i've been trying to find these on the internet, but i can't. i have fond memories of reading through them (i learned magic by reading the ice age rulebook). does anyone know where i can find them on the internet?
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Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Having trouble posting them. I just found the forum's 75000 character limit. I apologize for the multiple posts; there is no way around it.
4th Edition Part 1
With the creation of Magic: The Gathering^{TM}, Wizards of the Coast introduced
an entirely new game genre. Combining the fascination of trading cards with the
excitement of fantasy games, Magic draws its players into a universe of
infinite possibilities. Prepare to meet the challenges you will encounter in
the strategic world of trading card games.
In Magic, you play a powerful wizard battling for control of a sphere of
Dominia. Drawing from your deck of illustrated cards, you combat other wizards
by summoning creatures and casting spells. By trading cards with other players,
you can create a stronger deck to defeat your opponents. And the more you play
and trade, the more Dominia's ever-changing adventures will intrigue you. In
Magic: The Gathering, you'll never play the same game twice!
[Wizards ] Wizards of the Coast Inc. / P.O. Box 707 [GG Garfield Games]
[of the Coast] Renton, WA 98057-0707 / Customer Service: (206) 624-0933
--0
MAGIC the Gathering
A Fantasy Trading Card
Game by Richard Garfield
[DECKMASTER]
P.O. Box 707, Renton WA 98057-0707
--1
[Table of Contents]
--2
LEARNING THE RULES
Like most games, _Magic: The Gathering_^{tm} is easier to learn from another
player than from a stuffy old rulebook. That's not always possible, though, so
we've tried to make this book as straightforward and easily understood as
possible. Don't let the size of the rulebook throw you; a lot of the stuff in
here can wait until you've played a few games.
To start, read through this book until you get to the end of the first sample
game. That should give you enough information to play a little bit and get used
to the game. Words in _bold_ type have special technical explanations and
definitions associated with them. These are outlined in the glossary in the
back of the rulebook, but you really don't need to worry about them until after
you've tried the game a few times.
Occasionally, you may run across a card that contradicts the rules. In such a
situation, the card always takes precedence.
OVERVIEW
_Magic: The Gathering_ is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield and
produced by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. There are more than three hundred
different cards in the core set of _Magic: The Gathering_, and new cards are
being designed every day.
In _Magic_, the players represent powerful wizards battling for control of a
plane of Dominia. The object of the game is to drive your opponent from the
plane,
--3
[Diagram: Opponent's Hand / Graveyard / Library / "tapped" / Opponent's
Territory // Your Territory / "untapped" / Your Hand / Graveyard / Library]
--4
leaving you in sole control. The cards in your deck represent the lands,
creatures, spells, and artifacts at your disposal. Players pit one deck against
another in an arcane duel, and the winner keeps one random card from the loser's
deck. Over time, your deck will develop strengths and weaknesses as it grows and
shrinks. Meanwhile, you will encounter new mysteries as the multiverse of
Dominia grows.
Players begin with 20 life each. If you're lucky, you may be able to get more
than that during the game; some spells can boost your life total to more than
20. You _win_ if your opponent's life total drops to 0 or less or if your
opponent can no longer draw a card. You can damage your opponent by casting
spells, attacking with your creatures, or using the effects of other cards in
play. When your opponent tries to damage you, you can defend yourself with other
spells, block or destroy your opponent's creatures, or even turn her own cards
against her.
GETTING STARTED
To play, each player needs a deck of at least forty cards. You can build your
deck from a selection of all the cards you own; you don't have to confine
yourself to cards from a particular starter deck. You'll also need some way of
keeping score. Some players use pencil and paper, while others prefer counters
or some other method. It's best to have a large, flat area for laying out your
cards; expect a game in progress to take up most of a standard card table.
--5
To begin the game, both players shuffle their decks. You must also give your
opponent the opportunity to shuffle or cut your deck. Once both decks have been
shuffled, they're put face down on the table. If you're playing for ante, then
each player turns over the top card and lays it face up. This card is the ante;
whoever wins the game will get to keep both cards. Set the ante cards aside,
because you're going to need plenty of room!
Each player then draws an opening hand of seven cards from his or her deck.
After you draw your initial hand, the rest of your deck becomes your draw pile,
or -library-. Near your library, leave some space for a _graveyard_, or discard
pile. Most of the cards you bring into play will go into your -territory-, or
your half of the playing surface. A few of your cards may go into your
opponent's territory instead. If you play cards in enemy territory, be sure to
retrieve them when the game is over. As some experienced players have discovered
many times, this is an easy way to lose a great card!
You are now ready to start a game, or -duel-. Determine randomly who goes first.
If you and your opponent duel again afterward, whoever loses this duel will get
to go first next time.
THE CARDS
There are two basic types of cards, spells and _lands_. Lands are easy to spot;
they say "land" in between the picture and the text box. Lands are the most
common kind of card in _Magic_, since they usually provide the -mana-, or
magical energy, for all your spells. You can lay
--6
out one land per turn, and you may use the land for mana as soon as it is in
play.
When you get mana from a land, you have to -tap- that land. Tapping a card means
turning it sideways. This indicates to you and to your opponent that the card's
effects have temporarily been used up. Don't worry; your cards will -untap- at
the beginning of your next turn. The symbol <tap> (tap) on a card indicates that
if you use that card to generate a particular effect, you have to tap it (turn
it sideways). The particular effect that card generates is listed right after
the <tap> symbol.
When you tap a land, you get a point of mana to add to your _mana pool_. You can
then use this mana to cast spells.
There are five different types of _basic lands_, each of which produces mana of
a different color. Correspondingly, there are five different _colors_ of spells,
each of which has a particular character (see "Color Chart" below). There are
also colorless and multicolored spells. We'll discuss spell color in greater
detail a little later.
COLOR CHART
_Black Magic:_ Black magic's power comes from the swamps and bogs; it
thrives on death and decay. Many wizards shun black magic's self-destructive
nature even as they long for its ruthlessness. Black's traditional foils are
green and white.
--7
[Diagram: Hurloon Minotaur card, pointing out Card Name, Casting Cost, Border,
Card Type, Card Text, Power/Toughness, and Artist's Name]
_Blue Magic:_ Blue magic flows from the islands and thrives on mental
energy. Other wizards fear the blue magicians' ability with artifice and
illusion, as well as their mastery of the elemental forces of air and water.
Blue's traditional foils are red and green.
<G> _Green Magic:_ Green magic gets its life from the lush fecundity of the
forest. Like nature itself, green magic can bring both soothing serenity and
thunderous destruction. Green's traditional foils are blue and black.
<R> _Red Magic:_ Red magic feeds on the vast energy boiling deep in the heart of
the mountains. Masters of
--8
earth and fire, red magicians specialize in the violence of chaos and combat.
Red's traditional foils are blue and white.
<W> _White Magic:_ White magic draws its vitality from the untouched, open
plains. Though white magicians focus on spells of healing and protection, they
also devote plenty of time to the chivalrous arts of war. White's traditional
foils are black and red.
THE CARDS, CONTINUED
Now that you've identified the land cards, the other ones must be spells. Notice
that none of them actually say "spell" on them; that's because there are six
different types of spells and it's important to know which type you're casting.
So spells are labeled as instants, interrupts, sorceries, enchantments,
artifacts, and summons. The differences between these various types of spells
will be discussed in detail later on. The main differences are as follows:
* -Instants- and -interrupts- (both of which are considered -fast effects-)
are one-time effects that go to the graveyard as soon as they are cast. You can
cast fast effects during your opponent's turn.
* -Sorceries- are also one-time effects that go to the graveyard as soon as
they are cast. You can cast sorceries only during your own turn.
* -Enchantments (including enchant worlds), artifacts,- and -summons-
(creatures) are permanent spells that remain in play when cast. Once a
_permanent_ is in play, you don't have to pay the casting cost again. The
--9
permanent will remain in play until it is destroyed. You can cast permanents
only during your turn.
Let's take a look as a sample spell card, the Hurloon Minotaur. We'll look
briefly at each of the labeled sections, then come back and look more closely at
some of the concepts involved.
-Card Name:- In this case, the card's name is Hurloon Minotaur. Don't count on
the "summon" line to give you the complete name of a creature.
-Casting Cost:- This is the cost, in mana, to cast the spell that the card
represents. The cost to bring the Hurloon Minotaur into play is <1RR>. This
stands for two red mana and one "extra" mana. The "extra" mana in a casting
cost can be paid for with mana of any color or with colorless mana. For a more
detailed explanation of casting cost, see "Basic Spellcasting" on p. 11.
-Border:- The border serves as an easy visual reminder of the color of the card.
A spell's color is technically defined as the color of the mana required to
cast it, not counting the "extra" mana. The Hurloon Minotaur requires red mana,
so it is a red spell when cast and a red creature while in play. The border
helps you remember its color.
-Card Type:- This card is a summon spell ("Summon Minotaur"), so it is a
permanent. Once cast, summon spells remain in play as creatures.
-Card Text:- This text box will contain extra information
--10
about the card, describing any special abilities it may have. The Hurloon
Minotaur doesn't have any special abilities, so the text box is filled in with
-flavor text-. Flavor text is written in italics and has nothing to do with
actual game play. We just put it in there to let you know more about the history
and multiverse of Dominia.
-Artist's Name:- In this case, the artist is Anson Maddocks.
-Power and Toughness:- Only creatures will have power and toughness ratings, so
any card with numbers in the lower right corner is a creature. The numbers
indicate the creature's -power,- or attack strength, and -toughness,- or defense
strength. The Hurloon Minotaur has a power of 2 and a toughness of 3. Power and
toughness are explained in detail under "The Care and Feeding of Creatures" on
p. 17.
BASIC SPELLCASTING
Let's take a closer look at the casting cost of a spell. The -casting cost- is
always written in _mana symbols_. For each of the five colors of mana, there is
a separate, distinct symbol; each time that symbol appears, it represents one
mana of the appropriate color. Numbers in gray circles represent "extra" mana,
which can be any color, any combination of colors, or colorless. To cast a
spell, you must pay its entire casting cost. A spell with a casting cost of
would require one blue mana to cast. A spell with a casting cost of <1U> would
require one blue mana plus one other mana. This other mana could also be blue,
or it could be black, green, colorless, or whatever.
--11
Okay, a quiz: what's the difference between a spell with a casting cost of <2G>
and one with a casting cost of <1GG>? If the only lands you have in play are one
forest, which provides green mana, and five mountains, which provide red mana,
the distinction is important. You could cast the first spell using two mountains
and your forest. You couldn't cast the second spell, because it requires two
green mana and you only have one forest.
Any card whose casting cost includes more than one color of mana is considered
multicolored; it is all the colors in its casting cost. For example, a card with and <R> in its casting cost is considered both black and red. Thus, a spell
that affects only black cards would affect it, and a spell that says it does not
affect red cards would not affectit. Either Circle of Protection: Black or
Circle of Protection: Red would prevent damage dealt by this card.
Occasionally you will see <X> in the casting cost of a spell. This represents a
variable amount of mana, which can be any color or colorless. For such _X
spells,_ X can be any number, even 0. The text of an X spell will explain what
the X represents. For example, the casting cost of the Disintegrate spell is
<XR>. The card text reads, in part, "deals X damage to any target creature or
player". So if you cast Disintegrate using four mana of any color plus one red
mana (the <R>), the spell will deal 4 damage to the target of your choice.
That brings us to another element of spellcasting: targeting. Some spells must
have a valid -target- or you
--12
can't cast them. For example, you can't cast an "Enchant Creature" spell without
a suitable creature on which to cast it. Likewise, you can't cast a spell that
"destroys target red permanent" unless it's aimed at a red permanent.
That's enough to cover basic spellcasting for now. We'll revisit some of the
more complex issues of spellcasting later on.
THE PHASES OF A TURN
In _Magic_, each player's turn is divided into seven smaller parts called
-phases-. You may not always have something to do during a given phase, but that
phase still happens. The phases take place in the following order:
* Untap
* Upkeep
* Draw
* Main (in any order):
* Play one land
* Make one _attack_
* Cast spells
* Discard
* End
* Heal creatures and clear temporary effects
Your turn starts with your untap phase. Any of your cards that were tapped
become untapped.
After untap comes upkeep. Some cards require you to perform a particular action
during this phase. Such
--13
cards will say what this action is and what the consequences are if you don't do
it. If you don't have such a card in play, then you don't have to do anything
during this phase.
Next, draw one card from the top of your library. If you don't have any cards
left to draw, you lose.
During your main phase, you may do any or all of the following, in any order:
* Put one land into play
* Make one attack (more on this later)
* Cast spells
You may cast sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, and creature summons before and
after the attack, but not during it. As long as you have enough mana to pay for
them, you can cast all the spells in your hand if you want to.
If your hand has more than seven cards in it at the end of your main phase, you
must discard back down to seven during the discard phase. You can't discard if
you have seven or fewer cards. Your graveyard, or discard pile, must always
remain face up.
Why do we call "end" a phase? Well, it isn't always obvious when you're done, so
you must tell your opponent you're ready to end your turn.
At the end of your turn, all surviving creatures heal from any damage they have
taken, and all "until end of turn" effects wear off. Notice that creatures on
both sides, not just yours, heal back to full capacity at the end of your turn.
--14
A SAMPLE GAME
So, are you confused yet? Relax -- you know more than you think you do. To
prove it, let's start a sample game and see if you can keep up. For now, we'll
use simplified examples; as you learn more about the rules, you'll see how
things can get a little more complex.
Brett and Keisha each have a deck of about sixty _Magic_ cards. Brett has a
stack of twenty stones to use as life, plus a few extra stones to mark any of
his cards that get played in Keisha's territory. Keisha prefers to keep her
score with pencil and paper. She also has a few sticky notes to put on any of
her cards that get played in Brett's territory.
First Keisha and Brett shuffle their own decks and cut each other's deck. They
set aside the top card of each deck as the ante and draw their first seven
cards. They flip a coin; Brett gets to go first. Whoever loses this duel will
go first next time.
Since this is Brett's very first turn, he won't have anything to do during his
untap and upkeep phases. He draws a card (draw phase) and lays down a mountain
(main phase). He has more land in his hand, but he can only lay out one land
per turn, so the mountain will have to do for now. He does have a spell he can
cast, though, so he taps the mountain and casts a Lightning Bolt. Lightning
Bolt is an instant that costs <R>, which Brett can get from the mountain. It
deals 3 damage to any target. There aren't any creatures in
--15
play yet, but he still has a valid target: Keisha! "Any target" includes
players, too. So Keisha's life total drops from 20 to 17, and she hasn't even
had a turn yet. Brett can't cast any more spells because his mountain is
tapped, so he tells Keisha he's done (end phase).
This is Keisha's first turn, so she doesn't have anything to do during untap or
upkeep. She draws a card (draw phase) and discovers that she doesn't have any
land in her hand. With no land, she doesn't have any mana to cast a spell, so
she can't do anything during her main phase either. She still has eight cards
in her hand, so she has to discard one of them. She does so (discard phase),
then tells Brett she's done (end phase).
Brett untaps his mountain (untap phase) and still has nothing to do during his
upkeep phase. He draws a card (draw phase) and lays down a forest (main phase).
He then taps the forest to cast Wild Growth, an "Enchant Land" card (also main
phase). Wild Growth must be cast on a particular land; whenever Brett gets mana
from that land, it will yield <G> in addition to its normal mana. Brett puts
the Wild Growth on his mountain. Now every time he gets mana from that
particular mountain, he will get <R> -and- <G>. He tells Keisha he's done (end
phase).
Keisha doesn't have any untapping or upkeeping to do, so she draws and gets a
land this time. She lays out the swamp, taps it, and uses the mana to cast a
Dark Ritual. Dark Ritual is an interrupt that costs to cast and puts <BBB>
in Keisha's mana pool. She uses this mana to cast Scathe Zombies, a summon
spell with a
--16
casting cost of <2B>. Once successfully cast, the Zombies card becomes a 2/2
creature. Keisha would really like for her Zombies to run over and stomp on
Brett -- she's still annoyed about the Lightning Bolt thing -- but they can't.
Why not? That'll be covered in the next section, "The Care and Feeding of
Creatures". So Keisha tells Brett she's done.
We'll get back to our sample game in a moment. But since we now have a creature
on the table, it's time to look a little more closely at creatures in general.
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF CREATURES
In _Magic_, creatures will usually be your main line of attack and defense.
Creatures come into play whenever a summon spell is successfully cast. Remember
that summon spells are _permanents_, so creature cards remain in play and you
don't have to pay their casting costs again. Creatures can participate in
combat -- attacking, defending, and dealing damage to the players and to each
other.
All creatures have two numbers separateed by a slash in the lower right corner
of the card. The first of these numbers indicates the creature's _power_, the
amount of damage this creature deals in combat. The second number represents
the creature's _toughness_, or the amount of damage the creature can absorb
before it dies. When something changes a creature's power and toughness to
specific numbers, such as 0/2, play as if these numbers appear on the card.
Other cards may legally change these numbers.
--17
Remember the Hurloon Minotaur on page 10? It has a power of 2 and a toughness
of 3. If the Minotaur engages in combat with another creature or damages your
opponent, it deals 2 damage. If it receives 3 damage, either in combat or from
some other _source_, it has taken -lethal damage-.
When a creature receives lethal damage, it goes to the _graveyard_. Any
non-lethal damage a creature receives is erased at the end of every turn. For
example, if the Minotaur receives 1 damage during an attack, it will heal back
up to full strength as soon as the turn ends.
Many spells in _Magic_ can prevent damage to your creatures. _Damage
prevention_ spells help your creatures stay alive to fight more battles for
you.
So, why couldn't Keisha attack with her Zombies in the sample game? A creature
can't attack during the turn it was summoned. _Magic_ players have a couple of
nicknames for this: _summoning sickness_ and "jet lag" are two of the most
popular. Anything that brings a creature into play on your side causes it to
have summoning sickness. Note that while you can't attack with a newly summoned
creature, you -can- use it to defend during your opponent's next turn.
CREATURE COMBAT
During your turn, you may make one attack, sending your creatures out to do
battle with your opponent. This attack, which is one of the optional actions
you can take during your main phase, can include any
--18
number of your creatures. Either player may use fast effects during the attack,
but no one can cast sorceries or lay out permanents during the attack.
Keep in mind that when you attack, you -always- attack your opponent. You can't
attack your opponent's creatures, and you can't attack yourself or your own
creatures.
The basic steps in the attack are as follows:
* Declare attackers
* Declare defenders
* Resolve damage
To begin the attack, you must announce that you are attacking. Next, tell your
opponent which of your creatures are attacking, and tap them. You must declare
and tap all of your attackers now; you can't add or subtract creatures later
on. Creatures that are already tapped can't attack.
Now your opponent declares which of her creatures are blocking yours. Only her
untapped creatures may block; tapped creatures are unavailable. Keep in mind
that your opponent gets to choose which creatures block which; you can't launch
an attack directly at any of your opponent's creatures. Each of your opponent's
defending creatures can be assigned to block one of your attacking creatures.
Multiple defenders can block one attacker, but one defender can't be assigned
to block multiple attackers. Defending doesn't tap a creature.
Once the blockers have been assigned, the creatures deal their damage. During
this damage resolution step,
--19
neither player may use any fast effects except _damage prevention_ effects and
interrupts. Attacking creatures deal their damage to the defenders blocking
them, while defenders deal their damage to the attackers they block. If more
than one defender blocks a single attacking creature, whoever controls the
attacking creature gets to split its damage as desired among the defenders
blocking it. Attacking creatures that aren't blocked deal their damage to the
defending player. Creatures that take lethal damage go to the graveyard.
Another quiz: Do you remember how much damage these creatures deal, or how you
can tell whether or not they've taken lethal damage? You can find the answer
under "The Care and Feeding of Creatures" on p.17. Creatures deal damage equal
to their power. If they take damage equal to or greater than their toughness,
they have taken lethal damage and go to the graveyard.
Those are the basics of creature combat. There are some other elements that can
make it a little trickier, but for now, let's check in with Brett and Keisha
and see how that game is going.
SAMPLE GAME, CONTINUED
Keisha has just cast Scathe Zombies, a 2/2 creature. It's Brett's turn.
Brett untaps his forest and draws. He lays down a mountain. He taps that
mountain and the mountain with Wild Growth on it. The first mountain gives him
<R>, while the second one gives him <RG>; the extra <G>
--20
comes from the Wild Growth enchantment. He uses this mana to cast a Hurloon
Minotaur. The Minotaur, as you may remember, has a casting cost of <1RR> and
becomes a 2/3 creature when cast. Brett can't attack with his Minotaur because
it has summoning sickness, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her swamp and draws. She lays down a forest and decides against
casting any spells for now. Her Zombies could attack if she wanted them to, but
she sees the Minotaur on Brett's side. Although the Minotaur can't attack yet,
it can still defend, and if it blocked the Zombies it would deal enough damage
to kill them. Keisha decides discretion is the better part of valor and tells
Brett she's done.
Brett untaps his mountains, draws a card, and then decides to attack. He
declares that he is attacking and taps the Minotaur. He'd love to kill Keisha's
Zombies, but he can't attack them directly; he has to attack Keisha and leave
it up to her to decide whether or not her Zombies will block. She looks at the
power and toughness of each of the creatures. Her Zombies are 2/2; the Minotaur
is 2/3. If she blocks the Minotaur with her Zombies, each of them will take 2
damage since each creature has a power of 2. The 2 damage would kill her
Zombies, which have a toughness of 2. The Minotaur, with a toughness of 3,
would survive.
Keisha doesn't think that's a very good deal, so she decides not to block with
her Zombies, hoping that she can find some way to take care of the Minotaur
--21
before too much longer. She tells Brett she's not blocking and takes 2 damage
from the Minotaur. Between that and the Lightning Bolt she took earlier, she is
now down to 15 life. His attack over, Brett taps his mountain -- the one
without the Wild Growth -- and summons Mons's Goblin Raiders, a 1/1 creature
with a casting cost of <R>. He could have summoned the Goblins before his
attack, but he was waiting to see what would happen. Brett has no further
spells to cast, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha doesn't have anything to untap, so she draws. She taps her forest and
her swamp and summons Grizzly Bears, a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of
<1G>. She then declares she's attacking. Though the Grizzly Bears can't attack
due to summoning sickness, Keisha still has her Zombies, which she taps. Brett
decides to block them with his Goblins. It would be really great if he could
block with his Minotaur, but it's still tapped from last turn's attack, and
tapped creatures can't block.
The Zombies and Goblins are now in combat. The Zombies (2/2) deal 2 damage to
the Goblins. At the same time, the Goblins (1/1) deal 1 damage to the Zombies.
The Zombies live, but the Goblins die and are put into Brett's graveyard. Even
though the Zombies did more damage to the Goblins than necessary to kill them,
the "extra" 1 damage does -not- go through to damage Brett; unless the card
specifically says otherwise, only unblocked creatures get to deal their damage
to the defending player. Keisha tells Brett
--22
she's done. At the end of her turn, the damage to the Zombies is healed.
Brett untaps his mountain and his Minotaur and draws a card. He taps his
mountain again to summon another Mons's Goblin Raiders. Brett then lays out a
swamp, taps it, and casts Unholy Strength, an "Enchant Creature" spell that
givs a creature +2/+1. It has a casting cost of . Brett casts the Unholy
Strength on his Goblins, making them considerably less wimpy. With the +2/+1
added to the Goblins' original 1/1, the Goblins are now 3/2.
Next, Brett declares his attack and taps his Minotaur as an attacker. The
Goblins can't join in the attack (you guessed it -- summoning sickness).
Keisha's Zombies are tapped from her last attack, so she can't use them to
defend. If she wanted, she could defend with the Bears, but they are 2/2 and
the Minotaur is 2/3. In combat the Bears would die and the Minotaur would
survive. She's still not willing to make that trade, so she chooses not to
block. She takes 2 more damage and is now down to 13 life. Brett has no spells
to cast after the attack, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her forest, her swamp, and her Zombies and draws a card. She lays
out another forest and taps it. Then she taps her swamp. She uses the mana to
summon another Grizzly Bears (a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of <1G>). She
then declares her attack and taps her Zombies. Her latest Bears, of course,
can't attack this turn because they were just summoned. Her first Bears could
attack, but she chooses to attack only
--23
with the Zombies. Brett decides to block the Zombies with his Goblins. The
Zombies are 2/2, and the Goblins with Unholy Strength are 3/2, so Brett expects
both creatures will die.
But wait! Keisha has a fast effect to play before the damage resolution step.
