Basics of Magic: The Gathering Quiz

Answer: Seven

At the beginning of the game, you draw seven cards. You can have any number of cards in your hand except for at one particular time: the end of your turn. What this means is that during your turn you can have more than seven cards in your hand, and you will not be penalized if you acquire more cards during your opponent's turn. However, at the end of your turn, if you have more than seven cards in your hand, you must discard cards until you reach seven.

Naturally, there are cards that counter this rule, in particular, the Library of Leng, an artifact that eliminates the maximum hand size. In Magic, if a card's ability/effect defies the regular rules, then that card has superiority. As we'll see later, there are many rules in Magic that are countered by certain abilities.

There are cards in Magic to counter almost every ground rule. This is a particularily extreme example (it counters the rules of winning): Transcendence says "You don't lose the game for having 0 or less life. When you have 20 or more life, you lose the game. Whenever you lose life, you gain 2 life for each 1 life you lost."

Answer: The total mana needed to play a card without regard to colour

Converted mana cost is the total amount of mana you need to use in order to play a spell. Usually this corresponds to the number of lands you need to tap, but lands are not the only source of mana in Magic.

For example, if a card's cost was one blue mana, and three of anything else, its mana converted mana cost would be four. Most cards will require that you pay one specific type of mana and then a certain number of any other kind of mana in order to play them. This last part that requires any type of mana to be used is just a light gray circle with a number in it.

Here are some more examples. If a card were to cost only two white mana, its converted mana cost would be two. Colourless aftifacts (which included all artifacts until the Alara set) just have their converted mana cost displayed as their regular mana cost.

Answer: Twenty

The standard way to play Magic is with a life total of twenty. This is not set in stone, though, and can be adjusted for longer games.

One interesting thing about the developments in Magic is the jump from being a two-player game to a two-or-more-player game. Here's an example:

The older card "Burning Fields" reads "Burning Fields deals five damage to your opponent", while the more recent "Breath of Malfegor" says "Breath of Malfegor deals five damage to each opponent".

Phrases like "target opponent" also started to pop up a while ago. Older cards such a Burning Fields should be read "target opponent".

Just because a card is old does not mean its abilities no longer apply. There is an old ability called Shadow that has fallen from use. Creatures with Shadow can only block or be blocked by other creatures with Shadow. Using old cards with forgotten abilities can sometimes give you an edge against unaware opponents.

Answer: Plains

You can only have four of any card with the same name in your deck, with the exception of basic land cards, of which you may have as many as you want.

There are five basic lands: Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. Each of these corresponds to providing white, blue, black, red, and green mana respectively. On the older cards, lands used to have an ability that said "Tap: add *blank* to your mana pool", where *blank* was the symbol of the mana being added. The newer land cards just have a large picture of the symbol of the type of mana they provide, but they work in the same way.

There are, naturally, non-basic land cards. Like all other non-basic land cards, you many only have four of any one kind in your deck, and they often have special abilities. However, the rule still stands that you can only play one land per turn, whether it is basic or not.

Answer: The defending player

During the combat phase of a player's turn, he/she may declare attackers. All attackers are declared at the same time. Next, the defending player may assign blockers. One creature can be blocked by multiple creatures, but one creature cannot block multiple attackers (unless otherwise stated).

There is an exception to this rule, as there is with every rule in Magic. A creature with the Provoke ability allows the attacking player to choose which creature blocks it. This can be quite devastating if the provoking creature has First Strike or Deathtouch, or if it is preventing a creature from blocking an attacker with Flying.

Deathtouch: Creatures that are dealt damage by a creature with Deathtouch are killed at the end of combat, regardless of damage received.

Flying: Creatures with Flying can only be blocked by other creatures with Flying, but can block both creatures with or without Flying.

Answer: Vigilance - Cannot attack

Vigilance is actually a new term for the old ability "Attacking doesn't cause this creature to tap". The name for being unable to attack is Defender.

It used to be that creatures of type "wall" could not attack. Naturally, all walls now have the Defender tag, but there are also a few non-walls that have this.

There is usually a new ability introduced in every new set, or sometimes an old ability is given a new term. All the abilities mentioned above have been around for a long time, and were just given new names to save space on cards.
Another example is Lifelink, where whenever the creature with Lifelink deals combat damage, you gain that much life.

Answer: When the target creature is summoned

Anything you play from your hand that has a mana cost is a spell. This is fairly straight forward when thinking of instants and sorceries, but also applies to enchantments, artifacts, and creatures. The "spell" part is when you play it, or rather, "summon" it. During this time, creatures and the like are vulnerable to being countered by instants from your opponent. Once in play, however, artifacts, enchantments, and creatures can no longer be countered (they can still be destroyed by other means).

Answer: The undrawn part of your deck

Your deck is referred to as your Library in game. This is where you draw a new card from at the beginning of each turn. You discard cards into your Graveyard, and things in play are now considered in the Battlefield.

The minimum and usual deck size is sixty cards, though there actually is no limit to the number of cards you can have in your deck. This does not mean it's a good idea to just take your entire collection, shuffle it together, and call it your deck. You should limit the cards you use in a deck to one or a few colours (though five-colour decks exist and work). You should also consider your ratio of land to creatures to other spells, and make sure it's a good balance. A deck with too few lands doesn't let you play anything, while a deck with few creatures does not defend you very well. A deck with few spells has only a few tricks it can use in emergencies, and can be predictable/easy to defeat.

Answer: You may only play one artifact and/or enchantment per turn.

