Index Table of Contents Terms
Welcome to Magic Online
Magic Online recreates the entire Magic: The Gathering experience on your computer, allowing you to play and trade with people all over the world twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

That should sound impressive, assuming you know what Magic: The Gathering is. If not, read on.

What is a Trading Card Game?
The main difference between a trading card game (TCG) like Magic: The Gathering and a regular card game is that each player uses his or her own deck of cards when playing instead of having a common deck from which all players draw. These decks can be customized using any cards a player owns.

Another difference between a TCG and other games is that you trade cards with other players (much like sports cards). Some cards are considered more rare and valuable, and therefore more collectible, than others. You can tell how rare a Magic card is by the color of the expansion symbol. Common cards have a black expansion symbol, uncommon are silver, and rare are gold.

Some players might try to complete a collection, trading Magic cards until they own every one in a set. Others might be on a constant lookout for just the right card for their latest deck.

What is Magic: The Gathering?
Magic: The Gathering was the world's first trading card game. Invented by mathematician and award-winning game designer Dr. Richard Garfield, Magic debuted at the GenCon gaming convention in 1993 to instant success and has been growing and evolving ever since.

Like other TCGs, you build a Magic deck from either cards you own (Constructed format) or cards you get at the beginning of an event (Limited format) and try to defeat other players. Your deck might contain cards carefully chosen to fit your play style, while your opponent's deck could be completely different than yours.

Winning usually means reducing your opponent's score (life total) from 20 to 0. Attacking with creatures or damaging your opponent with spells is the best way to achieve this goal. Imagine doing battle with fire-breathing dragons, noble angels, powerful and mysterious djinns, and cunning elves–they're all part of the Magic: The Gathering game.

Cards are the resources at your disposal. Some represent plots of land that you draw mana from, while others depict fantastic creatures, powerful spells, or arcane items. Each different card has unique statistics and abilities which can interact in complex and surprising ways with other cards.

Sets of cards come in two flavors: basic sets and expert-level expansions. A new basic set appears about every two years, while one large and two smaller expert-level expansions come out each year. With over 1,500 cards currently available in Magic Online, and lots more to come, the combinations are limited only by your imagination.

What is Magic Online?
Magic Online is a complete version of the original Magic game in an electronic format. Whether you're a newbie, a casual player, or a serious player, now you can play Magic against people all over the world without ever leaving the comfort of your home.

You buy Magic Online cards, collect them, play with them, and trade them with other players. The game keeps track of the cards you own, the decks you build, and the victories you rack up.

You can play with cards found in any expansion from the Invasion set forward. As new Magic sets are released, they'll also become available in Magic Online. You can also take a look at older Magic cards and keep track of the ones you own.

Ready to go? Log on and play!

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