Summary of Play
Each player builds a deck of at least forty cards from his or her collection and plays that deck against the opponent's.

Each player begins by shuffling his or her deck and drawing seven cards. Players alternate taking turns. Your turn is made up of a series of actions, such as playing cards and attacking your opponent.

There are several types of cards you can play. Lands are the most basic, providing the magical energy you need to play all other cards. Creature cards represent creatures in play to fight for you, either by attacking your opponent or by fighting off her creatures. Other cards represent spells you can cast to hurt your opponent or help your creatures.

The basic strategy of Magic lies in choosing when to play your cards and when to use your creatures to attack your opponent or protect yourself. More complex strategies involve combining your cards to make them more powerful and choosing which cards to use in your deck to make it most effective.

Rulebook Construction
This rulebook is divided into four sections.

Section I: Learning the Game is intended as a tutorial, to bring the new player to the point where she can usually play without having to consult the rulebook. The first half of this section teaches the basics of the game: how creatures work, how to bring them into play, and how to fight with them. The second half of this section expands the rules, addressing the other types of spells, describing how less basic game mechanics work, and so on. Once a player is familiar with Section I, she should be able to understand most common and uncommon cards.

However, Section I often omits minor details of the rules it presents and occasionally contradicts the normal rules in the interests of accustoming new players to the game. Section II: Expanding Your Knowledge details most of the rules that are actually needed during play and corrects the omissions and simplifications in Section I. This section is presented more for rules reference than as a tutorial.

Section III: Exploring the Rules describes some of the nooks and crannies of the rules. Only the advanced player needs to know all of the rules in this section.

In Section IV: Game Support, you'll find the contact information for questions regarding rules, tournaments, and so on.

Following Section IV is a glossary of common terms. The first time any of these terms appears in the text, it's linked to its entry in the glossary.