She taps her last forest and casts Giant Growth, an instant with a casting cost
of <G>. Giant Growth gives a creature +3/+3 until the end of the turn. Keisha
casts it on her Zombies, making them suddenly 5/5! They deal 5 damage to the
Goblins, who can only absorb 2. The Goblins deal 3 damage, but the Zombies can
handle 5. Thus the Goblins go to Brett's graveyard but the Zombies survive. The
Unholy Strength enchantment that was on the Goblins has to go to the graveyard
too; it was destroyed along with the Goblins. Again, the "extra" damage doesn't
carry over to Brett; the Goblins just get extra squashed. Keisha tells Brett
she's done. The damage to the Zombies is healed, and the +3/+3 from the Giant
Growth wears off.
Brett untaps his mountain and swamp and draws a card. He then taps his forest,
the mountain with Wild Growth, and the swamp. He uses this mana to cast a Giant
Spider, a 2/4 creature with a casting cost of <3G>. He then declares his attack
and taps the Minotaur as the attacker. Keisha decides that this time she's
going to block the Minotaur with both of her Bears -- yes, she can do this. The
Bears are each 2/2, so each of them will deal 2 damage to the Minotaur, for a
total of 4. The Minotaur is 2/3, so it gets to deal 2 damage before it dies. As
the attacking player, Brett gets to decide how
--24
this damage is distributed among the Bears. He could deal 1 damage to each of
them, but then they would both survive the attack. So he decides to distribute
both points of damage to the Bears on the left. The Minotaur and the Bears on
the left go to their respective graveyards, while the Bears on the right
survive. After a few pithy comments about people ganging up on a guy, Brett
tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her forests and her swamp and draws a card. She lays out a
mountain and declares her attack. She taps her remaining Bears and her Zombies
as attackers. Brett has only one creature on his side: the Spider. He can only
block one of Keisha's attackers with it, since a defender can't block more than
one attacker. He chooses to block the Zombies with his Spider. The Zombies
(2/2) deal 2 damage to the Spider. The Spider (2/4) deals 2 damage to the
Zombies. The 2 damage is enough to send the Zombies to the graveyard, but the
Spider survives. Meanwhile, the Bears go through unblocked and deal their 2
damage to Brett. Brett is now down to 18 life.
After her attack, Keisha taps her mountain and casts a Lightning Bolt on the
Spider! Lightning Bolt is an instant with a casting cost of <R>; it deals 3
damage to any target. By itself, the Bolt wouldn't have been enough to kill the
Spider. But the Spider has already taken 2 damage from the Zombies this turn,
and the damage from the Bolt makes a total of 5. Since the Spider has a
toughness of 4, it dies and goes to Brett's graveyard.
--25
Keisha really wishes she had a Raise Dead, a sorcery with a casting cost of . Raise Dead would allow Keisha to take her Zombies back out of her
graveyard and put it into her hand. Maybe she'll draw one next turn. Keisha
tells Brett that she's done, and he replies that he certainly hopes so.
Well, that battle is really starting to heat up. Before we continue it, though,
it's time to revisit some of those basic rules in a little more depth.
ADVANCED SPELLCASTING
You already know the basics of how to cast a spell. Now let's look a little
more closely at spells, starting with properties of certain _permanents_.
Permanents, as we said earlier, are spells that stay in play once cast; you
don't have to pay the casting cost again to keep them in play. Enchantments,
summons (creatures), and artifacts are all permanent spells. Land is also
considered a permanent, although it isn't a spell.
Some permanents have -activation costs-, which are costs required to generate
special effects those permanents can provide. Activation costs are usually
written in the following format: [cost]: [effect]. Only a permanent's
_controller_ can pay its activation cost and generate its special effect. The
controller of a permanent is usually the person who cast it, although some
spells allow you to "steal" your opponent's permanents and become their
controller. If you take control of an opponent's card during the course of a
game, always return it to its owner at the end of game unless the card you used
--26
to gain control specifically states that you become the owner of the controlled
card. If the controlled card is put into the graveyard during play, bury it in
its owner's graveyard.
Paying the activation cost of a permanent is always optional; you don't have to
use a card's special ability unless you want to. Unless the card specifies
otherwise, you can use a special effect any time you can use an instant, such
as during your opponent's turn. Some special abilities specify that they are
played "as interrupts"; this means you can play them whenever you could play an
interrupt. Don't worry too much about this distinction just yet; the difference
won't be important until later, when we start worrying about timing. Even
though these effects are played like instants or interrupts, it's important to
remember that they are -not- really instants, interrupts, or any other kind of
spell, so things that affect instants, interrupts, or spells won't work on
them.
Suppose you have a creature card that says "<BB,Tap>: Jumps up and down until
end of turn.". You can pay two black mana and tap the card, and then the
creature will jump up and down until the end of the turn.
Okay, another quiz: can you make it jump up and down during your opponent's
turn? For your answer, remember that you can use a special effect whenever you
can use an instant. Instants can be played during either player's turn.
--27
These special abilities, along with instants and interrupts, are collectively
known as -fast effects-. There are some pretty complex timing issues involved
with fast effects, but we'll wait for a discussion of those until after you've
played a couple of games.
Next, let's take a closer look at the six different types of spells.
Instants, interrupts, and sorceries are -temporary- spells that go to the
graveyard as soon as they are cast. Sometimes their effects last only until the
end of the turn, especially for instants. Other times, the effects of such
spells may be permanent; these effects last until the end of the game. For
example, Thoughtlace is a blue interrupt that permanently changes the color of
another card in play to blue. In contrast, the Giant Growth spell that Keisha
cast is an instant. It gives a creature +3/+3, but this bonus wears off at the
end of the turn.
Some interrupts can _counter_ a spell as it is being cast. If a spell is
countered, it goes to the graveyard with no effect. The caster of the countered
spell still has to pay the casting cost. Like instants, interrupts can be
played during your opponent's turn.
Sorceries can only be cast during the main phase of your turn, and even then
you can't cast them during an attack. Sorceries are powerful spells that can
raise the dead, destroy lands and creatures, and wreak general havoc.
--28
Remember, spells that require a _target_ can't be cast if there is no valid
target in play. See "Basic Spellcasting" on p. 11 if you don't remember what
a target is.
Creatures, artifacts, and enchantments are brought into play by permanent
spells. Permanent spells can only be cast during the main phase of your turn,
and even then not during an attack. Once you have successfully cast a permanent
spell, the card remains in play to represent whatever the spell brought into
being. A permanent in play is no longer considered a spell, but rather an
artifact, enchantment, or creature.
Permanents remain in play until they are killed, destroyed, or disenchanted or
until the game ends. You can't just choose to get rid of a permanent once you
have created it, even if it starts to do you more harm than good. Remember that
land cards are also considered permanents, although they are never spells.
A word to the wise: be sure to read your permanents carefully before putting
them into play! Some permanents have special abilities that affect only your
opponent, but some of them will affect you too. Be sure you're not hurting
yourself worse than your opponent when you put a permanent into play.
Now let's look at each of the types of permanents in greater detail.
CREATURES
Summon spells bring creatures into play. We've already covered quite a bit
about creatures, but we've still got to talk about a few more details.
--29
As you've already learned, summoning sickness prevents a creature from
attacking during the turn it is summoned. If a creature has a special ability
that includes the <Tap> symbol in its activation cost, that ability can't be
used during the turn the creature is summoned, either. In fact, you can't use
it until the creature is on your side at the very beginning of your turn --
your next upkeep. If an ability's activation cost doesn't have the <Tap> symbol
in it, you can use that special ability right away.
If a creature has a special ability that doesn't require an activation cost at
all, then that ability is always "on", even when the creature is tapped.
All summon spells say "Summon <creature type>" between the picture and the text
box. This is because a few spells affect all creatures of a given type. For
example, if you cast a spell that had some effect on all bugs in play, it would
affect all cards that said "Summon Bug".
Some creatures say "Summon Wall". _Walls_ are special creatures that lack the
ability to attack. Many walls have a power of 0, while others can actually deal
damage. Even if a wall can deal damage, it can only be used to block an
attacking creature. For all other purposes a wall is a normal creature, so it
can be enchanted, killed, and so on just like other creatures.
_Legends_ are considered creatures except that there may be only one legend of
the same name in play at a time. If a second legend of the same name is brought
into
--30
play, it's immediately buried. If more than one legend of the same name is
brought into play at the same time, all of them are buried.
ARTIFACTS
Artifacts are magical devices that have certain effects on the game. Unlike
other types of spells, artifacts are colorless; they can be cast with any color
of mana, or with colorless mana. Some artifacts have a continuous effect that
is always "on" whenever the artifact is untapped and in play. Other artifacts
require you to pay an activation cost to trigger their effects. If an artifact
effect doesn't have an activation cost listed, it's continuous. Unlike
creatures, artifacts can be used during the same turn they come into play.
Some artifacts, however, are also creatures. These say "artifact creature" as
their spell type. Artifact craetures must follow the same rules as other
creatures, so an artifact creature can't attack during the same turn it is
brought into play. However, artifact creatures aren't summon spells; they're
artifact spells.
Tapping a non-creature artifact always turns it "off", even if the artifact's
ability doesn't have a <Tap> in its activation cost. Tapping an artifact
creature doesn't necessarily turn it "off", since artifact creatures follow the
creature rules. A tapped artifact creature can still use a special ability as
long as it doesn't have a <Tap> in its activation cost.
--31
ENCHANTMENTS
_Magic_ includes many kinds of enchantments. Some of them target a particular
type of permanent already in play, so you can play them on creatures,
artifacts, lands, or even other enchantments. It's pretty obvious which of
these are which: they say "Enchant Land", "Enchant Creature", and so on. These
enchantments are considered -targetted-; you can't cast them if there is no
valid target in play.
Other enchantments just say "Enchantment" as their spell type. These are
-global- enchantments. They always go into play in your territory; you can't
play them "on" your opponent. Global enchantments don't require a target.
Unlike many other cards, enchantments never tap. Even if an enchantment is on a
tapped creature, it's always "on".
-Enchant world- cards are treated like enchantments, except that only one
enchant world may be in play at a time. If one enchant world is brought into
play while another is already in play, the one already in play is buried.
Well, now that you know nearly all there is to know about the different types
of spells, it's time to revisit creatures one last time.
CREATURE SPECIAL ABILITIES
Many creatures have one of the following special abilities listed as the first
thing in the text box of the crea-
--32
ture card. Some creatures will have more than one special ability, although
most have only one.
-Regeneration-: Some creatures have the ability to regenerate, usually with an
activation cost. If such a creature takes enough damage to send it to the
graveyard, you can pay the activation cost for its regeneration ability and
prevent it from dying. Keep in mind that this ability doesn't allow
regenerating creatures to come back from the dead; if you don't pay for the
regeneration, the creature goes to the graveyard and stays there like any other
creature. (Though you can't use most fast effects during the damage resolution
step, you -can- use _damage prevention_ abilities, including regeneration. For
more information, see "damage prevention" in the glossary.)
For example, Drudge Skeletons is a black 1/1 creature with the ability "B:
Regenerate.". If your Skeletons take lethal damage, no matter how much, you can
save them from going to the graveyard if you pay B. If they are killed again
the same turn, you may spend another B to regenerate them again. If you don't
pay this cost, they go to the graveyard and stay dead.
When a creature is regenerated, it returns to life tapped and fully healed. All
of the creature's enchantments remain. Creatures killed while they are tapped
can still be regenerated. But if a creature gets hit with a card that says it
_buries_ or _sacrifices_ the creature, the creature can't regenerate and goes
directly to the graveyard. You can't regenerate a creature that is _removed
--33
from the game_ either; such a creature must be set aside and returned to its
owner only when the game is over.
If a creature regenerates during combat but before the damage resolution step,
then it does't deal or receive any damage.
-First Strike-: During the attack, a creature with first strike deals all its
damage before receiving any. If it deals enough damage to destroy the opposing
creature, it doesn't take any damage since the other creature dies before
getting a chance to strike. For example, if a White Knight (2/2, first strike)
blocked a normal 4/1 creature, the 4/1 creature would take 2 damage and die
before it was able to deal its 4 damage to the Knight. First strike isn't a
guarantee of survival, though; if the Knight tried to block a Giant Spider
(2/4), the Knight would still deal its 2 damage first, but that wouldn't be
enough to kill the Spider. The Spider would then get to deal its 2 points to
the Knight and the Knight would die.
If two creatures with first strike oppose each other, they deal their damage
simultaneously but before anybody else. Giving a creature that already has
first strike an extra first strike enchantment doesn't make it any faster.
-Trample-: In the sample game, we said that any "extra" damage beyond what is
needed to kill a blocking creature doesn't carry through to damage the
defending player. We also said that only unblocked creatures can ever damage an
opponent. Trampling creatures get around both these restrictions.
--34
If an attacking creature has trample ability, it can roll right over defending
craetures and deliver any unabsorbed damage to the defending player. For
example, if your opponent's Scryb Sprites (1/1) blocked your War Mammoth (3/3,
trample), the Sprites would die and the "extra" 2 damage would carry through
and hit your opponent. This damage is called -trample damage-.
When you're resolving damage from multiple craetures, trample damage is always
assigned last. This may not make much sense to you now, but it'll be important
later.
-Flying-: Only creatures with flying can block other creatures with flying. If
you attack your opponent with a creature that can fly, and none of her
creatures can fly, your creature gets through unblocked no matter how many
nasty creatures she has. Even better, any untapped flier you have can still
block her non-fliers when it's their turn to attack.
-Landwalk-: Some creatures have a special stealth ability that is commonly
called landwalk, although the cards don't actually say "landwalk". Instead,
they say "swampwalk", "forestwalk", "islandwalk", or the like. Creatures with
a particular landwalk can't be blocked if the opponent has a land of that type
in play.
For example, Shanodin Dryads are 1/1 forestwalking creatures. If you have
Dryads in play, your opponent has a forest in play, and you decide to attack
with your Dryads, your opponent can't block them. Even if your
--35
opponent has Dryads or other forestwalkers in play, they can't block your
Dryads either.
-Banding-: Creatures with the ability "banding" may choose to join forces with
other creatures during an attack or defense.
You can form a band of attacking creatures out of any number of creatures that
have banding; you can even include one creature that doesn't have banding. You
must declare which creatures you want to band when you declare your attack;
attacking bands can't form or disband after your opponent declares defense.
When your banded group of creatures attacks, your opponent's creatures have to
block this band as one or let it through as one. If a defending creature blocks
any of the banded creatures, then it blocks them all. Any damage this defending
creature deals gets distributed among the creatures in your attacking band as
you desire. Banding doesn't allow creatures in a band to "share" other special
abilities.
Did you catch all that? Here's a quiz to find out: You have a Benalish Hero
(1/1, banding), a Mesa Pegasus (1/1, flying, banding), and a War Mammoth (3/3,
trample). You want to attack with these three creatures. Can you band them? For
your answer, read the first sentence in the above paragraph. You can form an
attacking band out of any number of banders plus up to one non-bander. So the
Hero, Pegasus, and Mammoth can band to attack.
Quiz, part two: Can a creature without flying block this band? For your answer,
remember that banding doesn't allow creatures to "share" other special
abilities. The Pegasus still flies, but the Hero and the Mammoth can't. Also,
if one of them is blocked, then the whole band is blocked. So a non-flier could
block the Hero or the Mammoth and thereby block this band.
Quiz, part three: Would the band trample? No, since banding creatures don't
"share" special abilities. The Mammoth, however, would still trample.
Quiz, part four: If your opponent blocks the band with a 2/2 creature, how much
trample damage gets through? Now's the time to dig out that sentence about
trampling, the one that didn't make sense earlier. Trample damage is always
assigned last. So if the Hero/Pegasus/Mammoth band gets blocked by a 2/2
creature, the damage from the Hero and the Pegasus kills the defending creature
and all 3 points of the Mammoth's trample damage carry over to your opponent.
Quiz, part five: if that 2/2 creature blocks your band as described above, how
many of your creatures die? The answer is up to you; since you're the band's
controller, you get to assign the damage among all the creatures in the band.
You probably want to assign both points of damage to the Mammoth; that way, all
of your creatures survive.
Quiz, part six: If your opponent blocks the band with a 4/4 creature instead,
how many of your creatures die? Again, the answer is up to you. Most likely,
you'll want to assign all 4 points to the Hero, keeping the
--37
Pegasus and Mammoth alive. Yes, you can do that; when we say you can distribute
the damage however you like, we really do mean however you like, so long as all
the damage ends up hitting one or more of the creatures in your band.
Banding works a little differently when you're defending. In the sample game,
Keisha blocked Brett's Minotaur with two Bears. Brett then got to decide how
the Minotaur's damage would be distributed between the Bears. If one of the
Bears had had banding, however, Keisha would have gotten to distribute the
damage.
If even one creature in a defending group has banding, then the controller of
the group gets to decide how the attacker's damage gets distributed. For
example, you can block one really big attacker with four creatures. If even one
of your defenders has banding, you get to decide how the attacking creature's
damage gets assigned. Remember, though, that only creatures that could legally
block the attacking creature on their own can band together to block the
attacker.
This damage-sharing ability only applies to damage taken in combat. Other
damage, like that from Lightning Bolts, still only hits the creature it
targets.
-Protection-: Creatures with "protection from" a particular _color_ are mostly
invisible to cards of that color. For an example, we'll use the color blue, but
protection works the same way if the creature has protection from any other
color.
--38
A creature with protection from -blue- has the following abilities:
* It can't be blocked by -blue- creatures.
* Any damage it takes from a -blue- _source_ is reduced to 0.
* No -blue- spells or effects can specifically target it. Any -blue- spells
or effects that don't target that creature in particular can still affect it,
but if they deal any damage, that damage is reduced to 0.
* No -blue- enchantments can be played on the creature. Any -blue-
enchantments already on the creature are destoyed when it gets protection from
-blue-.
-"Inflatable" Creatures-: Some creatures have an activation cost that lets you
increase their power and/or toughness. For example, the Frozen Shade (0/1) has
the following special ability: ": +1/+1 until end of turn.". This means that
for every you spend, the Shade gets +1/+1, but this bonus wears off at the
end of the turn. You can spend as much black mana as you like to increase the
Shade's power and toughness each turn. Some players call these creatures
"inflatable" because you can pump them up. This ability can be used even when
the creature is tapped.
-Rampage-: After defense is chosen but before damage is assigned, an attacking
creature with "Rampage: *" gets +*/+* until the end of the turn for each
creature beyond the first assigned to block it. The * varies but is defined on
the rampaging creature's card.
-A Final Note-: Some enchantments and instants in _Magic_ can convey one of
these creature special abilities
--39
to a creature that doesn't naturally have it. If you've got a creature with
that kind of enchantment on it, just pretend like the text for that special
ability appears in the text box of the creature card -- at least until the
enchantment is removed.
You're well on your way to becoming a master wizard now! Let's take a more
detailed look at the turn sequence, and then we'll see how Brett and Keisha are
getting along.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
We outlined the phases of a turn earlier; now it's time to examine each of them
a little more closely.
-Untap-: At the beginning of your turn, all of your cards untap simultaneously.
You may not "forget" to untap any of your cards. Neither you nor your opponent
may use spells or fast effects during untap.
-Upkeep-: Cards that require action during your upkeep phase tell you
specifically what you need to do. Any player may use fast effects during
upkeep.
-Draw-: Draw the top card from your library. If you have no more cards left in
your library, you lose the duel. Either player may use fast effects during
draw.
-Main-: During your main phase, you can, in any order:
* Play one land
* Launch one attack
* Play any number of spells
The main phase is the only time you can cast sorceries or any of the permanent
spells: artifacts, creatures, or
--40
enchantments. You may not cast any of these spells during your attack. Any
player may use fast effects during the main phase.
-Discard-: If you have more than seven cards in your hand, you must discard
down to seven. You may not discard if you have seven or fewer cards in your
hand. Any player may use fast effects during discard.
-End-: You tell your opponent you're done. Your opponent may respond to this
declaration with fast effects, to which you can respond with fast effects of
your own. All of these fast effects happen during your turn.
-Heal creatures and clear temporary effects-: All surviving creatures -- both
yours and your opponent's -- heal back up to full strength. Effects that last
"until end of turn" wear off. This phase is instantaneous, so neither player
can cast fast effects.
Now let's get back to Brett and Keisha.
SAMPLE GAME, CONTINUED
Brett has no creatures left; Keisha has one Grizzly Bears (2/2). It is Brett's
turn.
Brett untaps his mountain, his forest, and his swamp and draws a card. He lays
down another mountain and taps it. He then taps the swamp and the mountain with
Wild Growth and uses the mana to summon a Dragon Whelp, a 2/3 creature with a
casting cost of <2RR>. The Dragon Whelp has the following special abilities
listed: "Flying. <R>: +1/+1 until end of turn. If you spend more than <RRR> in
this way during one
--41
turn, destroy Dragon Whelp at end of turn.". So Brett has an inflatable flier.
Next, Brett taps his forest to cast Wooden Sphere, an artifact with a casting
cost of <1>. Using Wooden Sphere, Brett can pay <1> and gain 1 life each time
he or Keisha successfully casts a given spell. Brett has no more spells to
cast, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps and draws. She lays down another swamp, then taps both swamps and
uses the mana to cast Deathgrip. Deathgrip is a global enchantment with a
casting cost of <BB>; its ability reads, in part, "<BB>: Counter target green
spell.". So as long as Keisha has the black mana to spend, she'll be able to
counter Brett's green spells. Keisha's not going to let Brett use his Wooden
Sphere if she can possibly avoid it!
First, though, Keisha's going to cast a green spell of her own. She taps both
forests and her mountain and casts Wanderlust. Wanderlust is an "Enchant
Creature" that costs <2G>. It deals 1 damage to the target creature's
controller during his or her upkeep phase. This is one of those nasty creature
enchantments, so she plays it on Brett's creature, the Dragon Whelp. In
response to Keisha's spell, Brett taps his last mountain to activate his
Wooden Sphere. He gains 1 life, which puts him back up to 19. Keisha has no
more spells to cast. She could attack with her Grizzly Bears, but Brett's
Dragon Whelp would make short work of them. So she tells Brett she's done.
Brett untaps. During his upkeep phase, he takes 1 damage from the Wanderlust
spell. Ouch! Brett is at 18 life.
--42
He draws a card, then looks at Keisha's territory. He wants to cast a green
spell, but he's worried about that Deathgrip enchantment. Since Keisha doesn't
have any black mana she can use to pay the activation cost, Brett can cast a
green spell safely for now. He taps a forest and summons Shanodin Dryads, a 1/1
creature with a casting cost of <G>. The Dryads, as we mentioned earlier, have
forestwalk. Brett then taps his swamp to activated his Wooden Sphere and gain 1
life. He's back up to 19.
Next, Brett declares his attack and taps his Dragon Whelp. The only creature
Keisha has on her side is the Bears, and they couldn't block the Whelp if they
wanted to, because the Whelp flies and they don't. So the Whelp will get
through and deal its damage. Before it actually deals its damage, though, Brett
taps two mountains to "pump up" the Whelp to 4/3. He has one more mountain, but
that one has a Wild Growth enchantment on it and would give him an extra green
mana that he can't use. This would be bad, since unspent mana damages its
controller; see "mana pool" in the glossary for more on -mana burn-. The Whelp
deals 4 damage to Keisha, bringing her down to 9 life. Brett has nothing more
to do, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps. She's got a plan for her defense, but that Dragon Whelp is going
to be trouble!
TIME TO PLAY
Now you know enough to take your cards and play a few trial games of _Magic_.
Don't worry if you don't remember every single detail; within a week this stuff
--43
will all seem pretty basic. Take your time and consult this rulebook when you
get stuck. After you've played a couple of games, come back to this book and
read the final sections.
Good luck!
TIMING
Usually, figuring out what happens first in _Magic_ is pretty easy. Sometimes,
though, both players want to use contradictory effects at the same time; you
may have seen this happen in your trial games. _Magic_ has timing rules that
should cover most of these situations. These timing rules are a little
difficult to understand if you haven't played at least a couple of games,
though, so go ahead and try a few if you haven't done so already.
Generally, if both players want to do something at the same time, the player
whose turn it is gets to go first. Every time you take an action, you -must-
give your opponent the opportunity to respond with fast effects. Although we
don't specifically mention this "response" step in the examples in this
rulebook, don't take that to mean that it's okay to skip it. Most of the time,
your opponent won't respond to every single action you take, but you've got to
give her the opportunity. If you proceed to your next action without passing,
you have to "back up"" if your opponent requests it.
To further complicate matters, you can respond to your opponent's response with
fast effects of your own. Then she can respond to your response to her
response,
--44
and so on until you're both done or you both run out of mana. But how do you
figure out what happens in the end?
