In Magic the Gathering, there are five mana colors of Magic which are in respect to five types of basic lands.  When a player tap a land, it gives you the kind of Mana it refer to and allows you to play spells.  Mountain gives Red Manna, Forest gives Green Mana,  Swamp gives Black Mana, Island gives Blue Mana and Planes gives White Mana.

There are many different card types: Artifact, Basic, Creature, Enchantment, Instant, Land, Legendary, Plane, Planeswalker, Snow, Sorcery, Tribal, World, etc.  I’m now going to talk about the few basic types:

Sorcery

A sorcery means a magical spell.  Only when you’re at a main phase of your turn can you cast a sorcery.  You should follow the instructions on the card (effect) and then put it in your discard pile (graveyard).

Instant

An instant is also a magical spell like sorcery, but you can cast is at any moment.  You can cast it during other’s turn or after someone has cast a spell.  You uses its effect and it goes to graveyard.

Enchantment

An enchantment is a permanent spell.  It is stable.  You can cast an enchantment during a main phase of your turn.  It is a permanent spell means that after you cast it, you turn it over and put it besides your land (on battlefield).  And then it has the effect that the card states.  An enchantment stays there until it is destroyed.

A special kind of enchantment is Aura.  It attaches to a permanent and has its effect on the permanent.  When the attached permanent is removed, the Aura goes to the graveyard also.

Artifact

An artifact is a magical object.  It is permanent which means it stays and affect the game.

A special kind of artifact is Equipment.  An Equipment can be attached to one of your creatures to give it advantages.  But unlike Aura, when the attached creature is removed, the equipment stays in the field.

Creature

You can summon a creature to fight for you.  Creatures are permanent.  They are able to attack or block during the combat phase.  Note that there are 2 numbers on the right lower corner of a creature card.  The first number is Power which represents the amount of damage it does during an attack.  The second number is Toughness which represents the amount of damage it can take in one turn before it is removed to the graveyard.  A creature can do whatever it does as long as it stays on the battlefield.

A kind of special creature is an Artifact Creature.  It is basically a combination of an artifact and a creature, hence whatever affects the two affect an artifact creature.

Land

Land is permanent.  You can play a land during your main phases while the stack is empty.  Also, you can only play one land per turn.  You’re required to pay mana in order to cast a spell therefore you need land to produce mana for you.

When a player tap a land, it gives you the kind of Mana it refer to and allows you to play spells.  Mountain gives Red Manna, Forest gives Green Mana,  Swamp gives Black Mana, Island gives Blue Mana and Planes gives White Mana.

Besides the above 5 basic lands, there’re many different kinds of nonbasic lands and legendary lands.

Planeswalker

You call on to other Planeswalkers as allies to fight with you.  Planeswalkers are permanents.  Planeswalkers can be very complicated to use but they can also be very powerful.  The first thing you need to know about planeswalkers are their loyalty counters which is represented by the number on the lower right-hand corner of the card.  For example, the +1 in the text means you can activate the ability attached to it and increase this planeswalker’s loyalty counter by one.  You could only do this during a main phase of your turn and only once in each turn.  A planeswalker cannot attack since he has no power.  When they take a certain amount of damage, their loyalty counters decrease with the same amount.  When their loyalty counters are consumed, they go to the graveyard.

What is Magic the Gathering?

Magic the Gathering is the oldest, largest and biggest trading card game in the world.  An addicting card game.

In the game, you become a “planeswalker” wizard who has magical powers and fight against other planeswalkers to win glory, conquest and knowledge.  The deck of cards in your hand represents the powers and weapons you possess, including your spells and the summonable creatures that fight for you.

Magic the Gathering is a trading card game which is a strategy game with collectible cards.  When you go buy a Magic booster pack, you will not know what’s in the pack until you open it.  And then you can trade with other players to get what you want and build up your collection and start the quest to build the most powerful deck of Magic the Gathering card in the world.

Every Magic game is different.  You design and build unique decks, find out new strategies, combo and combination of cards.  There are always now Magic expansions being released once in a few months which opens up new doors of opportunities to find ways to kick other planeswalkers’ asses.  The design is beautiful too.  This is something the Magic the Gathering Online can’t match.

The Colours of Magic

Next thing you need to know is the five manna colors of Magic.  While you’re building your deck and selecting suitable cards for your own styles and strategies,  it’s important to focus on taking advantage of the power of the manna colors

White:  Justice – order, equality, righteousness, healing, law, community, peace, absolutism/totalitarianism, and light

-strengths:  combinations of small creatures, protection with enchantments, gaining life, preventing damage to creatures or players, imposing restrictions on players; destroying artifacts and enchantments; and the ability to “equalize” the playing field; “First Strike” and “Vigilance”.

-weaknesses:  focus on smaller creatures, many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally.

Blue: Wisdom – intellect, reason, illusion, logic, knowledge, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water.

-strengths:  draw additional cards; take control of an opponent’s cards; get back cards; and countering spells.

-weaknesses:  weaker creatures; have to deal with played spells; most spells are reactive.

Black: Ambition – power, ambition, greed, death, corruption, and amorality.

-strength:  destroying creatures; forcing players to discard cards; bringing back creatures from the dead; sacrificial effects; “fearful” creatures.

-weaknesses:  unable to deal with enchantments and artifacts; sacrificial; difficult to remove other Black creatures.

Red: Chaos – freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare, lightning, the classical element of fire, and the non-living geological aspects of the classical element earth.

-strengths:  destroys lands and artifacts; graining great power by giving up resources; damages creatures or players; many different creatures; dragons; some creatures can gain power by hurting owner; trickery; steal opponents’ creatures for a short time; divert spell; creatures with “Haste” ability; quick victory.

-weaknesses: unable to destroy enchantments; many spells hurts the spellcaster himself; harder to last long in game; depends on chance.

Green: Nature – life, instinct, reality, evolution, ecology and interdependence.

-strengths:  a lot of giant creatures; spells to further strengthen creatures temporarily; able to destroy artifacts and enchantments; increases the life total of player; increases mana sources; produces mana even of other 4 colors; creatures possess “Trample” ability.

-weaknesses:  difficult to destroy creatures directly; lack flying creatures; limited options for gameplay

Magic the Gathering is highly addicting

It’s fun.  It’s full of tactics and strategies.  It has the flexibility to allow you to build your own deck and style.  The cards are beautiful which itself is worth collecting and trading.  It’s a greatly competive game which gives you the chance to beat your friends in their faces.  You can even bet real money on adventure games to win your next Magic booster pack.  Above all, it satisfies people’s imagination of possessing supernatural power.

You might check out local store for imformation or ebay to see if you can get a bargain!