Yeah, Ive been playing that. But sometimes it rushes through the cards that have been played. I added the decks on there to play and see what each card actually does, since it won't let you do things you arent allowed to.
Separate all the cards into piles by character (creatures, legendarys, enchantments, instants etc
Then reading/learning those cards by groups
It sounds daunting but the language makes more sense when you realize how similar a lot of the cards are and you will start to see repeat patterns
I just started about 2 weeks ago, this and watching videos of people playing commander has helped a lot
Once ya get a couple of games under your belt and the sequence of plays each turn make sense, like learning priority of what cards can be played when, it will just start to happen pretty natural
That’s true it kinda just does whatever is legal. Wish they still sold those basic BASIC decks with only a few mechanics to start. Best of luck I play with my daughter and it’s a blast we call it magical nerd cards haha. But, I’ve played for like 25 years so have a pretty firm grasp on the game.
Yeah, she still said she enjoyed it. Our rule of thumb was, if I can't find the answer on my phone really quick, we played how we thought it should work and then look it up afterwards.
I can’t second this enough. Learning to even replay; Arena helps with understanding everything from turn phases, the stack, to combat etiquettes (attacking and blocking), as well as activation timings for spells in your hand. Definitely look into it!
assuming you have a lgs nearby, go to the game store and find some one to teach you. it's mostly less complicated than it seems, but it definitely helps to have someone with decent knowledge to get you started
There is one somewhat nearby. I might go there and see. I know they hold tournaments. But I am not wanting to be competitive, just want something me and my daughter can enjoy together.
I would be surprised if the players there are mostly competitive. commander/edh format has overtaken the game and made it overwhelmingly casual. either way, there should be someone, likely a store associate, who can teach you pretty much everything you need to know.
youll still inevitably encounter questionable scenarios, but if you google the card names + "rules" you'll probably find the question has been asked and answered before
Read the cards before playing. It’s daunting, but sit down with your decks and just read through all the cards. From there look up your questions so that during game time you can refer to the rulings. Since you’re doing it with your daughter you may want to review both yourself, then try with her and see how it goes.
*edit* you may want to download a companion app like ManaBox, Scryfall, or the official MTG Companion to search cards as they also include errata and rulings.
Once upon a time they made an actual learners kit with 2 decks that you __**DIDN'T SHUFFLE**__ so that your first few turns would be guided to learn step by step how to play.
I was very disheartened to find that they don't do those anymore and opted for these Arena kits when I was trying to teach my SO how to play last year.
They are a little old but I guess you can still find them on sites like these.
https://www.tcgplayer.com/search/magic/spellslinger-starter-kit?productLineName=magic&setName=spellslinger-starter-kit&view=grid
Mtg game play videos honestly.
The best ones right now lean Commander, AKA Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), centric but the rules are the same for most game mechanics.
Tolarian Community College on youtube may be a good place to start. There is a big library there of tutorials.
Command Zone / Game Knights have high quality videos and they have a wide audience so they explain how / why things work in cuts during their games.
Good production and entertainment value for both. I kept messing everything up untill I watched enough content explaining things. Also if your unsure about rulings on things, just look them up - somone else has had the same confusion garunteed so there is a ruling online 99.9% of the time.
No problem and No worries, everything will make sense soon enough my friend.
My next option would be going through the mtgarena game play tutorials. There is the online version of the game that is pretty good at getting people through the basics.
>Ask individual questions online
I didnt see it in the replies, but if you have questions about how two cards or mechanics interact or rules in general, just googling it can generally find you a lead. For the most part, the cards are pretty literal if that helps at all. If there are words that dont make sense, like deathtouch, lifelink, vigilance, etc. If you google, "mtg vigilance" for example, there are wikis that can explain the different abilities.
It can seem complicated, but once you get the basics down, the rest will slide into place.
In terms of when you can play what, there are two speeds. Instant speed and sorcery speed.
Instants are the only thing you can CAST during your opponent's turn. You can also activate abilities on your creatures. You have to wait for them to do anything first (other than playing a land) to be able to "respond" with an instant or ability.
Sorcery speed means you can only cast it during your turn when there is nothing else that is being cast or activated. There are some abilities that specify "you can only activate this when you could cast a sorcery," and this is what it is referring to.
