Playing a Game

Index	Table of Contents	Terms
	Playing a Game

Understanding how to use the Magic Online interface is important to enjoying the game and playing well. This help file contains important information about playing games in Magic Online. See Duel Screen for information about the different parts of the Duel screen.

You'll also want to read about your Game Play Settings to understand how those options affect the flow of Magic Online games.

Starting the Game
When a game starts, the program automatically shuffles players' decks. If it's the first game of a match, a die is rolled for each player. The player with the highest die roll gets to choose to play first or not. If you're in the second or third game of a match, the player who lost the last game gets to choose.

Once you determine who's playing first, each player draws an opening hand of seven cards. Then each player gets a chance to take a mulligan. Click the Yes button if you want to take a mulligan. Otherwise click No. If you take a mulligan, your hand is shuffled back into your deck and you draw a new hand of one less card. You can mulligan as many times as you want, but you draw one less card each time.

After both players are satisfied with their starting hands, the game starts. The player going first skips the draw step of his or her first turn.

Playing a Land
You can play only one land card each turn, and only during one of your main phases when the stack is empty. Lands aren't spells, so they can't be countered.

There are three ways to play a land:

click the land,
drag the land into your section of the in-play area, or
right-click the land and select Play.

Tapping a Land
To tap a land in play, click it. If you need to choose a mana type or if the land has multiple abilities you could play, select an option from the menu that appears.

Playing Spells and Abilities
How you play spells and abilities is affected by your Game Play Settings. By default, you must have the mana to play a spell or ability in your mana pool before you can play it. Spells you can play and permanents with abilities you can use will have their names in either green or blue text.

You can also clear the Hide spells and abilities you don't have enough mana in your pool for check box in your Game Play Settings. If you do, all permanents with abilities and spells will have their names in green or blue if it's legal to play them. You'll be able to play a spell or ability and then add the mana to your pool to pay for it.

This help file assumes you have the Hide spells and abilities you don't have enough mana in your pool for box selected.

Creatures can't attack or tap the turn they come into play, this is indicated by their power and toughness being shown in yellow.

Playing a Spell
To play a spell, add mana to your mana pool to pay the spell's cost. When you do, the spell's name will become green or blue to show that you can play the spell.

There are three ways to play a spell:

click the spell card,
right-click the spell card and select Play, or
drag the spell card to the in-play area.

If the spell says "Choose one ," you need to choose an option for the spell from the menu that appears.

You'll also be prompted to pay any additional costs and choose any targets for the spell. Click the targets for a spell to choose them. Illegal targets will appear dimmed.

You can choose the target for a spell with only one target by dragging it onto the target. As you drag the spell, it will appear dimmed until the spell is on a legal target. You can't choose targets for a spell with multiple targets by dragging the spell card.

You can target yourself by clicking on your avatar image, and you can target your opponent by clicking on their avatar image.

Playing an Activated Ability
Playing an activated ability in Magic Online is much like playing a spell from your hand. You add any necessary mana to your mana pool, then play the ability. Permanents with activated abilities that are legal to play will have their names in green or blue.

There are normally two ways to play an activated ability:

click the permanent with the ability or
right-click the permanent with the ability

If a permanent has more than one ability, you need to choose the ability you want to play from the menu that appears. If you click or drag a permanent with only one ability, that ability is automatically selected for you. Right-clicking always brings up a menu.

After you select the ability you want to play, you'll be prompted to pay any additional costs and choose any targets. Click the targets for an ability to choose them. Illegal targets will appear dimmed.

You can also play an activated ability that has a single target by dragging the permanent onto a legal target. As you drag the permanent, it will appear dimmed until it's on a legal target.

Handling Triggered Abilities
How you deal with a triggered ability you control depends on whether it has targets and if more than one ability triggers at the same time.

A triggered ability without targets goes straight to the stack.

A triggered ability with one or more targets will appear in the Triggered Abilities for Player window. The word "player" will be replaced by the name of the player who controls the ability. For example, Triggered Abilities for Bob. Click the ability then click its targets. After targets have been chosen the ability moves to the stack.

If more than one ability you control triggers at the same time, the abilities appear in the Triggered Abilities for Player window. Click an ability and choose any targets to put the ability on the stack. Abilities go on the stack in the order you click them, so the first ability you add will be the last to resolve.

Paying

Some spells and abilities have

in their costs. The X stands for any number you choose. The amount you pay for X changes the spell or ability's effect.

Suppose you want to play Earthquake. It costs

and deals X damage to each creature without flying and each player. That means that if you choose X = 3, Earthquake costs

and deals 3 damage to each creature without flying and each player.

There are two ways to pay for a spell or ability with in its cost.

You can start by adding all the mana you want to spend for the spell or ability to your mana pool. In this case, you could tap a mountain and three lands. Then click the Earthquake card in your hand to play it. The prompt box will say "Pay X. X = 0." Click the mana in your mana pool to pay for X. Each time you do, X will go up by 1. When the prompt box says, "Pay X. X = 3," click OK to show you're done paying for Earthquake.

You can also add just enough mana to pay for the rest of the spell or ability's cost to your mana pool, play the spell or ability, and then add mana to your pool to pay for . To play Earthquake, you'd add to your mana pool and then click the Earthquake card. The prompt box will say "Pay X. X = 0." Then any mana you add to your mana pool will automatically go towards paying X. When X = 3, click OK to show you're done paying for Earthquake.

You can go to the Tutorial Room and play the Paying for X tutorial to see examples of paying for X spells both ways.

Yielding Priority
Whenever you play a spell or activated ability in Magic Online, you automatically yield priority to your opponent. To keep priority, press the CTRL key as you play the spell or ability.

You also yield priority when you click OK in the prompt box.

Shortcut Keys
F2
Pressing the F2 key is the same as clicking OK to yield priority to the next player.

F4
Pressing the F4 key instead of yielding priority for a turn or step (by pressing OK) tells Magic Online that you're done playing spells and abilities for that turn.

If you press F4 during an opponent's turn, you won't get priority again until the next turn.

If you press F4 during your turn, the game will pause at the declare attackers step if you have creatures in play that can attack. Otherwise, you won't get priority again until the next player's turn.

You always get a chance to play spells or abilities after pressing F4 if something happens that you can respond to.

ALT + U
Pressing the ALT + U key combination will undo playing a mana ability. As long as you haven't played a spell or ability, you can keep pressing ALT + U to untap all permanents you just tapped for mana and empty your mana pool completely.

You can't undo mana abilities that moved cards to or from a library or that involved a random choice or random zone change.

You can't undo mana abilities once you've moved to another step of a phase. For example, if you move from the declare attackers step to the declare blockers step during the combat phase, you won't be able to undo any mana abilities you played during the declare attackers step.