The real rules2

[YotoMegachi32]

Does anyone know the real basic rules? I've asked around and I've got a myriad amount of answers.

[AKA:Battousai]

the game consists of different types of cards and spells and permanents:

Permanents:
Lands, Creatures, Artifacts, Enchantments(local and global)

Lands are known by 2 names: basic and non-basic, basic lands are plains, island, swamp, mountain, forest, and snow-covered lands from ~ice age~ also count as basic lands. Non-basic lands are any permanent that has land as one of its types, and is not a P,I,S,M,F. Lands are colorless permanents that are not spells and can tap the turn they come into play.

Creatures are permanents with a power/toughtness. Power is the ammount of damage it can deal to other creatures and other players you cannot attack your own creatures or yourself. Toughness is the ammount of damage they can be dealt before it is put into the graveyard. Lands and other permanents can be changed into creatures but if their implied toughness is equal to the ammount of damage they are dealt they will also be sent to the graveyard.
Creatures have types like artifact, and a variety of different species etc...

Artifacts are permanents that are colorless(unless stated otherwise on certain cards) these can be played using any color of mana(white, blue, black, red, green, colorless). Artifact creatures cannot tap or attack the turn they come into pay, but a non-creature artifact can tap the turn it comes into play. Artifact types are: artifact land, artifact, artifact creature, and mono-artifact(these are no longer used and were changed to just artifacts)

Enchantments are also seperated into 2 groups: local, and global. Local encahantments are those that say like: enchant land, enchant creature, enchant artifact, enchant enchantment, enchant permanent. Global enchantments are those that are stand alone permanents which don't have to be played onto another permanent. enchant worlds were an old enchantment that I doubt will ever be around again and were eventually changed to global enchantments.

Spells:
Sorceries, Instants, Mana source, Interupt, and all permanents played are spells except for lands.

Sorceries are spells that can be played only by the player whos turn it is. and only if there is an empty stack. When a sorcery is cast it is put on the stack and will resolve after any instants or abilities that were played after it during the same phase. The rule for the stack is Last in, First out. meaning the latest spell or ability on the stack will be the first to resolve and will go in the order of which they were last cast until the stack is empty again. Creatures and permanents are played as a sorcery

Instants are spells that can be played by any player anytime they have priority. Priority is given to every other player when any player puts anything on the stack. this is known as responding, or a fast effect. Priority is also given to every opponent first and if they choose not to take it then it is passed again to the active player meaning after your opponents have had their chance to respond, you can then fast effect your own spells. Also when multiple instants//abilities//triggered effects// are put on the stack simultaneously the player controlling them chooses what order they resolve in. Triggered abilities, Activated abilities, Instants, Interupts, and Mana sources all resolve at the same speed. depending on the First in, Last out rule.

Mana sources, and Interupts were originally different spell speeds which were used before the stack became the games way of Order. now they are all considered Instants.

Because I started talking about Triggered and Activated abilities I figured I would explain them also.

Triggered abilities are things that happen because something else in the game made it. This can be: change of phase, being targeted, a spell being cast, beginning of phases, during phases, when a player is dealt damage, when a creature is dealt damage, when a card is put into the graveyard, when damage is prevented, when permanents come into play, when a card is cycled, when a face down card is turned face up, etc... tons of little things make these happen.

Activated abilities are abilities that require you to either pay a cost to do them or tap a permanent to use that permanents ability. Certain creatures and permenents have abilities like Tap: ~this~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player. or (remove a +1/+1 counter: ~this~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player. These are both considered Activated abilities.

Cards:
White, Blue, Black, Red, Green, Multi-colored(gold), Atrifact, Colorless.

All cards have certain attributes such as: color(or colorless), type, name, casting cost, rarity, etc...

Misc...

as you can imagine in ten years this game has a lot of cards and abilities and rules for that matter to keep track of. once you understand certain rules the game gets a lot less confusing and also funner to play.

a few things to know.

Tokens are basically permanents that sit in play and are whatever put them into play says they are these can sometimes break some rules. but not most of the time.

Morph(you may play this face down as a 2/2 colorless nameless with a converted mana cost of 0 creature for (3). when you pay a morph cost to turn a card face up it doesn't give other players priority though the triggered abilities that some of them can do do.

Cycling is an ability that lets you discard ~this~ card to draw a new one. Some cards with cycling also do triggered abilities. these abilities are always first to resolve before you draw the card for cycling it.

Playing Lands. Lands are not spells therefore even though people do say I'll play this doesn't mean they are casting it and doesn't give other players priority.

Indestructible. These cards simply ignore certain effects that would normally destroy ~this~ sending it to the graveyard.

Lethal damage is the ammount of damage needed to send a creature to the graveyard. this will not kill an indestructible creature.

Destroy. This means whatever is destroyed is put into the graveyard. Sometime destroy is followed up by ~that~ can't be regenerated.

Regenerate. is an Activated ability mostly on creatures this ability can be played whenever(known as regeneration shield) meaning that when ~this~ would be destroyed regenerate it instead of putting it in the graveyard. When a permanent regenerates it becomes tapped and removed from combat.

Buried is an old word which means the same as destroy that and it can't be regenerated.

Also a rule to know is although you can respond to abilities and spells. killing or tapping the source it came from doesn't stop this ability from happening.

Hope this helps and any other questions will usually be answred very fast and will most likely be the correct answer.

[AKA:Battousai]

Continuation of above post.

during an active players turn. the turn is seperated into multiple phases.

Untap, meaning anything that is tapped untaps unless otherwise stated on the card.

Upkeep, this is when any costs for permanents and many Triggered abilities happen.

Draw, you draw your card and depending on other cards or permanents in play you can also do other things.

Main phase, this is when you can play sorceries and cast spells and put Lands into play(only 1 land a turn can be put into play.)

Combat phase,(divided into sub phases),

Declaring Attackers, this is when the active player announces his combat phase is beginning at then gives priority to any opponents. when priority is returned to you, you can then decide which creatures you are attacking with. Though you tap them seperately since you only have 2 hands, they all tap at the same time. tapping them at this point doesn't help the defending player. since he returned priority to you.

Declaring Blockers, this is when the defending player chooses which creatures he's going to block with if any. priority is also announced by the defending player giving the active player a chance to use abilities and cast any Instants. before the blockers are acually chosen.

Damage Prevention, I believe this happens before combat damage is dealt. This is when any spells or abilities that prevent damage happens. I also believe that anytime you are dealt damage you are given a damage prevention phase before that. but someone correct me if I'm wrong.

(the reason I think this is becasue you can respond to damage being dealt or being put on the stack.)

Combat Damage, this is when attacking and blocking creatures deal their damage to each other or to the defending player.

Main phase, this is when you can again cast sorcery spells and creatures and land I'm guessing if you didn't play one during your first main phase.

(usually the more ideal phase to cast creatures and spells since you don't have to play them until after you have attacked this lets you keep mana open for any Instants that may need to be played during combat.)(also perhaps getting your opponent to tap his lands and other stuff. probably giving you a better chance of playing certain spells.)

Clean Up phase, is when you discard any extra cards in your hand more than 7 since that is the maximum hand size.

End of turn is when you give up your priority and say go.

also any time a phase changes Priority is also given to any passive players.

I would've explained this earlier but the bell rang and my class ended.

again I hope this helps.