I’ve said it a ton over the last few weeks, but interest in Magic: The Gathering is at what feels like an all-time high. With the recently released Final Fantasy Universes Beyond crossover set, new players that may have never picked up a card are now inching ever so slowly towards one of the most addicting and time-consuming hobbies around. If you’re one of these people, or someone looking to dip your toes into the wonderful world of hundred-dollar cardboard, IGN has you covered with our Magic: The Gathering beginner’s guide.
Where to Start Playing in Person
For newcomers, the best place to start playing in person is with what we call “kitchen table” Magic. No formats, no banlist, no meta, just good old fashioned vibes. Find a starter kit you like, grab a friend, sleeve them up, and jump in. These starter decks are great ways to learn the rules. I’d also highly recommend picking up MTG Foundations, as this set is specifically designed with brand new players in mind.
Find in-person events and stores to play Friday Night Magic
Wizards Event Locator
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Now that you’ve learned the rules, found the colors you like, and learned a strategy that suits you, you probably want to move up to playing at a local game store (LGS) in your area. Your mileage will vary, as some stores’ player bases favor certain formats over others. But for the most part, many LGSs will run the Standard format as their primary Friday Night Magic (FNM) event. To find an LGS near you, use the Wizards Event Locator to enter your address and distance you want to check.
MTG Formats
Every store is different, and not everybody enjoys playing the same formats all the time. Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the most popular formats:
- Standard: This is the most entry-level 60-card, best-of-three format in Magic. You can use cards from the last two years, and cards will rotate out every Fall.
- Limited: Limited formats are 40-card events where you don’t show up with your own preconstructed decks. The two options are Booster Draft, where pods of eight players will open booster packs and pick a card one by one, passing their pack to the next player until three packs have been drafted. Sealed is where you get six booster packs, open them, and build your deck from this pool.
- Pioneer: Pioneer is the next step up in terms of power level from Standard. This format is non-rotating, and only cards from Return to Ravnica to current sets are legal. No supplementary sets are allowed, like Commander decks or sets like Modern Horizons.
- Modern: Easily the most popular format among competitive players, Modern allows you to use cards from Mirrodin onward, save for Commander deck cards. Direct-to-Modern sets like Modern Horizons are legal, and are big contributors to the format’s current meta.
- Legacy: Every Magic set is legal in Legacy, including Commander decks. This means it has some of the most powerful decks in the game, the most expensive, and is the most difficult to learn. If you’re starting out, you likely will not touch Legacy any time soon, if ever.
- Pauper: One of my personal favorite formats, Pauper is essentially Legacy Lite. Every set is fair game, but you can only use common rarity cards. Many of Legacy’s strongest cards are common, like Brainstorm and Ponder, so Pauper is a great format to learn when you’re curious about these interactions.
- Commander: Commander is the format most new and casual players are familiar with. Commander is a format where up to four players battle it out with 100-card decks, where each deck is built around their Commander (a Legendary creature of their choice). You can only build your deck using your Commander’s colors.
TCGPlayer Is a Great Place to Buy Cards
TCGPlayer is one of the biggest online TCG storefronts
TCGPlayer
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All Constructed formats have a list of banned cards to help balance out the meta and remove insane combos from their respective formats.
For the best place to pick up singles to round out your decks or find sealed product, I recommend Card Kingdom and TCGPlayer. These are the two biggest and most-trusted TCG vendors in the world.
Where to Start Playing Magic Online
MTG: Online
Buy, sell, trade, and play Magic with MTG Online
Magic: The Gathering Online
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Magic: The Gathering Online has been around for years, and is a pretty good translation of in-person play to this online client. You can play every format available in paper, buy, sell, and trade cards with other players, and it’s the best way to grind out games to practice or learn different strategies.
MTG: Arena
Sign up for Magic: The Gathering Arena for free
Magic: The Gathering Arena
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MTG: Arena is the most recent online Magic client, launching in 2019. Taking visual cues from games like Hearthstone, Arena is my preferred way to play the Standard and Pioneer formats – Modern, Legacy, and other older non-rotating formats aren’t present on Arena. You can still do booster draft and sealed, however. Arena also has a handful of its own bespoke, digital-only formats. Aside from Standard, Pioneer, and Limited, here’s what’s exclusive to Arena:
- Alchemy: This is essentially standard. It has the same rotation schedule and relatively the same card pool. However, Alchemy versions of preexisting cards have digital-only mechanics that wouldn’t be possible in paper, like Conjuring cards into your deck.
- Historic: This is a non-rotating format, similar to Pioneer, that leans way harder into the client’s digital only mechanics. Conjure, Seek, and giving cards perpetual buffs or debuffs are the main draw.
- Historic Brawl: Brawl is a less popular Standard variant of Commander, and Historic Brawl is exactly what you’d expect: Digital-only cards are available to build your Brawl deck with.
Where To Go From Here
There you have it! Everything you need to know to start playing Magic: The Gathering both in-person and online. Whether you’re the next best Pro Tour grinder or run the Commander tables at your LGS, there are countless ways to play and enjoy the most popular trading card game in the world. There are countless sealed products to buy and build your collection, and new sets are released every few months. For hardcore collectors, we’ve even helped track some of the most valuable cards to chase in the Final Fantasy Through the Ages collection. And if you’re looking for great gifts for that special Planeswalker in your life or interested in some of the best MTG accessories and supplies, check we’ve got a guide breaking down dozens of my personal recommendations.
Magic: The Gathering Accessories and Supplies
Myles Obenza is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Bluesky @mylesobenza.bsky.social.
