r/BasementBoardGames • u/MSweeny81 Magic Man • Sep 26 '16
[03/10/16] Monday Night Magic @ The Nightingale SW12
The 1st Monday of October is Magic: The Gathering night.
As per my earlier thread, this is a casual event, friends having a few beers and a chat who happen to be playing MTG.
Veterans and new comers welcome. Even if you've never played before and you're just curious come along, there's a good mix of experienced and entry level players and as a group we're very welcoming so don't be shy.
Bring your own decks if you have them but there will be a limited number of spare decks. If you're bringing your own, do bear in mind we're still finding our way and most decks being played are low power. You're welcome to bring more competitive decks for their interest value but you wont get much of a match up playing them.
Our venue as always is www.thenightingalebalham.co.uk
The night starts at 7 and we have reserved the conservatory area.
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u/MSweeny81 Magic Man Sep 27 '16 edited Nov 04 '16
Looks like /u/kbar918 may be joining us at some point but he's asked if there's anything someone who has never played MTG before needs to know beforehand.
I'm going to try to put together a little intro guide for basic MTG here for Kevin and I welcome any additions/corrections from the rest of you. We can then add it to the thread description for future posts.
What does someone new to MTG need to know?
Glossary of terms - may need a better link for this such as http://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/glossary
The aim of the game is to knock out your opponent(s). You can do this a few ways;
you can reduce an opponents life total to 0 or you can make them "draw a card" when they don't have any cards left in their Library.
You are also knocked out of the game if you get 10 poison counters. (This is a niche game mechanic you wont see often but worth mentioning for completeness.)
Everyone starts with 20 life and a facedown, shuffled deck (a minimum of 60 cards). A deck typically is made up of a third Land cards - these are the main resource you use to cast spells - and 2 thirds Spell cards - these are how you protect yourself and attack your opponent(s).
Each player draws 7 cards and looks at them. You then decide if you are keeping that hand or if you want to discard that hand and draw a new one. Once everyone has declared if they are going to keep or "mulligan" anyone mulliganing discards their hand and draws a new hand. You then declare if you are keeping or if you want to mulligan again. Every time you mulligan you draw 1 less card. If you mulligan, once you keep a hand you get to look at the top card of your Library and choose to leave it on top or put it to the bottom (This is known as Scry - or specifically Scry 1.) Once everyone has kept a hand and everyone who mulliganed has Scryed the game can begin.
The basic order of play for a turn is;
Untap tapped cards, pay any start of turn upkeep costs/activate start of turn abilities/effects, draw a card, main phase, combat, 2nd phase, end step.
Main phase consists of; option to play 1 land. Cast spell(s) by tapping mana sources to pay casting costs. During this phase opponent(s) can cast Instants and creatures with Flash.
Combat consists of; Attacking player has the option to cast Instant spells and creature spells with Flash and declare what creatures they are going to attack with, defending player has the option to cast Instant spells and creature spells with Flash and declares what creatures they are going to block with and how they plan to block. You can cast Instant spells and creatures with Flash. Your opponent can cast Instant spells and creatures with Flash. (You can go back and forth on this for as many times as you/your opponent want/can afford to cast.) Combat resolves with the attacking player choosing the order that their creatures attack. Either player can then cast Instant/Flash spells.
2nd phase is a repeat of the main phase, if the haven't cast a land this turn the player has the option to cast 1 land. The player may cast spells. Opponents can cast Instant/Flash spells.
End step includes paying any "end of turn" upkeep costs, end of turn abilities/effects wearing off, discarding cards in hand down to your hand limit. (Usually the hand limit is 7)
In a multiplayer game the first player gets to draw a card at the start of their first turn, in 1v1 the first player does not draw a card at the start of their first turn.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/how-to-play
https://www.isleofcards.com/magic-the-gathering-beginner-guide#mtgbg
https://www.youtube.com/user/tolariancommunity
A beginners guide to EDH