RESOLVING EXISTING EFFECTS
Before you get too excited about resolving all kinds of fast responses, you
need to resolve existing effects. This includes the continuous effects of
permanents in play -- the ones that are always "on" and have no activation cost
-- and the results of previous effects that have already been resolved. That
way, you'll know what kind of "initial state" you're starting with when it
comes time to resolve the fast stuff. Normally, this isn't a problem -- but
what happens if you cast an enchantment that changes one of your opponent's
lands into an island, and on the next turn your opponent casts an enchantment
on the land to turn it into a mountain, and then on the next turn you cast
another enchantment on the land to turn it back into an island? None of these
enchantments were countered or removed, so they're all sitting there on top of
the land. Obviously, the land can't be both an island and a mountain at the
same time!
Whenever you have multiple existing effects in play, apply them in the order
that they occurred. So your first enchantment would change the land into an
island. The next turn, when your opponent casts her enchantment, the land would
turn into a mountain. Later, when you cast your second enchantment, it would
turn into an island again. Even though the first two enchantments end up being
irrelevant, they
--45
remain on the land. After all, there are ways to turn your opponent's
enchantments against her, and you wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to do
this to her, would you?
RESOLVING FAST EFFECTS
Now that we've got existing effects out of the way, here comes the fun part:
resolving all those fast effects. First, let's talk about interrupts.
Interrupts always happen "faster-than-instantly" and are the only type of
effect that can truly _counter_ another effect, though not all of them do.
Interrupts are resolved immediately after they are cast, unless they themselves
are interrupted. If one interrupt interrupts another interrupt, the -second-
interrupt is resolved first; that way, it can truly interrupt the first one. If
both players attempt to interrupt the same spell or effect -- yes, you can
interrupt your own spells -- then any interrupts cast by the controller of the
original spell or effect are resolved first.
Got that? Now let's look at other fast effects.
You can cast non-interrupt fast effects in response to any action, including
other non-interrupt fast effects. The only exception is that you can't cast a
non-interrupt fast effect in response to an interrupt; the interrupt is by
definition faster. A "batch" of non-interrupt fast effects -- responses to
responses to responses -- is resolved last to first. This rule is often stated
as "last in, first out", abbreviated LIFO. The single exception
--46
to the LIFO rule for non-interrupt fast effects is effects that deal damage;
damage is always resolved last.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when resolving fast effects:
* Don't resolve damage or decide whether or not a creature is dead until all
fast effects have been resolved. Premature burial is a very messy situation.
* Remember that destroying the _source_ of an effect doesn't prevent the
effect itself from happening. Once a grenade has been lobbed, it does no good
to shoot the creature that threw it. The only way to actually counter an effect
is with an interrupt.
* Removing or altering the _target_ of an effect, on the other hand, can
sometimes prevent the effect. If the target of an effect disappears or becomes
invalid before the effect is resolved, that effect fizzles; you can't choose a
different target once the effect is cast.
An example would probably be pretty welcome about now. Let's say that you have
Grizzly Bears (2/2) in play, and you want to attack with them. Your opponent
has a lot of creatures to block with, but none of them fly. So you cast Jump, a
blue instant that grants flying until end of turn, on the Bears. Your opponent
responds to the Jump with a Red Elemental Blast (REB), a red interrupt that
destroys any blue spell being cast. You respond to the REB with a Blue
Elemental Blast (BEB), a blue interrupt that destroys any red spell being cast.
Your opponent responds by casting Terror, a black instant that _buries_ any
creature,
--47
on the Bears. You respond to the Terror by casting Unsummon, a blue instant
that allows you to take a creature back into your hand, on those poor,
beleaguered Bears. You'd both love to go on like this forever, but for now
you're out of mana. It's time to resolve this stuff.
As interrupts, the REB and BEB resolve first. The REB tries to interrupt and
destroy the Jump, but the BEB interrupts and destroys the REB before it can do
its job. This means the Jump sticks around and prepares to get those Bears
airborne. It has to wait its turn, however, as we resolve the other fast
effects under LIFO.
The last in was the Unsummon spell, so it resolves first and returns the Bears
to your hand. Next comes the Terror. Since the Bears aren't around anymore, the
spell fizzles and goes to the graveyard. Your opponent can't choose a new
target for it; the target must be announced at the time the spell is case.
Finally, the Jump is cast at the bears. Without a target, this spell also
fizzles.
Remember that if any of these fast effects had dealt any damage, those effects
would be resolved last in the chain, regardless of when they were cast.
ANOTHER SAMPLE GAME
Our first sample game was pretty simple. Let's try a more complicated one that
incorporates all the rules you've learned. We've cut down quite a bit on the
explanations, so take this opportunity to quiz yourself and see if you can
follow what's going on. If you need
--48
to, look through the earlier sections of the rulebook. Andre and Sara shuffle
their decks and cut each other's deck. Each turns over the top card as ante;
the ante is set aside. Both draw seven cards, and they play scissors-paper-
stone to see who goes first.
Andre gets to go first, so he draws a card and lays out a plains. He taps the
plains to cast a Benalish Hero, a 1/1 creature with banding that has a casting
cost of <W>. He tells Sara he's done.
Sara draws a card and lays out a forest. She taps the forest to cast Scryb
Sprites, a 1/1 creature with flying that has a casting cost of <G>. She tells
Andre she's done.
Andre untaps, draws, and lays out another plains. He taps both plains to cast a
White Knight, a 2/2 creature with first strike and protection from black. The
White Knight has a casting cost of <WW>. Andre decides not to attack with his
Hero, since Sara's Sprites could block and kill it. He tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps, draws, and lays out a swamp. She taps the swamp and her forest to
cast Drudge Skeletons, a 1/1 creature with a casting cost of <1B>. They have a
special ability that reads ": Regenerate.". Sara then announces that she's
attacking with the Sprites. Andre has no creatures with flying, so he can't
block the Sprites. The Sprites deal their 1 damage, bringing Andre down to 19
life. Sara tells Andre she's don.
Andre untaps,draws, and lays out a mountain. He taps the mountain and both
plains to cast a Gray Ogre, a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of <2R>. He then
--49
announces that he's attacking with the Benalish Hero and the White Knight. He
could band them together if he wanted, since the Hero has banding, but he
decides not to. Why?
Well, let's see what happens. Since the Knight has protection from black, the
Skeletons can't block it. They could block the Hero, but they would take lethal
damage. Since Sara has no black mana available to regenerate them, they would
be destroyed. Because of this, Sara decides to block neither creature. If Andre
had banded the Hero and the Knight, the Skeleton could have blocked the entire
band and Andre's creatures wouldn't have dealt any damage to Sara, although her
Skeletons would have been killed. As it is, though, Sara takes 3 damage,
bringing her down to 17 life. Andre tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps, draws, and lays out a swamp. She taps the swamp to cast Dark
Ritual, a black interrupt that provides three black mana. She uses one black
mana to cast another Dark Ritual, bringing her up to five black mana in her
_mana pool_. She then taps her forest to add one green mana and casts a War
Mammoth, a 3/3 trampling creature with a casting cost of <3G>, bringing her
down to two black mana in her mana pool. She uses this last mana to cast
Howling Mine, an artifact that requires both players to draw an extra card
during their draw phases. Finally, Sara attacks with the Sprites again, and
Andre still can't block them. He takes 1 damage and goes down to 18 life. Sara
tells Andre she's done.
--50
Andre untaps, draws two cards thanks to the Howling Mine, and lays out another
mountain. He taps the mountain to cast Mons's Goblin Raiders, a 1/1 creature
with a casting cost of <R>. He then taps both plains to cast a Samite Healer, a
1/1 creature with a casting cost of <1W>. The Healer has the following special
ability: "<Tap>: Prevent 1 damage to any player or creature.". Next, Andre
declares his attack and taps the Knight and the Hero as his attackers. This
time, he announces that they are attacking as a band.
Sara decides to block with her Skeletons, because the band could kill her
Mammoth. This block is legal, since the Knight can't "share" its protection
from black with the Hero. The Skeletons take 3 damage and deal 1 damage to the
band. Andre directs this damage to the Knight, where the Knight's protection
from black reduces it to 0. The Skeletons are destroyed, but Sara still has a
swamp left untapped. She taps it now to regenerate the Skeletons; the Skeletons
return to life tapped and fully healed.
Andre isn't done yet, though. He taps his remaining mountain to cast a
Lightning Bolt, an instant with a casting cost of <R>. The Lightning Bolt deals
3 damage to any target, and Andre aims it at Sara's Skeletons. The unlucky
Skeletons are destroyed yet again. Sara could still regenerate them if she had
the mana, but all her swamps are tapped, so the Skeletons go to the graveyard.
Andre tells Sara he's done, and Sara tells Andre he's going to regret being so
mean to her Skeletons.
--51
Sara untaps, draws two cards, and lays out another forest. She taps both
forests and both swamps to cast a Giant Spider, a 2/4 creature with a casting
cost of <3G>. The Spider's special ability is that it can block creatures that
fly, although it doesn't fly itself. Sara announcesshe's attacking with the
Sprites and the Mammoth. Andre still can't block the Sprites, but he decides to
block the Mammoth with the Goblins.
Since the Mammoth tramples, it will deal just enough damage to the Goblins to
destroy them: 1 point. The additional 2 damage carries over to Andre. Added to
the point from the Sprites, that makes 3 damage for Andre. In future turns he
can use his Healer to prevent a point of this, but the Healer wasn't on Andre's
side at the beginning of his last turn, so it still has summoning sickness. The
Goblins go to the graveyard and Andre takes 3 damage, bringing him down to 15
life. Sara smiles as she tells Andre she's done. Andre begins to think he does
indeed regret wasting that Lightning Bolt on her Skeletons last turn.
Andre untaps, draws two cards, and lays out an island. He then taps both of
his mountains and one of his plains, bringing out the Hurloon Minotaur, a 2/3
creature with a casting cost of <1RR>. Next he casts an Ornithopter, a 0/2
artifact creature with flying that has a casting cost of <0>.
Andre takes a look at all the cards in play. Right now, his Ogre, Knight, Hero,
and Healer are eligible to attack. There's no point in attacking with the
Healer, though; its special ability is far more valuable than the
--52
1 damage it can deal, and if he attacks with the Healer now he won't be able to
tap it again later to use its ability. Sara's Spider would be all too happy to
take on any one of his other creatures, since it could kill any of them, and
none of them could kill it. Even if he bands the Hero with one of the 2/2
creatures, the result would be the same; the Spider would live, and one of his
creatures would have to die. He could use his Healer to prevent a point of the
Spider's damage, but he'd rather save the Healer for Sara's attack. So Andre
decides not to attack and tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps and draws two cards. She lays out a mountain and decides not to
cast any spells for now. Instead, she announces she's attacking with the
Sprites, the Spider, and the Mammoth. Andre looks at his choices for defense.
If the Hero, the Knight, and the Ogre all block the Spider, they can kill it.
Since the Hero has banding, Andre can split the Spider's damage between the
Ogre and the Knight so all three will survive. If the Minotaur blocks the
Mammoth, the Minotaur will die, but he can use his Healer to prevent 1 damage
to the Minotaur and keep it alive. Finally, the Ornithopter can block the
Sprites without any trouble. Andre declares this blocking scheme, hoping to
kill the Spider and take no damage, all without losing any of his creatures.
Sara has ideas of her own, however, She taps a forest and casts Giant Growth on
her Spider, giving it +3/+3 for a total of 5/7; Giant Growth is an instant with
a casting cost of <G>. Next, she taps her mountain to cast a Lightning Bolt (an
instant with a casting cost of <R>) on
--53
the Ornithopter, dealing 3 damage to it. Andre responds to Sara's fast effects
by tapping his island and casting Unsummon (an instant with a casting cost of ) to return his Ornithopter to his hand.
Neither player wants to use any more fast effects, so the fast effects are
resolved using the "last in, first out" (LIFO) rule - except for the Lightning
Bolt, which deals damage and therefore gets resolved last. First, the Unsummon
brings the Ornithopter back into Andre's hand. Then, the Giant Growth
temporarily turns the Giant Spider into a Giant Giant Spider, so it will deal 5
damage and can absorb 7. Finally the Lightning Bolt goes off, but since the
Ornithopter isn't there anymore, it fizzles and goes into Sara's graveyard.
Now that the fast effects are resolved, it's time for the damage resolution
step. Andre distributes all 5 points of the Spider's damage onto the Ogre,
which is destroyed and goes to his graveyard. The Mammoth deals 3 damage to the
Minotaur, but Andre taps the Healer and prevents 1 damage. (The Healer's
special ability is one of those _damage prevention_ effects, the only non-
interrupt fast effects you can use during the damage resolution step. See the
glossary for details.) The Sprites deal no damage. Although Andre took the
Ornithopter back into his hand, it left combat -after- it had been declared as
a blocker. In such a situation, the attacking creature is still blocked. The
Sprites can't deal their damage to Andre, and they don't have a defending
creature to battle anymore, so they don't deal any damage at all. Andre takes
no damage, and Sara annouces she's done.
--54
Andre untaps and draws. He'd better get together a decent defense pretty soon,
or he'll really be in danger!
STRATEGY
For the most part, we encourage new _Magic_ players to work out their own
preferred strategies. But here are a few tips to get you started.
-Tune your deck.- Generally, the most effective decks contain only two or three
of the possible five colors, plus a few artifacts. If your deck uses more than
three colors, you're more likely to run into situations where you can't cast
any of the spells in your hand because you don't have the right kind of mana to
do so. Single-color decks, on the other hand, are easy prey for single-color
attacks and defenses, such as spells that destroy all of a certain kind of land
or prevent damage from a certain color of creature. To avoid both these
pitfalls, whittle your playing deck down to two or three colors. If you like,
you can trade some of the cards you aren't using to other players and get cards
of "your" colors in return.
-Balance your mana.- To start, your deck should be about one-third land and
two-thirds spells. As you play, watch to see if you always have more land than
spells to cast with it, more spells than mana to spend, or just the right
amount of each. That'll tell you whether to take out some land, add more, or
leave well enough alone.
-Look at your card combinations.- Some cards seem made for each other. Others,
sometimes even two cards of the same color, seem to work at cross-purposes.
Study
--55
how your cards interact and look for ways to improve their teamwork.
-Be prepared.- Expect your opponent to have cards you've never seen before,
particularly while you're fairly new to the game. Don't assume there aren't any
cards that do such-and-such just because you've never seen one. When your
opponent does play a card you've never seen, take the time to read it
thoroughly before going on with the duel.
HOUSE RULES
If you don't like one of the rules of the game, or if you find yourself in a
situation that the rules don't seem to cover, you're welcome to come up with a
"house rule". We don't mind; in fact, we encourage it. You should, however,
know what the official rules are just in case you end up playing at somebody
else's house. Some common house rules are:
* You don't have to play for ante if you don't want to.
* In an ante game, the winner must offer to trade the loser's card back to
him.
* "No-Land Mulligan". If you get no land in your initial seven-card draw,
you can reshuffle and draw again.
* "All-Land Mulligan". Same as the above, only with no spells.
* Everyone must follow certain rules of deck construction. These are too
varied to mention any specific rules, but the general idea is to give newbies a
change against "card lords" with five of every card.
--56
* The winner of each duel must contribute $1 to the pizza fund - great for a
big group on a Friday night!
House rules can cover every aspect of the game, and then some. Just be sure
that new players in your house are informed of the house rules before any duels
get started.
GLOSSARY AND NOTES
This glossary doesn't just contain definitions; it also includes extra
information about many of the terms. A lot of this information was a little too
technical or complex to be included in the basic rules explanation, but it's
stuff you should eventually know.
_Attack_
The attack is one possible action you can take during your main phase. You only
get one attack per turn, and you attack your opponent with your creatures. No
permanent spells or sorceries may be cast during the attack. The complete
attack sequence is as follows:
1. Announce your attack. This is your opponent's last chance to use pre-
attack effects.
2. Declare and tap your attacking creatures.
3. Either player may use fast effects.
4. Your opponent declares blocking. Blocking doesn't make creatures tap, but
tapped creatures can't block.
5. Either player may use fast effects. If a fast effet removes or taps a
blocking creature at this point, the attacking creature is still blocked. A
tapped blocker deals no damage but still receives damage from the attacker it
blocked.
--57
6. Assign damage. Players may use -only- interrupts or damage prevention
fast effects; no other kinds of fast effects are allowed. See also -damage
prevention-.
7. Creatures that take lethal damage and aren't regenerated go to the
graveyard. Any effects that happen when a creature goes to the graveyard are
triggered.
_Bury_
A card that is buried must be sent to the graveyard without possibility of
regeneration.
_Basic land_
See -land-.
_Casting cost_
When a card refers to the casting cost of another spell, it means the total
number of mana points needed to cast the spell, regardless of color. For the
purposes of these cards, a spell costing <2GG> has a casting cost of 4. If the
spell in question is an X spell not currently being cst, then X=0. Token
creatures (see also -token-) have a casting cost of 0.
_Color_
The color of a card is determined by the type of mana you need to cast it, as
specified in the upper right corner of the card. If a card takes more than one
color of mana to cast, it is considered all those colors at once. If the card
requires no particular color of mana or no mana at all to cast, as with
artifacts and land, then the card is colorless. The colors in _Magic_ are
black, blue, green, red, and white; colorless doesn't count as a color.
--58
Any damage generated by a particular source is the same color as that source;
see also -source of damage-.
_Controller_
Usually, the controller of a spell is the player who cast that spell.
Sometimes, though, a spell or effect can give you temporary control over your
opponent's card. If you take control of a card this way, you just take control
of the card itself; you don't get control of any enchantments already on the
card. If a card says "you" on it, it means the card's controller; if it meant
the card's owner, it would specify "owner". A card under temporary control of
another player is returned to its original owner or its owner's graveyard when
it leaves play, when the controlling enchantment or effect is removed, or when
the game is over, whichever comes first.
_Counter_ (verb)
Countering a spell or effect means preventing that spell or effect from being
cast. Countered spells go to the graveyard; the caster of the countered spell
still has to pay the casting cost. A countered spell isn't successfully cast.
_Counter_ (noun)
A counter is a marker used as a reminder on certain cards. Counters can be
coins, poker chips, beads, pieces of paper, or whatever you like. See also
-token-.
_Damage prevention_
Any time one of your creatures is damaged, you get the chance to prevent the
damage, redirect it, or regenerate the creature. You can't do any of these
things, however, until it's time to resolve all the damage in a
--59
chain of fast effects; see also "Resolving Fast Effects" on p. 46. Damage
prevention effects target the damage itself, not the source of the damage; see
also -target-. During the damage resolution step, only damage prevention and
interrupt effects may be used.
_Graveyard_
Your graveyard is your discard pile, which is always face up. Cards in the
graveyard are -cards-; they aren't artifacts, creatures, or whatever they
would be if they were in play. Any card that breaks this rule will specifically
say so. Cards in the graveyard have no "memory" of how they got there or what
enchantments or counters were on them when they were destroyed. They can't be
healed or regenerated. See also -damage prevention-, -bury-, and -remove from
game-. You may look through your opponent's graveyard at any time.
_Land_
Land is a type of card that typically generates mana. You may play one and only
one land card during your turn. Land is colorless and is a permanent, though
it's never a spell. When a spell turns a land of any type into a -basic land-
- a forest, island, mountain, plains, or swamp - it loses its original
abilities and takes on all the properties of that land, including the type of
mana generated.
_Mana pool_
When you generate mana (whether by tapping lands or in some other way), the
mana goes briefly into your mana pool, an imaginary holding place for mana. You
can then use the mana in your mana pool to cast a spell. Your mana pool empties
at the end of
--60
each phase and at the beginning and end of an attack; if any unused mana
remains in your mana pool when it empties, you take 1 damage for each point of
mana you didn't use. This kind of damage is called -mana burn-. Mana burn is a
colorless source of damage.
_Permanents_
All artifacts, lands, creatures, and enchantments in play are permanents, as
are any tokens representing permanents (see also -token-). Spells that will
become permanents aren't considered permanents until successfully cast.
_Play (in play)_
Cards that have been played in your territory or in your opponent's territory
are considered in play. Cards in either player's hand, library, or graveyard
aren't in play; neither are cards that have been removed from the game. Cards
that aren't in play aren't valid targets for targeted effects unless the
targeting spell specifically says so; see also -target-.
_Power_
A creature's power is the amount of damage it deals in combat. It is the first
of the two numbers written in the lower right of the creature card. If a spell
or effect reduces a creature's power to 0 or less, that creature deals no
damage.
_Remove from game_
When a spell or effect removes a card from the game, that card isn't put into
the graveyard. Instead, it should be set aside until the game is over. Spells
and
--61
effects that affect the graveyard can't affect this card. See also -token-.
_Sacrifice_
Certain cards require you to -sacrifice- a card in play, usually as part of the
cost of generating a particular effect. You can only sacrifice a card you
control, and you can't sacrifice a card that is already on its way to the
graveyard. Sacrificed cards get buried immediately; they can't regenerate.
Since a sacrifice is a cost, it happens instantaneously as soon as you declare
it; it can't be prevented by other effects. Even if the card requiring the
sacrifice is countered or destroyed, the sacrifice still takes place. A
sacrifice isn't a targeted effect; see also -target-.
_Source of damage_
The source of a given amount of damage is the card that dealt that damage,
whether or not another card helped it do so. For example, if you put a
Firebreathing enchantment on your Grizzly Bears to increase their power, all
the damage those Bears deal is considered damage from the Bears, even though
the Firebreathing helped. So although Bears are green and Firebreathing is red,
all the Bears' damage is damage from a green source. See also -color-.
_Summoning sickness_
A creature of yours may not attack or use any special ability whose activation
cost includes the <tap> symbol unless the card or token representing the
creature was in play under your control at the beginning of your turn (see also
-token-). This inability is usually called summoning sickness. Creatures
suffering from sum-
--62
moning sickness can be used to defend.
_Target_
A target is the specific card, token, or player at which a spell is aimed. Some
spells require one or more targets; you can't cast such spells if there are no
valid targets in play. Usually, the type of target required will be obvious; an
"Enchant Land" card must be played on a land, for example. Spells that affect a
whole class of cards, such as all creatures in play, don't require a target and
can therefore be cast at any time. If a spell targets a permanent, that spell
can't be cast until the spell for the permanent is successfully cast; see also
-permanent-. If a spell is aimed at a single target and that target is removed
from play or becomes invalid before the spell resolves, that spell fizzles and
has no effect. If a spell is aimed at multiple targets and one or more of those
targets are removed or become invalid before the spell resolves, that spell
still affects any of its original targets that are still valid and in play.
Creature combat - attacking and blocking - isn't considered a targeted effect.
_Token_
Occasionally, a card will ask you to use a -token- to represent a permanent,
such as a creature. Use anything you like for the token; coins, poker chips,
playing cards, or whatever, though it's best to find something with a clearly
defined top and bottom so it's easy to tell if it's tapped. These tokens are
permanents, and are affected by spells and effects that affect the appropriate
type of permanent, but they aren't considered cards. If any effect takes a
token out of play, remove it from the
--63
game. You can't send a token to the graveyard, return it to your hand, or
otherwise maintain it out of play.
_Toughness_
A creature's toughness is the amount of damage it can take before it is
destroyed. If a creature's toughness is reduced to 0 or less, the creature
dies. Damage prevention effects can only prevent damage; they can't prevent
effects that reduce a creature's basic toughness. See also -damage prevention-.
_Winning_
If, at the end of any phase of either player's turn or at the beginning or end
of an attack, your opponent's life total is 0 or less, you win. If a player's
life total reaches 0 or less at any other time, that player has until the end
of the phase to get back to 1 or more life. If both players are reduced to 0 or
less life during the same phase, the duel is a draw and both players keep their
ante. If you can't draw a card when required to do so, you lose the duel
immediately.
MISCELLANEOUS
_Other Rules_
As the game of _Magic_ has developed, so have the rules. Earlier editions of
_Magic_ used slightly different sets of rules, and the wordings on the cards
have also changed over time as we've tried to make them as clear and easy to
understand as possible without substantially altering the game. This means that
before you start playing _Magic_ with someone new, you need to talk about which
--64
version of the rules you're going to use and how you're going to deal with any
peculiar side effects that may arise when you mix cards from different
releases.
In most cases, later editions of the rules have clarified the old rules rather
than changing them, so conflicts shouldn't come up too frequently. When they
do, we encourage you to talk things over with your opponent and decide for
yourselves how you want to resolve them. If you and your opponent can't agree
in the heat of battle, flip a coin to resolve the current situation and then
talk it out afterwards. Keep track of your decisions so you can use them again
if necessary.
