Not Demonic New Age Spells

Ok, I teach you how to cast a spell. But I mean in the game of magic the gathering, not those white magic or black magic new age stuff. Those are demonic. Never have anything to do with them. If you had relationship with that kind of things, find a spirit-filled Christian church and get an anointed people to deliver you in the name of Jesus. Above all, receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior.

How to play a spell

Now back to Magic The Gathering. Once you have mana in your mana pool, you can use it to cast a spell. Spells include sorceries, instants, enchantments, artifacts and creatures.

There are some limits to when you can cast a spell. For sorceries, creatures, artifacts and enchantments, you can cast them during any of your main phases. But there must be no cards on the stack. In contrast, you can cast an instant any time during the game.

You can only cast a spell card from your hand. When you want to do so, take out the desired one and put it on the stack. Make sure your opponent can see it clearly. All the spells casted go to the stack zone first.

When you choose what spell cards to play, you should have made up your mind about what effect of the card to use or what target to hit and also the strategy behind. Once the card goes to the stack, you will tell the opponent about some of the choices you made. For cards with multiple effects to choose from and printed text “choose one”, you will tell the opponent which one you chose. For instants, sorcery or aura spells that are directed to a target, choose the victim. Some spells are used on the player, some on creatures and some on permanents like lands.

Target

When you are playing a spell that targets, pay attention to what requirements it states on the card. Some may require the target to be specific like “green permanent” or “red creature”.

A spell can only take effect on targets that means the requirement. You will tell your opponent what target you choose when you play the card on the stack. And after you have done so, you cannot change your mind. So do so carefully and consider the whole picture. What effect does it make, how does it affect the opponent, what possible action will he make against it, etc. Try to predict what would happen. And make sure it has a high possibility for the target to remain legal when your spell resolves. Legal meaning the target still exists and meeting the requirements of the spell. Otherwise, your spells will be countered and does nothing more than wasting itself.

Just like money in Monopoly, Mana is required to do almost anything in Magic the Gathering.  On the upper right corner of a Magic card, you will find symbols indicating the amount of Mana required in order to cast the spell.  It also tells you what color of Mana you have to pay, White, Black, Blue, Green, Red or Colorless(represented by a number).

Tapping

When a permanent is used for the turn, it is turned sideways to indicate the fact.  This action is called Tapping.  When a card is tapped, you can’t use it until it has been Untapped (turned upright again).

You tap a card when you use a land to make mana.  Some cards have the ability to tap opponent’s permanents to prevent them from being used.

Every card is untapped at the beginning of your turn.

Producing Mana with Land

Almost all the land can produce Mana of a certain color.  When you want to produce Mana for your use, you tap a land and add one Mana of the specified color to Your Mana Pool.  Some cards would have the ability to produce Mana, too, which would be clearly stated in their Text Boxes.

Any Mana produced only last for one phase of a turn.

Distribution of Mana

Now you know how to produce Mana, you have to think about the amount of each color of Mana should be produced.  Every spell you cast requires you to pay Mana of a specific color or colorless or a combination of colors.  A Red card usually needs more Red Mana, but sometimes it requires other colors too.  When you build your own deck, you would probably focus on using Magic cards of one or two colors.  So that you could have to inherent advantages of the color of Mana.  Like Red Mana, it usually wins by acting quickly, destroying and burning along the way to gain quick victory.  Many of its creatures have the ability of Haste which allow them to attack first.  That way you must prepare more Red Mana for your own use.  Mana distribution and the combination of cards can be very tricky and do some really clever strategies.  You would learn more able it as you play and grow in the Multiverse, planeswalker.