Magic: The Gathering – Magic Origins

To begin, each player shuffles their 60-card deck and draws an opening hand of 7 cards. Players then decide whether to keep their hand or take a mulligan. A mulligan allows a player to shuffle their hand back into their deck and draw one fewer card, repeating this process if necessary. Once hands are decided, players roll a die to determine who goes first.

The primary objective of Magic: The Gathering is to reduce your opponent's life total from 20 to 0. This is typically achieved by attacking with creatures, casting damage-dealing spells, or through other card effects that cause loss of life.

Each turn follows a specific sequence: First, the active player untaps all their tapped permanents. Second, they draw a card from their library. Third, during their main phase, they can play one land card from their hand and cast any number of spells, provided they have enough mana. Fourth, they can declare attackers and block with creatures. Finally, the turn ends, and any damage marked on creatures is removed.

Players begin the game with 20 life. Damage dealt by attacking creatures or direct damage spells reduces a player's life total. If a player's life total drops to 0 or below, they lose the game. Some cards may also cause players to gain life, increasing their total.

A game of Magic: The Gathering ends when one of several conditions is met: a player's life total is reduced to 0, a player attempts to draw a card from an empty library, or a player accumulates 10 or more poison counters. The player who meets any of these conditions loses the game.