Casual Magic

This is where everything we’ve covered so far starts to come together. This video focuses on the combat phase of a turn and creatures you use to attack and block. The important part of your creatures to understand is the power/toughness numbers on the bottom right of the card. Power is the number of damage points your creature can deal, first number. Thoughness is the amount of damage it can take before going to the graveyard, second number. The cool thing about power and toughness is that those numbers can easily change. Maybe you want to make your creatures bigger and/or reduce your opponents guys.

The video does a good job of covering attacking and blocking.

Keep in mind you can play instants during combat, better known as combat tricks. Say your guy is smaller than your opponents creature but you are holding a giant growth. Attack with your guy, your opponent blocks, then declare, after blockers are assigned, “I play giant growth.” Making your creature bigger and badder. 

I read a good article on magicthegathering.com when I started playing about combat tricks and attacking/blocking. Link here.

One last aspect of the game I want to mention is Zones. Magicthegathering.com has a good Back to Basics section and here is a link to part one that covers game zones (scroll to the bottom). Game zones in a nutshell are different areas of the game where your cards reside. This is a conceptual place than an actual physical place on the table. It is pretty self explanatory except for the stack. The Stack can get complicated so don’t over think it right away. 

Next I’ll be back with my final post in this series. Learn to play Magic: The Gathering Part 6.