If you think making the rules is strictly our job, we'll be happy to give you
the official line on any rules question. Just check out the next section for
ways to contact us.
_Getting Help_
If you have any questions or concerns about _Magic_, we're here to help you.
For quick rules questions, call (206) 624-0933 during normal business hours,
Pacific Time, and ask to speak to a customer service rep. If you don't want to
pay the long-distance charges, feel free to write us at Wizards of the Coast,
P.O. Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, attn: _Magic_.
Wizards of the Coast also provides electronic customer support. We have a
couple of e-mail lists, company reps on the Internet and many commercial
services, and more. For information on these services, send e-mail to
[EMAIL="-questions@wizards.com"]-questions@wizards.com[/EMAIL]- and we'll show you how to tap into our Net support.
--65
If you are in the United Kingdom, you can call our UK office regarding
questions or rules clarifications at 0345-125599 or write to [EMAIL="-uk@wizards.com"]-uk@wizards.com[/EMAIL]-
on the Internet. You can also send postal mail to Wizards of the Coast UK Ltd.,
P.O. Box 1562, Glasgow, G2 8BW, Scotland, attn: _Magic_.
In other European countries, you can call our Belgium office at +32-(0)3-272-
0511, fax us at +32-(0)3-272-2431, or write to [EMAIL="-belgium@wizards.com"]-belgium@wizards.com[/EMAIL]- on the
Internet. You can also send postal mail to Wizards of the Coast, Belgium, P.O.
Box 16, B-2140 Borgerhout 2, Belgium, attn: _Magic_ or send e-mail or postal
mail to our UK office.
_Other Cool Stuff_
To find out more about _Magic_ and other trading card games, check out -The
Duelist-, Wizards of the Coast's full-color magazine devoted to providing you
with official info on all of our _Deckmaster_ games. Ask for it wherever you
buy _Magic_.
For serious _Magic_ players, we've formed the -Duelist's Convocation-, the
official _Deckmaster_ tournament league. Membership allows you the opportunity
to gain ranking points through sanctioned _Deckmaster_ tournaments as well as a
subscription to -The Duelist- magazine and -Duelist Companion-. For more
information, write Wizards of the Coast, P.O. Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707,
attn: -Duelist's Convocation- or call (206) 276-6500 and ask for -Duelist's
Convocation-.
--66
[Index - not included, textfile searching is far superior]
--67
CREDITS
_Design:_ Richard Garfield with contributions from Charlie Cantino, Skaff
Elias, Don Felice, Tom Fontaine, Jim Lin, Joel Mick, Chris Page, Dave Pettey,
Barry "Bit" Reich, Bill Rose, and Elliott Segal
_Editing:_ Darla A. Willis
_Rules:_ This edition by Kathy Ice, James Ernest, Skaff Elias, Jim Lin, Dave
Pettey, and Beth Moursund
_Flavor Text:_ Peter D. Adkison, Len Case, Mike Davis, Skaff Elias, Tom
Fontaine, Lily Garfield, Richard Garfield, Dave Howell, Jim Lin, George Lowe,
Lisa Lowe, Joel Mick, Jesper Myrfors, Chris Page, Dave Pettey, Sean Prathur,
Beverly Marshall Saling, Lisa Stevens, and Elizabeth Zanger
_Project Coordination:_ Glenn Elliott and Darla A. Willis
_Art Direction:_ Jesper Myrfors and Sandra Everingham
_Graphic Design:_ Jesper Myrfors and Lisa Stevens
_Production, Typesetting, and Layout:_ Jeff Dunlap, Sandra Everingham, Daniel
Gelon, Dave Howell, Leonard Lynch, Anson Maddocks, Ken McGlothlen, Christopher
Rush, Emily Smith, and Tom W\"anerstrand
_Logo & Mana Symbols:_ Christopher Rush
_Printer Liaison:_ Luc Mertens
_Playtesters:_ Peter D. Adkison, Mike Albert, Mikhail Chkhenkeli, Steven E.
Conard, Lily "Snow White and the Eight Dwarves" Garfield, Jeff Goldman, James
E. Hays, Jr., Robin Herbert, Karen Hibbard, Dave Howell, Dave Juenemann, Howard
Kahlenberg, Ruthy Kantorovitz, Nets
--68
Katz, Anthony Kosky, Sarath Kumar, Ethan Lewis, George Lowe, Lisa Lowe, Rick
Marshall, Jesper Myrfors, Katherine K. Porter, Ron Richardson, Beverly Marshall
Saling, Lisa Stevens, and Jean Pierre Trias
_League Playtesting and Design:_ Charlie Cantino, Skaff Elias, Don Felice,
Howard Kahlenberg, Ethan Lewis, Joel Mick, Chris Page, Barry Reich, Bill Rose,
Elliot Segal, and Jean Pierre Trias
_Thanks_ to Dave Pettey for showing how nasty decks could get, to Charlie
Cantino for showing how bizarre they could get, and to Skaff Elias for stress-
testing -every- aspect of the game.
_Special thanks_ to all of the project team members, especially Sandra
Everingham and Victor K. Wertz, and to Jeff Dunlap, Tina Jenn, and Beverly
Marshall Saling for their dedicated support on this project.
_Very special thanks_ to all the people who asked the questions that showed us
where the rules weren't clear and to the rules gurus, Netreps, and customer
service folk who managed to answer their questions anyway.
_Very, very special thanks_ to Peter Adkison for recognizing good ideas while
having them himself, and for recognizing good people while being one himself.
--Our condolences to everyone who has been killed by an Ornithopter.--
-(C) 1995 by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. "Hurloon Minotaur"
and other illustrations may additionally be protected by separate copyrights.
Garfield Games, _Deckmaster_, _Magic: The Gathering_, the tap symbol (<tap>),
and the mana symbols (<W>, , , <G>, <R>) are trademarks of Wizards of the
Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast is a registered trademark of Wizards of the
Coast, Inc. U.S. and foreign patents pending.-
--69
[two page advertisement for The Magic Pocket Players' Guide]
--71
[Channel illustration]
Illus. Richard Thomas
[logos of Wizards of the Coast and Garfield Games]
--72
[fold-out back page with two pages of advertisement for The Duelist and a two-
page subscription form]
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
[Table of Contents: i, ii]
--ii
=Welcome to Magic: The Gathering!=
Object of the Game
Magic: The Gathering^{R}, or Magic, is a trading card game in which you and
your opponent are rival wizards _dueling for control of a magical plane_.
Reduce your opponent's score from 20 to 0 before he or she does the same to
you!
Summary of Play
Each player builds a deck of at least forty cards from his or her collection
and plays that deck against the opponent's.
Each player begins by shuffling his or her deck and drawing seven cards.
Playes alternate taking turns. Your turn is made up of a series of actions,
such as playing cards and attacking your opponent.
There are several types of cards you can play. Lands are the most basic,
providing the magical energy you need to play all other cards. Creature cards
represent creatures in play to fight for you, either by attacking your opponent
or by fighting off other creatures. Other cards represent spells you can cast
to hurt your opponent or help your creatures.
The basic strategy of Magic lies in choosing when to play your cards and
when to use your creatures to attack your opponent or protect yourself. More
complex strategies involve combining your cards to make them more powerful and
choosing which cards to use in your deck to make it most effective.
--1
Rulebook Contstruction
This rulebook is divided into four sections.
_Section I: Learning the Game_ is intended as a tutorial, to bring the new
player to the point where she can usually play without having to consult the
rulebook. The first half of this section teaches the basics of the game: how
creatures work, how to bring them into play, and how to fight with them. The
second half of this section expands the rules, addressing the other types of
spells, describing how less basic game mechanics work, and so on. Once a player
is familiar with Section I, she should be able to understand most common and
uncommon cards.
However, Section I often omits minor details of the rules it presents and
occasionally contradicts the normal rules in the interests of accustoming new
players to the game. _Section II: Expanding Your Knowledge_ details most of the
rules that are actually needed during play and corrects the omissions and
simplifications in Section I. This section is presented more for rules
reference than as a tutorial.
_Section III: Exploring the Rules_ describes some of the nooks and crannies
of the rules. Only the advanced player needs to know all of the rules in this
section.
In _Section IV: Game Support_, you'll find the contact information for
questions regarding rules, tournaments, and so on.
Following Section IV is a glossary of common terms. The first time any of
these terms appears in the text, it's printed in -red-.
--2
Section I: Learning the Game
The First Rule of Magic
Occasionally, a card contradicts the rules. In these cases, the card text
always takes precedence.
The Very Basics
Take a few moments to glance at the cards in your deck. You'll notice that
their backgrounds are white, blue, black, red, or green. These are the -colors-
of Magic, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Understanding
these characteristics can help you build more powerful decks as you become a
more advanced player. As a beginner, however, you'll find that the colors will
serve mostly to help you organize your -hand- and determine which cards you can
play at any given time.
Any card with a background of one of the five colors is a -spell-; the
remaining -colorless- cards are either -artifacts- (another type of spell) or
-lands-. Take a closer look at your cards and separate the spells from the
lands. (To determine which colorless cards are lands and which are artifacts,
read the -card type- printed just below the artwork.) Lands are important,
because they create the energy you need to play spells. The only spells you
should be concerned with right now are -summon spells-, which produce
-creatures-. You'll use creatures to -attack- your opponent, in an effort to
reduce her -life total- to 0 or less and therefore win. Creatures are easily
identified; each has a pair of numbers (written in an X/Y format) in the bottom
right corner of the card. A sample creature is shown on p. 5.
--3
Throughout a -duel-, you can -cast- summon spells that become creatures like
the Hurloon Minotaur. Once you have them in play, you can use creatures to
attack your opponent. If you launch enough successful attacks, you can drive
your opponent's life total to 0 or less and win the duel. Winning a Magic duel
often depends on the strategies you build with creatures like this Minotaur.
Of course, your opponent isn't going to just sit there while your creatures
attack. She's going to put her own creatures into play and use them to attack
you or to -block- your attackers. If she chooses to block, your -attacking
creatures- fight her -blocking creatures- instead of damaging her.
Putting creaturs into play is a little more complicated than just deciding
you want to. You have to pay for them with -mana-, which is typically produced
by lands. Not much can happen in the game if you don't have the mana to pay for
your creatures (or, later, other spells).
Mana
Just as there are five colors in Magic, there are five colors of mana, each
with its own -mana symbol-: white (<W>), blue (), black (), red (<R>),
and green (<G>). Mana can also be colorless, though colorless mana doesn't have
a symbol associated with it.
The -cost- of playing a creature is called its -casting cost-. This cost
includes one or more of the mana symbols and appears in the top right corner of
the card. Each time a colored mana symbol appears as part of a cost, it means
that you have to pay
--4
<text arranged around a small picture of a Hurloon Minotaur card>
-Card Name-: Each creature has a name. This creature is a Hurloon Minotaur.
-Card Type-: This description indicates the specific category of creature being
summoned by the spell. In this example, a Minotaur is being summoned.
-Text Box-: The abilities of the card are described here. The text box might
also have flavor text, printed in italics; flavor text simply provides
background on the card and doesn't impact play. The Hurloon Minotaur's text box
has only flavor text in it.
-Art-: The artwork depicts what the card represents.
-Casting Cost-: This is the cost associated with playing this creature.
-Card Background-: The colored background is a reminder that creatures are
spells. The Minotaur has a red background and is therefore a red creature.
-Power/Toughness-: This is a rating unique to creatures. It denotes numerically
how strong a creature is for attacking or defending. A creature's power
represents how effective it is at killing your opponent, and its toughness
represents how hard it is to kill it.
</text>
one mana of that color to satisfy the cost. Thus, a cost of "<RR>" can be paid
only with two red mana.
A casting cost may also include -generic mana-, which can be paid with any
type of mana, including colorless mana. Generic mana costs are shown as numbers
inside a gray circle. For example, in order to play a spell with a casting cost
of <2U>, you must pay one blue mana and two generic mana.
So what does this mean for the Hurloon Minotaur? The top right corner of the
card lists its casting cost as <1RR>, so you know you have to pay two red mana
and one generic mana in order to play it. Of course, you have to get mana from
somewhere, and lands are the usual source.
--5
Producing Mana from Lands
In _Magic_, there are five -basic land- types, each producing a different color
of mana. Plains make white (<W>), islands make blue (), swamps make black
(), mountains make red (<R>), and forests make green (<G>). Pull out a few
lands from your deck. Note that although a land's background doesn't match any
of the five colors, its -text box- is shaded to match the color of mana it
produces. The -ability- of a land is to produce mana, so it's considered a
-mana source-.
When you use a land to produce mana, you -tap- it, or turn it sideways; this
is signified by the tap symbol (<Tap>). A tapped card can't be used to do
anything that requires tapping it. Thus, a land can produce only one mana each
turn. At the beginning of your turn, -untap- all your cards in play (that is,
turn them back upright) so that you can use them again.
For example, each mountain you play allows you to generate one red mana each
turn. However, you can't store up mana for several turns by using your lands
every turn. When a land produces mana, that mana is added to your -mana pool-
and is stored there until you spend it. At the end of every turn, both players
lose any mana they haven't spent. You may play only one land each turn, so
building up your mana potential takes several turns.
The amount and type of mana available in your pool determines which spells
you can cast. To demonstrate, let's return to the Hurloon Minotaur, which has a
casting cost of <1RR>. Suppose that after three turns you've played three
lands: two forests (green mana) and one mountain (red mana). Even
--6
though you have three lands in play, you can't afford to cast the Minotaur
until you play another mountain.
Throughout the game, you continue to play lands, increasing your mana
potential. Remember, any type of mana can be used to pay generic mana costs;
the color associated with a land is important only when you have to pay mana of
a certain color. In other words, if your hand is full of green spells, playing
mountains can still help you play the more expensive ones even though mountains
produce red mana.
Here, Critter, Critter!
Now, pull a few creature cards out of your deck. They're easy to find because
each one has two numbers (a -power- and a -toughness- rating) in its bottom
right corner. Creatures have a variety of power and toughness ratings. These
numbers reflect a creature's effectiveness in -combat-. When a creature
attacks, it deals -combat damage- equal to its power, whether to your opponent
or to creatures that block it. A creature's toughness represents how much
-damage- is required to kill it. If one of your creatures takes an amount of
damage equal to or exceeding its toughness over the course of a turn, it's
taken -lethal damage- and is put into your -graveyard-, or discard pile.
_EXAMPLE: If you use the Hurloon Minotaur to attack your opponent, it attacks
with a power of 2. If she doesn't block the Minotaur, your opponent suffers 2
damage, which is deducted from her life total. If she blocks the attack with a
Benalish Hero, the attacker confronts the blocker with its power and vice
versa. Thus, the Minotaur deals 2 damage to the Hero, which exceeds the Hero's
toughness of 1, so the Hero dies. The
--7
1 damage dealt by the Hero isn't enough to kill the Minotaur, though, so the
Minotaur survives. Because the Minotaur was blocked, it didn't damage your
opponent at all, even though it dealt more damage to the Hero than was needed
to kill it._
Creatures tap when they attack, and tapped creatures can't block. Therefore,
committing a creature to an attack prevents you from blocking with it on your
opponent's next turn, when she can attack you. Remember, though, that all your
cards untap at the start of your turn, so you can attack with a creature
numerous turns in a row, or attack with it now and block with it later on in
the game.
The Flow of the Game
Before a duel begins, players randomly determine who goes first. Each player
starts the game with 20 life and -draws- a hand of seven cards from his or her
deck. The players then alternate taking turns, beginning with the "first"
player. During a turn, a player can do any or all of the following: play a
land, play creatures, and attack with creatures already in play. The following
outlines the basic turn structure:
Untap: At the beginning of every turn, untap any creatures or lands that were
tapped during the previous turn. Untapping a card makes it available for use.
Draw: Draw a card from your -library-.
Land: Play a land, if you have any in your hand.
Attack: You may attack with any or all of your creatures. (If you don't attack,
skip ahead to "Play Creatures".) You can attack only with your creatures, and
they can attack only
--8
your opponent. If you want to kill one of your opponent's creatures, you'll
have to attack and hope he blocks with it. Attacking with a creature taps it.
Defense: When attacked, your opponent may block with some, all, or none of his
creatures. Each creature can block only a single attacker, but more than one
creature can gang up to block the same attacker. Blocking doesn't tap
creatures, but tapped creatures can't block (so a creature that attacked
during your opponent's last turn can't block this turn).
Damage Dealing: Each attacking creature that wasn't blocked deals its power in
damage to your opponent. If this reduces his life total to 0 or less, you win.
A creature that's blocked deals its damage to whatever blocked it and vice
versa. If a creature has more than one blocker, you can distribute its damage
among them as you like. For example, if your Hurloon Minotaur (2/3) is blocked
by three Mons's Goblin Raiders (1/1), you can divide its 2 damage between two
of the Raiders, killing them both, but the three Raiders will kill the
Minotaur in return.
Play Creatures: You can play as many creatures as you can afford. Remember, you
have to pay a creature's casting cost to play it, which requires tapping your
lands for mana.
Discard: If you have more than seven cards in your hand at the end of your
turn, -discard- down to seven.
Game Setup
During a game, it's easy to build up quite a few cards in play. For this
reason, you'll want to find a dry, flat surface to use as a playing area.
You'll also need something to help you keep
--9
track of your life total, such as spare change or a pencil and paper.
Each player begins the game with a deck of at least forty cards, which
compose his or her library. Before play begins, each player shuffles his or her
deck and offers it to the opponent, who may shuffle and/or cut it. Next, one
player decides who will play first and who will draw first; whoever takes the
first turn of the game doesn't draw a card that turn. If you and your opponent
have just finished a game, the player who lost that game decides who plays
first; if the game was a -draw-, whoever decided who went first that game does
so again. If this is your first game in a series, determine randomly who
decides.
Now, play a few games to get a feel for what you've learned. The point of
these games is to become familiar with how lands and mana work and with the
basics of creature combat. Whether you win a game isn't very important. In your
first few games, if you draw a card that's not a basic land or a creature, set
it aside and draw another card. When you play a creature, pay attention only to
its power and toughness; for now, ignore its text box.
When you play these games you might want to leave the rulebook open to the
turn sequence above or to the tipsheet on the next two pages.
Expanding the Game
The first few games you just played were probably rather simple. During your
turn, you drew a card, played a land if you had any, attacked if you wanted to,
and played creatures if you
--10
had any. During your opponent's turn, you could do nothing but block. Creatures
themselves didn't do anything other than attack or block. These are the basic
moves of Magic.
In a normal game of Magic, you can assist your creatures in a battle by
playing spells that can make them bigger, help them evade other creatures, and
so on. Spells may also hinder or kill your opponent's creatures, and some
spells even let you affect your opponent directly.
The remainder of this section adds to the basics you've already learned. It
looks at other types of spells, more detailed turn and attack sequences, and
some basic creature abilities. Once you're comfortable with the contents of
this section, you should be able to play quite a few games of Magic without
having to refer to Section II.
Other Types of Spells
So far, you've only played spells that generated creatures: summon spells and
-artifact creature- spells. As you played your first few games, you probably
set aside spells of most of the other types. (If you haven't played yet, take a
moment to examine the spells in your deck.) Those other spells are divided into
two categories.
Spells in the first category remain in play when cast, Once in play, these
cards become -permanents-. In addition to the summon and artifact creature
spells you've already seen, artifact spells, -enchantment- spells, and lands
become permanents when played (see "More About Permanents", p. 14).
Spells in the second category don't become permanents when you play them,
but instead take effect once and are then
--11
<twopage spread><check> D O N ' T F O R G E T . . .</spread>
Life Total
----------
Each player starts the game with 20 life. If a creature damages you, deduct
the damage from your life total. If you drop to 0 life or less, you lose the
game.
Lands and Spells
----------------
Every card is either a land or a spell. The card type, listed below the art,
tells you what it is.
Mana
----
Every spell has a casting cost, which lists the amount and type of mana
needed to play the spell. Lands provide the mana to cast spells.
Creatures
---------
For now, the only spells you're playing with are those that become creatures
when cast. Creatures remain in play and fight for you until they're killed.
Power and Toughness
-------------------
Every creature has a power and toughness rating, which represents its
effectiveness in combat. These numbers are printed in the lower right corner
of the card and aid in identifying creature cards as such.
--12
Tap
---
Lands are tapped, or turned sideways, when they produce mana. Also,
creatures are tapped when they attack. All of your lands and creatures untap
at the start of your turn.
Attacking and Blocking
----------------------
Once during your turn, you can attack your opponent with some, all, or none
of your creatures. When your opponent attacks you, your untapped creatures
can block hers.
Damage
------
When a creature attacks, it deals damage equal to its power. If the creature
is blocked, it deals that damage to whatever blocks it; otherwise, it deals
the damage to your opponent.
Lethal Damage
-------------
If a creature suffers damage equal to or greater than its toughness during a
combat, it dies and is put into your graveyard, or discard pile.
--13
put into your graveyard. Each of these spells is identified on its card type
line as "Instant", "Interrupt", "-Sorcery-", or "Mana Source". Remember that
all spells, except artifacts, will have a background of one of the five colors.
More about Permanents
The four types of permanents are artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and
lands. A permanent can be of more than one type; artifact creature spells, for
exampl;e, become permanents that are both artifacts and creatures and that will
be affected by spells and abilities that affect either.
Once you've played a land or paid to cast a spell that becomes a permanent,
it remains in play until something specifically removes it. You don't have to
keep paying its casting cost to keep it around, but you also can't get rid of
it just because you want to. You've already seen that creatures leave play if
they sustain lethal damage; in addition, it's possible to -destroy- or -bury- a
permanent. Either sort of -effect- sends the permanent to its -owner's-
graveyard. (See "Regeneration", p. 19, for the difference between the two
effects.)
Most permanents have special abilities of some kind. These are generally
explained on the card, but some creature abilities are described in the
rulebook (see "Basic Creature Abilities", p. 20). Some abilities take effect as
soon as the permanent enters play and end only when the permanent leaves play;
such abilities are called -continuous abilities-.
Continuous abilities are always "on", even if the ability's effect is
working against you at the moment. Usually, the only way to stop a continuous
ability from taking effect is to
--14
remove the appropriate permanent from play. If an artifact becomes tapped,
however, its continuous abilities "shut off" until it untaps (unless it also
counts as a creature and/or land). Many abilities have an associated cost that
must be paid in order to use the ability. Such abilities are played when you
pay the appropriate cost. These abilities are typically written in a "cost:
ability" format and are said to have an -activation cost-.
An activation cost typically involves paying mana but may also require
tapping the card itself. When the card must be tapped to use a special ability,
the <tap> symbol appears. You can't use the abilities of an artifact that's
tapped unless it also counts as a creature and/or land.
Every permanent has a -controller-, who decides when to use its abilities,
when to attack or block with it, and so on. A permanent enters play under the
control of whoever played it. Other effects may change who controls it, in
which case it's moved to the -territory- of its new controller. Whenever card
text says "you" or "your" or speaks in the imperative, it's referring to the
card's controller.
Playing Spells and Abilities
Playing a spell or an ability of a permanent involves the following steps.
1. Review your hand and what you have in play and decide which spells or
abilities to play. This decision is based largely on what you can afford and
how many spells or abilities you think you'll want to use this turn. The
chosen card isn't considered part of your hand for purposes of the following
steps.
--15
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
@Savage_Dream_Lord: wow, that's pretty cool
the 4th edition didn't ahve an index, did it? i'm wondering if the "Infinite Loop" joke was in teh index of the 5th edition, then?
i look forward to brushing up on my old-skool rules. oh, the wonders of batches and lightning bolts ALWAYS resolving last in the batch!
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
----------------------------
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul "no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
I happen to have an old rulebook that starts at the beginning and appears to end around Ice Age if you're interested. Swords to Plowshares is the newest mentioned card I could identify in it.
@Savage_Dream_Lord: wow, that's pretty cool
the 4th edition didn't ahve an index, did it? i'm wondering if the "Infinite Loop" joke was in teh index of the 5th edition, then?
The 4th edition rulebook did have an index. Neither the 4th edition index nor the 5th edition index have an entry for "Infinite Loop".
I don't know when else I'd post this so here are a few of my collection of rulebooks.
ATTACHMENTS
Rulebooks
4th Index
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Collection:
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
I happen to have an old rulebook that starts at the beginning and appears to end around Ice Age if you're interested. Swords to Plowshares is the newest mentioned card I could identify in it.
I'm very interested in that rulebook!
Could you post it to the forum please?