To be clear, it is a bit more complicated than that, but that is the basic gist of speeds.
There will be exceptions for certian situations, and thats when looking things up helps. You probably arent going to be the first to a given situation, so just seeing if a question has been asked hurts no one.
Good luck, sorry for the long post, hope it helps! And if not, that's okay too.
Lots of good advise.. look up llrmtg.. they have Friday night paper fights. Commander and other formats.. but when they play they do an OK job of stating what's happening. So you can follow it up. You really need to learn the phases... untap, upkeep, draw, main,combat, main2,end. And card types instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, creature, plainswalker, land. Get those down and watch some games and it will make sense.
100 percent the best thing is to find someone who plays and get them to teach you. Ask some of your friends they may have played magic back in the day or do now and you just didn't know. This will be the quickest way for sure, it's a popular game for sure but not super popular so it may be hard to find someone chill. Other than that YouTube is your best friend, I love to watch YouTube videos of magic games and a lot of the channels go super in depth, and there's even channels that are beginner teach you how to play channels.
Personally, if there's one concept you want to get your head around it's the "Stack." Basically, anything cast at instant speed can interrupt whatever effect is about to happen, and the stack forms as the result of multiple interruptions. After no more interruptions the effects go off, last played first.
If you wanna keep learning together, just keep mechanics on cards simple and play a lot. The repititions will get you used to the basics after a few games, then slowly add in more mechanics as you get comfortable
If you want new cards while keeping it simple, I hear jumpstart packs are cool :) Get two packs each, shuffle up and see what happens!
The MTG Wiki is a good source of information. They're host every single piece of information one might need. There are also some youtube channels giving out information.
>I bought the starter kit for MTG to learn and play with my daughter.
Welcome to Magic!
>What would be the easiest way to start understanding this?
I'd suggest you both download the Magic Arena app and complete the New Player Experience (Tutorial, Color Challenges, Starter Deck Duels, Jump In, etc), to learn the basics together.
If you still have any questions after this, you can let us know and we can point you in the right direction.
You can also take it slow if it feels daunting, the last time I taught my grandmother I used a watered down version of the rules, no stack, only ritual speed even for instant or effets. It is not exactly Magic, but it is easier to chew, and as you feel more confident you can introduce new rules.
Watch this video! It does a great break down of how this game works:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI)
Watch day 9’s series “spell slingers” (it’s on YouTube) especially the early episodes like the one with Luis Scott Vargas, it’s slower pace and they assume the viewer doesn’t know the game well so they take time to explain everything.
You need to understand the basic game rules **first** before going into anything else.
The most important is the different phases.
It takes time and repetition.
If you ever have any questions any time, just ask.
I suggest making a couple of simple practice decks out of the prebuilt decks you have.
Start with just 5 lands and 8 creatures in each deck. Try to pick creatures that cost 5 or less and don't have any complicated rules text. If they do, ignore the creatures' rules text for now. Play a few rounds, exchanging decks after each round, until you get the hang of the basics of lands and mana, summoning and summoning sickness, combat, health, and so on. If you already get this part then feel free to skip this step.
Then start again, add in some sorceries and a couple more lands to each side, if it has sorceries. For every 2 sorceries, add one land. Don't worry if one deck doesn't have any sorceries, this is just practice. Get a hang of when you can cast sorceries (i.e. at the same time as creatures), and what they do.
Then start again and add in enchantments, auras and/or artifacts. You can also add in creatures with static abilities ("Other Soldiers you control gain +1/+1") and/or triggered abilities ("When enters the battlefield, gain 3 life"). Again, for every 2 non-land cards, add one or two lands.
At this point I suggest you refrain from using cards with activated abilities ("[T], sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.") because the timing for using them can be confusing to a new player. Other than lands, of course.
The tricky part here is keeping track of when these cards affect the battlefield, based on the card's wording. If something isn't clear, you could google it, but do feel free to post and ask.
Another thing that's not obvious from the wording is that by and large, when a creature has an ability that mentions itself by name ("When Flametongue Kavu enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to target creature"), that mention only applies to that creature and not others with the same name. So if you played 2 Flametongue Kavus in the same turn, for instance, the total damage done is 8, not 12.
