Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game developed by Richard Garfield and first published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. In Magic, players represent powerful wizards who duel each other with summoned creatures and cast spells. The game has evolved over the years into its current form, which can be played by two or more players in person or online

As a player, there are two things I want to do every time I play Magic:

• Play the game.

• Have fun.

The second is more important than the first, but it's also not possible without being able to play. If you don't play, you don't get to win or have fun—and if you think this might be true for your group of friends, then it may be worth working out some ground rules about who gets to use what card at which time (or who gets to control which planeswalker). There's no shame in having house rules for your group of friends so that everyone can enjoy themselves and their evening together!

Deck building rules (Commander)

The Commander format is designed to let you play with a card that's special to you. This can be your favorite Magic card or one that represents something important in your life, but the most important part is that this card must be at least 100 cards and may only contain cards of your commander's color identity.

• Each deck must have exactly one copy of each card besides basic lands. This means no duplicates! If a card has an edition symbol (like ) or product code (like ), it's legal as long as there are no other copies of that card in your deck; if it doesn't have either, then it must appear exactly once in your entire 100-card list before any basic lands are added.

• You may only use cards whose colors match those listed on the top right corner of their cards—that is, they all share at least one color among them. The exception here is artifacts: although they're still colored black when used in games with multiple players (so they don't show up too much), artifacts aren't considered "colors" for purposes like this so they can be used freely without restriction by anyone who owns them!

• If any player wants to use another color besides green while playing Commander games online using Magic Duels - Match Play mode then both players will need access

Must have exactly one of each card in the deck, except basic lands.

You must have exactly one of each card in the deck, except basic lands. The difference between your main deck and sideboard is that you can have any number of basic land cards in your sideboard. You may also swap out one basic land for another at any time during a match to change which colors you will be able to play with during a game (known as "splashing").

Basic lands include: Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain and Forest

Deck must contain exactly 100 cards, including the commander.

You must have exactly 100 cards in your deck, including the commander. If you want to play a game with fewer than four players, or a multiplayer format where everyone starts with 40 life instead of 20, add remove some lands from your deck until it reaches the right number of cards.

You can also play Commander with more than one deck; each player gets their own Commander and reveals them simultaneously at the start of each game. This is called "Voltron" style multiplayer Magic: The Gathering (MTG).

Deck may only have cards of your commander's color identity.

Your deck must be a minimum of 60 cards.

Your deck may only have cards of your commander's color identity. If a card's color identity is outside the bounds of your commander's, you can't include it in your deck. For example, if I'm playing [MtG name redacted], I can only play cards with either white or blue mana symbols in their mana costs.

No duplicate commanders..You must choose a new commander if your general is destroyed.

You may only have one Commander, who has been chosen as your general. If your general is destroyed, you must choose a new commander from any of the colors of your previous commander (or any of the colors in its color identity). This card becomes your new General and takes up space in your 99 card deck.

You may have any number of basic lands in your deck.

You may have any number of basic lands in your deck.

Basic lands are the cards that can be found in every Magic deck, and they don't have a mana cost. This means you can play them without having to tap a land to pay for their cost. Basic lands also cannot be used to pay for mana costs, but they do count as part of your deck so that your library isn’t considered illegal when you shuffle it up and draw from it. Finally, all basic lands produce one color of mana; this is indicated on each card by the symbol for its color appearing on its border (it looks like this: ).

If a player's commander would be put into the graveyard, command zone instead and lose 2 loyalty counters.

If a player's commander would be put into the graveyard, it is instead put into the command zone and loses 2 loyalty counters.

A commander that’s been returned to the battlefield can be your commander again. You may use them as many times as you want for each game, but must choose a new one each time. You can choose any of your commanders to be your starting general if you wish, or simply make sure that you are ready to go with any of them at any time during a match!

Banned cards (Commander)

• Animate Dead and Necromancy

• Astral Slide.

• Braids, Cabal Minion.

• Damnation and Dread Return.

• Dig Through Time, Doomsday and Oath of Druids.

Animate Dead and Necromancy.

Necromancy and Animate Dead are banned in Magic The Gathering Commander, but not banned in Magic The Gathering Arena. They're also banned in Standard.

Astral Slide.

Astral Slide is an uncommon card that you can find in the Commander set. It's a sorcery, so it has a converted mana cost of 1. Its power and toughness are both 2/2, which means it's not very durable—but that may be just what you need to get rid of some problem creatures on your opponent's side of the table.

