MAGIC

the gathering.

five colors, endless decks.

The first trading card game — and still the deepest. It all comes down to five colors and how you bend them. Learn the plane, choose a format, chase the mythic.

▸ THE COLOR PIE

Every deck is a promise to one to three colors. Learn what each one wants and deckbuilding stops being guesswork.

Adjacent colors are allies; colors across the star are enemies. That one piece of geometry is the spine of every deck you'll ever build — and door one starts you on it.

WORDER~~ALLIES · U & G~~ UKNOWLEDGE~~ALLIES · W & B~~ BAMBITION~~ALLIES · U & R~~ RIMPULSE~~ALLIES · B & G~~ GGROWTH~~ALLIES · R & W~~

A slow vortex of luminous rune rings turning above dark water

Three doors.

LEARN · CHOOSE A FORMAT · CHASE. START WHERE YOU ARE.

A vast library plane of stone arches and staircases running at impossible angles, a shaft of cyan light falling through the middle

DOOR 01 · LEARN THE PLANE

Getting Started.

Thirty years of history, explained from turn one. Lands, the stack, the mulligan — without the nine-hundred-page rulebook.

▸How a turn actually flows
▸Your first deck on any budget
▸Reading a card's cost and colors

ENTER DOOR 01 →

DOOR 02 · CHOOSE A FORMAT

Decks & Formats.

Commander, Standard, Draft, Modern — Magic is really a dozen games wearing one name. Pick the table you want to sit at.

▸Commander vs Standard vs Draft, plainly
▸Building your first real deck
▸The format that fits your budget

ENTER DOOR 02 →

A domed stone chamber with a round black table at its centre and five archways around it, each pouring light of a different colour

A black-rock vault wall set with shelves of amethyst crystals, one shard burning orange at the centre

DOOR 03 · CHASE THE MYTHIC

Sets & Chase Cards.

Which sets are worth cracking, which cards hold value, and how to chase a mythic without lighting money on fire.

▸Which sets are actually worth opening
▸Spotting reprints that tank a card's value
▸What a chase mythic really costs to pull

ENTER DOOR 03 →

Four players' hands around a lamplit game-shop table, cards, coins and counters spread between them

▸ FROM THE ARCHIVIST · IAN

"In a Commander pod the cards move as much as the games do. Trade up your whole collection if you want — just never leave someone feeling robbed. That's how you keep a table."

READ: HOW TO TRADE UP WITHOUT BURNING FRIENDS →

Essays on the game

IAN & POPPY ON MAGIC

A small campfire on a cliff ledge above a violet valley, the milky way overhead

IAN · ESSAY · LIVE How to Trade Up Without Burning Friends The pod trade, done straight. Ian on reading a table, pricing honestly, and walking away with a deal everyone still likes next week. READ →

POPPY · ESSAYSOON How to Enjoy the Hobby Without Chasing Every Chase IAN · ESSAYSOON How to Value a Magic Collection the Honest Way Thirty years of sets, reprints, and hype. What a shoebox of Magic is really worth — and what it isn’t.

◆ MORE ESSAYS AS THIS CHAPTER GROWS.