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>>SKEE JAY (on camera) : Hello Internet! My name is Mr. Skee Jay and I'm making this video
for anybody interested in learning how to play Magic: The Gathering!
It was first introduced in 1993, but recently there's been a huge upswing in Magic: the
Gathering players. I imagine there are thousands of young players eager to learn this awesome
game.
I will break these videos down as much as possible so anybody can pick up where they
left off, or skip things they already know. I will also include booster pack openings
at the end of my Magic: the Gathering videos and will try to incorporate the cards that
are in the packs into the lessons that were taught on that video.
For this first video, I'm only going to talk about the absolute basics of the game. If
you already understand how to play the game, this video is not for you. So without any
further adieu, let's learn how to play Magic: The Gathering!
>>SKEE JAY (voiceover) : You are a Planeswalker! You have the power to move dimensions and
cast spells from thin air! The way to do this is through a source of magic called Mana.
There are five colors of mana: white, blue, black, red, and green. Almost every deck has
at least one of those colors, although most have two or three. Some even have all 5!
Before we learn how to start an actual game, I want to talk about the types of cards that
are out there. Anything that enters the battlefield and stays there is called a "permanent." There
are six main types of permanents, and I will show you where they are usually placed on
the battlefield.
Permanents include Lands, Creatures, Enchantments, Auras, Artifacts, and Planeswalkers. Each
type of permanent has specific abilities. We will get into what each type does later.
In addition to permanents, there are cards that get played directly from your hand that
don't touch the battlefield and virtually go directly into the graveyard after being
cast. These cards are Instants and Sorceries. There is a reason that they are distinguished
into two types, and again we will hit that later.
Cards that have been used, discarded, or destroyed go to the Graveyard. The graveyard is usually
placed near your deck, either on your side or your opponents side. Anytime something
goes to the graveyard, it gets added to that pile. Any player can look through his or his
opponents graveyard at any time.
There is also a special zone called Exile. Exiled cards are essentially removed from
the game. Anything that enters exile with no chance of coming back goes into the Exile
pile. There are certain cards that exile things with the chance to bring them back, and in
that case the exiled card usually goes underneath the exiler.
Now that we know what types of cards exist, next episode we will begin to learn what each
type card is used for. For next week's episode, I recommend heading
to Wal Mart, Target, or a local gaming store to pick up your very own Starter Deck so you
can follow along and see for yourself exactly what I'm talking about while discussing the
card types.
Now, I'm going to open up a few booster packs so you know what you can expect when you open
your first one.
>> SKEE JAY : Alright guys, now for the best part of any Magic video, it is the booster
pack opening!
Today I have three booster packs. Two Theros and one Born of the Gods, they are the most
most recent sets to have come out. Theros is more of a prequel to Born of the Gods.
I already opened this one booster because I was filming and it turned out the audio
wasn't actually turned up so it was just me talking and no one actually knowing. So this
-
Well that's not cool.
(laughing)
I already opened this booster. It does have some learning tools, so once I get these cards
picked up while continuing to talk, I will discuss them.
Fortunately none of the ones that fell on the floor were really that valuable to me.
Gotta sort them up. Some are gonna be upside down but that's cool. So not the best start
to a video, but these cards are slick, so whatever. Don't judge me!
So here we are. Usually the rare comes last. It's one of the last cards in the booster
pack, but here's the rare in this booster. Colossus of Akros. I know he's a rare because
the symbol on the right side of the card is gold.
This guy is actually an Artifact Creature. We talked about artifacts and we talked about
creatures in today's episode, but this guy is literally both.
He's treated as both an artifact and as a creature.
I also got a second rare, which doesn't happen very often and this second rare is a foil
one.
If you could see the colors change slightly when I turn it, I don't know if you can see
it or not. It's also a rare, you can see the gold.
And it's gold on the outside as opposed to this one, which is grey. Grey means it's not
a color. We talked about White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green. This one is grey, it means
literally without color (colorless.)
This one is gold because it's more than one color. In the top right hand corner we see
what color a card is, and in this case it is blue and black. I actually like that card
a lot. I think. I don't remember what it does.
Every booster comes with a basic land card behind your rare. And this is just like a
promo card, it's trying to sell of of the Wizards of the Coast Magic - related stuff.
It usually gets thrown to the side, and I'm just gonna throw it in the trash when I'm
done.
I have this uncommon card, and it's red, it's red on the outside. This one is actually an
Enchantment Creature. Again, we talked about enchantments and we talked about creatures,
this one is literally both This guy is used as an Aura and can be used to enchant a creature
as an aura. And again we'll talk about that in-depth stuff later.
This guy is just a fish, a horse fish, a blue one, a common.
And then a red - another aura. And then another aura, a black one. Here's a sorcery, we talked
about sorceries being the cards that don't actually hit the battlefield, you play them
and they go right into the graveyard.
Then a regular creature, an instant, works just like a sorcery.
Upside down card, another instant so we're getting a lot of instants and sorceries and
auras today. There are some creatures. Two creatures in a row, here's an artifact creature
and a regular creature. Then another tegular creature, then another enchantment creature.
So, a little bit of action in that booster, we got a foil rare, which we always like,
but its not the foil rare I'm looking for.
So here's opening another booster pack. This one is fresh, hasn't been opened yet, and
you can make a mess of it if you want to rip this thing apart or what have you.
Usually I keep sleeves off to the side so that if I get a really rare card or something
that's worth a lot of money that I want to keep in good condition I usually just put
that in a sleeve.