When casting Astral Slide, you'll flip five cards off the top of your library and put them onto the battlefield face down (one at a time). If they're creatures, they'll all be turned face up and enter their owner's graveyards as soon as they hit the battlefield. If they're spells instead, they'll stay flipped over until their controllers cast spells again or sacrifice them for some other reason (like drawing more cards).

Astral Slide doesn't have any abilities beyond letting you play with its five flipped-over cards immediately after flipping them up; however, this can still give you an advantage if those extra cards include an answer to one of your opponent's threats or something else useful to get onto the battlefield now—or even something useful later if one or more of those creatures happens to survive until then!

Braids, Cabal Minion.

• As a Commander:

• You may not play Braids, Cabal Minion as your commander.

• If a player begins the game with Braids, Cabal Minion in the command zone, that player loses. They also lose if Braids leaves the command zone during their cleanup step or by an effect of another card.

• As a General:

• You may not cast Braids as your general. If an opponent casts it for you, they win the game immediately (you don't get to play spells or abilities).

• Both as Commander and General:

• If this card is both your commander and general at any time, you lose the game immediately (you don't get to play spells or abilities).

Damnation and Dread Return.

Here are some quick facts about Damnation and Dread Return:

• They're banned in Commander.

• They're banned in Vintage.

• They're banned in Legacy.

• They're banned in Modern.

• And they are also banned in Standard!

Dig Through Time, Doomsday and Oath of Druids.

In addition to the banned cards, there are other cards that have been banned in specific formats. These include:

• Dig Through Time - Legacy/Vintage

• Doomsday - Legacy/Vintage

• Oath of Druids - Legacy

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, Griselbrand and Leovold, Emissary of Trest.

These Magic: The Gathering cards all share a unique quality in that they are all very popular and powerful, but they all have some glaring weaknesses as well. In this article, we'll look at these cards and see if there is anything we can learn from them.

A quick primer on what each of the cards do:

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - This card has an insane ability to take over games by itself because when you cast it you get to exile two other random permanents per player so long as you control enough lands. If your opponent doesn't have any creatures or planeswalkers for you to exile then their only recourse is removal spells which can be hard for them since Emrakul costs fourteen mana total! If they do manage to kill it though then you're going straight back up into your hand where it will be ready again next turn unless something else happens first...like one of these other cards!

Erayo, Soratami Ascendant - This guy has built-in protection from everything except artifacts which means he should usually get through unscathed even if his controller isn't playing fast enough for him (that last part may not apply here though since Erayo's controller gets punished pretty hard if they don't play fast enough). His second ability prevents anyone else from untapping their stuff until yours untaps first though which makes him great at locking down opponents' resources while also protecting himself at the same time; plus he gives himself hexproof so no one can target him with spells either!

Griselbrand - This card costs seven mana as opposed to fourteen so it costs less than Emrakul despite having similar abilities such as being able to draw seven cards instead of eight every turn until death takes its toll (again). Its drawback is being unable to block but since Griselbrand's power comes mainly from its life drain ability anyway then this isn't really much of a downside compared with how much value

Fastbond and Gush.

Gush is banned in Legacy and Vintage.

Fastbond is banned in Legacy, Vintage, Commander (EDH).

How to play Magic The Gathering

To play Magic: The Gathering, you'll need your deck, a 60-card minimum, which can be made from any cards in your collection and can contain no more than 4 of any one card. There are five colors (white, blue, black, red and green) as well as artifacts and lands that can be used to summon creatures to the battlefield.

Your goal is to reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0 using spells or creatures. Each turn starts with the player who goes second drawing their first seven cards into their hand and then drawing one card for each land they have on the battlefield. The active player taps their lands in order to produce mana (which is required to cast spells) before casting any spells or summoning creatures at all. This is known as “tapping” because it physically turns over the card so that it faces down—this indicates that you are preparing yourself mentally for battle! When both players have finished going through this process they proceed with combat between any creature(s) they may have in play until there are no attacks left unanswered by either side; then both players get another turn where they repeat this process until someone wins by reducing their opponent’s life total below 0

Magic The Gathering is a great game that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels. It's a fun way to spend time with family and friends, but it also teaches important skills like strategy and critical thinking.