, you turn the card sideways.
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Tapping a card means that you cannot use certain abilities for one turn. If, for example, you tap a card in order to use its ability, it stays tapped until the beginning of your next turn. You can't use its tapping ability again until it is untapped.
In order to attack, you need to tap your creature. You do this unless the card specifically says you should not tap it. (Some cards do not tap when they attack. we'll talk about it later.)
You cannot block with a creature that is tapped. When a creature is tapped, it is unable to block.(we'll talk about blocking, and attacking later.)
Know what power and defense stand for. Creatures have one number for power and another number for toughness (u can call this a creature's LifePoints). The following creature, Leyline Phantom, has a power of 5 and a toughness of 5. It's a 5/5.
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Power is the number of points a creature can deal in combat. If a creature has a power of 5, it deals 5 damage to any creature who chooses to block it in combat. If that creature goes unblocked in combat, it deals 5 damage directly to the opponent, who subtracts that number from his or her total life.
Defense is the number of points a creature can withstand in combat before it dies and is sent to the graveyard. A creature with a defense of 4 can withstand 3 points of damage in combat without dying. Once it is dealt 4 points of damage, it goes into that player's graveyard at the end of combat. (a creature's toughness is restored after combat phase, which means you have to deal damage equal or more than it's toughness to it again even if you dealt damage to it and it survives. )
NOTE THIS!!: YOU CANNOT ATTACK CREATURES!!!!!: you attack your opponent's LP, then THEY choose to block and battle between creature happens, BUT there are some effects that allow creatures to fight (they basically deal damage equal to their power to each other. sometimes they both die, sometimes they both survive.)
Understand how damage is assigned in combat. When a player chooses to attack another player in combat, Attackers are declared at the same time,(attackers are the creature you choose to attack with) once you cannot attack, you cannot attack with another creature like you do in yugioh, you attack with all your cards AT ONCE. THEN your opponent can declare blockers AT ONCE, or decide to take the damage. Attacking creatures are declared first. The defending player then gets to choose which of his or her creatures s/he wishes to use as blockers.
Combat Phase
Let's say that Anathemancer is attacking and Magus of the Moat is blocking.
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Anathemancer has a power of 2 and a defense of 2. It's a 2/2. Magus of the Moat has a power of 0 and a defense of 3. It's a 0/3. What happens when they square up for battle?
The Anathemancer deals 2 damage to the Magus, while the Magus deals 0 damage to the Anathemancer.
The 2 damage that the Anathemancer deals to the Magus isn't enough to kill it since Magus has 3 toughness. The Magus can withstand 3 damage before it gets put in the graveyard. On the flip side, the 0 damage the Magus deals to the Anathemancer isn't enough to kill it. The Anathemancer can withstand 2 before it gets put in the graveyard. Both creatures survive. It's always useful to use math, and logic to decide what beats what in a battle (note: there are cards that increases an creature's power and toughness, and there are cards that decreases it, it's all about strategy.)
Understand how to activate certain abilities that creatures, enchantments, and artifacts have. Much of the time, creatures come with abilities that players get to activate. Using these abilities is much like summoning the creature, in that you need to pay a "cost," in mana, to use them. Look at the following example.
Ictian Crier comes with an ability that says: "Put two 1/1 white Citizen creature tokens into play." But there's also some mana signs and text before it. That's the mana cost it takes in order to activate this ability.
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In order to activate it's ability, tap one basic land of any color (that's for the 1 colorless mana), as well as one Plains (that's for the one white mana). Now tap the card itself (put it sideways) once you do this, this card cannot do anything again. It cannot attack or block, until it's your turn again before it becomes untapped. , Ictian Crier — that's for the "tap" sign after the mana requirements. Finally,you can activate it's effect which says: discard a card from your hand: (but you probably want to discard your least valuable card) Now you get to put two 1/1 Citizen tokens into play. These function as basic 1/1 creatures.
That's it for now. If you really want to start playing Magic, You can Go Ahead and start reading more about HOW TO PLAY the game
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