Learn To Play Magic the Gathering

Lands represent your resources in Magic. Above are some examples of lands you will see.

On each one of your turns, you may play 1 land from your hand onto the battlefield. Once there, these lands can be used (once each turn) to give you the mana that you need to summon creatures and cast spells.

Tap

Black mana

Untap

To use a land to make mana, you "tap" it by turning it sideways.
Each land will only produce 1 mana unless otherwise stated.
This Swamp will tap for one Black Mana. This Black Mana can be used to cast spells which need black.
When a land is tapped, it does not untap until your next turn.

See what this looks like by clicking the tap and untap buttons.

Think of creatures as your chess pieces.
They can attack your opponent, defend you against attacks, or give you advantages in other ways.

Creatures can vary wildly in power level.
At the bottom right corner of a creature card, you’ll find 2 numbers which represent its power and toughness. You read these numbers as power/toughness.

Similarly, if a spell or ability says something like, “+3/+1,” that indicates that it will grant 3 additional power and 1 additional toughness.

A creature’s power is how much damage it will deal, and its toughness is how much damage it must be dealt in a single turn before it will die. If it dies, it goes to the graveyard.

They are permanents which can only be played during your main phase (unless it's an Artifact Creature and has Flash).
They represent physical items of power that any wizard can employ.
This also means that artifacts can easily be broken if made too powerful.

Creatures can also be artifacts though for a long time they did not have any Creature Types.
Artifact Creatures can be affected by anything that would affect either artifacts or creatures.

Currently, Artifact Creatures that are not modeled after colored creatures tend to get the creature type Golem or Construct.

Equipment is an artifact subtype that denotes things which could be equipped to creatures.

Most Artifacts-Equipment have an equip cost in addition to their casting cost (Masterwork of ingenuity does not have an equip cost).
This equip cost must be paid in order to attach the equipment to a creature.

Once the equipment was attached to a creature, the equip cost could be paid again to transfer the equipment to another creature.
The equip cost could not be paid to transfer the equipment off of a creature, so when you pay the equip cost you must equip it to a new creature.
Equip costs could only be played any time the equipment's controller could play a sorcery.

Equip costs do not always need to be mana. Sometimes, life must be paid, or you must sacrifice an artifact or land.
If an equipped creature was destroyed, the equipment would become unattached, but would not be destroyed.

Enchantments represent persistent magical effects, usually remaining in play indefinitely.
Most have continuous or triggered abilities, but some have abilities that can be activated by their controllers.

Some enchantments have the subtype Aura. That means that when they come into play, they enchant the required permanent.
When you cast an Aura, you select a creature to enchant. That means that once it comes into play, you attach it to that creature (put the card on top of the creature).

Auras don't have to be placed on creatures you control, as some Auras have negative effects.

Not all auras attach to creatures. Some enchant land or artifacts.

Instants and Sorceries, represent one-shot or short-term magical spells.

They are never put into the in-play zone; instead, they take effect when their mana cost is paid and the spell resolves, and then are immediately put into the player's graveyard.

Sorceries and instants differ only in when they can be played.
Sorceries can only be played during the player's main phase, and only when nothing else is on the stack.

Instants, on the other hand, can be played at any time, including during other player's turns and while another spell or ability is waiting to resolve

For example;

Timmy attacks with his Grizzly Bears which is a 2/2.
You have no creatures to block with, but you do have one Mountain untapped and a Shock in hand.
After Timmy finishes declaring attackers, you may play the Shock targeting the attacking creature.
The Shock would deal 2 damage to it, killing it before it could deal any combat damage.

In the storyline of Magic: the Gathering, planeswalkers are among the most powerful beings in the multiverse.
Within the game, they represent the thematic identities of the players.
Planeswalker is also a card type within the game.

Planeswalkers' abilities are based on their loyalty, which is tracked with counters.
A planeswalker card has a number printed in the lower right corner; this is its starting loyalty, and it comes into play with that many loyalty counters.

The planeswalker's abilities each have a positive or negative loyalty cost; this is how many counters must be added (if positive) or removed (if negative) to play that ability.
Abilities with negative loyalty costs may only be played if there are enough loyalty counters.

Although they are not creatures, planeswalkers may be affected by damage.
Whenever damage is dealt to a planeswalker, remove that many loyalty counters from it.
A planeswalker with no loyalty counters, either through use of its abilities or through damage, is put into its owner's graveyard.

There are two ways to deal damage to a planeswalker.
If a player uses any spell or ability that would deal damage to a planeswalker.

Additionally, if a player attacks an opponent who controls a planeswalker, the player may declare any or all of the attacking creatures to be attacking the planeswalker instead.

Types of cards