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
4th Edition Part 1
With the creation of Magic: The Gathering^{TM}, Wizards of the Coast introduced
an entirely new game genre. Combining the fascination of trading cards with the
excitement of fantasy games, Magic draws its players into a universe of
infinite possibilities. Prepare to meet the challenges you will encounter in
the strategic world of trading card games.
In Magic, you play a powerful wizard battling for control of a sphere of
Dominia. Drawing from your deck of illustrated cards, you combat other wizards
by summoning creatures and casting spells. By trading cards with other players,
you can create a stronger deck to defeat your opponents. And the more you play
and trade, the more Dominia's ever-changing adventures will intrigue you. In
Magic: The Gathering, you'll never play the same game twice!
[Wizards ] Wizards of the Coast Inc. / P.O. Box 707 [GG Garfield Games]
[of the Coast] Renton, WA 98057-0707 / Customer Service: (206) 624-0933
--0
MAGIC the Gathering
A Fantasy Trading Card
Game by Richard Garfield
[DECKMASTER]
P.O. Box 707, Renton WA 98057-0707
--1
[Table of Contents]
--2
LEARNING THE RULES
Like most games, _Magic: The Gathering_^{tm} is easier to learn from another
player than from a stuffy old rulebook. That's not always possible, though, so
we've tried to make this book as straightforward and easily understood as
possible. Don't let the size of the rulebook throw you; a lot of the stuff in
here can wait until you've played a few games.
To start, read through this book until you get to the end of the first sample
game. That should give you enough information to play a little bit and get used
to the game. Words in _bold_ type have special technical explanations and
definitions associated with them. These are outlined in the glossary in the
back of the rulebook, but you really don't need to worry about them until after
you've tried the game a few times.
Occasionally, you may run across a card that contradicts the rules. In such a
situation, the card always takes precedence.
OVERVIEW
_Magic: The Gathering_ is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield and
produced by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. There are more than three hundred
different cards in the core set of _Magic: The Gathering_, and new cards are
being designed every day.
In _Magic_, the players represent powerful wizards battling for control of a
plane of Dominia. The object of the game is to drive your opponent from the
plane,
--3
[Diagram: Opponent's Hand / Graveyard / Library / "tapped" / Opponent's
Territory // Your Territory / "untapped" / Your Hand / Graveyard / Library]
--4
leaving you in sole control. The cards in your deck represent the lands,
creatures, spells, and artifacts at your disposal. Players pit one deck against
another in an arcane duel, and the winner keeps one random card from the loser's
deck. Over time, your deck will develop strengths and weaknesses as it grows and
shrinks. Meanwhile, you will encounter new mysteries as the multiverse of
Dominia grows.
Players begin with 20 life each. If you're lucky, you may be able to get more
than that during the game; some spells can boost your life total to more than
20. You _win_ if your opponent's life total drops to 0 or less or if your
opponent can no longer draw a card. You can damage your opponent by casting
spells, attacking with your creatures, or using the effects of other cards in
play. When your opponent tries to damage you, you can defend yourself with other
spells, block or destroy your opponent's creatures, or even turn her own cards
against her.
GETTING STARTED
To play, each player needs a deck of at least forty cards. You can build your
deck from a selection of all the cards you own; you don't have to confine
yourself to cards from a particular starter deck. You'll also need some way of
keeping score. Some players use pencil and paper, while others prefer counters
or some other method. It's best to have a large, flat area for laying out your
cards; expect a game in progress to take up most of a standard card table.
--5
To begin the game, both players shuffle their decks. You must also give your
opponent the opportunity to shuffle or cut your deck. Once both decks have been
shuffled, they're put face down on the table. If you're playing for ante, then
each player turns over the top card and lays it face up. This card is the ante;
whoever wins the game will get to keep both cards. Set the ante cards aside,
because you're going to need plenty of room!
Each player then draws an opening hand of seven cards from his or her deck.
After you draw your initial hand, the rest of your deck becomes your draw pile,
or -library-. Near your library, leave some space for a _graveyard_, or discard
pile. Most of the cards you bring into play will go into your -territory-, or
your half of the playing surface. A few of your cards may go into your
opponent's territory instead. If you play cards in enemy territory, be sure to
retrieve them when the game is over. As some experienced players have discovered
many times, this is an easy way to lose a great card!
You are now ready to start a game, or -duel-. Determine randomly who goes first.
If you and your opponent duel again afterward, whoever loses this duel will get
to go first next time.
THE CARDS
There are two basic types of cards, spells and _lands_. Lands are easy to spot;
they say "land" in between the picture and the text box. Lands are the most
common kind of card in _Magic_, since they usually provide the -mana-, or
magical energy, for all your spells. You can lay
--6
out one land per turn, and you may use the land for mana as soon as it is in
play.
When you get mana from a land, you have to -tap- that land. Tapping a card means
turning it sideways. This indicates to you and to your opponent that the card's
effects have temporarily been used up. Don't worry; your cards will -untap- at
the beginning of your next turn. The symbol <tap> (tap) on a card indicates that
if you use that card to generate a particular effect, you have to tap it (turn
it sideways). The particular effect that card generates is listed right after
the <tap> symbol.
When you tap a land, you get a point of mana to add to your _mana pool_. You can
then use this mana to cast spells.
There are five different types of _basic lands_, each of which produces mana of
a different color. Correspondingly, there are five different _colors_ of spells,
each of which has a particular character (see "Color Chart" below). There are
also colorless and multicolored spells. We'll discuss spell color in greater
detail a little later.
COLOR CHART
_Black Magic:_ Black magic's power comes from the swamps and bogs; it
thrives on death and decay. Many wizards shun black magic's self-destructive
nature even as they long for its ruthlessness. Black's traditional foils are
green and white.
--7
[Diagram: Hurloon Minotaur card, pointing out Card Name, Casting Cost, Border,
Card Type, Card Text, Power/Toughness, and Artist's Name]
_Blue Magic:_ Blue magic flows from the islands and thrives on mental
energy. Other wizards fear the blue magicians' ability with artifice and
illusion, as well as their mastery of the elemental forces of air and water.
Blue's traditional foils are red and green.
<G> _Green Magic:_ Green magic gets its life from the lush fecundity of the
forest. Like nature itself, green magic can bring both soothing serenity and
thunderous destruction. Green's traditional foils are blue and black.
<R> _Red Magic:_ Red magic feeds on the vast energy boiling deep in the heart of
the mountains. Masters of
--8
earth and fire, red magicians specialize in the violence of chaos and combat.
Red's traditional foils are blue and white.
<W> _White Magic:_ White magic draws its vitality from the untouched, open
plains. Though white magicians focus on spells of healing and protection, they
also devote plenty of time to the chivalrous arts of war. White's traditional
foils are black and red.
THE CARDS, CONTINUED
Now that you've identified the land cards, the other ones must be spells. Notice
that none of them actually say "spell" on them; that's because there are six
different types of spells and it's important to know which type you're casting.
So spells are labeled as instants, interrupts, sorceries, enchantments,
artifacts, and summons. The differences between these various types of spells
will be discussed in detail later on. The main differences are as follows:
* -Instants- and -interrupts- (both of which are considered -fast effects-)
are one-time effects that go to the graveyard as soon as they are cast. You can
cast fast effects during your opponent's turn.
* -Sorceries- are also one-time effects that go to the graveyard as soon as
they are cast. You can cast sorceries only during your own turn.
* -Enchantments (including enchant worlds), artifacts,- and -summons-
(creatures) are permanent spells that remain in play when cast. Once a
_permanent_ is in play, you don't have to pay the casting cost again. The
--9
permanent will remain in play until it is destroyed. You can cast permanents
only during your turn.
Let's take a look as a sample spell card, the Hurloon Minotaur. We'll look
briefly at each of the labeled sections, then come back and look more closely at
some of the concepts involved.
-Card Name:- In this case, the card's name is Hurloon Minotaur. Don't count on
the "summon" line to give you the complete name of a creature.
-Casting Cost:- This is the cost, in mana, to cast the spell that the card
represents. The cost to bring the Hurloon Minotaur into play is <1RR>. This
stands for two red mana and one "extra" mana. The "extra" mana in a casting
cost can be paid for with mana of any color or with colorless mana. For a more
detailed explanation of casting cost, see "Basic Spellcasting" on p. 11.
-Border:- The border serves as an easy visual reminder of the color of the card.
A spell's color is technically defined as the color of the mana required to
cast it, not counting the "extra" mana. The Hurloon Minotaur requires red mana,
so it is a red spell when cast and a red creature while in play. The border
helps you remember its color.
-Card Type:- This card is a summon spell ("Summon Minotaur"), so it is a
permanent. Once cast, summon spells remain in play as creatures.
-Card Text:- This text box will contain extra information
--10
about the card, describing any special abilities it may have. The Hurloon
Minotaur doesn't have any special abilities, so the text box is filled in with
-flavor text-. Flavor text is written in italics and has nothing to do with
actual game play. We just put it in there to let you know more about the history
and multiverse of Dominia.
-Artist's Name:- In this case, the artist is Anson Maddocks.
-Power and Toughness:- Only creatures will have power and toughness ratings, so
any card with numbers in the lower right corner is a creature. The numbers
indicate the creature's -power,- or attack strength, and -toughness,- or defense
strength. The Hurloon Minotaur has a power of 2 and a toughness of 3. Power and
toughness are explained in detail under "The Care and Feeding of Creatures" on
p. 17.
BASIC SPELLCASTING
Let's take a closer look at the casting cost of a spell. The -casting cost- is
always written in _mana symbols_. For each of the five colors of mana, there is
a separate, distinct symbol; each time that symbol appears, it represents one
mana of the appropriate color. Numbers in gray circles represent "extra" mana,
which can be any color, any combination of colors, or colorless. To cast a
spell, you must pay its entire casting cost. A spell with a casting cost of
would require one blue mana to cast. A spell with a casting cost of <1U> would
require one blue mana plus one other mana. This other mana could also be blue,
or it could be black, green, colorless, or whatever.
--11
Okay, a quiz: what's the difference between a spell with a casting cost of <2G>
and one with a casting cost of <1GG>? If the only lands you have in play are one
forest, which provides green mana, and five mountains, which provide red mana,
the distinction is important. You could cast the first spell using two mountains
and your forest. You couldn't cast the second spell, because it requires two
green mana and you only have one forest.
Any card whose casting cost includes more than one color of mana is considered
multicolored; it is all the colors in its casting cost. For example, a card with
and <R> in its casting cost is considered both black and red. Thus, a spell
that affects only black cards would affect it, and a spell that says it does not
affect red cards would not affectit. Either Circle of Protection: Black or
Circle of Protection: Red would prevent damage dealt by this card.
Occasionally you will see <X> in the casting cost of a spell. This represents a
variable amount of mana, which can be any color or colorless. For such _X
spells,_ X can be any number, even 0. The text of an X spell will explain what
the X represents. For example, the casting cost of the Disintegrate spell is
<XR>. The card text reads, in part, "deals X damage to any target creature or
player". So if you cast Disintegrate using four mana of any color plus one red
mana (the <R>), the spell will deal 4 damage to the target of your choice.
That brings us to another element of spellcasting: targeting. Some spells must
have a valid -target- or you
--12
can't cast them. For example, you can't cast an "Enchant Creature" spell without
a suitable creature on which to cast it. Likewise, you can't cast a spell that
"destroys target red permanent" unless it's aimed at a red permanent.
That's enough to cover basic spellcasting for now. We'll revisit some of the
more complex issues of spellcasting later on.
THE PHASES OF A TURN
In _Magic_, each player's turn is divided into seven smaller parts called
-phases-. You may not always have something to do during a given phase, but that
phase still happens. The phases take place in the following order:
* Untap
* Upkeep
* Draw
* Main (in any order):
* Play one land
* Make one _attack_
* Cast spells
* Discard
* End
* Heal creatures and clear temporary effects
Your turn starts with your untap phase. Any of your cards that were tapped
become untapped.
After untap comes upkeep. Some cards require you to perform a particular action
during this phase. Such
--13
cards will say what this action is and what the consequences are if you don't do
it. If you don't have such a card in play, then you don't have to do anything
during this phase.
Next, draw one card from the top of your library. If you don't have any cards
left to draw, you lose.
During your main phase, you may do any or all of the following, in any order:
* Put one land into play
* Make one attack (more on this later)
* Cast spells
You may cast sorceries, enchantments, artifacts, and creature summons before and
after the attack, but not during it. As long as you have enough mana to pay for
them, you can cast all the spells in your hand if you want to.
If your hand has more than seven cards in it at the end of your main phase, you
must discard back down to seven during the discard phase. You can't discard if
you have seven or fewer cards. Your graveyard, or discard pile, must always
remain face up.
Why do we call "end" a phase? Well, it isn't always obvious when you're done, so
you must tell your opponent you're ready to end your turn.
At the end of your turn, all surviving creatures heal from any damage they have
taken, and all "until end of turn" effects wear off. Notice that creatures on
both sides, not just yours, heal back to full capacity at the end of your turn.
--14
A SAMPLE GAME
So, are you confused yet? Relax -- you know more than you think you do. To
prove it, let's start a sample game and see if you can keep up. For now, we'll
use simplified examples; as you learn more about the rules, you'll see how
things can get a little more complex.
Brett and Keisha each have a deck of about sixty _Magic_ cards. Brett has a
stack of twenty stones to use as life, plus a few extra stones to mark any of
his cards that get played in Keisha's territory. Keisha prefers to keep her
score with pencil and paper. She also has a few sticky notes to put on any of
her cards that get played in Brett's territory.
First Keisha and Brett shuffle their own decks and cut each other's deck. They
set aside the top card of each deck as the ante and draw their first seven
cards. They flip a coin; Brett gets to go first. Whoever loses this duel will
go first next time.
Since this is Brett's very first turn, he won't have anything to do during his
untap and upkeep phases. He draws a card (draw phase) and lays down a mountain
(main phase). He has more land in his hand, but he can only lay out one land
per turn, so the mountain will have to do for now. He does have a spell he can
cast, though, so he taps the mountain and casts a Lightning Bolt. Lightning
Bolt is an instant that costs <R>, which Brett can get from the mountain. It
deals 3 damage to any target. There aren't any creatures in
--15
play yet, but he still has a valid target: Keisha! "Any target" includes
players, too. So Keisha's life total drops from 20 to 17, and she hasn't even
had a turn yet. Brett can't cast any more spells because his mountain is
tapped, so he tells Keisha he's done (end phase).
This is Keisha's first turn, so she doesn't have anything to do during untap or
upkeep. She draws a card (draw phase) and discovers that she doesn't have any
land in her hand. With no land, she doesn't have any mana to cast a spell, so
she can't do anything during her main phase either. She still has eight cards
in her hand, so she has to discard one of them. She does so (discard phase),
then tells Brett she's done (end phase).
Brett untaps his mountain (untap phase) and still has nothing to do during his
upkeep phase. He draws a card (draw phase) and lays down a forest (main phase).
He then taps the forest to cast Wild Growth, an "Enchant Land" card (also main
phase). Wild Growth must be cast on a particular land; whenever Brett gets mana
from that land, it will yield <G> in addition to its normal mana. Brett puts
the Wild Growth on his mountain. Now every time he gets mana from that
particular mountain, he will get <R> -and- <G>. He tells Keisha he's done (end
phase).
Keisha doesn't have any untapping or upkeeping to do, so she draws and gets a
land this time. She lays out the swamp, taps it, and uses the mana to cast a
Dark Ritual. Dark Ritual is an interrupt that costs to cast and puts <BBB>
in Keisha's mana pool. She uses this mana to cast Scathe Zombies, a summon
spell with a
--16
casting cost of <2B>. Once successfully cast, the Zombies card becomes a 2/2
creature. Keisha would really like for her Zombies to run over and stomp on
Brett -- she's still annoyed about the Lightning Bolt thing -- but they can't.
Why not? That'll be covered in the next section, "The Care and Feeding of
Creatures". So Keisha tells Brett she's done.
We'll get back to our sample game in a moment. But since we now have a creature
on the table, it's time to look a little more closely at creatures in general.
THE CARE AND FEEDING OF CREATURES
In _Magic_, creatures will usually be your main line of attack and defense.
Creatures come into play whenever a summon spell is successfully cast. Remember
that summon spells are _permanents_, so creature cards remain in play and you
don't have to pay their casting costs again. Creatures can participate in
combat -- attacking, defending, and dealing damage to the players and to each
other.
All creatures have two numbers separateed by a slash in the lower right corner
of the card. The first of these numbers indicates the creature's _power_, the
amount of damage this creature deals in combat. The second number represents
the creature's _toughness_, or the amount of damage the creature can absorb
before it dies. When something changes a creature's power and toughness to
specific numbers, such as 0/2, play as if these numbers appear on the card.
Other cards may legally change these numbers.
--17
Remember the Hurloon Minotaur on page 10? It has a power of 2 and a toughness
of 3. If the Minotaur engages in combat with another creature or damages your
opponent, it deals 2 damage. If it receives 3 damage, either in combat or from
some other _source_, it has taken -lethal damage-.
When a creature receives lethal damage, it goes to the _graveyard_. Any
non-lethal damage a creature receives is erased at the end of every turn. For
example, if the Minotaur receives 1 damage during an attack, it will heal back
up to full strength as soon as the turn ends.
Many spells in _Magic_ can prevent damage to your creatures. _Damage
prevention_ spells help your creatures stay alive to fight more battles for
you.
So, why couldn't Keisha attack with her Zombies in the sample game? A creature
can't attack during the turn it was summoned. _Magic_ players have a couple of
nicknames for this: _summoning sickness_ and "jet lag" are two of the most
popular. Anything that brings a creature into play on your side causes it to
have summoning sickness. Note that while you can't attack with a newly summoned
creature, you -can- use it to defend during your opponent's next turn.
CREATURE COMBAT
During your turn, you may make one attack, sending your creatures out to do
battle with your opponent. This attack, which is one of the optional actions
you can take during your main phase, can include any
--18
number of your creatures. Either player may use fast effects during the attack,
but no one can cast sorceries or lay out permanents during the attack.
Keep in mind that when you attack, you -always- attack your opponent. You can't
attack your opponent's creatures, and you can't attack yourself or your own
creatures.
The basic steps in the attack are as follows:
* Declare attackers
* Declare defenders
* Resolve damage
To begin the attack, you must announce that you are attacking. Next, tell your
opponent which of your creatures are attacking, and tap them. You must declare
and tap all of your attackers now; you can't add or subtract creatures later
on. Creatures that are already tapped can't attack.
Now your opponent declares which of her creatures are blocking yours. Only her
untapped creatures may block; tapped creatures are unavailable. Keep in mind
that your opponent gets to choose which creatures block which; you can't launch
an attack directly at any of your opponent's creatures. Each of your opponent's
defending creatures can be assigned to block one of your attacking creatures.
Multiple defenders can block one attacker, but one defender can't be assigned
to block multiple attackers. Defending doesn't tap a creature.
Once the blockers have been assigned, the creatures deal their damage. During
this damage resolution step,
--19
neither player may use any fast effects except _damage prevention_ effects and
interrupts. Attacking creatures deal their damage to the defenders blocking
them, while defenders deal their damage to the attackers they block. If more
than one defender blocks a single attacking creature, whoever controls the
attacking creature gets to split its damage as desired among the defenders
blocking it. Attacking creatures that aren't blocked deal their damage to the
defending player. Creatures that take lethal damage go to the graveyard.
Another quiz: Do you remember how much damage these creatures deal, or how you
can tell whether or not they've taken lethal damage? You can find the answer
under "The Care and Feeding of Creatures" on p.17. Creatures deal damage equal
to their power. If they take damage equal to or greater than their toughness,
they have taken lethal damage and go to the graveyard.
Those are the basics of creature combat. There are some other elements that can
make it a little trickier, but for now, let's check in with Brett and Keisha
and see how that game is going.
SAMPLE GAME, CONTINUED
Keisha has just cast Scathe Zombies, a 2/2 creature. It's Brett's turn.
Brett untaps his forest and draws. He lays down a mountain. He taps that
mountain and the mountain with Wild Growth on it. The first mountain gives him
<R>, while the second one gives him <RG>; the extra <G>
--20
comes from the Wild Growth enchantment. He uses this mana to cast a Hurloon
Minotaur. The Minotaur, as you may remember, has a casting cost of <1RR> and
becomes a 2/3 creature when cast. Brett can't attack with his Minotaur because
it has summoning sickness, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her swamp and draws. She lays down a forest and decides against
casting any spells for now. Her Zombies could attack if she wanted them to, but
she sees the Minotaur on Brett's side. Although the Minotaur can't attack yet,
it can still defend, and if it blocked the Zombies it would deal enough damage
to kill them. Keisha decides discretion is the better part of valor and tells
Brett she's done.
Brett untaps his mountains, draws a card, and then decides to attack. He
declares that he is attacking and taps the Minotaur. He'd love to kill Keisha's
Zombies, but he can't attack them directly; he has to attack Keisha and leave
it up to her to decide whether or not her Zombies will block. She looks at the
power and toughness of each of the creatures. Her Zombies are 2/2; the Minotaur
is 2/3. If she blocks the Minotaur with her Zombies, each of them will take 2
damage since each creature has a power of 2. The 2 damage would kill her
Zombies, which have a toughness of 2. The Minotaur, with a toughness of 3,
would survive.
Keisha doesn't think that's a very good deal, so she decides not to block with
her Zombies, hoping that she can find some way to take care of the Minotaur
--21
before too much longer. She tells Brett she's not blocking and takes 2 damage
from the Minotaur. Between that and the Lightning Bolt she took earlier, she is
now down to 15 life. His attack over, Brett taps his mountain -- the one
without the Wild Growth -- and summons Mons's Goblin Raiders, a 1/1 creature
with a casting cost of <R>. He could have summoned the Goblins before his
attack, but he was waiting to see what would happen. Brett has no further
spells to cast, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha doesn't have anything to untap, so she draws. She taps her forest and
her swamp and summons Grizzly Bears, a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of
<1G>. She then declares she's attacking. Though the Grizzly Bears can't attack
due to summoning sickness, Keisha still has her Zombies, which she taps. Brett
decides to block them with his Goblins. It would be really great if he could
block with his Minotaur, but it's still tapped from last turn's attack, and
tapped creatures can't block.
The Zombies and Goblins are now in combat. The Zombies (2/2) deal 2 damage to
the Goblins. At the same time, the Goblins (1/1) deal 1 damage to the Zombies.
The Zombies live, but the Goblins die and are put into Brett's graveyard. Even
though the Zombies did more damage to the Goblins than necessary to kill them,
the "extra" 1 damage does -not- go through to damage Brett; unless the card
specifically says otherwise, only unblocked creatures get to deal their damage
to the defending player. Keisha tells Brett
--22
she's done. At the end of her turn, the damage to the Zombies is healed.
Brett untaps his mountain and his Minotaur and draws a card. He taps his
mountain again to summon another Mons's Goblin Raiders. Brett then lays out a
swamp, taps it, and casts Unholy Strength, an "Enchant Creature" spell that
givs a creature +2/+1. It has a casting cost of . Brett casts the Unholy
Strength on his Goblins, making them considerably less wimpy. With the +2/+1
added to the Goblins' original 1/1, the Goblins are now 3/2.
Next, Brett declares his attack and taps his Minotaur as an attacker. The
Goblins can't join in the attack (you guessed it -- summoning sickness).
Keisha's Zombies are tapped from her last attack, so she can't use them to
defend. If she wanted, she could defend with the Bears, but they are 2/2 and
the Minotaur is 2/3. In combat the Bears would die and the Minotaur would
survive. She's still not willing to make that trade, so she chooses not to
block. She takes 2 more damage and is now down to 13 life. Brett has no spells
to cast after the attack, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her forest, her swamp, and her Zombies and draws a card. She lays
out another forest and taps it. Then she taps her swamp. She uses the mana to
summon another Grizzly Bears (a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of <1G>). She
then declares her attack and taps her Zombies. Her latest Bears, of course,
can't attack this turn because they were just summoned. Her first Bears could
attack, but she chooses to attack only
--23
with the Zombies. Brett decides to block the Zombies with his Goblins. The
Zombies are 2/2, and the Goblins with Unholy Strength are 3/2, so Brett expects
both creatures will die.
But wait! Keisha has a fast effect to play before the damage resolution step.
