by Elton Gahr

Created on: May 01, 2009   Last Updated: May 02, 2009

An introduction to Magic the Gathering is just that, an introduction. There should be no illusion that any single article will fully explain the intricacies of the game or even begin to scratch the strategy. It will at best give you a good idea of where to start in your exploration of this fantastic hobby.

At its most basic level Magic the Gathering is a competition between two players to reduce the life total of the other player from 20 to 0. This is done through the use of a personalized deck of cards. Each turn the player will draw a card, play a land, put out creatures and if possible attack with those creatures while the other player attempts to defend himself.

The most basic of the cards in Magic the Gathering is land. There are five types of land, mountains, plains, swamps, islands and forests. Each of these represents a school of magic and has its own style of play. Each turn you may play a single land from your hand. This land will be able to produce one mana each turn. To do this you "tap" the land. This means that you turn the land on its side to mark that it has been used.

This mana is then used to play spells and creatures. Each spell and creature has its own cost, found in the top right hand corner of the card. The balance of the game comes in trying to match the power of the card with this cost.

This is where deck building comes into play. Before the game can start each player makes his own personalized deck of cards. These represent his spell book and can be any color or combination of colors. The typical size is a deck of sixty cards with no more than three colors, and typically two.

To understand deck building it is necessary to understand that Magic the Gathering is a collectible card game. Instead of buying a single game you buy packs of cards similar to baseball cards. A starter pack is a randomly assorted collection of land and cards. Boosters are smaller and do not have land.

In addition to this basic structure of building a deck and attempting to kill the other player before they kill you there are many variations of the game of Magic. From multiplayer games in which you try to outlast everyone else to booster drafts where you arrive without a pre-made deck but are instead draft cards from a random assortment.

As you can tell there is a great deal to understand before you fully understand Magic the Gathering, but if you enjoy card games and love strategy then you should consider checking it out. From the crunchy strategy of the game mechanics to the often beautiful artwork, and the simple but addicting aspect of collecting there is something for nearly anyone in the game of Magic the Gathering if they are willing to get past the initial difficulty of learning the game.

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