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[Materials] - To play a Magic game with physical cards, you'll need a Magic deck, a friend with a deck, and something to keep track of your life total. OR, to play Magic Online, you'll need a Magic Online account and a virtual Magic deck. [But, you can play a free trial after aquiring the software]
[Object] - Reduce your opponent's life total to 0 before your opponent does the same to you! You also win if your opponent has to draw a card when none are left in his or her library. Also, if you gather 10 poison counters on your opponent's board.
[Getting Started] - You start the game with 20 life. Roll dice (or flip a coin) to see which player gets to choose who goes first. Whoever goes first skips their first draw step [that player doesn't get to draw a card (the turn structure will be explained more later)]. If you've just played a game, the loser of that game decides who goes first. Next, shuffle your deck. Then, draw the top seven cards from your deck. If you don't like your starting hand, you can mulligan. When you mulligan, your hand is shuffled into your library and you draw a new hand of one less card. You can do this as many times as you want, but you draw one less card each time. Once both players are satisfied with their hands, the game starts.
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[Card Name] - A card's name appears in the upper left corner. When a card's name appears in its text box, it refers to only that copy of the card, not others in play, unless specified.
[Mana Cost] - Each symbol in the upper right corner is part of the cost to play that spell. If the mana cost reads   , you pay two white mana (from a Plains Land for example) plus three mana of any kind/color to play it.
[Type Line] - This tells you whether the card is an artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, or sorcery. If it's a creature, its creature type (Such as Angel, Dragon, Soldier, etc.) appears next to the word "Creature." If it's the kind of enchantment that attaches to another card, it will read "Enchantment - Aura," and the kind of permanent it can attach to is listed in the text box. [See Card Types for more details on each card type.]
[Expansion Set/Rarity] - This symbol tells you which Magic expansion the card is from (For example, the Ninth Edition expansion symbol is  ) The color of the symbol tells you the card's rarity: Black for common cards, Silver for uncommons, and Gold for rares.
[Text/Function Box] - This is where a card's abilities (or function) appear. Abilites are the special functions of that specific card. Some abilities have italic reminder text to help you remember what the function of that named ability is.
[Flavor Text] - Flavor text sometimes appears under the Text/Function Box; it's the text in italics that tells you something about the Magic world. Flavor text has no effect on game play, it's just there for your enjoyment.
[Power & Toughness] - Only creature cards have the special box with power and toughness values. You use these numbers to figure out which creature wins in combat. [Tip-Think of power as "attack" and toughness as "defense."]
[Collector Number] - The collector number makes it easier to organize your cards. For example, "43/350" means that the card is the 43rd of 350 different cards.
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Also known as "mechanics," some creatures have abilities that aren't fully explained on the cards. Some cards have reminder text that briefly describes the ability's effect. Also, some of these "mechanics" defy or contradict the original game rules, that's why they are on the card. Here are some common creature abilities/mechanics.
[Defender] -Creatures with defender can't attack. They make excellent blockers and usually have high toughness.
[Double Strike] - A creature with Double Strike deals both first strike damage and then regular combat damage
[Fear] -A creature with fear can't be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or black creatures. Fear only matters when the creature with the ability is attacking.
[First Strike] -Creatures with first strike deal their combat damage before creatures without it. When you reach the combat damage step, check to see if one or more attacking or blocking creatures have first strike. If so, an extra combat damage step is created just for them. The extra combat damage step works just like a normal one, except that creatures without first strike don't get to deal their combat damage. After this, go about the normal combat step, if any creatures survived.
[Flying] -A creature with flying can only be block by other flying creatures. Flying creatures can also block non-flying creatures.
[Haste] -Creatures with haste are unaffected by summoning sickness, meaning they can attack or play their cost abilities the first turn of them being in play.
[Landwalk] -Plainswalk, Islandwalk, Forestwalk, Swampwalk, and Mountainwalk are all basically the same thing. If a creature with landwalk is unblockable if the defending player controls at least one land of the specified type. In addition, land walk abilites to not cancel each other; Meaning, a creature with Swampwalk can't block another creaure with Swampwalk.
[Protection] -Protection is an ability that protects a permanent from certain kinds of spells or abilites. A creature with protection from a color cannot be the target of Auras of that color, Spells or Abilities of that color, and is also unblockable against creature's of the specified color.
[Regeneration] -Regeneration helps keep creatures from being destroyed. A creature with regeneration usually has a mana cost associated with its regeneration ability; If the creature were to be destroyed through combat or any other spell or ability, the regeneration cost could be paid, and the creature would remain in play with all/any enchantments, equipment, or counters on it, and all damage is removed from it.
[Trample] -Trample is a creature ability that lets the creature's extra damage be assigned to the defending player when it's blocked. You must of course have enough power/toughness to destroy the blocking creatues first. For example, if a 3/3 creature blocked a 8/8 creature with trample, then the 3/3 would be subtracted, and the rest of the damage (in this case 5) would be dealt to the defending player.
[Vigilance] - Creatures with vigilance don't tap when attacking.
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