She taps her last forest and casts Giant Growth, an instant with a casting cost
of <G>. Giant Growth gives a creature +3/+3 until the end of the turn. Keisha
casts it on her Zombies, making them suddenly 5/5! They deal 5 damage to the
Goblins, who can only absorb 2. The Goblins deal 3 damage, but the Zombies can
handle 5. Thus the Goblins go to Brett's graveyard but the Zombies survive. The
Unholy Strength enchantment that was on the Goblins has to go to the graveyard
too; it was destroyed along with the Goblins. Again, the "extra" damage doesn't
carry over to Brett; the Goblins just get extra squashed. Keisha tells Brett
she's done. The damage to the Zombies is healed, and the +3/+3 from the Giant
Growth wears off.
Brett untaps his mountain and swamp and draws a card. He then taps his forest,
the mountain with Wild Growth, and the swamp. He uses this mana to cast a Giant
Spider, a 2/4 creature with a casting cost of <3G>. He then declares his attack
and taps the Minotaur as the attacker. Keisha decides that this time she's
going to block the Minotaur with both of her Bears -- yes, she can do this. The
Bears are each 2/2, so each of them will deal 2 damage to the Minotaur, for a
total of 4. The Minotaur is 2/3, so it gets to deal 2 damage before it dies. As
the attacking player, Brett gets to decide how
--24
this damage is distributed among the Bears. He could deal 1 damage to each of
them, but then they would both survive the attack. So he decides to distribute
both points of damage to the Bears on the left. The Minotaur and the Bears on
the left go to their respective graveyards, while the Bears on the right
survive. After a few pithy comments about people ganging up on a guy, Brett
tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps her forests and her swamp and draws a card. She lays out a
mountain and declares her attack. She taps her remaining Bears and her Zombies
as attackers. Brett has only one creature on his side: the Spider. He can only
block one of Keisha's attackers with it, since a defender can't block more than
one attacker. He chooses to block the Zombies with his Spider. The Zombies
(2/2) deal 2 damage to the Spider. The Spider (2/4) deals 2 damage to the
Zombies. The 2 damage is enough to send the Zombies to the graveyard, but the
Spider survives. Meanwhile, the Bears go through unblocked and deal their 2
damage to Brett. Brett is now down to 18 life.
After her attack, Keisha taps her mountain and casts a Lightning Bolt on the
Spider! Lightning Bolt is an instant with a casting cost of <R>; it deals 3
damage to any target. By itself, the Bolt wouldn't have been enough to kill the
Spider. But the Spider has already taken 2 damage from the Zombies this turn,
and the damage from the Bolt makes a total of 5. Since the Spider has a
toughness of 4, it dies and goes to Brett's graveyard.
--25
Keisha really wishes she had a Raise Dead, a sorcery with a casting cost of
. Raise Dead would allow Keisha to take her Zombies back out of her
graveyard and put it into her hand. Maybe she'll draw one next turn. Keisha
tells Brett that she's done, and he replies that he certainly hopes so.
Well, that battle is really starting to heat up. Before we continue it, though,
it's time to revisit some of those basic rules in a little more depth.
ADVANCED SPELLCASTING
You already know the basics of how to cast a spell. Now let's look a little
more closely at spells, starting with properties of certain _permanents_.
Permanents, as we said earlier, are spells that stay in play once cast; you
don't have to pay the casting cost again to keep them in play. Enchantments,
summons (creatures), and artifacts are all permanent spells. Land is also
considered a permanent, although it isn't a spell.
Some permanents have -activation costs-, which are costs required to generate
special effects those permanents can provide. Activation costs are usually
written in the following format: [cost]: [effect]. Only a permanent's
_controller_ can pay its activation cost and generate its special effect. The
controller of a permanent is usually the person who cast it, although some
spells allow you to "steal" your opponent's permanents and become their
controller. If you take control of an opponent's card during the course of a
game, always return it to its owner at the end of game unless the card you used
--26
to gain control specifically states that you become the owner of the controlled
card. If the controlled card is put into the graveyard during play, bury it in
its owner's graveyard.
Paying the activation cost of a permanent is always optional; you don't have to
use a card's special ability unless you want to. Unless the card specifies
otherwise, you can use a special effect any time you can use an instant, such
as during your opponent's turn. Some special abilities specify that they are
played "as interrupts"; this means you can play them whenever you could play an
interrupt. Don't worry too much about this distinction just yet; the difference
won't be important until later, when we start worrying about timing. Even
though these effects are played like instants or interrupts, it's important to
remember that they are -not- really instants, interrupts, or any other kind of
spell, so things that affect instants, interrupts, or spells won't work on
them.
Suppose you have a creature card that says "<BB,Tap>: Jumps up and down until
end of turn.". You can pay two black mana and tap the card, and then the
creature will jump up and down until the end of the turn.
Okay, another quiz: can you make it jump up and down during your opponent's
turn? For your answer, remember that you can use a special effect whenever you
can use an instant. Instants can be played during either player's turn.
--27
These special abilities, along with instants and interrupts, are collectively
known as -fast effects-. There are some pretty complex timing issues involved
with fast effects, but we'll wait for a discussion of those until after you've
played a couple of games.
Next, let's take a closer look at the six different types of spells.
Instants, interrupts, and sorceries are -temporary- spells that go to the
graveyard as soon as they are cast. Sometimes their effects last only until the
end of the turn, especially for instants. Other times, the effects of such
spells may be permanent; these effects last until the end of the game. For
example, Thoughtlace is a blue interrupt that permanently changes the color of
another card in play to blue. In contrast, the Giant Growth spell that Keisha
cast is an instant. It gives a creature +3/+3, but this bonus wears off at the
end of the turn.
Some interrupts can _counter_ a spell as it is being cast. If a spell is
countered, it goes to the graveyard with no effect. The caster of the countered
spell still has to pay the casting cost. Like instants, interrupts can be
played during your opponent's turn.
Sorceries can only be cast during the main phase of your turn, and even then
you can't cast them during an attack. Sorceries are powerful spells that can
raise the dead, destroy lands and creatures, and wreak general havoc.
--28
Remember, spells that require a _target_ can't be cast if there is no valid
target in play. See "Basic Spellcasting" on p. 11 if you don't remember what
a target is.
Creatures, artifacts, and enchantments are brought into play by permanent
spells. Permanent spells can only be cast during the main phase of your turn,
and even then not during an attack. Once you have successfully cast a permanent
spell, the card remains in play to represent whatever the spell brought into
being. A permanent in play is no longer considered a spell, but rather an
artifact, enchantment, or creature.
Permanents remain in play until they are killed, destroyed, or disenchanted or
until the game ends. You can't just choose to get rid of a permanent once you
have created it, even if it starts to do you more harm than good. Remember that
land cards are also considered permanents, although they are never spells.
A word to the wise: be sure to read your permanents carefully before putting
them into play! Some permanents have special abilities that affect only your
opponent, but some of them will affect you too. Be sure you're not hurting
yourself worse than your opponent when you put a permanent into play.
Now let's look at each of the types of permanents in greater detail.
CREATURES
Summon spells bring creatures into play. We've already covered quite a bit
about creatures, but we've still got to talk about a few more details.
--29
As you've already learned, summoning sickness prevents a creature from
attacking during the turn it is summoned. If a creature has a special ability
that includes the <Tap> symbol in its activation cost, that ability can't be
used during the turn the creature is summoned, either. In fact, you can't use
it until the creature is on your side at the very beginning of your turn --
your next upkeep. If an ability's activation cost doesn't have the <Tap> symbol
in it, you can use that special ability right away.
If a creature has a special ability that doesn't require an activation cost at
all, then that ability is always "on", even when the creature is tapped.
All summon spells say "Summon <creature type>" between the picture and the text
box. This is because a few spells affect all creatures of a given type. For
example, if you cast a spell that had some effect on all bugs in play, it would
affect all cards that said "Summon Bug".
Some creatures say "Summon Wall". _Walls_ are special creatures that lack the
ability to attack. Many walls have a power of 0, while others can actually deal
damage. Even if a wall can deal damage, it can only be used to block an
attacking creature. For all other purposes a wall is a normal creature, so it
can be enchanted, killed, and so on just like other creatures.
_Legends_ are considered creatures except that there may be only one legend of
the same name in play at a time. If a second legend of the same name is brought
into
--30
play, it's immediately buried. If more than one legend of the same name is
brought into play at the same time, all of them are buried.
ARTIFACTS
Artifacts are magical devices that have certain effects on the game. Unlike
other types of spells, artifacts are colorless; they can be cast with any color
of mana, or with colorless mana. Some artifacts have a continuous effect that
is always "on" whenever the artifact is untapped and in play. Other artifacts
require you to pay an activation cost to trigger their effects. If an artifact
effect doesn't have an activation cost listed, it's continuous. Unlike
creatures, artifacts can be used during the same turn they come into play.
Some artifacts, however, are also creatures. These say "artifact creature" as
their spell type. Artifact craetures must follow the same rules as other
creatures, so an artifact creature can't attack during the same turn it is
brought into play. However, artifact creatures aren't summon spells; they're
artifact spells.
Tapping a non-creature artifact always turns it "off", even if the artifact's
ability doesn't have a <Tap> in its activation cost. Tapping an artifact
creature doesn't necessarily turn it "off", since artifact creatures follow the
creature rules. A tapped artifact creature can still use a special ability as
long as it doesn't have a <Tap> in its activation cost.
--31
ENCHANTMENTS
_Magic_ includes many kinds of enchantments. Some of them target a particular
type of permanent already in play, so you can play them on creatures,
artifacts, lands, or even other enchantments. It's pretty obvious which of
these are which: they say "Enchant Land", "Enchant Creature", and so on. These
enchantments are considered -targetted-; you can't cast them if there is no
valid target in play.
Other enchantments just say "Enchantment" as their spell type. These are
-global- enchantments. They always go into play in your territory; you can't
play them "on" your opponent. Global enchantments don't require a target.
Unlike many other cards, enchantments never tap. Even if an enchantment is on a
tapped creature, it's always "on".
-Enchant world- cards are treated like enchantments, except that only one
enchant world may be in play at a time. If one enchant world is brought into
play while another is already in play, the one already in play is buried.
Well, now that you know nearly all there is to know about the different types
of spells, it's time to revisit creatures one last time.
CREATURE SPECIAL ABILITIES
Many creatures have one of the following special abilities listed as the first
thing in the text box of the crea-
--32
ture card. Some creatures will have more than one special ability, although
most have only one.
-Regeneration-: Some creatures have the ability to regenerate, usually with an
activation cost. If such a creature takes enough damage to send it to the
graveyard, you can pay the activation cost for its regeneration ability and
prevent it from dying. Keep in mind that this ability doesn't allow
regenerating creatures to come back from the dead; if you don't pay for the
regeneration, the creature goes to the graveyard and stays there like any other
creature. (Though you can't use most fast effects during the damage resolution
step, you -can- use _damage prevention_ abilities, including regeneration. For
more information, see "damage prevention" in the glossary.)
For example, Drudge Skeletons is a black 1/1 creature with the ability "B:
Regenerate.". If your Skeletons take lethal damage, no matter how much, you can
save them from going to the graveyard if you pay B. If they are killed again
the same turn, you may spend another B to regenerate them again. If you don't
pay this cost, they go to the graveyard and stay dead.
When a creature is regenerated, it returns to life tapped and fully healed. All
of the creature's enchantments remain. Creatures killed while they are tapped
can still be regenerated. But if a creature gets hit with a card that says it
_buries_ or _sacrifices_ the creature, the creature can't regenerate and goes
directly to the graveyard. You can't regenerate a creature that is _removed
--33
from the game_ either; such a creature must be set aside and returned to its
owner only when the game is over.
If a creature regenerates during combat but before the damage resolution step,
then it does't deal or receive any damage.
-First Strike-: During the attack, a creature with first strike deals all its
damage before receiving any. If it deals enough damage to destroy the opposing
creature, it doesn't take any damage since the other creature dies before
getting a chance to strike. For example, if a White Knight (2/2, first strike)
blocked a normal 4/1 creature, the 4/1 creature would take 2 damage and die
before it was able to deal its 4 damage to the Knight. First strike isn't a
guarantee of survival, though; if the Knight tried to block a Giant Spider
(2/4), the Knight would still deal its 2 damage first, but that wouldn't be
enough to kill the Spider. The Spider would then get to deal its 2 points to
the Knight and the Knight would die.
If two creatures with first strike oppose each other, they deal their damage
simultaneously but before anybody else. Giving a creature that already has
first strike an extra first strike enchantment doesn't make it any faster.
-Trample-: In the sample game, we said that any "extra" damage beyond what is
needed to kill a blocking creature doesn't carry through to damage the
defending player. We also said that only unblocked creatures can ever damage an
opponent. Trampling creatures get around both these restrictions.
--34
If an attacking creature has trample ability, it can roll right over defending
craetures and deliver any unabsorbed damage to the defending player. For
example, if your opponent's Scryb Sprites (1/1) blocked your War Mammoth (3/3,
trample), the Sprites would die and the "extra" 2 damage would carry through
and hit your opponent. This damage is called -trample damage-.
When you're resolving damage from multiple craetures, trample damage is always
assigned last. This may not make much sense to you now, but it'll be important
later.
-Flying-: Only creatures with flying can block other creatures with flying. If
you attack your opponent with a creature that can fly, and none of her
creatures can fly, your creature gets through unblocked no matter how many
nasty creatures she has. Even better, any untapped flier you have can still
block her non-fliers when it's their turn to attack.
-Landwalk-: Some creatures have a special stealth ability that is commonly
called landwalk, although the cards don't actually say "landwalk". Instead,
they say "swampwalk", "forestwalk", "islandwalk", or the like. Creatures with
a particular landwalk can't be blocked if the opponent has a land of that type
in play.
For example, Shanodin Dryads are 1/1 forestwalking creatures. If you have
Dryads in play, your opponent has a forest in play, and you decide to attack
with your Dryads, your opponent can't block them. Even if your
--35
opponent has Dryads or other forestwalkers in play, they can't block your
Dryads either.
-Banding-: Creatures with the ability "banding" may choose to join forces with
other creatures during an attack or defense.
You can form a band of attacking creatures out of any number of creatures that
have banding; you can even include one creature that doesn't have banding. You
must declare which creatures you want to band when you declare your attack;
attacking bands can't form or disband after your opponent declares defense.
When your banded group of creatures attacks, your opponent's creatures have to
block this band as one or let it through as one. If a defending creature blocks
any of the banded creatures, then it blocks them all. Any damage this defending
creature deals gets distributed among the creatures in your attacking band as
you desire. Banding doesn't allow creatures in a band to "share" other special
abilities.
Did you catch all that? Here's a quiz to find out: You have a Benalish Hero
(1/1, banding), a Mesa Pegasus (1/1, flying, banding), and a War Mammoth (3/3,
trample). You want to attack with these three creatures. Can you band them? For
your answer, read the first sentence in the above paragraph. You can form an
attacking band out of any number of banders plus up to one non-bander. So the
Hero, Pegasus, and Mammoth can band to attack.
Quiz, part two: Can a creature without flying block this band? For your answer,
remember that banding doesn't allow creatures to "share" other special
abilities. The Pegasus still flies, but the Hero and the Mammoth can't. Also,
if one of them is blocked, then the whole band is blocked. So a non-flier could
block the Hero or the Mammoth and thereby block this band.
Quiz, part three: Would the band trample? No, since banding creatures don't
"share" special abilities. The Mammoth, however, would still trample.
Quiz, part four: If your opponent blocks the band with a 2/2 creature, how much
trample damage gets through? Now's the time to dig out that sentence about
trampling, the one that didn't make sense earlier. Trample damage is always
assigned last. So if the Hero/Pegasus/Mammoth band gets blocked by a 2/2
creature, the damage from the Hero and the Pegasus kills the defending creature
and all 3 points of the Mammoth's trample damage carry over to your opponent.
Quiz, part five: if that 2/2 creature blocks your band as described above, how
many of your creatures die? The answer is up to you; since you're the band's
controller, you get to assign the damage among all the creatures in the band.
You probably want to assign both points of damage to the Mammoth; that way, all
of your creatures survive.
Quiz, part six: If your opponent blocks the band with a 4/4 creature instead,
how many of your creatures die? Again, the answer is up to you. Most likely,
you'll want to assign all 4 points to the Hero, keeping the
--37
Pegasus and Mammoth alive. Yes, you can do that; when we say you can distribute
the damage however you like, we really do mean however you like, so long as all
the damage ends up hitting one or more of the creatures in your band.
Banding works a little differently when you're defending. In the sample game,
Keisha blocked Brett's Minotaur with two Bears. Brett then got to decide how
the Minotaur's damage would be distributed between the Bears. If one of the
Bears had had banding, however, Keisha would have gotten to distribute the
damage.
If even one creature in a defending group has banding, then the controller of
the group gets to decide how the attacker's damage gets distributed. For
example, you can block one really big attacker with four creatures. If even one
of your defenders has banding, you get to decide how the attacking creature's
damage gets assigned. Remember, though, that only creatures that could legally
block the attacking creature on their own can band together to block the
attacker.
This damage-sharing ability only applies to damage taken in combat. Other
damage, like that from Lightning Bolts, still only hits the creature it
targets.
-Protection-: Creatures with "protection from" a particular _color_ are mostly
invisible to cards of that color. For an example, we'll use the color blue, but
protection works the same way if the creature has protection from any other
color.
--38
A creature with protection from -blue- has the following abilities:
* It can't be blocked by -blue- creatures.
* Any damage it takes from a -blue- _source_ is reduced to 0.
* No -blue- spells or effects can specifically target it. Any -blue- spells
or effects that don't target that creature in particular can still affect it,
but if they deal any damage, that damage is reduced to 0.
* No -blue- enchantments can be played on the creature. Any -blue-
enchantments already on the creature are destoyed when it gets protection from
-blue-.
-"Inflatable" Creatures-: Some creatures have an activation cost that lets you
increase their power and/or toughness. For example, the Frozen Shade (0/1) has
the following special ability: ": +1/+1 until end of turn.". This means that
for every you spend, the Shade gets +1/+1, but this bonus wears off at the
end of the turn. You can spend as much black mana as you like to increase the
Shade's power and toughness each turn. Some players call these creatures
"inflatable" because you can pump them up. This ability can be used even when
the creature is tapped.
-Rampage-: After defense is chosen but before damage is assigned, an attacking
creature with "Rampage: *" gets +*/+* until the end of the turn for each
creature beyond the first assigned to block it. The * varies but is defined on
the rampaging creature's card.
-A Final Note-: Some enchantments and instants in _Magic_ can convey one of
these creature special abilities
--39
to a creature that doesn't naturally have it. If you've got a creature with
that kind of enchantment on it, just pretend like the text for that special
ability appears in the text box of the creature card -- at least until the
enchantment is removed.
You're well on your way to becoming a master wizard now! Let's take a more
detailed look at the turn sequence, and then we'll see how Brett and Keisha are
getting along.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
MORE ON THE TURN SEQUENCE
We outlined the phases of a turn earlier; now it's time to examine each of them
a little more closely.
-Untap-: At the beginning of your turn, all of your cards untap simultaneously.
You may not "forget" to untap any of your cards. Neither you nor your opponent
may use spells or fast effects during untap.
-Upkeep-: Cards that require action during your upkeep phase tell you
specifically what you need to do. Any player may use fast effects during
upkeep.
-Draw-: Draw the top card from your library. If you have no more cards left in
your library, you lose the duel. Either player may use fast effects during
draw.
-Main-: During your main phase, you can, in any order:
* Play one land
* Launch one attack
* Play any number of spells
The main phase is the only time you can cast sorceries or any of the permanent
spells: artifacts, creatures, or
--40
enchantments. You may not cast any of these spells during your attack. Any
player may use fast effects during the main phase.
-Discard-: If you have more than seven cards in your hand, you must discard
down to seven. You may not discard if you have seven or fewer cards in your
hand. Any player may use fast effects during discard.
-End-: You tell your opponent you're done. Your opponent may respond to this
declaration with fast effects, to which you can respond with fast effects of
your own. All of these fast effects happen during your turn.
-Heal creatures and clear temporary effects-: All surviving creatures -- both
yours and your opponent's -- heal back up to full strength. Effects that last
"until end of turn" wear off. This phase is instantaneous, so neither player
can cast fast effects.
Now let's get back to Brett and Keisha.
SAMPLE GAME, CONTINUED
Brett has no creatures left; Keisha has one Grizzly Bears (2/2). It is Brett's
turn.
Brett untaps his mountain, his forest, and his swamp and draws a card. He lays
down another mountain and taps it. He then taps the swamp and the mountain with
Wild Growth and uses the mana to summon a Dragon Whelp, a 2/3 creature with a
casting cost of <2RR>. The Dragon Whelp has the following special abilities
listed: "Flying. <R>: +1/+1 until end of turn. If you spend more than <RRR> in
this way during one
--41
turn, destroy Dragon Whelp at end of turn.". So Brett has an inflatable flier.
Next, Brett taps his forest to cast Wooden Sphere, an artifact with a casting
cost of <1>. Using Wooden Sphere, Brett can pay <1> and gain 1 life each time
he or Keisha successfully casts a given spell. Brett has no more spells to
cast, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps and draws. She lays down another swamp, then taps both swamps and
uses the mana to cast Deathgrip. Deathgrip is a global enchantment with a
casting cost of <BB>; its ability reads, in part, "<BB>: Counter target green
spell.". So as long as Keisha has the black mana to spend, she'll be able to
counter Brett's green spells. Keisha's not going to let Brett use his Wooden
Sphere if she can possibly avoid it!
First, though, Keisha's going to cast a green spell of her own. She taps both
forests and her mountain and casts Wanderlust. Wanderlust is an "Enchant
Creature" that costs <2G>. It deals 1 damage to the target creature's
controller during his or her upkeep phase. This is one of those nasty creature
enchantments, so she plays it on Brett's creature, the Dragon Whelp. In
response to Keisha's spell, Brett taps his last mountain to activate his
Wooden Sphere. He gains 1 life, which puts him back up to 19. Keisha has no
more spells to cast. She could attack with her Grizzly Bears, but Brett's
Dragon Whelp would make short work of them. So she tells Brett she's done.
Brett untaps. During his upkeep phase, he takes 1 damage from the Wanderlust
spell. Ouch! Brett is at 18 life.
--42
He draws a card, then looks at Keisha's territory. He wants to cast a green
spell, but he's worried about that Deathgrip enchantment. Since Keisha doesn't
have any black mana she can use to pay the activation cost, Brett can cast a
green spell safely for now. He taps a forest and summons Shanodin Dryads, a 1/1
creature with a casting cost of <G>. The Dryads, as we mentioned earlier, have
forestwalk. Brett then taps his swamp to activated his Wooden Sphere and gain 1
life. He's back up to 19.
Next, Brett declares his attack and taps his Dragon Whelp. The only creature
Keisha has on her side is the Bears, and they couldn't block the Whelp if they
wanted to, because the Whelp flies and they don't. So the Whelp will get
through and deal its damage. Before it actually deals its damage, though, Brett
taps two mountains to "pump up" the Whelp to 4/3. He has one more mountain, but
that one has a Wild Growth enchantment on it and would give him an extra green
mana that he can't use. This would be bad, since unspent mana damages its
controller; see "mana pool" in the glossary for more on -mana burn-. The Whelp
deals 4 damage to Keisha, bringing her down to 9 life. Brett has nothing more
to do, so he tells Keisha he's done.
Keisha untaps. She's got a plan for her defense, but that Dragon Whelp is going
to be trouble!
TIME TO PLAY
Now you know enough to take your cards and play a few trial games of _Magic_.
Don't worry if you don't remember every single detail; within a week this stuff
--43
will all seem pretty basic. Take your time and consult this rulebook when you
get stuck. After you've played a couple of games, come back to this book and
read the final sections.
Good luck!
TIMING
Usually, figuring out what happens first in _Magic_ is pretty easy. Sometimes,
though, both players want to use contradictory effects at the same time; you
may have seen this happen in your trial games. _Magic_ has timing rules that
should cover most of these situations. These timing rules are a little
difficult to understand if you haven't played at least a couple of games,
though, so go ahead and try a few if you haven't done so already.
Generally, if both players want to do something at the same time, the player
whose turn it is gets to go first. Every time you take an action, you -must-
give your opponent the opportunity to respond with fast effects. Although we
don't specifically mention this "response" step in the examples in this
rulebook, don't take that to mean that it's okay to skip it. Most of the time,
your opponent won't respond to every single action you take, but you've got to
give her the opportunity. If you proceed to your next action without passing,
you have to "back up"" if your opponent requests it.
To further complicate matters, you can respond to your opponent's response with
fast effects of your own. Then she can respond to your response to her
response,
--44
and so on until you're both done or you both run out of mana. But how do you
figure out what happens in the end?