Another artifact creature and another instant, both commons. Then a little red creature,
I actually like this guy a lot. And I'll probably explain why in future episodes. If I ever
played red in any of my decks, this guy would be a staple in all of them.
Just some more random creatures. Creature, creature. Creature, so we're getting a lot
of creatures in this one.
Here's an aura. Auras are used to enchant creatures, so they are enchantments, but they're
different than a regular enchantment. A regular enchantment enchants the whole battlefield,
and auras enchant just a specific creature.
That guy's pretty cool. He's an uncommon.
We got this card in the first booster pack.
Ooh, a Chimera, Chimera, however it's pronounced. Spellheart Chimera. Wow, he's really good
actually.
Ooh, a Temple of Triumph. It's a special kind of land, it's not a basic land. Basic lands
look like - ooh got another foil, too. It's a common foil, so it's not really worth anything
to me.
A boar. If you don't get one of these trash things, you get a token which is just trash
on the back.
It's a token, so cards that create tokens will create something like that.
That's a basic land, by the way. It just says "Basic Land - Plains, Island, Swamp," or whatever
type it is.
And this is a nonbasic land, other than the five basic ones. This one enters the battlefield
and you get to look at the top card of your library and decide if you keep it or not.
You can put it on the bottom or the top, wherever you want it.
And it taps for either one of two colors, So you can tap it for either a red or a white
mana. I actually might use that in one of my decks because I have a blue and white deck,
but since this creates white and it let's me look at the top card of my deck, I think
that's kinda worth the trade off of not really needing the red.
So that's my rare and I think it's a decent rare. Most nonbasic lands are worth a couple
dollars, probably like five or six for that one.
I didn't get the card that I wanted in Theros. I wanted a card called Elspeth who you actually
saw earlier in this episode as the Planeswalker example.
I would love to have another one of her because the one that I showed you is actually my brother's.
So as I show you these next couple cards from the next booster pack, this is the Born of
the Gods booster.
It's run the exact same way. You're gonna have a common, common, common, common, common.
I think it's ten commons, eleven commons, something like that, and then two or three
uncommons, and then one rare, then you're token. In this case it's a wolf. I use wolf
tokens a lot, so I'll probably hold on to that off to the side.
Anyway, as we go through it, it's a regular creature, then a regular aura. Regular creature,
then another regular creature.
It's a Minotaur. Minoaturs are becoming really popular.
Born of the Gods and Theros are both Greek themed so you get a lot of Ancient Greece
stuff so that's how you get Minotaurs and there are actually Gods who are based on the
Greek Gods.
There is no Zeus, but its along the same lines where the Gods are fighting on something kinda
like Mount Olympus, which is called Nyx.
Here's a sorcery and an instant, so you get both of them.
A creature, and another instant. As we're looking through this, I just want to point
out that we're getting a lot of different colors. In your deck you're probably going
to only have two colors.
Whether it's like black and red is a pretty common combination. You're not gonna want
this blue card or this white card. You might want that black card but probably not.
You're probably only going to need cards like that, you're not going to need blue, you're
not gonna want white, you're not gonna want this blue.
That's the problem with buying boosters. You get a lot of cards that you don't want.
I haven't seen a single card that I want for any of my deck. So that's why buying boosters
is probably not the most cost efficient way to do things, but it is a great way to build
up your collection and you might get lucky and hit a money card as your rare. That's
what I'm always trying to do.
It's another common Sorcery. And then an uncommon sorcery, both green.
Obviously a black here. Uncommon. My next card looks like its gonna be a rare land,
and it is! This one taps for either a white or a green. So I get two rare lands today,
and here's another basic land.
So this one taps for either a white or a green. I already talked about it. So I have two things
that tap for a white mana, so I will probably add at least one of them into my white and
blue deck just to have the extra white mana and be able to look at the top card if my
library.
When you go through your first booster packs, if you buy a starter deck like I recommend,
you'll get two boosters in the back, so you'll get your starter deck with sixty cards and
two boosters that you can mix and match with your deck as you learn more about what the
game is and how to actually play it and what each cards are good for and not good for.
So there's a preview of what you get in booster packs. You get a bunch of commons, a bunch
of uncommons. You'll always hit a rare. Sometimes the rare is worth a couple dollars, sometimes
it's only worth 35 cents.
It is a gamble, you're paying four dollars for a booster pack, you'd want a rare that
gets you at least three dollars to get some of your money back.
I actually hit three pretty good boosters. I think if I did sell just the three or four
rares that I got, I could probably make my money back, I think, depending on how much
that foil guy is, he may not be worth too much.
But, yeah, thank you guys for watching.
I'll be back hopefully next week, maybe not. I'm gonna try to get these videos released
on a regular basis, but it is hard because there's a lot of production that goes into
these types of videos
Anyway guys, stay tuned, subscribe so you're always up to date on my Magic and Comic Book
news.
Other than that, guys, in the description box below, my Twitter link, it should also
be in the upper left hand corner of the video.
So that you guys for watching, and if you're really interested in learning Magic: the Gathering,
please leave me a comment with whatever you'd like to know or if you have any questions.
I do know quite a bit about the game, so please don't hesitate to ask. I love to help new
people. I just taught someone a couple of months ago and she's already better than me.
I shouldn't have told you that.
Anyway guys, I hope you enjoyed the video and please subscribe for more. Thank you.