Catching Up On Magic - Part 1

I've heard a lot of stories over the Internet about this issue, and most of them tend to pan out the same. If I mention Magic: The Gathering, a large number of people will say they used to play, and some will say they'd like to get back in the game, but there's too much to learn.

I say there isn't too much to learn: it just hasn't been written down in one comprehensive primer focused on the exclusive task of getting Magic veterans back on track. That's where I come in. This series isn't short, and it isn't simple, but it should give you all the foundation you need to build a netdeck and show up at FNM and start learning in earnest. I will cover the new Magic rules (don't worry, the core is still the same!) the sets and mechanics in Standard, the types of cards that are powerful now, the state of the metagame, staple cards that you should get a playset of, and how to draft both the current set and the core set. (Why draft the core set? You'll find out later in the series)

So grab a drink, settle in for a nice read over the next week or two, and prepare to get back up to speed on the greatest game on earth.

New rules

Firstly, a lot of old mechanics have been keyworded. Oldies like Flying, First Strike and Trample are now matched with:

Lifelink. Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life.

Reach. This creature can block creatures without flying as though they had flying.

Deathtouch. Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a creature, destroy it.

Flash. You may play this creature at any time you could play an instant.

These are all existing mechanics: they've just received easy-to-use keywords.

Changes made with M10:

Mana burn is no longer existent. Mana empties after each step (so for the savvy among you, you can no longer float mana during your upkeep to your draw step) and does not cause you any damage when it does so. This almost never actually becomes relevant, but it's worth knowing anyhow.

Blockers are now ordered. If you attack with a 5/5, and your opponent blocked with a 3/3, a 1/1 and a 1/1, you stacked 3 damage on the 3/3, and 1 on each 1/1. If your opponent had a Giant Growth he saved his 3/3 and your 5/5 still died. Now things have changed slightly.

After your opponent declares blockers, you now order these blockers in whichever way you like. Essentially, it's like you're putting them in a line. Once you've done so, your opponent can play combat tricks. How is this relevant? This actually provides more depth to the game. Imagine the following scenario:

Old rules. You attack with a 5/5. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You assign damage, he uses Giant Growth to save his guy.

Old rules. You attack with a 5/5. You know he has a Giant Growth in his hand. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You assign damage, he uses Giant Growth to save his guy. It's exactly the same.

New rules. You attack with a 5/5. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You order them: 3/3, 1/1, 1/1. He uses Giant Growth on his 3/3. You now have a 6/6 blocking you first. You must assign lethal damage (similar to Trample, but the extra damage spills over to the next blocking creature). You assign 5. None of his creatures die, but yours does.

New rules. You attack with a 5/5. You know he has a Giant Growth in his hand. He blocks with a 3/3 and two 1/1's. You order them: 1/1, 1/1, 3/3. He uses Giant Growth, but however he uses it, his 2 1/1's will die.

On the other hand, if he has a card to give a creature +1/+1 or +2/+2, you've made the wrong choice, since his 3/3 is still alive. So it's up to you to determine what tricks he may have, and to order blockers accordingly.

Feel free to read over that section a couple more times until it sinks in. It's fairly complex.

Deathtouch does not follow this rule. A creature with Deathtouch can split it's damage however it wants. This rarely comes into play though, because how many people are stupid enough to double-block a creature with Deathtouch?

Lifelink is now a static ability, not a triggered one. What that means is, under the old rules, if your opponent attacked you with 3 2/2's, and you blocked with a 3/3 with Lifelink when on 3 life, you would take 4 damage, and die. Under the new rules, you gain 3 life and lose 4 at the same time, and you go to 2 life. You don't lose the game.

Some cosmetic changes:

In play zone = Battlefield

Removed-from-game zone = Exile

Spells are CAST, not played.

Activated abilities are ACTIVATED, not played.

Lastly, the biggest one: Damage no longer uses the stack. Once damage is dealt, there's no responding. Thus, all sacrificial effects must be completed BEFORE damage is dealt. All bounce effects: same deal. There's no more automatic 'block your 1/1, damage on the stack, sacrifice Sakura-Tribe Elder to get a land' play. Now you need to decide what's more important: his 1/1, or your land? You can only take care of one.

New sets

The current sets in Standard are: Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor, Eventide, Shards of Alara, Conflux, Alara Reborn and Magic 2010. Lorwyn, Morningtide, Shadowmoor and Eventide will all rotate out at the end of September.

Lorwyn is a tribal set, featuring the following tribes:

Faeries. Blue-black controllish creatures with Flash.

Giants. Red-white big creatures that start their costs at 4.

Goblins. Red-black sacrificial creatures. Aggressive and self-sacrificing to gain a benefit.

Kithkin. White with a tiny amount of green. The white weenie tribe. Small, efficient creatures that use tribal synergies to become more powerful.

Treefolk. Green with some white and some black. Mainly defensive, low-power high-toughness creatures.

Elementals. Red, with some cards in all the colors. Many have spell-like effects when they come into play.

Merfolk. White and blue controllish creatures with evasion and some milling capacity.

Elves. Black and green creatures: elves with actual removal! Also some discard.

Lorwyn has the following mechanics:

Tribal. Evoke. Clash. Champion. Hideaway. Changeling.

Tribal: Some non-land cards now have creature types. Confused? I would think so. Here's how it works:

Take Eyeblight's Ending.

