The Ludarium · Teach sheet
Teach Magic: The Gathering in ten minutes
2 (Commander: 3 to 5, usually 4) players · About 20 minutes a game; Commander about 20 minutes per player
The goal: Bring your opponent from 20 life to 0 before they do the same to you.
On your turn
- Untap everything you control, then draw a card.
- The first player skips their draw on turn one.
- Main phase: play up to 1 land and cast creatures and sorceries.
- Tap lands for mana to pay each card's cost, top right corner.
- Attack with untapped creatures you have controlled since your turn began.
- The defender chooses blockers. Creatures deal damage equal to their power.
- Second main phase, then end your turn. Over 7 cards in hand? Discard down to 7.
- Instants can be cast any time you have priority, even on others' turns.
Three tips for your first game
- Play a land every turn you can.
- Before you attack, check what your opponent can block with.
- Read each card aloud the first time it hits the table.
Setup
- Each player takes a deck. Two Beginner Box theme decks shuffled together make one.
- Set both life totals to 20. Pick who goes first.
- Shuffle and draw 7 cards. Your deck is now your library, face down.
- Mulligan: reshuffle, draw 7, put 1 on the bottom per mulligan taken.
Scoring
- Unblocked attackers deal their damage to the defending player's life.
- A creature with damage at least equal to its toughness is destroyed.
- Damage on creatures wears off at the end of every turn.
- Unused mana empties at the end of each step and phase.
Game end: A player loses at 0 life, when they must draw from an empty library, or at 10 poison counters. The last player standing wins.