RESOLVING EXISTING EFFECTS
Before you get too excited about resolving all kinds of fast responses, you
need to resolve existing effects. This includes the continuous effects of
permanents in play -- the ones that are always "on" and have no activation cost
-- and the results of previous effects that have already been resolved. That
way, you'll know what kind of "initial state" you're starting with when it
comes time to resolve the fast stuff. Normally, this isn't a problem -- but
what happens if you cast an enchantment that changes one of your opponent's
lands into an island, and on the next turn your opponent casts an enchantment
on the land to turn it into a mountain, and then on the next turn you cast
another enchantment on the land to turn it back into an island? None of these
enchantments were countered or removed, so they're all sitting there on top of
the land. Obviously, the land can't be both an island and a mountain at the
same time!
Whenever you have multiple existing effects in play, apply them in the order
that they occurred. So your first enchantment would change the land into an
island. The next turn, when your opponent casts her enchantment, the land would
turn into a mountain. Later, when you cast your second enchantment, it would
turn into an island again. Even though the first two enchantments end up being
irrelevant, they
--45
remain on the land. After all, there are ways to turn your opponent's
enchantments against her, and you wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to do
this to her, would you?
RESOLVING FAST EFFECTS
Now that we've got existing effects out of the way, here comes the fun part:
resolving all those fast effects. First, let's talk about interrupts.
Interrupts always happen "faster-than-instantly" and are the only type of
effect that can truly _counter_ another effect, though not all of them do.
Interrupts are resolved immediately after they are cast, unless they themselves
are interrupted. If one interrupt interrupts another interrupt, the -second-
interrupt is resolved first; that way, it can truly interrupt the first one. If
both players attempt to interrupt the same spell or effect -- yes, you can
interrupt your own spells -- then any interrupts cast by the controller of the
original spell or effect are resolved first.
Got that? Now let's look at other fast effects.
You can cast non-interrupt fast effects in response to any action, including
other non-interrupt fast effects. The only exception is that you can't cast a
non-interrupt fast effect in response to an interrupt; the interrupt is by
definition faster. A "batch" of non-interrupt fast effects -- responses to
responses to responses -- is resolved last to first. This rule is often stated
as "last in, first out", abbreviated LIFO. The single exception
--46
to the LIFO rule for non-interrupt fast effects is effects that deal damage;
damage is always resolved last.
Keep the following guidelines in mind when resolving fast effects:
* Don't resolve damage or decide whether or not a creature is dead until all
fast effects have been resolved. Premature burial is a very messy situation.
* Remember that destroying the _source_ of an effect doesn't prevent the
effect itself from happening. Once a grenade has been lobbed, it does no good
to shoot the creature that threw it. The only way to actually counter an effect
is with an interrupt.
* Removing or altering the _target_ of an effect, on the other hand, can
sometimes prevent the effect. If the target of an effect disappears or becomes
invalid before the effect is resolved, that effect fizzles; you can't choose a
different target once the effect is cast.
An example would probably be pretty welcome about now. Let's say that you have
Grizzly Bears (2/2) in play, and you want to attack with them. Your opponent
has a lot of creatures to block with, but none of them fly. So you cast Jump, a
blue instant that grants flying until end of turn, on the Bears. Your opponent
responds to the Jump with a Red Elemental Blast (REB), a red interrupt that
destroys any blue spell being cast. You respond to the REB with a Blue
Elemental Blast (BEB), a blue interrupt that destroys any red spell being cast.
Your opponent responds by casting Terror, a black instant that _buries_ any
creature,
--47
on the Bears. You respond to the Terror by casting Unsummon, a blue instant
that allows you to take a creature back into your hand, on those poor,
beleaguered Bears. You'd both love to go on like this forever, but for now
you're out of mana. It's time to resolve this stuff.
As interrupts, the REB and BEB resolve first. The REB tries to interrupt and
destroy the Jump, but the BEB interrupts and destroys the REB before it can do
its job. This means the Jump sticks around and prepares to get those Bears
airborne. It has to wait its turn, however, as we resolve the other fast
effects under LIFO.
The last in was the Unsummon spell, so it resolves first and returns the Bears
to your hand. Next comes the Terror. Since the Bears aren't around anymore, the
spell fizzles and goes to the graveyard. Your opponent can't choose a new
target for it; the target must be announced at the time the spell is case.
Finally, the Jump is cast at the bears. Without a target, this spell also
fizzles.
Remember that if any of these fast effects had dealt any damage, those effects
would be resolved last in the chain, regardless of when they were cast.
ANOTHER SAMPLE GAME
Our first sample game was pretty simple. Let's try a more complicated one that
incorporates all the rules you've learned. We've cut down quite a bit on the
explanations, so take this opportunity to quiz yourself and see if you can
follow what's going on. If you need
--48
to, look through the earlier sections of the rulebook. Andre and Sara shuffle
their decks and cut each other's deck. Each turns over the top card as ante;
the ante is set aside. Both draw seven cards, and they play scissors-paper-
stone to see who goes first.
Andre gets to go first, so he draws a card and lays out a plains. He taps the
plains to cast a Benalish Hero, a 1/1 creature with banding that has a casting
cost of <W>. He tells Sara he's done.
Sara draws a card and lays out a forest. She taps the forest to cast Scryb
Sprites, a 1/1 creature with flying that has a casting cost of <G>. She tells
Andre she's done.
Andre untaps, draws, and lays out another plains. He taps both plains to cast a
White Knight, a 2/2 creature with first strike and protection from black. The
White Knight has a casting cost of <WW>. Andre decides not to attack with his
Hero, since Sara's Sprites could block and kill it. He tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps, draws, and lays out a swamp. She taps the swamp and her forest to
cast Drudge Skeletons, a 1/1 creature with a casting cost of <1B>. They have a
special ability that reads ": Regenerate.". Sara then announces that she's
attacking with the Sprites. Andre has no creatures with flying, so he can't
block the Sprites. The Sprites deal their 1 damage, bringing Andre down to 19
life. Sara tells Andre she's don.
Andre untaps,draws, and lays out a mountain. He taps the mountain and both
plains to cast a Gray Ogre, a 2/2 creature with a casting cost of <2R>. He then
--49
announces that he's attacking with the Benalish Hero and the White Knight. He
could band them together if he wanted, since the Hero has banding, but he
decides not to. Why?
Well, let's see what happens. Since the Knight has protection from black, the
Skeletons can't block it. They could block the Hero, but they would take lethal
damage. Since Sara has no black mana available to regenerate them, they would
be destroyed. Because of this, Sara decides to block neither creature. If Andre
had banded the Hero and the Knight, the Skeleton could have blocked the entire
band and Andre's creatures wouldn't have dealt any damage to Sara, although her
Skeletons would have been killed. As it is, though, Sara takes 3 damage,
bringing her down to 17 life. Andre tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps, draws, and lays out a swamp. She taps the swamp to cast Dark
Ritual, a black interrupt that provides three black mana. She uses one black
mana to cast another Dark Ritual, bringing her up to five black mana in her
_mana pool_. She then taps her forest to add one green mana and casts a War
Mammoth, a 3/3 trampling creature with a casting cost of <3G>, bringing her
down to two black mana in her mana pool. She uses this last mana to cast
Howling Mine, an artifact that requires both players to draw an extra card
during their draw phases. Finally, Sara attacks with the Sprites again, and
Andre still can't block them. He takes 1 damage and goes down to 18 life. Sara
tells Andre she's done.
--50
Andre untaps, draws two cards thanks to the Howling Mine, and lays out another
mountain. He taps the mountain to cast Mons's Goblin Raiders, a 1/1 creature
with a casting cost of <R>. He then taps both plains to cast a Samite Healer, a
1/1 creature with a casting cost of <1W>. The Healer has the following special
ability: "<Tap>: Prevent 1 damage to any player or creature.". Next, Andre
declares his attack and taps the Knight and the Hero as his attackers. This
time, he announces that they are attacking as a band.
Sara decides to block with her Skeletons, because the band could kill her
Mammoth. This block is legal, since the Knight can't "share" its protection
from black with the Hero. The Skeletons take 3 damage and deal 1 damage to the
band. Andre directs this damage to the Knight, where the Knight's protection
from black reduces it to 0. The Skeletons are destroyed, but Sara still has a
swamp left untapped. She taps it now to regenerate the Skeletons; the Skeletons
return to life tapped and fully healed.
Andre isn't done yet, though. He taps his remaining mountain to cast a
Lightning Bolt, an instant with a casting cost of <R>. The Lightning Bolt deals
3 damage to any target, and Andre aims it at Sara's Skeletons. The unlucky
Skeletons are destroyed yet again. Sara could still regenerate them if she had
the mana, but all her swamps are tapped, so the Skeletons go to the graveyard.
Andre tells Sara he's done, and Sara tells Andre he's going to regret being so
mean to her Skeletons.
--51
Sara untaps, draws two cards, and lays out another forest. She taps both
forests and both swamps to cast a Giant Spider, a 2/4 creature with a casting
cost of <3G>. The Spider's special ability is that it can block creatures that
fly, although it doesn't fly itself. Sara announcesshe's attacking with the
Sprites and the Mammoth. Andre still can't block the Sprites, but he decides to
block the Mammoth with the Goblins.
Since the Mammoth tramples, it will deal just enough damage to the Goblins to
destroy them: 1 point. The additional 2 damage carries over to Andre. Added to
the point from the Sprites, that makes 3 damage for Andre. In future turns he
can use his Healer to prevent a point of this, but the Healer wasn't on Andre's
side at the beginning of his last turn, so it still has summoning sickness. The
Goblins go to the graveyard and Andre takes 3 damage, bringing him down to 15
life. Sara smiles as she tells Andre she's done. Andre begins to think he does
indeed regret wasting that Lightning Bolt on her Skeletons last turn.
Andre untaps, draws two cards, and lays out an island. He then taps both of
his mountains and one of his plains, bringing out the Hurloon Minotaur, a 2/3
creature with a casting cost of <1RR>. Next he casts an Ornithopter, a 0/2
artifact creature with flying that has a casting cost of <0>.
Andre takes a look at all the cards in play. Right now, his Ogre, Knight, Hero,
and Healer are eligible to attack. There's no point in attacking with the
Healer, though; its special ability is far more valuable than the
--52
1 damage it can deal, and if he attacks with the Healer now he won't be able to
tap it again later to use its ability. Sara's Spider would be all too happy to
take on any one of his other creatures, since it could kill any of them, and
none of them could kill it. Even if he bands the Hero with one of the 2/2
creatures, the result would be the same; the Spider would live, and one of his
creatures would have to die. He could use his Healer to prevent a point of the
Spider's damage, but he'd rather save the Healer for Sara's attack. So Andre
decides not to attack and tells Sara he's done.
Sara untaps and draws two cards. She lays out a mountain and decides not to
cast any spells for now. Instead, she announces she's attacking with the
Sprites, the Spider, and the Mammoth. Andre looks at his choices for defense.
If the Hero, the Knight, and the Ogre all block the Spider, they can kill it.
Since the Hero has banding, Andre can split the Spider's damage between the
Ogre and the Knight so all three will survive. If the Minotaur blocks the
Mammoth, the Minotaur will die, but he can use his Healer to prevent 1 damage
to the Minotaur and keep it alive. Finally, the Ornithopter can block the
Sprites without any trouble. Andre declares this blocking scheme, hoping to
kill the Spider and take no damage, all without losing any of his creatures.
Sara has ideas of her own, however, She taps a forest and casts Giant Growth on
her Spider, giving it +3/+3 for a total of 5/7; Giant Growth is an instant with
a casting cost of <G>. Next, she taps her mountain to cast a Lightning Bolt (an
instant with a casting cost of <R>) on
--53
the Ornithopter, dealing 3 damage to it. Andre responds to Sara's fast effects
by tapping his island and casting Unsummon (an instant with a casting cost of
) to return his Ornithopter to his hand.
Neither player wants to use any more fast effects, so the fast effects are
resolved using the "last in, first out" (LIFO) rule - except for the Lightning
Bolt, which deals damage and therefore gets resolved last. First, the Unsummon
brings the Ornithopter back into Andre's hand. Then, the Giant Growth
temporarily turns the Giant Spider into a Giant Giant Spider, so it will deal 5
damage and can absorb 7. Finally the Lightning Bolt goes off, but since the
Ornithopter isn't there anymore, it fizzles and goes into Sara's graveyard.
Now that the fast effects are resolved, it's time for the damage resolution
step. Andre distributes all 5 points of the Spider's damage onto the Ogre,
which is destroyed and goes to his graveyard. The Mammoth deals 3 damage to the
Minotaur, but Andre taps the Healer and prevents 1 damage. (The Healer's
special ability is one of those _damage prevention_ effects, the only non-
interrupt fast effects you can use during the damage resolution step. See the
glossary for details.) The Sprites deal no damage. Although Andre took the
Ornithopter back into his hand, it left combat -after- it had been declared as
a blocker. In such a situation, the attacking creature is still blocked. The
Sprites can't deal their damage to Andre, and they don't have a defending
creature to battle anymore, so they don't deal any damage at all. Andre takes
no damage, and Sara annouces she's done.
--54
Andre untaps and draws. He'd better get together a decent defense pretty soon,
or he'll really be in danger!
STRATEGY
For the most part, we encourage new _Magic_ players to work out their own
preferred strategies. But here are a few tips to get you started.
-Tune your deck.- Generally, the most effective decks contain only two or three
of the possible five colors, plus a few artifacts. If your deck uses more than
three colors, you're more likely to run into situations where you can't cast
any of the spells in your hand because you don't have the right kind of mana to
do so. Single-color decks, on the other hand, are easy prey for single-color
attacks and defenses, such as spells that destroy all of a certain kind of land
or prevent damage from a certain color of creature. To avoid both these
pitfalls, whittle your playing deck down to two or three colors. If you like,
you can trade some of the cards you aren't using to other players and get cards
of "your" colors in return.
-Balance your mana.- To start, your deck should be about one-third land and
two-thirds spells. As you play, watch to see if you always have more land than
spells to cast with it, more spells than mana to spend, or just the right
amount of each. That'll tell you whether to take out some land, add more, or
leave well enough alone.
-Look at your card combinations.- Some cards seem made for each other. Others,
sometimes even two cards of the same color, seem to work at cross-purposes.
Study
--55
how your cards interact and look for ways to improve their teamwork.
-Be prepared.- Expect your opponent to have cards you've never seen before,
particularly while you're fairly new to the game. Don't assume there aren't any
cards that do such-and-such just because you've never seen one. When your
opponent does play a card you've never seen, take the time to read it
thoroughly before going on with the duel.
HOUSE RULES
If you don't like one of the rules of the game, or if you find yourself in a
situation that the rules don't seem to cover, you're welcome to come up with a
"house rule". We don't mind; in fact, we encourage it. You should, however,
know what the official rules are just in case you end up playing at somebody
else's house. Some common house rules are:
* You don't have to play for ante if you don't want to.
* In an ante game, the winner must offer to trade the loser's card back to
him.
* "No-Land Mulligan". If you get no land in your initial seven-card draw,
you can reshuffle and draw again.
* "All-Land Mulligan". Same as the above, only with no spells.
* Everyone must follow certain rules of deck construction. These are too
varied to mention any specific rules, but the general idea is to give newbies a
change against "card lords" with five of every card.
--56
* The winner of each duel must contribute $1 to the pizza fund - great for a
big group on a Friday night!
House rules can cover every aspect of the game, and then some. Just be sure
that new players in your house are informed of the house rules before any duels
get started.
GLOSSARY AND NOTES
This glossary doesn't just contain definitions; it also includes extra
information about many of the terms. A lot of this information was a little too
technical or complex to be included in the basic rules explanation, but it's
stuff you should eventually know.
_Attack_
The attack is one possible action you can take during your main phase. You only
get one attack per turn, and you attack your opponent with your creatures. No
permanent spells or sorceries may be cast during the attack. The complete
attack sequence is as follows:
1. Announce your attack. This is your opponent's last chance to use pre-
attack effects.
2. Declare and tap your attacking creatures.
3. Either player may use fast effects.
4. Your opponent declares blocking. Blocking doesn't make creatures tap, but
tapped creatures can't block.
5. Either player may use fast effects. If a fast effet removes or taps a
blocking creature at this point, the attacking creature is still blocked. A
tapped blocker deals no damage but still receives damage from the attacker it
blocked.
--57
6. Assign damage. Players may use -only- interrupts or damage prevention
fast effects; no other kinds of fast effects are allowed. See also -damage
prevention-.
7. Creatures that take lethal damage and aren't regenerated go to the
graveyard. Any effects that happen when a creature goes to the graveyard are
triggered.
_Bury_
A card that is buried must be sent to the graveyard without possibility of
regeneration.
_Basic land_
See -land-.
_Casting cost_
When a card refers to the casting cost of another spell, it means the total
number of mana points needed to cast the spell, regardless of color. For the
purposes of these cards, a spell costing <2GG> has a casting cost of 4. If the
spell in question is an X spell not currently being cst, then X=0. Token
creatures (see also -token-) have a casting cost of 0.
_Color_
The color of a card is determined by the type of mana you need to cast it, as
specified in the upper right corner of the card. If a card takes more than one
color of mana to cast, it is considered all those colors at once. If the card
requires no particular color of mana or no mana at all to cast, as with
artifacts and land, then the card is colorless. The colors in _Magic_ are
black, blue, green, red, and white; colorless doesn't count as a color.
--58
Any damage generated by a particular source is the same color as that source;
see also -source of damage-.
_Controller_
Usually, the controller of a spell is the player who cast that spell.
Sometimes, though, a spell or effect can give you temporary control over your
opponent's card. If you take control of a card this way, you just take control
of the card itself; you don't get control of any enchantments already on the
card. If a card says "you" on it, it means the card's controller; if it meant
the card's owner, it would specify "owner". A card under temporary control of
another player is returned to its original owner or its owner's graveyard when
it leaves play, when the controlling enchantment or effect is removed, or when
the game is over, whichever comes first.
_Counter_ (verb)
Countering a spell or effect means preventing that spell or effect from being
cast. Countered spells go to the graveyard; the caster of the countered spell
still has to pay the casting cost. A countered spell isn't successfully cast.
_Counter_ (noun)
A counter is a marker used as a reminder on certain cards. Counters can be
coins, poker chips, beads, pieces of paper, or whatever you like. See also
-token-.
_Damage prevention_
Any time one of your creatures is damaged, you get the chance to prevent the
damage, redirect it, or regenerate the creature. You can't do any of these
things, however, until it's time to resolve all the damage in a
--59
chain of fast effects; see also "Resolving Fast Effects" on p. 46. Damage
prevention effects target the damage itself, not the source of the damage; see
also -target-. During the damage resolution step, only damage prevention and
interrupt effects may be used.
_Graveyard_
Your graveyard is your discard pile, which is always face up. Cards in the
graveyard are -cards-; they aren't artifacts, creatures, or whatever they
would be if they were in play. Any card that breaks this rule will specifically
say so. Cards in the graveyard have no "memory" of how they got there or what
enchantments or counters were on them when they were destroyed. They can't be
healed or regenerated. See also -damage prevention-, -bury-, and -remove from
game-. You may look through your opponent's graveyard at any time.
_Land_
Land is a type of card that typically generates mana. You may play one and only
one land card during your turn. Land is colorless and is a permanent, though
it's never a spell. When a spell turns a land of any type into a -basic land-
- a forest, island, mountain, plains, or swamp - it loses its original
abilities and takes on all the properties of that land, including the type of
mana generated.
_Mana pool_
When you generate mana (whether by tapping lands or in some other way), the
mana goes briefly into your mana pool, an imaginary holding place for mana. You
can then use the mana in your mana pool to cast a spell. Your mana pool empties
at the end of
--60
each phase and at the beginning and end of an attack; if any unused mana
remains in your mana pool when it empties, you take 1 damage for each point of
mana you didn't use. This kind of damage is called -mana burn-. Mana burn is a
colorless source of damage.
_Permanents_
All artifacts, lands, creatures, and enchantments in play are permanents, as
are any tokens representing permanents (see also -token-). Spells that will
become permanents aren't considered permanents until successfully cast.
_Play (in play)_
Cards that have been played in your territory or in your opponent's territory
are considered in play. Cards in either player's hand, library, or graveyard
aren't in play; neither are cards that have been removed from the game. Cards
that aren't in play aren't valid targets for targeted effects unless the
targeting spell specifically says so; see also -target-.
_Power_
A creature's power is the amount of damage it deals in combat. It is the first
of the two numbers written in the lower right of the creature card. If a spell
or effect reduces a creature's power to 0 or less, that creature deals no
damage.
_Remove from game_
When a spell or effect removes a card from the game, that card isn't put into
the graveyard. Instead, it should be set aside until the game is over. Spells
and
--61
effects that affect the graveyard can't affect this card. See also -token-.
_Sacrifice_
Certain cards require you to -sacrifice- a card in play, usually as part of the
cost of generating a particular effect. You can only sacrifice a card you
control, and you can't sacrifice a card that is already on its way to the
graveyard. Sacrificed cards get buried immediately; they can't regenerate.
Since a sacrifice is a cost, it happens instantaneously as soon as you declare
it; it can't be prevented by other effects. Even if the card requiring the
sacrifice is countered or destroyed, the sacrifice still takes place. A
sacrifice isn't a targeted effect; see also -target-.
_Source of damage_
The source of a given amount of damage is the card that dealt that damage,
whether or not another card helped it do so. For example, if you put a
Firebreathing enchantment on your Grizzly Bears to increase their power, all
the damage those Bears deal is considered damage from the Bears, even though
the Firebreathing helped. So although Bears are green and Firebreathing is red,
all the Bears' damage is damage from a green source. See also -color-.
_Summoning sickness_
A creature of yours may not attack or use any special ability whose activation
cost includes the <tap> symbol unless the card or token representing the
creature was in play under your control at the beginning of your turn (see also
-token-). This inability is usually called summoning sickness. Creatures
suffering from sum-
--62
moning sickness can be used to defend.
_Target_
A target is the specific card, token, or player at which a spell is aimed. Some
spells require one or more targets; you can't cast such spells if there are no
valid targets in play. Usually, the type of target required will be obvious; an
"Enchant Land" card must be played on a land, for example. Spells that affect a
whole class of cards, such as all creatures in play, don't require a target and
can therefore be cast at any time. If a spell targets a permanent, that spell
can't be cast until the spell for the permanent is successfully cast; see also
-permanent-. If a spell is aimed at a single target and that target is removed
from play or becomes invalid before the spell resolves, that spell fizzles and
has no effect. If a spell is aimed at multiple targets and one or more of those
targets are removed or become invalid before the spell resolves, that spell
still affects any of its original targets that are still valid and in play.
Creature combat - attacking and blocking - isn't considered a targeted effect.
_Token_
Occasionally, a card will ask you to use a -token- to represent a permanent,
such as a creature. Use anything you like for the token; coins, poker chips,
playing cards, or whatever, though it's best to find something with a clearly
defined top and bottom so it's easy to tell if it's tapped. These tokens are
permanents, and are affected by spells and effects that affect the appropriate
type of permanent, but they aren't considered cards. If any effect takes a
token out of play, remove it from the
--63
game. You can't send a token to the graveyard, return it to your hand, or
otherwise maintain it out of play.
_Toughness_
A creature's toughness is the amount of damage it can take before it is
destroyed. If a creature's toughness is reduced to 0 or less, the creature
dies. Damage prevention effects can only prevent damage; they can't prevent
effects that reduce a creature's basic toughness. See also -damage prevention-.
_Winning_
If, at the end of any phase of either player's turn or at the beginning or end
of an attack, your opponent's life total is 0 or less, you win. If a player's
life total reaches 0 or less at any other time, that player has until the end
of the phase to get back to 1 or more life. If both players are reduced to 0 or
less life during the same phase, the duel is a draw and both players keep their
ante. If you can't draw a card when required to do so, you lose the duel
immediately.
MISCELLANEOUS
_Other Rules_
As the game of _Magic_ has developed, so have the rules. Earlier editions of
_Magic_ used slightly different sets of rules, and the wordings on the cards
have also changed over time as we've tried to make them as clear and easy to
understand as possible without substantially altering the game. This means that
before you start playing _Magic_ with someone new, you need to talk about which
--64
version of the rules you're going to use and how you're going to deal with any
peculiar side effects that may arise when you mix cards from different
releases.
In most cases, later editions of the rules have clarified the old rules rather
than changing them, so conflicts shouldn't come up too frequently. When they
do, we encourage you to talk things over with your opponent and decide for
yourselves how you want to resolve them. If you and your opponent can't agree
in the heat of battle, flip a coin to resolve the current situation and then
talk it out afterwards. Keep track of your decisions so you can use them again
if necessary.
