How to Play

Magic: The Gathering

2-6 players 20-20 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players become planeswalkers—powerful wizards dueling with customized decks built from thousands of collectible cards. Using lands to generate mana, players cast spells, summon creatures, and deploy artifacts to reduce opponents' life from twenty to zero. Strategic deck construction and tactical spell timing create deep gameplay despite random card draws.

Published 1993

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Shuffle each creature card deck (Level 1, 2, and 3) separately and place them in a column in the middle of the table in increasing order from bottom to top

Reveal 4 cards from each creature level

Shuffle the Planeswalker cards and reveal as many as there are players plus one (e.g., 5 cards for a 4-player game)

Shuffle the Player Deck and deal 25 cards face down to each player to form their Library

Place Basic Land cards in 6 distinct piles sorted by type within reach of players

Remove remaining unused cards from the game

Each player draws 3 cards from their Library

2-player variant:

Remove 3 Basic Land cards of each type (keep 4 each), don't touch Wastes, reveal 3 Planeswalkers

3-player variant:

Remove 2 Basic Land cards of each type (keep 5 each), don't touch Wastes, reveal 4 Planeswalkers

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

During one of your main phases, you must perform exactly one "Splendor Phase" action

You cannot have more than 10 Basic Land cards at end of turn (return excess to supply)

All Basic Land cards must be visible to all players

At upkeep, attach 1 Basic Land card to each creature and Planeswalker you control (max 1 per permanent)

Attached Basic Lands can be spent on casting creatures, Planeswalkers, or other spells/abilities

When a creature is cast or reserved from the middle, immediately replace it with a card of the same level

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