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Eyeblight's Ending

2B

Tribal Instant - Elf

Destroy target non-Elf creature.

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Now let's take the card Lys Alana Huntmaster.

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Lys Alana Huntmaster.

2GG

Creature - Elf Warrior

3/3

Whenever you play an Elf spell, you may put a 1/1 Elf creature token into play.

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Lys Alana Huntmaster will trigger off every Elf spell you play: including enchantments, sorceries or instants with the Elf subtype. An Elf enchantment will count towards any card that counts the number of Elves in play, and can be championed.

Champion: Some cards in Lorwyn have the Champion mechanic, where you remove a card of the chosen creature type from the game in order to play a particularly powerful card. When the card leaves play, the creature that was Championed returns. A couple of fiddly rules about Champion:

Champion does not target. By the time you select which card to remove from the game, it's too late for it to be killed or bounced or anything: the ability is already resolving. The only way to stop Champion is to kill every eligible target before the ability resolves. This also means you can Champion a card with shroud.

You can kill the creature in response to the Champion trigger. This will prevent the champion from occurring.

Evoke: Some elementals have a comes-into-play effect, and also have an Evoke cost. An evoked Elemental is sacrificed once it comes into play. So why would you evoke it? The evoke cost is cheaper than the regular creature. Example:

Mulldrifter

4U

Creature - Elemental

When Mulldrifter comes into play, draw two cards.

Evoke 2U.

So if you don't have or don't want to spend 5 mana but still need two cards, you can evoke it. It will come into play, it's ability will resolve, you draw two cards, then it dies. Nothing fancy. Note: Evoking is a cost replacement. Therefore an evoked card can be countered.

Hideaway: This mechanic only appears on five lands, one of each color. When the land comes into play, it comes into play tapped. You look at the top four cards of your library, pick one, and put it beneath the land. When the condition is met, you may pay 1 mana of the appropriate color and tap the hideaway land to play the spell for free. This is used a fair amount in competitive decks, too.

Changeling: A creature with changeling is all creature types at all times. That means it is affected by all Tribal abilities, and is every creature type in Magic. There are many ways to use this ability, but the ability itself is simple.

Morningtide is also a tribal set, but based on class rather than race. The main races are:

White = Soldiers

Blue = Wizards

Black = Rogues

Red = Shamans

Green = Warriors

Morningtide has the following mechanics:

Reinforce, Prowl, Kinship

Reinforce X is an ability that appears on several cards. You pay the cost (which varies) and discard the card from your hand, and can put X +1/+1 counters on a creature at instant speed, with X being the Reinforce number, e.g Reinforce 2.

Prowl only appears on Rogue cards. When you deal damage with a Rogue (which is easy, as they are cheap, aggressive, and evasive) you can pay a lesser cost to play the card, often with an extra effect as well. This makes playing Rogues very cheap if you can keep hitting the opponent.

Kinship appears on several uncommons and rares. During your upkeep, you look at the top card of your library. If it shares a type with the creature with Kinship, you can reveal it, and an effect will occur, the effect varying on the card, anything from milling the opponent to playing the card for free!

Shadowmoor is a hybrid set. Hybrid mana can be paid using one mana of either color: e.g R/G can be paid for with one R, or one G. The tribes also shift colors:

Goblins: Red-Black -> Red-Green

Giants: Red-White-> Red-Green

Kithkin: Green-White-> White-Blue

Merfolk: White-Blue-> Blue-Black

Elves: Green-Black-> Green-White

Treefolk: Green-Black-White-> Green-White

Elementals: Five-Color-> Red-Black

Faeries: Blue-Black-> Blue-Black

Faeries are the only color that don't change. Shadowmoor has no tribal effects, but it does possess the creature types, so your Lorwyn / Morningtide decks can have more Kithkin / Elves / Goblins etc. in them.

The Shadowmoor mechanics are: Wither, Persist, Hybrid, Conspire and Untap.

Wither is a simple ability: it deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters. If the damage is prevented or redirected, so will the -1/-1 counters follow suit. However it does have interactions, such as stopping Persist.

Persist: If a creature with Persist dies without a -1/-1 counter on it, it comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it. So barring things like exiling it, or killing it with Wither, it's going to come back twice. This is a powerful Constructed mechanic, since it's automatic card advantage (usually).

Hybrid: Hybrid's already been explained. About half of all Shadowmoor cards are hybrid.

Conspire: When you tap two creatures that share a color with a spell with Conspire (fairly easy, considering the hybrid spells and creatures out there) you get to copy the spell. Note: this only works once. You can't copy the copy.

Untap: When you activate an Untap ability, you pay a certain amount of mana and untap your creature. The effect then happens. Note: the untap ability is a cost. If your creature is untapped, you cannot pay the cost, and therefore cannot activate the ability. So your creature has to be tapped in order to use the effect. Luckily there are lots of ways to tap things in Magic!

Eventide is the enemy-color hybrid set. It basically continues with many of the cycles in Shadowmoor.

The Eventide mechanics are:

Retrace: After this spell is put in the graveyard, usually by being played, you can essentially turn any land in your hand into that spell. Unlike some mechanics, this one can be done again and again as long as you have lands in hand and mana to pay the spell with.

Chroma: Chroma is a group of cards related only by the fact that they care about mana symbols. Other than that, they have nothing alike. They're a group, rather than a keyword.

To be continued...