Alright so this is the article of the basics in MTG, for those whom are new to the game and the like, let us begin with the run down of the list of things you'll see more then likely come when you play the game Mana Cost, Creature Type, Card Types such as instant and sorceries, Legendary Creatures, Converted mana Cost, Power/Toughness, so let's go.
Mana Cost - This means how much mana you have to pay, what is mana, it's a source that comes from the lands you play such as Forests, Islands, Mountains, Swamps and of course Plains, each has it's own source and different symbol, each symbol is of course listed on the land card, but each card you play may or may not have different symbols, so let's say you have 2 plains on the field and have Wall of Omens in your hand it's costs are 1 colorless which is anything and 1 plains to cast from your hand, you pay the 2 plains as a cost by tapping them of course and place the card on the field, boom you now have your first creature, mana costs can vary from card to card, some being large and some being small, keep that in mind while the game continues on.
Creature Type - There are lots of different tribes out there in magic the gathering some of the most apparent are vampires, Goblins, Kithkin, Merfolk, Treefolk, and many more, each is listed on the middle of the card telling you what it is and if it's a creature at all, there are some spells that are for one tribe of creature and use that to gain advantage throughout the game, each though is very different as there are dozens of types of creatures and spells out there to play in general, focusing a deck around one of them, preferrably one your used to is not a bad idea.
Instants - Now it's pretty much as the name implies, this means this kind of spell can be played at any point in the game, provided you have the mana cost to play it, more commonly this is placed on counterspells or things that effect the game in the long run such as Cancel and Mana Leak to name a few of the cards in which are most commonly used after the latest core set's release, though there are instant speed cards of each colour, most don't end up lasting more then 1 set sometimes it would appear, except for a few interrupt type abilites.
Sorceries - These are the card types that can only be played during your turn, there are usually a lot of these types of cards from each new set printed for the various colours such as Assassinate and of course Blood Tithe just to name a few of them, of course they all have various effects that take place in game, as well as different mana costs in general, they are one of the 4 essential keys to deck building of course, along with instants, creatures and your landbase.
Legendary Creature - this is of course is it's own rule, it means only one of the same kind of card can be on the field, this goes for planeswalkers which of course i will be discussing later on in the article, or the same type of creature, let's say you have a Doran, The Siege Tower and your opponent decides to play one of his own, now the legendary rule comes into play meaning they both are destroyed upon the second one hitting the field, same goes for any other legendary out there in the game today, if you want to read more on the legendary ruling and such, go ahead, since creatures sometimes end up having a legendary sub text in the middle of the card they are printed on, not all the time, but there is usually 2 or 3 cards that have the legendary keyword printed on them per set most occasions.
Converted Mana Cost - Now this means the total cost of a creature let's say you have a Hellcarver Demon to cast it's casting cost is 3, black, black, black, which would total up to 6 because 6 mana is needed to cast this creature and play it on the battlefield, normally converted mana costs are just totalling up the main cost altogether printed on the top right hand of the card you are using or cards if your playing, it's very simple to understand.
Power/Toughness - Most of the time this is printed on only creatures, actually all the time, with the power of one creature being on the left on the bottom right hand side of the card and the toughness directly after it on the right of that portion of the card, now there are mechanics out there to improve the power toughness of creatures you cast so don't fret, sometimes their original power/toughness can be altered in a big way or for a single turn in some cases with cards such as Overrun and Giant Growth let's provide a example of a creature say you possess a Grizzly Bears and use a giant growth on it, let's look at the basis power/toughness first it's power is 2 and it's toughness is 2 as listed on the bottom right hand side of the card, giant growth merely gives it another 3 points to each category for a single turn meaning you'll have a 5/5 power/toughness grizzly bears in play and usually that's a key point to attack, however when the toughness of a creature reaches zero it's sent to the graveyard straight away, no questions since toughness is it's life total and power represents how much damage it is going to do in general.
Planeswalkers - This is the final thing i wanna touch on in this article, these are powerful spell casters in which you can call to your side, each one has 3 unique abilites, some of them even have 4 unique abilites, 2-3 easy casting abilites and one ultimate ability which shifts the game in a general direction for a turn or two depending of course how you use them Let's look at a planeswalker as a example of in the form of Ajani Goldmane now each planeswalker has a casting cost like a spell, however they are considered permanents on the field and as such are treated as one, they can be attacked, they cannot block and are considered legendary creatures in their own right, this one has two basic abilites, +1 gives you 2 life points to add to your total and the other -1 put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control and they gain vigilance till end of turn, now their ultimate ablites depend on the colours you play so for instance this is white, so it focuses on life gain as well as giving creatures power boosts, others do various other colour effects which change the game state dramatically some of the time, Goldmane's ability is -6 you get to put a avatar token with it's power/toughness being your life total, you'll also note the number on the bottom it's the loyalty counters it has, if it reaches zero it's removed from play, it's basic really when coming to use planeswalkers.
Well that's all for this article, hope the sub text and that provides some basic insight into the world of magic and all that, till next time later.
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