How to win a game of Magic
In a normal two-player game you start with 20 life and win when your opponent's life reaches 0. There are other ways to lose that are worth knowing:
- Trying to draw from an empty library. If your deck runs out and you have to draw, you lose the next time the game checks its state.
- Receiving ten or more poison counters. Only specific cards cause this, such as those with infect or that give poison.
- Specific card effects. Some cards say outright that a player wins or loses the game.
What you need to play
Each player needs their own deck, prepared in advance. In constructed formats (Modern, Pioneer, Pauper…) a deck has at least 60 cards and you may include at most four copies of any card except basic lands, which have no limit. Commander is different: 100 cards, all different. If you do not have a deck yet, read how to play Magic from scratch or look at the different types of deck.
You will also need a way to track life (paper, dice or an app) and something to mark counters or tokens.
Setting up the game
- Shuffle your deck, which becomes your *library*.
- Decide who goes first. Usually with a coin flip or a die roll.
- Draw seven cards. That is your opening hand.
- Optional mulligan. If the hand is unplayable, shuffle it back and draw seven new cards; after you keep a hand, put one card on the bottom of your library for each mulligan you took.
- In a two-player game the player who goes first skips the draw on their first turn. In multiplayer they do draw.
The zones of the game
| Zone | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Library | Your deck, face down, where you draw from |
| Hand | The cards you can play; the maximum at end of turn is seven |
| Battlefield | Lands, creatures, artifacts, enchantments and planeswalkers in play |
| Graveyard | Cards that were destroyed, discarded or have already resolved |
| Stack | Spells and abilities waiting to resolve |
| Exile | Cards removed from the game |
| Command zone | Commander only: your commander |
Card types
- Land: produces mana. It is not a spell and does not use the stack. You can play only one per turn.
- Creature: attacks and blocks. It has power and toughness, for example 3/3.
- Sorcery: a one-shot spell that can only be cast in your main phase with an empty stack.
- Instant: like a sorcery, but you can cast it whenever you have priority, including on your opponent's turn.
- Artifact: a permanent, often colourless, that provides mana, equipment or effects.
- Enchantment: a permanent with a continuous or triggered effect.
- Planeswalker: an ally with loyalty that you activate once per turn.
- Battle: a permanent you attack to earn a reward.
Mana and colours
Magic has five colours (white, blue, black, red and green) plus colourless mana. Each basic land produces one: Plains (white), Island (blue), Swamp (black), Mountain (red) and Forest (green). A card's cost appears at the top right: {2}{R} means two mana of any type and one red.
To pay a cost you tap your lands, and they untap at the start of your next turn. The mana you produce empties at the end of every phase or step, so spend it right away.
The structure of a turn
| Phase | What happens |
|---|---|
| Beginning | You untap your permanents, go through upkeep and draw a card |
| First main phase | You play a land and cast sorceries, creatures, artifacts and enchantments |
| Combat | You declare attackers, your opponent declares blockers and damage is dealt |
| Second main phase | Another chance to cast spells, or to play your land if you have not yet |
| End | End step and cleanup: you discard down to seven cards and damage on creatures wears off |
A creature that has just entered the battlefield has summoning sickness: it cannot attack or use abilities with the tap symbol until you have controlled it since the start of your next turn. Haste avoids this.
How combat works
- Declare attackers. You choose which creatures attack. They tap when attacking, unless they have vigilance.
- Declare blockers. Your opponent chooses which creatures block. A creature blocks only one attacker, but several can block the same one.
- Combat damage. Each creature deals damage equal to its power. Damage that does not reach a creature's toughness does not destroy it, and damage wears off during cleanup. An unblocked attacker deals damage to the attacked player or planeswalker.
The stack and priority
When you cast a spell or activate an ability, it does not happen instantly: it goes on the stack. Each player may respond with instants or abilities, and the stack resolves starting with the last thing added. This is the mechanism that lets you, for example, destroy a creature in response to a spell that improves it.
You can cast sorceries and play lands only when the stack is empty and it is your main phase. Instants and activated abilities can be used whenever you have priority.
Abilities you need to know
| Ability | What it does |
|---|---|
| Flying | Can only be blocked by creatures with flying or reach |
| Trample | Excess damage after assigning lethal to the blocker goes to the opponent |
| Deathtouch | Any damage it deals is enough to destroy a creature |
| Lifelink | You gain life equal to the damage it deals |
| Haste | Can attack the turn it enters |
| Vigilance | Does not tap when attacking |
| Menace | Cannot be blocked except by two or more creatures |
| Hexproof | Cannot be the target of your opponents' spells or abilities |
| Indestructible | Is not destroyed by lethal damage or by destroy effects |
There are also three kinds of abilities: static (always active), activated (you pay a cost, written as "cost: effect") and triggered (they begin with "when", "whenever" or "at the beginning of").
What changes in Commander
Commander is the most popular multiplayer format and adds its own rules:
- Exactly 100 cards, no repeats apart from basic lands, and a commander that starts in the command zone.
- 40 life and, normally, four players.
- Colour identity: you can only include cards whose colours are within your commander's.
- Commander damage: 21 combat damage from a single commander eliminates a player.
- Commander tax: each time you recast it from the command zone it costs {2} more.
Common beginner mistakes
- Spending mana without thinking about what you will have available to respond on your opponent's turn.
- Attacking with everything without checking whether one block could leave you without creatures.
- Forgetting summoning sickness, or believing that a card cast in the second main phase can attack immediately.
- Treating "destroy" and "exile" as the same thing. Exiled cards do not go to the graveyard.
- Not reading the card text. The general rules have exceptions, and the card always wins.
Where to check the official rules
The definitive source is the Comprehensive Rules published by Wizards of the Coast at magic.wizards.com. They are long and technical, so to get started this guide and the first-game sheet are enough.
Once the rules are clear, the next step is having a deck of your own: if you want one designed for you, you can order a custom Commander deck from €32 or start with a custom Pauper deck if you prefer a 60-card format.
Content reviewed: 2 October 2026. Source: the Magic Comprehensive Rules by Wizards of the Coast.