If you think making the rules is strictly our job, we'll be happy to give you
the official line on any rules question. Just check out the next section for
ways to contact us.
_Getting Help_
If you have any questions or concerns about _Magic_, we're here to help you.
For quick rules questions, call (206) 624-0933 during normal business hours,
Pacific Time, and ask to speak to a customer service rep. If you don't want to
pay the long-distance charges, feel free to write us at Wizards of the Coast,
P.O. Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, attn: _Magic_.
Wizards of the Coast also provides electronic customer support. We have a
couple of e-mail lists, company reps on the Internet and many commercial
services, and more. For information on these services, send e-mail to
[EMAIL="-questions@wizards.com"]-questions@wizards.com[/EMAIL]- and we'll show you how to tap into our Net support.
--65
If you are in the United Kingdom, you can call our UK office regarding
questions or rules clarifications at 0345-125599 or write to [EMAIL="-uk@wizards.com"]-uk@wizards.com[/EMAIL]-
on the Internet. You can also send postal mail to Wizards of the Coast UK Ltd.,
P.O. Box 1562, Glasgow, G2 8BW, Scotland, attn: _Magic_.
In other European countries, you can call our Belgium office at +32-(0)3-272-
0511, fax us at +32-(0)3-272-2431, or write to [EMAIL="-belgium@wizards.com"]-belgium@wizards.com[/EMAIL]- on the
Internet. You can also send postal mail to Wizards of the Coast, Belgium, P.O.
Box 16, B-2140 Borgerhout 2, Belgium, attn: _Magic_ or send e-mail or postal
mail to our UK office.
_Other Cool Stuff_
To find out more about _Magic_ and other trading card games, check out -The
Duelist-, Wizards of the Coast's full-color magazine devoted to providing you
with official info on all of our _Deckmaster_ games. Ask for it wherever you
buy _Magic_.
For serious _Magic_ players, we've formed the -Duelist's Convocation-, the
official _Deckmaster_ tournament league. Membership allows you the opportunity
to gain ranking points through sanctioned _Deckmaster_ tournaments as well as a
subscription to -The Duelist- magazine and -Duelist Companion-. For more
information, write Wizards of the Coast, P.O. Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707,
attn: -Duelist's Convocation- or call (206) 276-6500 and ask for -Duelist's
Convocation-.
--66
[Index - not included, textfile searching is far superior]
--67
CREDITS
_Design:_ Richard Garfield with contributions from Charlie Cantino, Skaff
Elias, Don Felice, Tom Fontaine, Jim Lin, Joel Mick, Chris Page, Dave Pettey,
Barry "Bit" Reich, Bill Rose, and Elliott Segal
_Editing:_ Darla A. Willis
_Rules:_ This edition by Kathy Ice, James Ernest, Skaff Elias, Jim Lin, Dave
Pettey, and Beth Moursund
_Flavor Text:_ Peter D. Adkison, Len Case, Mike Davis, Skaff Elias, Tom
Fontaine, Lily Garfield, Richard Garfield, Dave Howell, Jim Lin, George Lowe,
Lisa Lowe, Joel Mick, Jesper Myrfors, Chris Page, Dave Pettey, Sean Prathur,
Beverly Marshall Saling, Lisa Stevens, and Elizabeth Zanger
_Project Coordination:_ Glenn Elliott and Darla A. Willis
_Art Direction:_ Jesper Myrfors and Sandra Everingham
_Graphic Design:_ Jesper Myrfors and Lisa Stevens
_Production, Typesetting, and Layout:_ Jeff Dunlap, Sandra Everingham, Daniel
Gelon, Dave Howell, Leonard Lynch, Anson Maddocks, Ken McGlothlen, Christopher
Rush, Emily Smith, and Tom W\"anerstrand
_Logo & Mana Symbols:_ Christopher Rush
_Printer Liaison:_ Luc Mertens
_Playtesters:_ Peter D. Adkison, Mike Albert, Mikhail Chkhenkeli, Steven E.
Conard, Lily "Snow White and the Eight Dwarves" Garfield, Jeff Goldman, James
E. Hays, Jr., Robin Herbert, Karen Hibbard, Dave Howell, Dave Juenemann, Howard
Kahlenberg, Ruthy Kantorovitz, Nets
--68
Katz, Anthony Kosky, Sarath Kumar, Ethan Lewis, George Lowe, Lisa Lowe, Rick
Marshall, Jesper Myrfors, Katherine K. Porter, Ron Richardson, Beverly Marshall
Saling, Lisa Stevens, and Jean Pierre Trias
_League Playtesting and Design:_ Charlie Cantino, Skaff Elias, Don Felice,
Howard Kahlenberg, Ethan Lewis, Joel Mick, Chris Page, Barry Reich, Bill Rose,
Elliot Segal, and Jean Pierre Trias
_Thanks_ to Dave Pettey for showing how nasty decks could get, to Charlie
Cantino for showing how bizarre they could get, and to Skaff Elias for stress-
testing -every- aspect of the game.
_Special thanks_ to all of the project team members, especially Sandra
Everingham and Victor K. Wertz, and to Jeff Dunlap, Tina Jenn, and Beverly
Marshall Saling for their dedicated support on this project.
_Very special thanks_ to all the people who asked the questions that showed us
where the rules weren't clear and to the rules gurus, Netreps, and customer
service folk who managed to answer their questions anyway.
_Very, very special thanks_ to Peter Adkison for recognizing good ideas while
having them himself, and for recognizing good people while being one himself.
--Our condolences to everyone who has been killed by an Ornithopter.--
-(C) 1995 by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. "Hurloon Minotaur"
and other illustrations may additionally be protected by separate copyrights.
Garfield Games, _Deckmaster_, _Magic: The Gathering_, the tap symbol (<tap>),
and the mana symbols (<W>, , , <G>, <R>) are trademarks of Wizards of the
Coast, Inc. Wizards of the Coast is a registered trademark of Wizards of the
Coast, Inc. U.S. and foreign patents pending.-
--69
[two page advertisement for The Magic Pocket Players' Guide]
--71
[Channel illustration]
Illus. Richard Thomas
[logos of Wizards of the Coast and Garfield Games]
--72
[fold-out back page with two pages of advertisement for The Duelist and a two-
page subscription form]
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
[Table of Contents: i, ii]
--ii
=Welcome to Magic: The Gathering!=
Object of the Game
Magic: The Gathering^{R}, or Magic, is a trading card game in which you and
your opponent are rival wizards _dueling for control of a magical plane_.
Reduce your opponent's score from 20 to 0 before he or she does the same to
you!
Summary of Play
Each player builds a deck of at least forty cards from his or her collection
and plays that deck against the opponent's.
Each player begins by shuffling his or her deck and drawing seven cards.
Playes alternate taking turns. Your turn is made up of a series of actions,
such as playing cards and attacking your opponent.
There are several types of cards you can play. Lands are the most basic,
providing the magical energy you need to play all other cards. Creature cards
represent creatures in play to fight for you, either by attacking your opponent
or by fighting off other creatures. Other cards represent spells you can cast
to hurt your opponent or help your creatures.
The basic strategy of Magic lies in choosing when to play your cards and
when to use your creatures to attack your opponent or protect yourself. More
complex strategies involve combining your cards to make them more powerful and
choosing which cards to use in your deck to make it most effective.
--1
Rulebook Contstruction
This rulebook is divided into four sections.
_Section I: Learning the Game_ is intended as a tutorial, to bring the new
player to the point where she can usually play without having to consult the
rulebook. The first half of this section teaches the basics of the game: how
creatures work, how to bring them into play, and how to fight with them. The
second half of this section expands the rules, addressing the other types of
spells, describing how less basic game mechanics work, and so on. Once a player
is familiar with Section I, she should be able to understand most common and
uncommon cards.
However, Section I often omits minor details of the rules it presents and
occasionally contradicts the normal rules in the interests of accustoming new
players to the game. _Section II: Expanding Your Knowledge_ details most of the
rules that are actually needed during play and corrects the omissions and
simplifications in Section I. This section is presented more for rules
reference than as a tutorial.
_Section III: Exploring the Rules_ describes some of the nooks and crannies
of the rules. Only the advanced player needs to know all of the rules in this
section.
In _Section IV: Game Support_, you'll find the contact information for
questions regarding rules, tournaments, and so on.
Following Section IV is a glossary of common terms. The first time any of
these terms appears in the text, it's printed in -red-.
--2
Section I: Learning the Game
The First Rule of Magic
Occasionally, a card contradicts the rules. In these cases, the card text
always takes precedence.
The Very Basics
Take a few moments to glance at the cards in your deck. You'll notice that
their backgrounds are white, blue, black, red, or green. These are the -colors-
of Magic, and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Understanding
these characteristics can help you build more powerful decks as you become a
more advanced player. As a beginner, however, you'll find that the colors will
serve mostly to help you organize your -hand- and determine which cards you can
play at any given time.
Any card with a background of one of the five colors is a -spell-; the
remaining -colorless- cards are either -artifacts- (another type of spell) or
-lands-. Take a closer look at your cards and separate the spells from the
lands. (To determine which colorless cards are lands and which are artifacts,
read the -card type- printed just below the artwork.) Lands are important,
because they create the energy you need to play spells. The only spells you
should be concerned with right now are -summon spells-, which produce
-creatures-. You'll use creatures to -attack- your opponent, in an effort to
reduce her -life total- to 0 or less and therefore win. Creatures are easily
identified; each has a pair of numbers (written in an X/Y format) in the bottom
right corner of the card. A sample creature is shown on p. 5.
--3
Throughout a -duel-, you can -cast- summon spells that become creatures like
the Hurloon Minotaur. Once you have them in play, you can use creatures to
attack your opponent. If you launch enough successful attacks, you can drive
your opponent's life total to 0 or less and win the duel. Winning a Magic duel
often depends on the strategies you build with creatures like this Minotaur.
Of course, your opponent isn't going to just sit there while your creatures
attack. She's going to put her own creatures into play and use them to attack
you or to -block- your attackers. If she chooses to block, your -attacking
creatures- fight her -blocking creatures- instead of damaging her.
Putting creaturs into play is a little more complicated than just deciding
you want to. You have to pay for them with -mana-, which is typically produced
by lands. Not much can happen in the game if you don't have the mana to pay for
your creatures (or, later, other spells).
Mana
Just as there are five colors in Magic, there are five colors of mana, each
with its own -mana symbol-: white (<W>), blue (), black (), red (<R>),
and green (<G>). Mana can also be colorless, though colorless mana doesn't have
a symbol associated with it.
The -cost- of playing a creature is called its -casting cost-. This cost
includes one or more of the mana symbols and appears in the top right corner of
the card. Each time a colored mana symbol appears as part of a cost, it means
that you have to pay
--4
<text arranged around a small picture of a Hurloon Minotaur card>
-Card Name-: Each creature has a name. This creature is a Hurloon Minotaur.
-Card Type-: This description indicates the specific category of creature being
summoned by the spell. In this example, a Minotaur is being summoned.
-Text Box-: The abilities of the card are described here. The text box might
also have flavor text, printed in italics; flavor text simply provides
background on the card and doesn't impact play. The Hurloon Minotaur's text box
has only flavor text in it.
-Art-: The artwork depicts what the card represents.
-Casting Cost-: This is the cost associated with playing this creature.
-Card Background-: The colored background is a reminder that creatures are
spells. The Minotaur has a red background and is therefore a red creature.
-Power/Toughness-: This is a rating unique to creatures. It denotes numerically
how strong a creature is for attacking or defending. A creature's power
represents how effective it is at killing your opponent, and its toughness
represents how hard it is to kill it.
</text>
one mana of that color to satisfy the cost. Thus, a cost of "<RR>" can be paid
only with two red mana.
A casting cost may also include -generic mana-, which can be paid with any
type of mana, including colorless mana. Generic mana costs are shown as numbers
inside a gray circle. For example, in order to play a spell with a casting cost
of <2U>, you must pay one blue mana and two generic mana.
So what does this mean for the Hurloon Minotaur? The top right corner of the
card lists its casting cost as <1RR>, so you know you have to pay two red mana
and one generic mana in order to play it. Of course, you have to get mana from
somewhere, and lands are the usual source.
--5
Producing Mana from Lands
In _Magic_, there are five -basic land- types, each producing a different color
of mana. Plains make white (<W>), islands make blue (), swamps make black
(), mountains make red (<R>), and forests make green (<G>). Pull out a few
lands from your deck. Note that although a land's background doesn't match any
of the five colors, its -text box- is shaded to match the color of mana it
produces. The -ability- of a land is to produce mana, so it's considered a
-mana source-.
When you use a land to produce mana, you -tap- it, or turn it sideways; this
is signified by the tap symbol (<Tap>). A tapped card can't be used to do
anything that requires tapping it. Thus, a land can produce only one mana each
turn. At the beginning of your turn, -untap- all your cards in play (that is,
turn them back upright) so that you can use them again.
For example, each mountain you play allows you to generate one red mana each
turn. However, you can't store up mana for several turns by using your lands
every turn. When a land produces mana, that mana is added to your -mana pool-
and is stored there until you spend it. At the end of every turn, both players
lose any mana they haven't spent. You may play only one land each turn, so
building up your mana potential takes several turns.
The amount and type of mana available in your pool determines which spells
you can cast. To demonstrate, let's return to the Hurloon Minotaur, which has a
casting cost of <1RR>. Suppose that after three turns you've played three
lands: two forests (green mana) and one mountain (red mana). Even
--6
though you have three lands in play, you can't afford to cast the Minotaur
until you play another mountain.
Throughout the game, you continue to play lands, increasing your mana
potential. Remember, any type of mana can be used to pay generic mana costs;
the color associated with a land is important only when you have to pay mana of
a certain color. In other words, if your hand is full of green spells, playing
mountains can still help you play the more expensive ones even though mountains
produce red mana.
Here, Critter, Critter!
Now, pull a few creature cards out of your deck. They're easy to find because
each one has two numbers (a -power- and a -toughness- rating) in its bottom
right corner. Creatures have a variety of power and toughness ratings. These
numbers reflect a creature's effectiveness in -combat-. When a creature
attacks, it deals -combat damage- equal to its power, whether to your opponent
or to creatures that block it. A creature's toughness represents how much
-damage- is required to kill it. If one of your creatures takes an amount of
damage equal to or exceeding its toughness over the course of a turn, it's
taken -lethal damage- and is put into your -graveyard-, or discard pile.
_EXAMPLE: If you use the Hurloon Minotaur to attack your opponent, it attacks
with a power of 2. If she doesn't block the Minotaur, your opponent suffers 2
damage, which is deducted from her life total. If she blocks the attack with a
Benalish Hero, the attacker confronts the blocker with its power and vice
versa. Thus, the Minotaur deals 2 damage to the Hero, which exceeds the Hero's
toughness of 1, so the Hero dies. The
--7
1 damage dealt by the Hero isn't enough to kill the Minotaur, though, so the
Minotaur survives. Because the Minotaur was blocked, it didn't damage your
opponent at all, even though it dealt more damage to the Hero than was needed
to kill it._
Creatures tap when they attack, and tapped creatures can't block. Therefore,
committing a creature to an attack prevents you from blocking with it on your
opponent's next turn, when she can attack you. Remember, though, that all your
cards untap at the start of your turn, so you can attack with a creature
numerous turns in a row, or attack with it now and block with it later on in
the game.
The Flow of the Game
Before a duel begins, players randomly determine who goes first. Each player
starts the game with 20 life and -draws- a hand of seven cards from his or her
deck. The players then alternate taking turns, beginning with the "first"
player. During a turn, a player can do any or all of the following: play a
land, play creatures, and attack with creatures already in play. The following
outlines the basic turn structure:
Untap: At the beginning of every turn, untap any creatures or lands that were
tapped during the previous turn. Untapping a card makes it available for use.
Draw: Draw a card from your -library-.
Land: Play a land, if you have any in your hand.
Attack: You may attack with any or all of your creatures. (If you don't attack,
skip ahead to "Play Creatures".) You can attack only with your creatures, and
they can attack only
--8
your opponent. If you want to kill one of your opponent's creatures, you'll
have to attack and hope he blocks with it. Attacking with a creature taps it.
Defense: When attacked, your opponent may block with some, all, or none of his
creatures. Each creature can block only a single attacker, but more than one
creature can gang up to block the same attacker. Blocking doesn't tap
creatures, but tapped creatures can't block (so a creature that attacked
during your opponent's last turn can't block this turn).
Damage Dealing: Each attacking creature that wasn't blocked deals its power in
damage to your opponent. If this reduces his life total to 0 or less, you win.
A creature that's blocked deals its damage to whatever blocked it and vice
versa. If a creature has more than one blocker, you can distribute its damage
among them as you like. For example, if your Hurloon Minotaur (2/3) is blocked
by three Mons's Goblin Raiders (1/1), you can divide its 2 damage between two
of the Raiders, killing them both, but the three Raiders will kill the
Minotaur in return.
Play Creatures: You can play as many creatures as you can afford. Remember, you
have to pay a creature's casting cost to play it, which requires tapping your
lands for mana.
Discard: If you have more than seven cards in your hand at the end of your
turn, -discard- down to seven.
Game Setup
During a game, it's easy to build up quite a few cards in play. For this
reason, you'll want to find a dry, flat surface to use as a playing area.
You'll also need something to help you keep
--9
track of your life total, such as spare change or a pencil and paper.
Each player begins the game with a deck of at least forty cards, which
compose his or her library. Before play begins, each player shuffles his or her
deck and offers it to the opponent, who may shuffle and/or cut it. Next, one
player decides who will play first and who will draw first; whoever takes the
first turn of the game doesn't draw a card that turn. If you and your opponent
have just finished a game, the player who lost that game decides who plays
first; if the game was a -draw-, whoever decided who went first that game does
so again. If this is your first game in a series, determine randomly who
decides.
Now, play a few games to get a feel for what you've learned. The point of
these games is to become familiar with how lands and mana work and with the
basics of creature combat. Whether you win a game isn't very important. In your
first few games, if you draw a card that's not a basic land or a creature, set
it aside and draw another card. When you play a creature, pay attention only to
its power and toughness; for now, ignore its text box.
When you play these games you might want to leave the rulebook open to the
turn sequence above or to the tipsheet on the next two pages.
Expanding the Game
The first few games you just played were probably rather simple. During your
turn, you drew a card, played a land if you had any, attacked if you wanted to,
and played creatures if you
--10
had any. During your opponent's turn, you could do nothing but block. Creatures
themselves didn't do anything other than attack or block. These are the basic
moves of Magic.
In a normal game of Magic, you can assist your creatures in a battle by
playing spells that can make them bigger, help them evade other creatures, and
so on. Spells may also hinder or kill your opponent's creatures, and some
spells even let you affect your opponent directly.
The remainder of this section adds to the basics you've already learned. It
looks at other types of spells, more detailed turn and attack sequences, and
some basic creature abilities. Once you're comfortable with the contents of
this section, you should be able to play quite a few games of Magic without
having to refer to Section II.
Other Types of Spells
So far, you've only played spells that generated creatures: summon spells and
-artifact creature- spells. As you played your first few games, you probably
set aside spells of most of the other types. (If you haven't played yet, take a
moment to examine the spells in your deck.) Those other spells are divided into
two categories.
Spells in the first category remain in play when cast, Once in play, these
cards become -permanents-. In addition to the summon and artifact creature
spells you've already seen, artifact spells, -enchantment- spells, and lands
become permanents when played (see "More About Permanents", p. 14).
Spells in the second category don't become permanents when you play them,
but instead take effect once and are then
--11
<twopage spread><check> D O N ' T F O R G E T . . .</spread>
Life Total
----------
Each player starts the game with 20 life. If a creature damages you, deduct
the damage from your life total. If you drop to 0 life or less, you lose the
game.
Lands and Spells
----------------
Every card is either a land or a spell. The card type, listed below the art,
tells you what it is.
Mana
----
Every spell has a casting cost, which lists the amount and type of mana
needed to play the spell. Lands provide the mana to cast spells.
Creatures
---------
For now, the only spells you're playing with are those that become creatures
when cast. Creatures remain in play and fight for you until they're killed.
Power and Toughness
-------------------
Every creature has a power and toughness rating, which represents its
effectiveness in combat. These numbers are printed in the lower right corner
of the card and aid in identifying creature cards as such.
--12
Tap
---
Lands are tapped, or turned sideways, when they produce mana. Also,
creatures are tapped when they attack. All of your lands and creatures untap
at the start of your turn.
Attacking and Blocking
----------------------
Once during your turn, you can attack your opponent with some, all, or none
of your creatures. When your opponent attacks you, your untapped creatures
can block hers.
Damage
------
When a creature attacks, it deals damage equal to its power. If the creature
is blocked, it deals that damage to whatever blocks it; otherwise, it deals
the damage to your opponent.
Lethal Damage
-------------
If a creature suffers damage equal to or greater than its toughness during a
combat, it dies and is put into your graveyard, or discard pile.
--13
put into your graveyard. Each of these spells is identified on its card type
line as "Instant", "Interrupt", "-Sorcery-", or "Mana Source". Remember that
all spells, except artifacts, will have a background of one of the five colors.
More about Permanents
The four types of permanents are artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and
lands. A permanent can be of more than one type; artifact creature spells, for
exampl;e, become permanents that are both artifacts and creatures and that will
be affected by spells and abilities that affect either.
Once you've played a land or paid to cast a spell that becomes a permanent,
it remains in play until something specifically removes it. You don't have to
keep paying its casting cost to keep it around, but you also can't get rid of
it just because you want to. You've already seen that creatures leave play if
they sustain lethal damage; in addition, it's possible to -destroy- or -bury- a
permanent. Either sort of -effect- sends the permanent to its -owner's-
graveyard. (See "Regeneration", p. 19, for the difference between the two
effects.)
Most permanents have special abilities of some kind. These are generally
explained on the card, but some creature abilities are described in the
rulebook (see "Basic Creature Abilities", p. 20). Some abilities take effect as
soon as the permanent enters play and end only when the permanent leaves play;
such abilities are called -continuous abilities-.
Continuous abilities are always "on", even if the ability's effect is
working against you at the moment. Usually, the only way to stop a continuous
ability from taking effect is to
--14
remove the appropriate permanent from play. If an artifact becomes tapped,
however, its continuous abilities "shut off" until it untaps (unless it also
counts as a creature and/or land). Many abilities have an associated cost that
must be paid in order to use the ability. Such abilities are played when you
pay the appropriate cost. These abilities are typically written in a "cost:
ability" format and are said to have an -activation cost-.
An activation cost typically involves paying mana but may also require
tapping the card itself. When the card must be tapped to use a special ability,
the <tap> symbol appears. You can't use the abilities of an artifact that's
tapped unless it also counts as a creature and/or land.
Every permanent has a -controller-, who decides when to use its abilities,
when to attack or block with it, and so on. A permanent enters play under the
control of whoever played it. Other effects may change who controls it, in
which case it's moved to the -territory- of its new controller. Whenever card
text says "you" or "your" or speaks in the imperative, it's referring to the
card's controller.
Playing Spells and Abilities
Playing a spell or an ability of a permanent involves the following steps.
1. Review your hand and what you have in play and decide which spells or
abilities to play. This decision is based largely on what you can afford and
how many spells or abilities you think you'll want to use this turn. The
chosen card isn't considered part of your hand for purposes of the following
steps.
--15
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
the 4th edition didn't ahve an index, did it? i'm wondering if the "Infinite Loop" joke was in teh index of the 5th edition, then?
i look forward to brushing up on my old-skool rules. oh, the wonders of batches and lightning bolts ALWAYS resolving last in the batch!
Goblins have poor impulse control. Don't click this link!!
some of my favourite flavour text:
Wayward Soul
"no home no heart no hope"
—Stronghold graffito
Raging Goblin
He raged at the world, at his family, at his life. But mostly he just raged.
Edit: theres actually a few on ebay right now
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=mtg+rule+book&_sacat=0&_from=R40
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
The 4th edition rulebook did have an index. Neither the 4th edition index nor the 5th edition index have an entry for "Infinite Loop".
I don't know when else I'd post this so here are a few of my collection of rulebooks.
Every English card ever printed: 99.02%
Arabian Nights through Lorwyn: Complete
Alpha: 94.2% Beta: 95.0%
Unlimited through M10: Complete
Thanks for posting the rulebooks of 4th and 5th edition!
Could you please post 5th Edition rulebook part 2, because I think you forgot that part.
Jessica
I'm very interested in that rulebook!
Could you post it to the forum please?
Jessica