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This resource page contains useful tips which one can use to perhaps improve their skills and knowledge about Magic the Gathering.
Introduction
Many people have maybe heard about the game of "Magic the Gathering" or maybe "Star Trek" cards. If you are one of these I know it's very entertaining to play them during your free time. I have not played magic cards for quite a bit of time but nevertheless it is fun. Cards ranging from island mana to shivan dragons can make a huge impact on your deck. Be sure to test your decks against others if you are planning to play in a tournament.
For all those advanced Magic the Gathering card players please bear with me. For all you Magic the Gathering beginners and fanatics, you're in luck! I will give you a brief overview of this card game. The object of Magic the Gathering is to destroy your opponent. At the beginning of each game, each person starts off with 20 HP. To kill your opponent, you must do one or a combination of the following things: Cast spells which do damage such as fireballs, lightning bolts, etc, OR simply attack your opponent with creatures; these include creatures that are anything with 1/1 or other combinations of numbers. The number on the left hand side of the slash is the creatures power, or otherwords, how much damage the creature can do. The number on the right, is called its toughness, how much damage a creature can take. So basically, the number on the left is the creatures offense power, and the number on the right, is the creatures defense capabilities. There are many different types of cards: interrupts, instants, sorceries, creatures (start with "summon"), artifacts, enchantments, and lands. I also reccomend that you take the time to customize a simple yet effective deck. If you are a beginner and would like to have some suggestions, please click on the button(s) below.
Furthermore, if you have problems you may visit my forum/chatroom by clicking on the left link of my webpage. The chatroom is a place where you can meet others and ask each other questions.
Lands are perhaps in a way the greatest things. Without lands, most decks cannot function properly (almost all decks cannot function properly but there are exceptions such as black lotus but that goes into further detail). Lands are where you get the power to cast spells. If you have many lands, you can cast better spells. For example take the time elemental. The time elemental is a blue card because of its blue border (time elemental is actually pictured here). The time elemental has a blue tear drop and a number 2 next to it.
This represents how much mana it requires to be casted. The blue drop means you must have a specific land (in this example you must have an island mana), and the number 2 next to it stands for colorless, meaning any type of land can be used to fulfill this requirement.
So for example, you could use 1 island and 2 swamps, or 1 island and 2 forests, or 2 islands and a mountain, etc. There are other special lands, but for now, these are what you call your basic lands. Basic lands include: islands, mountains, swamps, forests, and plains.
Enchantments usually have a long lasting effect, unless destroyed. An enchantment's ability to help you greatly depends on what it does, because all enchantments have different effects. Enchantments, unlike lands, cannot be tapped. However some enchantments do require mana to carry out their abilities, for example take firebreathing. For each red mana you tap (mountain in this case), your creature gains +1/+0. While the enchantment itself does not require mana to maintain, its ability does. Also, there are enchantments which require mana to maintain, but no mana to function. One such enchantment is statis, which requires 1 blue mana every turn to maintain its effect. Its effect does not require mana to function however. NOTE: Players must be cautioned before playing a statis beause it affects both players. Some enchantments require upkeeps, for example, statis. To learn more about upkeeps, phases, and color descriptions I recommend clicking on the button below for more help.
Artifacts always require colorless mana, meaning that they can be casted through any type of mana. Artifacts can come in many forms, such as artifact creatures, mono artifacts, or continuous artifacts. Artifact creatures are exactly like creatures except they are also artifacts, meaning they can be destroyed by anything that says "target artifact is destroyed" (example: shatter). Some artifacts, like ivory tower are continuous artifacts, meaning they are in effect every turn, unless tapped. Other artifacts are what we call mono artifacts, meaning that they tap themselves to carry on their function, or in otherwords, can only be used once a turn unless a card alters this ability.
Perhaps the easiest thing to get rid of is creatures, although not always. Some creatures are very difficult to kill if they are extremely strong. Creatures are mainly used to deal damage to your opponent by saying "I attack." When attacking, this is called your attack phase. During your attack phase you must declare all creatures you will be attacking with at one time, unless a card alters this. While attacking, your opponent may defend himself by blocking. Blocking does not tap a creature, however, attacking does. Your opponent can only assign one of his creatures to block once. But, he may block your creature with 2 of his in order to kill yours. Although most creatures are used to kill, some have other abilities, such as the samite healer for example. Sure people attack with this poor guy but sometimes you might want to prevent a damage with him by "tapping" him. For those of you who do not know what tapping is, click on this button below.
Next to interrupts, instants are the fastest type of spell in the game. Along with interupts, it is the only spells which can be casted during the enemies turn. This is critical since some creatures are extremely strong and you have no blockers to block with. Instants may be able to help you, such as a fog for example. Instants also come in a variety of effects, such as aiding your creatures or healing yourself (healing salve).
The name interupts isn't given to just any old card. Interrupts as their name suggests, "interrupt" a process. For example if you are playing blue, a counter spell (which is an interrupt), counters a spell from being in play. A spell is referred to as any card with the exception of lands. They are the fastest type of spell and can therefore even counter an instant, or another interrupt. For example, a counterspell can counter a disenchant (instant) or even counter another counter spell! Like instants, they can be casted during your opponents turn.
In addition, I also have a lot of information for new beginners. There are many abilities which a creature might have, yet these abilities are found in revised cards. For those of you who have legends, ice age, fallen empires, or other expansions such as the mirage or tempest, there are many more abilities such as flanking and shadow for example. These abilities apply to revised cards only. This will help you to understand special abilities and concepts of magic. Please click on the follow ability below which you would like to know more about:
Please email me if you have any information or anything related to the subject of Magic the Gathering.
There are many expansion sets such as legends, ice age, fallen empires, mirage, chronical, and so forth. To find out a lot more about these, and also gold cards, as well as other related topics, please click on the link below:
I would like to Learn more about Expansion Sets
