Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “New Player Resources”
Time Spiral Remastered is coming out soon, and many longtime Magic players are having flashbacks to fifteen years ago. Today, we’re talking about a Time Spiral block mechanic called… well, flashback! What is Flashback? Flashback is a graveyard mechanic that you’ll find on instant and sorcery cards. When a spell with flashback is in your graveyard, you may cast it …
As you’ve learned to play Magic: The Gathering, you’ve probably familiarized yourself with the instant and sorcery card types. These spells have a one-time effect — on your turn, and maybe on someone else’s. But in the early days of Magic, there was a third spell type with short-term effects. Interrupts were like instants, but more powerful — you could …
Earlier in this series, we explained hexproof: a mechanic that prevents your opponents from targeting your creatures with their spells or abilities. In explaining hexproof, we alluded to an older mechanic called shroud, from which hexproof evolved. But what is shroud, and how does it differ from hexproof? That’s what we’re here to talk about today! What is Shroud? As …
There are all kinds of creatures in Magic‘s Multiverse. Big creatures, small creatures; creatures you’d want to adopt as pets, and creatures you’d never want to cross on an interplanar journey. Some creatures in Magic are just downright frightening and intimidating. And, as with all things in Magic, there are ways the game expresses those qualities through mechanics. Today, we’re …
We’re just ten days away from the release of Kaldheim, and you’ve probably seen at least a few cards from the set already. Like most Magic sets, Kaldheim features a mix of new mechanics as well as some returning mechanics from further back in the game’s history. One of these mechanics is changeling — an ability that allows your creatures …
Some Magic keywords — like flying, trample, first strike, or deathtouch — have names that are pretty self-explanatory. But, as you dig deep into the history of the game, you find some pretty enigmatic entries. Take epic: a mechanic introduced in Saviors of Kamigawa. Sounds pretty impressive, but what does it do? Today, we’ll share what makes epic so — …
Last week, we introduced the suspend mechanic: an ability that lets you trade mana for time. When you suspend a spell, you exile it with a number of time counters on it and cast the card once all the time counters are removed. But suspend isn’t the only ability that uses time counters. There are some permanents in Magic that …
One of the most important skills to master in Magic is mana efficiency. Using as much of your available mana as possible each turn will allow you to have a big impact on the game, and it’ll serve you well in future turns. There are a number of abilities in Magic that allow you to maximize your mana efficiency — …
Last week in this series, we covered storm: a mechanic that allows you to copy spells and often win the game with them. But storm isn’t the only keyword that allows you to copy spells. This week, we’re learning about a little-known mechanic called ripple! What is Ripple? Ripple is a triggered ability that goes off when a card with …
We’ve covered dozens of Magic: The Gathering mechanics in this series this year. Over the past several months, we’ve helped new players understand the building blocks of Magic and the latest additions to the game’s lexicon. We even gave a lesson on banding! As we ring in the new year, we wanted to cover another Magic keyword that many new …
