This table's not big enough for the both of us. (Magic: The Gathering in general)

Member Name: DaveAshton

Product:	Magic: The Gathering in general
Date:	31/10/09 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Massive selection of cards, endless deck customisation.

Disadvantages: Price of cards

Magic: The Gathering is a collectable card game, invented by Richard Garfield, and published by Wizards of the Coast. The game involves players using creatures and spells (which are represented by playing cards) to reduce their opponent's health to 0.

The game will start with each player (called a Planeswalker in-universe) having a deck of cards (called their library), and 20 points of health. Each library must contain at least 60 cards, and there can be no more than 4 cards the same (with the exception of Basic Land cards, see below for a decription of the card types). Each player draws 7 cards from their library to their hand, and the game begins.

Without going into the rules too much (there are far too many to list here, and a few aren't relevant for most games), at the start of each player's turn they "untap" any "tapped" cards (see the card type description bit), and then draw the top card from their library. They can then play up to one land card from their hand, and any other cards they can afford to play. Each card has a "casting cost (CC)", which is how much it costs the player to use the card. As a rule, you only pay the CC once, but there are exceptions with some of the more powerful cards.

After the player has played all the cards they want to from their hand, they can choose which creatures (again, see below) they want to use to attack the opponent. Any creature you attack with cannot block an opponent's attack on the following turn, so planning ahead is important.

Card types, and overview:

Basic Land cards: These are the source of your "mana", the in-game currency which you pay for your creatures, spells etc with. You can have any number of these in your library, but can only play one per turn. They all have a casting cost of 0, so they're free to play. When you "take" the mana from the source, you turn the card sideways (Tap it), so you know you've used it. Each basic land only gives 1 mana of its specific type per turn, so it's important to keep track of what you've used.

Creature cards: These are your friends, warriors, minions, slaves... whatever you want to call them. They come in all shapes and sizes, from weak rats and humans, to towering demons and angels. The more powerful the creature, the higher the CC will be, so a normal rat may only cost 1 mana point, but a near-invincible demon will cost nearer 10 mana points. It's up to you when you make your deck whether you want a few big creatures or just loads of little ones. Most creatures suffer from "Summoning Sickness", which means they come into play tapped and can't attack until the next turn. There are exceptions, though.

Sorcery cards: These are basic spells, with many and varied effects. Some will restore health, others will take it away. There are also cards which will (temporarily) turn your weak creatures into towering behemoths to sweep your opponent away in a deluge of destruction. As with creatures, the more powerful the spell, the higher the cost.

Instants: Instants work similarily to Sorceries. The only difference is that you may play them on your opponent's turn (if you have the mana left to do it).

Enchantments: Enchantments... well, enchant things. Some will make your creatures more powerful, others will restrict the kind of cards that can be played by your opponent.

Artifacts: These are usually items, which you can give to your creatures (such as weapons which give attack bonuses), but can also be creatures in their own right.


The Colour Wheel.

MTG uses a 5 colur system to keep the game balanced. Each colour represents a particular trait, and has its own specific Basic Land type.

White: White is the colour of law, order and justice. A traditional white based deck will contain a lot of weak creatures backed up by powerful angels. White also makes use of a lot of healing spells. The white basic Land type is Plains.

Red: Red is chaos and destruction. It makes use of a lot of destructive spells (such as fireballs), and like white has lots of small creatures, mostly goblins. The red basic land is Mountains.

Black: Black is the representation of death, fear, pestilence and greed. It is, like red, a destructive colour, and has no problem killing its own creatures to get the job done. Black contains vampires, zombies and the like. Black's basic land type is Swamps.

Green: Green respects life, and has lots of large creatures, and spells to make smaller creatures. Many green decks feature elves, as well as treefolk and the like. The green basic land is (predictably) the Forest.

Blue: Blue tends to be the thinking player's colour of choice. Blue mostly revolves around using spells to make your enemy do the work for you, be it redirecting harmful spells back at them, or turning their own creatures against their masters. Blue land is Islands.


I often play MTG against my fiancee (I use a Black / Red "Rakdos Guild" deck, she uses Green / White "Selesnya Guild"), and it's a great game. The rules are complex in places, so it's not great for young kids, but for teenagers onwards it's ideal. The only real problem is the cost of the cards. Ebay are a good source for them, though.

Obviously, with the size of the game I can't cover everything, so if you've got any questions about the game, send a PM and I'll try to help :)

Summary: Great game, with wide variety.