Here are the phases that comprise one turn in Magic:

Beginning phase: First you untap all your tapped permanents, then you perform your Upkeep step (confined within the Beginning phase), where various effects take place, and finally you draw a card from your Library.

Main phase one: Here you can play spells (sorceries, instants, creatures, artifacts, or enchantments), and use abilities (creatures, artifacts, or enchantments) as long as you can provide the mana and have the cards in your hand to play. You may also play one land here.

Combat phase: You may declare attackers and your opponent may declare blockers. I'll discuss the mechanics of combat later.

Main phase two: After combat your turn is not over. This phase is identical to the first main phase. After this your turn ends, and you will have to discard cards from your hand if you have more than seven.

You may play a land either during your first or second main phase, but only one per turn.

Answer: It allows you to prevent a creature from being destroyed at all.

There always seems to be an awful lot of confusion surrounding the ability "Regenerate". If a creature has Regenerate, it is usually accompanied by a cost (mana or life). When that creature would normally be put into the Graveyard from play, you may pay its Regenerate cost and keep the creature in play without moving it to and from the Graveyard.

"Why does this matter?" you might ask. Well, some creatures benefit when creatures are put into the Graveyard (Scavenger Drake gets a +1/+1 counter every time a creature is put into the Graveyard from play). Also, Regenerate does not allow you to just return a creature to play at anytime from your Graveyard. It must be done when the creature would otherwise be killed.

If a blocking creature would be regenerated due to combat damage, the regenerated creature cannot re-enter combat, but the attacking creature it originally blocked is still stopped. Regenerated attacking creatures are also unable to re-enter combat, and their blockers cannot be reassigned for that combat step.

Answer: The Bloodbraid Elf would die

During combat, an attacker can be paired up with one or more blockers (if a creature is not blocked, it hits the player's life points directly). The attacking creature's power (first number) is compared to the blocking creature's toughness (second number), and vice versa. If the attacking creature's power is equal or greater than the blocking creature's toughness, then the blocking creature will be killed. When combat occurs, damage is dealt at the same time, which can result in either the attacking creature dying, the blocking creature dying, both dying, or neither dying.

If multiple blockers are assigned to one attacker, then the attacking creature's controller gets to decide how the creature's damage is spread across the blocking creatures.

First Strike, however, breaks this rule in doing what its name suggests. The creature with First Strike has its power compared to the other creature's toughness first. If the other creature would be killed, then the creature with First Strike would not be dealt damage.

In this particular case, the Deft Duelist's power (2) would be compared to the Bloodbraid Elf's toughness (2). This kills the Bloodbraid Elf before it can deal damage. If the Deft Duelist did not have First Strike, both creatures would have died.

If two creatures have First Strike, then combat is resolved as if normal.

There is another ability call Double Strike, which is quite nasty. A creature with Double Strike, like Marisi's Twinclaw, a 2/4, deals both First Strike damage and normal damage. If it hits a creature with a toughness of 2 or 1, then that creature would die instantly. If it hits a creature with a toughness of 3 or 4, then it would survive the initial First Strike damage and then be killed by the normal damage following, but it would also deal damage back to Marisi's Twinclaw.

If a creature with Double Strike faces off against a creature with First Strike, then the Frist Strike damage of each creature is resolved first like normal, and then the normal damage from the Double Strike is dealt if the other creature is still alive.

If a creature with Double Strike hits a player, then the player is hit twice, just like in regular combat, and thus loses life equal to twice the attacking creature's power.

Answer: Yes

Summoning Sickness is a creature's inability to tap on the turn it is played. This means it cannot attack or use activated abilities (abilities that cause the creature to tap). However, only creatures that are tapped cannot block, and thus recently summoned creatures can still block during your opponent's subsequent turn.

The ability that counters this rule is Haste. Noncreature artifacts and Enchantments are not affected by Summoning Sickness.

Answer: At any time during your main phase, when there is no other spell being played.

Sorceries can only be played during your main phase, and generally have stronger effects than instants. Instants can be played at almost any time: main phase, combat phase, and any time during your opponent's turn and they can also be played in reaction to an opponent's spell, having their effect before the other spell does.

They usually are cheaper in terms of cost, and often affect single creatures, giving them power/toughness bonuses, or special abilities until end of turn (good for combat).

Answer: Exile

Usually when a creature is killed, or a sorcery/instant is played, or an artifact/enchantment is destroyed, or a card is discarded it goes into the graveyard. One important thing about the graveyard is that certain cards (especially black ones) can return cards to play or to a player's hand from the graveyard. Thus cards started to be "removed from the game" to really get rid of them. Removed (Exiled) cards cannot be brought back under normal circumstances, and are usually lost from the game forever. However, there are some spells/abilities that exile cards and then return them.

For example, Endless Horizons allows you to remove any number of Plains from your library from the game and then you may return one of those cards to your hand per turn during your upkeep. This gives you a guaranteed source of land.

A more extreme example is the sorcery Dimensional Breach. When played, all permanents are removed from the game. At the beginning of each player's upkeep, he/she may return one of these cards to play. Your hand, library, and graveyard and their contents are not considered permanents, and are not removed.

Answer: 5

The real thing here is knowing what a "permanent" is and what is coloured, and what is colourless. Permanents are all cards that stay in play, such as lands, creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, but not sorceries or instants. Thus, we do not include spells played for this calculation. Next, we need to know what is coloured. The general definition of an artifact used to be "non-land colourless permanent", though that changed with the Shards of Alara expansion (released September 27, 2008). Lands are colourless even if they provide coloured mana and are not counted when adding up coloured permanents.

It should be noted that your library and graveyard and their contents are not considered permanents.