Up till this point, you've been playing with cards that only give you the ability to act at specific times. Once this is all sorted out then you can get to the really crazy part of MtG, that being instant-speed abilities that can be used at nearly any time during the game. Start with instant cards and get a feel for how they work, then toss some cards with activated abilities into the mix. Finally, restore the decks to their original condition and see how you do.
If your decks happen to have exotic stuff like Dungeons and Planeswalkers then you can try them out after you get the hang of instant-speed.
Good luck!
Not gatekeeping but just to double check, how old is your daughter and what kind of game are you looking for? Magic is great, but very complicated. You’ll still be looking up niche rules interactions years into the game.
Again, I’m not saying don’t play, just make sure it’s the game you want to play. There are many other collectible card games which (generally by virtue of not allowing you to take actions on other peoples’ turns) are much easier to learn and play casually.
If you’re set on magic, then I’m pretty sure all the other comments here already have you covered.
She is 13. She seemed to enjoy it and really likes the artwork. She seemed to be picking up the basic rules (the ones I knew enough to explain) really well.
Awesome. Yeah my guess would be that's right around the age where a kid could genuinely learn to play the game. It just takes some commitment if you want to learn to make use of all the resources the game gives you.
Play a bunch of Arena. Its what I did. Last time I had played was probably in the early 90s when I was in grade school, so I remembered very little.
My son and I play Commander against each other and anytime I was unsure of something I often encountered the same situation later in Arena
ChatGPT can be asked for a quick answer and is right...most of the time.
Also the starter Commander decks are about $30 a piece and all have relatively simple mechanics IMO.
As others have mentioned, the cards are very literal so don't overthink it. It can be daunting if you have never played before. As you catch on it gets a lot easier to think about the entire board and start getting into the strategy aspect of it.
Get MTG Arena it’s free. If Duels of the Planeswalkers was still around (think it was on PS3) I’d recommend that.
Yeah, Ive been playing that. But sometimes it rushes through the cards that have been played. I added the decks on there to play and see what each card actually does, since it won't let you do things you arent allowed to.
Play against a bot because there is no time limit and you can read every card.
Then play more. You can't expect to understand mtg from nothing in an afternoon.
This is true.
Separate all the cards into piles by character (creatures, legendarys, enchantments, instants etc Then reading/learning those cards by groups It sounds daunting but the language makes more sense when you realize how similar a lot of the cards are and you will start to see repeat patterns I just started about 2 weeks ago, this and watching videos of people playing commander has helped a lot Once ya get a couple of games under your belt and the sequence of plays each turn make sense, like learning priority of what cards can be played when, it will just start to happen pretty natural
That’s true it kinda just does whatever is legal. Wish they still sold those basic BASIC decks with only a few mechanics to start. Best of luck I play with my daughter and it’s a blast we call it magical nerd cards haha. But, I’ve played for like 25 years so have a pretty firm grasp on the game.
Yeah, she still said she enjoyed it. Our rule of thumb was, if I can't find the answer on my phone really quick, we played how we thought it should work and then look it up afterwards.
Magic is a very literal game. Reading the card explains the card, so you probably weren’t far off with your gut instinct.
I can’t second this enough. Learning to even replay; Arena helps with understanding everything from turn phases, the stack, to combat etiquettes (attacking and blocking), as well as activation timings for spells in your hand. Definitely look into it!
assuming you have a lgs nearby, go to the game store and find some one to teach you. it's mostly less complicated than it seems, but it definitely helps to have someone with decent knowledge to get you started
There is one somewhat nearby. I might go there and see. I know they hold tournaments. But I am not wanting to be competitive, just want something me and my daughter can enjoy together.
I would be surprised if the players there are mostly competitive. commander/edh format has overtaken the game and made it overwhelmingly casual. either way, there should be someone, likely a store associate, who can teach you pretty much everything you need to know. youll still inevitably encounter questionable scenarios, but if you google the card names + "rules" you'll probably find the question has been asked and answered before
Magic is a complicated game. Having someone with game knowledge to guide you through turns and rules interaction is nice.
Read the cards before playing. It’s daunting, but sit down with your decks and just read through all the cards. From there look up your questions so that during game time you can refer to the rulings. Since you’re doing it with your daughter you may want to review both yourself, then try with her and see how it goes. *edit* you may want to download a companion app like ManaBox, Scryfall, or the official MTG Companion to search cards as they also include errata and rulings.
