Magic: The Gathering card game: players, deck & rules

Choose decks and draw opening hands

1. Use two completed decks for the first game. Each has at least 60 cards; normally at most four of an English card name, except basic lands. Agree a casual card pool: this is not a claim that every deck is legal in the rotating Standard format.
2. Start at 20 life. Shuffle each deck as its owner’s library and draw seven. Choose who goes first randomly. To mulligan, shuffle the whole hand back and draw seven; after keeping, put one card on the bottom for each mulligan taken.

Follow your turn in order

1. Untap your cards, handle upkeep effects, then draw one. The first player skips only their first turn’s draw.
2. Take a first main phase, combat, a second main phase, then ending and cleanup. You may play one land across both main phases when the stack is empty.

Pay for spells and allow responses

Tap lands for mana to pay costs: coloured symbols require that colour; a number accepts any type. Tapping turns a card sideways, not into the discard. Unused mana clears at each step or phase end. Normally cast non-instant spells in your own main phase with an empty stack. Announce the spell and targets, pay its cost, then allow responses. Instants and flash cards can be used when you have priority. The last spell or ability added resolves first after both players pass; then players can respond again. Resolved permanents stay on the battlefield; instants and sorceries go to the graveyard.

Attack and block

1. Choose untapped creatures you have controlled since your turn began; haste can allow a new creature to attack. Attacking normally taps them.
2. Defender chooses untapped blockers. Each blocker can block only one attacker; several creatures may block the same attacker. Blocking does not tap, and a new creature can block. Creatures deal their power as simultaneous damage; lethal damage of at least toughness sends a creature to the graveyard. Unblocked attackers damage the defending player. Card abilities can change this.

Clean up and decide the result

During cleanup, if you have more than seven cards, discard down to seven. Clear marked damage from surviving creatures and end “until end of turn” effects. You lose at zero or less life, when required to draw from an empty library, or through a card’s loss condition. This guide plays one game without a match score.

Begin with the cards you already own

Use a completed beginner deck so the first session is about turns and card text rather than deck construction. Keep lands separate from creatures and leave room for a graveyard. If a keyword changes the simple combat example, read its official glossary entry before applying the damage. Magic has far more interactions than a single opening lesson can cover.

Rule sources and version notes

Rules checked on 2026-10-18. The named version above is the one taught here. Examples and learning suggestions are written for this guide.

• Wizards: how to play Magic
• Wizards: basic and comprehensive rules
• Wizards: Comprehensive Rules, 25 September 2026
• Wizards: London mulligan
• Wizards: keyword glossary