Welcome to the Multiverse
Before diving into the history and nostalgia of Premodern, here is what you need to know about Magic: The Gathering itself.
The Original Trading Card Game
Magic: The Gathering is the grandfather of all trading card games. You take on the role of a Planeswalker — a powerful wizard traversing the multiverse. You cast spells, summon creatures, and wield artifacts to outwit and defeat your opponent.
You start with 20 life. The goal is simple: reduce your opponent's life total to 0.
The Colors of Mana
Everything in Magic is fueled by mana, magical energy drawn from the lands you play. There are five colors, each with its own philosophy and playstyle.
White (Plains)
Order, protection, healing, and armies of disciplined soldiers.
Blue (Islands)
Knowledge, manipulation, counterspells, and drawing cards.
Black (Swamps)
Ambition, death, sacrifice, and destroying enemy creatures.
Red (Mountains)
Chaos, fire, lightning bolts, and aggressive goblins.
Green (Forests)
Nature, growth, giant beasts, and abundant mana.
How to Learn the Rules
Play MTG Arena
Magic is deeply strategic with many moving parts. The best way for a beginner to learn the mechanics, turn phases, and combat rules is by playing Magic: The Gathering Arena — free on PC, Mac, and mobile. Its interactive tutorial teaches the core basics in about an hour.
One caveat: Arena does nothave Premodern (it uses newer cards and digital-only formats). It won't teach you this format's card pool — but the rules engine is the same, so it's still the fastest way to learn how turns, the stack, and combat actually work.
Get MTG Arena (free)Why Premodern?
Magic has printed new cards continuously since 1993. Premodern is a community-created way to play that only uses cards printed between 1995 and 2003 — from Fourth Edition to Scourge.
We play it for the nostalgic art (the classic “Old Frame”), the highly interactive gameplay, and the welcoming community. Because the card pool is fixed, you never have to chase the newest, most expensive cards to stay competitive.
How the Game Works
The whole game in a nutshell — enough to sit down and play. Each idea below has a hands-on interactive guide in the next section.
The goal
You start at 20 life. Win by dropping your opponent to 0, or making them draw from an empty deck.
Lands & mana
Play one land per turn and tap lands for mana. Almost every spell costs mana to cast.
Spell types
Creatures and other permanents stay on the battlefield. Instants and sorceries do their thing once, then go to the graveyard.
The turn
Untap, draw, then play lands and spells in your main phases, attack in combat, and pass to your opponent.
The stack & priority
Spells don’t resolve instantly (even if played at instant speed). Either player can respond until priority is passed. The last spell added resolves first.
Combat
Attack with your creatures; your opponent chooses blockers; combat damage is dealt simultaneously.
Setting Up a Game
Enough to sit down across from a friend and start playing.
Deck size
At least 60 cards, with no upper limit. Up to 4 copies of any one card - except basic lands, which are unlimited.
Opening hand
Shuffle up; each player draws 7 cards to start. Decide who goes first at random.
Mulligans
Don’t like your hand? Take a London mulligan: draw a fresh 7, then put that many cards on the bottom of your deck. Repeat until you keep.
On the play
The player going first skips their draw step on turn one, to offset the advantage of acting first.
Maximum hand size
Seven cards. If you have more at the end of your turn, discard down to 7.
Sideboard (optional)
A separate 15-card sideboard you swap from between games of a match - skippable for a casual first game.
See It in Action
Some things are easier to see than to read. These hands-on guides on our Visual Learning page cover the basics you'll lean on every game.
Zones Map
See where cards live - hand, stack, battlefield, graveyard, exile - and how they move between them.
Open in Visual LearningTurn Structure
Walk a turn phase by phase and see when each player gets to act.
Open in Visual LearningResponding & Interaction
The heart of Magic: a spell on the stack can be answered, and the response resolves first.
Open in Visual LearningOld-Frame Translator
Pick a classic card and tap the archaic text - Summon, Mana Source, “in play” - to see what it means today.
Open in Visual LearningNext Steps
Learn the basics
Download MTG Arena and play through the color-challenge tutorial. It teaches the core mechanics in about an hour.
Explore the format
Come back and read the Getting Started guide to learn Premodern’s rules and deck archetypes.
Getting Started guidePick a deck
Start with something budget-friendly and straightforward like Mono-Red Burn or Mono-Black Aggro.
Browse archetypesSay hello
Join a community Discord or webcam group to watch games and meet other players.
Find a community