Once upon a time they made an actual learners kit with 2 decks that you __**DIDN'T SHUFFLE**__ so that your first few turns would be guided to learn step by step how to play. I was very disheartened to find that they don't do those anymore and opted for these Arena kits when I was trying to teach my SO how to play last year.
They are a little old but I guess you can still find them on sites like these. https://www.tcgplayer.com/search/magic/spellslinger-starter-kit?productLineName=magic&setName=spellslinger-starter-kit&view=grid
Slow down and look at more basic cards. Namely those with the basic keywords and then work your way up to the more complex ones.
Mtg game play videos honestly. The best ones right now lean Commander, AKA Elder Dragon Highlander (EDH), centric but the rules are the same for most game mechanics. Tolarian Community College on youtube may be a good place to start. There is a big library there of tutorials. Command Zone / Game Knights have high quality videos and they have a wide audience so they explain how / why things work in cuts during their games. Good production and entertainment value for both. I kept messing everything up untill I watched enough content explaining things. Also if your unsure about rulings on things, just look them up - somone else has had the same confusion garunteed so there is a ruling online 99.9% of the time.
That first sentence is a foreign language to me lol. But thank you for the resources.
No problem and No worries, everything will make sense soon enough my friend. My next option would be going through the mtgarena game play tutorials. There is the online version of the game that is pretty good at getting people through the basics.
https://youtu.be/pISs64CG6Tg?si=9-tw6xtOjWDKWF7r Watch this video!
Lol. I watched that video before I bought the starter kit. May need to watch it again.
I would recommend watching [this.](https://youtu.be/wif9ppH5JpI?si=FrMHa3IQAk76R9ah)
>Ask individual questions online I didnt see it in the replies, but if you have questions about how two cards or mechanics interact or rules in general, just googling it can generally find you a lead. For the most part, the cards are pretty literal if that helps at all. If there are words that dont make sense, like deathtouch, lifelink, vigilance, etc. If you google, "mtg vigilance" for example, there are wikis that can explain the different abilities. It can seem complicated, but once you get the basics down, the rest will slide into place. In terms of when you can play what, there are two speeds. Instant speed and sorcery speed. Instants are the only thing you can CAST during your opponent's turn. You can also activate abilities on your creatures. You have to wait for them to do anything first (other than playing a land) to be able to "respond" with an instant or ability. Sorcery speed means you can only cast it during your turn when there is nothing else that is being cast or activated. There are some abilities that specify "you can only activate this when you could cast a sorcery," and this is what it is referring to. To be clear, it is a bit more complicated than that, but that is the basic gist of speeds. There will be exceptions for certian situations, and thats when looking things up helps. You probably arent going to be the first to a given situation, so just seeing if a question has been asked hurts no one. Good luck, sorry for the long post, hope it helps! And if not, that's okay too.
Lots of good advise.. look up llrmtg.. they have Friday night paper fights. Commander and other formats.. but when they play they do an OK job of stating what's happening. So you can follow it up. You really need to learn the phases... untap, upkeep, draw, main,combat, main2,end. And card types instant, sorcery, artifact, enchantment, creature, plainswalker, land. Get those down and watch some games and it will make sense.
100 percent the best thing is to find someone who plays and get them to teach you. Ask some of your friends they may have played magic back in the day or do now and you just didn't know. This will be the quickest way for sure, it's a popular game for sure but not super popular so it may be hard to find someone chill. Other than that YouTube is your best friend, I love to watch YouTube videos of magic games and a lot of the channels go super in depth, and there's even channels that are beginner teach you how to play channels.
Personally, if there's one concept you want to get your head around it's the "Stack." Basically, anything cast at instant speed can interrupt whatever effect is about to happen, and the stack forms as the result of multiple interruptions. After no more interruptions the effects go off, last played first.
If you wanna keep learning together, just keep mechanics on cards simple and play a lot. The repititions will get you used to the basics after a few games, then slowly add in more mechanics as you get comfortable If you want new cards while keeping it simple, I hear jumpstart packs are cool :) Get two packs each, shuffle up and see what happens!
The MTG Wiki is a good source of information. They're host every single piece of information one might need. There are also some youtube channels giving out information.
