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Magic The Gathering Buyer's Guide
Magic The Gathering (aka MTG) has been on the market for almost 30 years and is the world's most famous collectible card game. Maybe you played it ages ago or just discovered it recently through a friend? With so many products, it is easy to get lost. If you are unsure where to start, this guide is for you.
The Basics
MTG is a competitive card game. As a player, you incarnate a powerful wizard who draws magic (called 'mana') from the lands around him to summon creatures to his side and cast tons of spells at his opponent. The duel generally ends when a player drops to zero hit points or when his deck (called 'library') runs out of cards.
In Magic The Gathering, there are 5 schools of magic, each with their specialties:
- Black: use mana from swamps to summon undead creatures, destroy things, steal life, bring back creatures from your discard pile (called 'graveyard').
- Blue: use mana from islands to summon aquatic creatures and djinns, counter spells, control creatures from your opponent or put them to sleep.
- Green: use mana from forests to summon elves and big creatures from the forest, grow your magical energy, and cast powerful enchantments.
- Red: use mana from mountains to summon goblins and fast creatures, cast fireballs and shock bolts.
- White: use mana from plains to summon angels and flying creatures, gain life, and clear the play area (called 'battlefield').
To play, you will have to create your own deck from a huge selection of cards.
Some decks specialize in a single school of magic and are called Mono Red, Mono White, and so forth by players.
Dual-color decks are very common and are given special names by players: Azorius (white/blue), Boros (red/white), Dimir (blue/black), Golgari (black/green), Gruul (red/green), Izzet (blue/red), Orzhov (white/black), Rakdos (black/red), Selesnya (white/green), Simic (blue/green).
Three-color decks are less common and also have their own nicknames: Abzan (white/black/green), Bant (white/blue/green), Esper (white/blue/black), Grixis (blue/black/red), Jeskai (white/blue/red), Jund (black/red/green), Mardu (white/black/red), Naya (white/red/green), Sultai (blue/black/green), Temur (blue/red/green).
You don't have to remember all these names! Decks using four or five colors are legal but nobody plays them.
Sets
Every three months (more or less), Wizards of the Coast will release a new Magic The Gathering set. Each set contains about 250 different cards and has its own theme and special mechanics. Here are a few examples:
- Innistrad: Crimson Vow is a set about vampires with special double-sided cards that flip if it's day or night
- Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty is about cyberpunk samurai and ninjas that can make surprise attacks with Ninjutsu.
- Streets of New Capenna is about five crime families fighting for power and includes many multicolored cards.
Each set is a limited print run. Once the products are sold out, there are no reprints. That is why old Magic cards have such a high value for collectors!
When creating your deck, you can mix cards from multiple sets, but not necessarily all of them. It depends on which format you will play.
Formats
There are many ways to play (called 'formats') Magic The Gathering. If you intend to play at your local store, check which one if the most popular before buying anything.
Standard is the preferred format for competitive tournaments. In Standard, all games are 1 vs 1. Your deck must contain at least 60 cards and you cannot put more than 4 copies of the same card. Standard is a rotating format: you can only use cards from sets that were released in the previous 2 years or so. Check this link for the updated list.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/standard-formats-magic-gathering
Commander is an epic format that can be played with 2 to 6 players. Your deck must contain at least 99 cards and every card must be unique. Your deck must also feature a Commander, a legendary creature or Planeswalker that you can cast anytime. You can use cards from any set in Magic’s history.
Modern is a nonrotating format featuring cards from the Mirrodin set (2003) and forward.
Pioneer is a nonrotating format featuring cards from the Return to Ravnica set (2012) and forward.
There are many more formats like Brawl and Pauper. Most of them will determine which sets you can use. To learn about all formats, check here.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/rules-and-formats/formats
Booster Packs
When a set is released, many different products hit the shelves. Boosters are the most important ones.
A booster is a sealed pack of cards. The cards inside are randomized, so you never know what you will get. That's why nothing more exciting than cracking a Magic booster open!
There are four types of boosters:
- Draft Boosters have existed since the beginning of Magic the Gathering and were simply called "boosters". They are made of 15 cards of various colors and rarity.
- Collector Boosters are the most expensive boosters, but they contain more foil cards, alternate art cards, and rare finds.
- Set Boosters have been introduced in 2020 and are somewhere between Draft and Collector boosters.
- Theme Boosters are made of 35 cards of a single color. Most players (and shops) avoid them because they contain less rare cards.
Every booster pack is part of a set and will only contain cards from that set. For example, Theros Beyond Death is a set of 254 different cards. If you open a Theros Beyond Death draft booster, you will get 15 of those 254 cards.
Some Magic cards are more rare than other. Inside a draft booster, you will find: 1 rare or mythic rare card, 3 uncommons, 10 commons, and 1 land. There is also 1 ad card/token card.
Other Products
Apart from boosters, you will see a few other products. Here's a list with a short description.
- Pre-release Packs normally contain 6 draft boosters and are sold before the launch of a new set.
- Bundles normally contain 8 set boosters and 40 lands. They are great for new players.
- Commander Decks are pre-constructed decks to play Commander format. There are many different ones.
- Planeswalker Decks are pre-constructed decks to play Standard format. None have been released recently.
- Challenger Decks are pre-constructed decks to either play Standard or Pioneer format.
Playing Magic the Gathering
The easiest way to learn Magic is to head to your local store and have a staff teach you. Head to the official website to get an overview of the rules.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/magic-gameplay
Last updated: June 2022.