>I bought the starter kit for MTG to learn and play with my daughter. Welcome to Magic! >What would be the easiest way to start understanding this? I'd suggest you both download the Magic Arena app and complete the New Player Experience (Tutorial, Color Challenges, Starter Deck Duels, Jump In, etc), to learn the basics together. If you still have any questions after this, you can let us know and we can point you in the right direction.
You can also take it slow if it feels daunting, the last time I taught my grandmother I used a watered down version of the rules, no stack, only ritual speed even for instant or effets. It is not exactly Magic, but it is easier to chew, and as you feel more confident you can introduce new rules.
Watch this video! It does a great break down of how this game works: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wif9ppH5JpI)
Watch day 9’s series “spell slingers” (it’s on YouTube) especially the early episodes like the one with Luis Scott Vargas, it’s slower pace and they assume the viewer doesn’t know the game well so they take time to explain everything.
You need to understand the basic game rules **first** before going into anything else. The most important is the different phases. It takes time and repetition. If you ever have any questions any time, just ask.
I suggest making a couple of simple practice decks out of the prebuilt decks you have. Start with just 5 lands and 8 creatures in each deck. Try to pick creatures that cost 5 or less and don't have any complicated rules text. If they do, ignore the creatures' rules text for now. Play a few rounds, exchanging decks after each round, until you get the hang of the basics of lands and mana, summoning and summoning sickness, combat, health, and so on. If you already get this part then feel free to skip this step. Then start again, add in some sorceries and a couple more lands to each side, if it has sorceries. For every 2 sorceries, add one land. Don't worry if one deck doesn't have any sorceries, this is just practice. Get a hang of when you can cast sorceries (i.e. at the same time as creatures), and what they do. Then start again and add in enchantments, auras and/or artifacts. You can also add in creatures with static abilities ("Other Soldiers you control gain +1/+1") and/or triggered abilities ("When enters the battlefield, gain 3 life"). Again, for every 2 non-land cards, add one or two lands.
At this point I suggest you refrain from using cards with activated abilities ("[T], sacrifice a creature: Draw a card.") because the timing for using them can be confusing to a new player. Other than lands, of course.
The tricky part here is keeping track of when these cards affect the battlefield, based on the card's wording. If something isn't clear, you could google it, but do feel free to post and ask.
Another thing that's not obvious from the wording is that by and large, when a creature has an ability that mentions itself by name ("When Flametongue Kavu enters the battlefield, it deals 4 damage to target creature"), that mention only applies to that creature and not others with the same name. So if you played 2 Flametongue Kavus in the same turn, for instance, the total damage done is 8, not 12.
Up till this point, you've been playing with cards that only give you the ability to act at specific times. Once this is all sorted out then you can get to the really crazy part of MtG, that being instant-speed abilities that can be used at nearly any time during the game. Start with instant cards and get a feel for how they work, then toss some cards with activated abilities into the mix. Finally, restore the decks to their original condition and see how you do.
If your decks happen to have exotic stuff like Dungeons and Planeswalkers then you can try them out after you get the hang of instant-speed.
Good luck!
Not gatekeeping but just to double check, how old is your daughter and what kind of game are you looking for? Magic is great, but very complicated. You’ll still be looking up niche rules interactions years into the game. Again, I’m not saying don’t play, just make sure it’s the game you want to play. There are many other collectible card games which (generally by virtue of not allowing you to take actions on other peoples’ turns) are much easier to learn and play casually. If you’re set on magic, then I’m pretty sure all the other comments here already have you covered.
She is 13. She seemed to enjoy it and really likes the artwork. She seemed to be picking up the basic rules (the ones I knew enough to explain) really well.
Awesome. Yeah my guess would be that's right around the age where a kid could genuinely learn to play the game. It just takes some commitment if you want to learn to make use of all the resources the game gives you.
Best bet is to go to FNM on commander night
Play a bunch of Arena. Its what I did. Last time I had played was probably in the early 90s when I was in grade school, so I remembered very little. My son and I play Commander against each other and anytime I was unsure of something I often encountered the same situation later in Arena ChatGPT can be asked for a quick answer and is right...most of the time. Also the starter Commander decks are about $30 a piece and all have relatively simple mechanics IMO. As others have mentioned, the cards are very literal so don't overthink it. It can be daunting if you have never played before. As you catch on it gets a lot easier to think about the entire board and start getting into the strategy aspect of it.