Yes, it appears that I may not be the only one around here who plays Magic: The Gathering regurlarly. Might as well start up a discussion, and get some games together.

Woah, slow down there, what the flying fuck is Magic: The Gathering?

Magic: The Gathering is one of the oldest and most successful Trading Card Games in existence, existing all the way back since 1993. Forget your pansy-ass Pokémon, this is the TCG King, played by about twelve million people around the world. The game represents a battle between two "planeswalkers", mighty wizards that can traverse the different planes of the multiverse, duking it out with various spells, magical artifacts, and powerful creatures, represented by the cards themselves.

Alright, that sounds positively awesome. So how do I play?

Each game starts you off with your personal deck of 60 cards, as well as 20 life. The goal of the game is to reduce the opponent down to 0 life, and prevent him from doing the same. There are other ways of winning/losing the game as well, such as if the opponent do not have any cards left in his library to draw.

Each player begins the game with a hand of 7 cards (you can redraw this hand if you do not like the cards you have got, but you'll get less cards each time you do). At the beginning of your turn, you untap all of your cards in play (explained later), and you also draw a card (unless it's the first turn of the game). Spells (non-land cards) are cast with mana, which are generated by tapping lands. Up to one land can be played per turn, and generates one mana of its respective color.

Colors? Mana isn't supposed to have color!

Well too bad, because it has now. There are five colors of mana in the game, which are generated by a certain type of basic land, White (Plains), Blue (Island), Black (Swamp), Red (Mountain), and Green(Forest). Each color have certain specializations:

White focuses mostly on small, mana-efficient creatures in vast numbers, protecting your things, and gaining life. Has some of the most efficient removal in the game.
Blue focuses mostly on control, returning creatures and other cards to the hands of their owners, or taking them over completely, as well as featuring a large amount of flying creatures.
Black is the epitome of "power at any cost". Black has a lot of creature destruction, and a good deal of cards above the general curve with some sort of minor drawback.
Red focuses on the art of nuking the opponent and his creatures off the face of the earth. Has tons of direct damage spells, as well as temporarily taking control of enemy creatures and destroying artifacts.
Green focuses on very large creatures, and has several cards to generate more mana faster than the other colors can. Also has some of whites focus on tons of small creatures.

Alright, I get the point. So what kinds of cool spells can I cast with this?

There are several types of spells. Every card has a mana cost in the upper, right corner. For example, Assault Griffin, with a cost of 3W, costs a total of four mana, one of it which has to be white, while the other can be mana of any color, whereas Geralf's Messenger costs three black mana to play (and as such can be rather difficult to play in a multicolored deck).

Lands
Example: Plains, Drowned Catacomb, Academy Ruins
Alright, I've talked about lands in brief before, but here's a more thorough explanation. Lands are not spells, but are instead used to generate the mana you need to cast spells. The most common type of land you'll encounter is the Basic Land, of five different types (Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, Forest), and is the only card in your deck you are allowed to have four of. Non-basic lands are usually used to generate more than one color of mana, or to grant a variety of different effects.

Creatures
Examples:  Runeclaw Bear, Serra Angel
The #1 way of causing terminal life-loss to opponents is summoning minions to punch them in the face. Each creature has a Power and Toughness, noted as P/T. (For example, a 3 Power, 2 Toughness creature would be a 3/2, for example.) Power is the damage they deal to opponents and other creatures, and toughness is the damage they can withstand before dying themselves. There are several creature "keyword" abilities as well, like Flying, which means that creature can only be blocked by other creatures with flying, and First Strike, which means that creature deals damage to opposing creatures or players before others, rather than simultaneously. A lot of creatures also have activated abilities, such as Goblin Fireslinger, which can be tapped once per turn to deal one damage directly to your opponent.

Enchantments
Examples: Call to the Grave, Goblin War Paint.
Enchantments are a type of lasting magic that usually grant some sort of passive effect. There are also a certain type of enchantments called auras, which "enchant" an object, becoming attached to that object as you play the aura, granting it a particular bonus (Divine Favor, for example, gives a creature +1/+3, boosting its power by one and its toughness by 3).

Artifacts
Examples: Manalith, Ornithopter, Trusty Machete
Artifacts are magical items with a myriad of different uses, usually granting some sort of active effect. Most artifacts are colorless, and as such can be used in any color, though later sets have started including colored artifacts as well. Manalith, for example, can be tapped once per turn to generate one mana of any color. In addition to normal artifacts, there are also Artifact Creatures, which behave like creatures, and are treated as both artifacts and creatures as far cards are concerned, and also Equipment, artifacts that can be attached to creatures like auras to grant extra effects (carrying an extra cost at the expense of them not disappearing completely when the creature it equips dies).

Instants and Sorceries
Examples: Lightning Bolt, Mind Rot

Instants and sorceries differ from most other cards as they do not linger on the battlefield the same way other cards are. (Cards that stay on the field are called permaments, by the way.) Instead, these spells are paid for, cast, and after they have had their effect they go to the graveyard (discard pile), unless an effect states otherwise. Sorceries can only be cast during your turn, whereas instants can be cast at any time, and even in response to other spells, in which case they will resolve before the first spell.

Planeswalkers
Examples: Gideon Jura, Sorin Markov
One of the rarest cards in Magic: The Gathering, these cards represent other powerful planeswalkers that you call for help in in battle. (You're a planeswalker yourself, remember?) Planeswalkers come into play with a certain number of Loyalty Counters, noted in the lower right corner. They all have a small set of abilities, which can be used once per turn, and costs a certain number of loyalty counters to use (though most walkers have one ability that will add counters instead of removing them). Players can attack or cast spells to damage your allied planeswalkers in the same fashion they attack you, in which case they will lose counters equal to the damage dealt them. A planeswalker without loyalty counters retreats, going into the graveyard as a result.

That was more than half of the topic. How do I attack players?

After you've started your turn, having untapped and drawn a card, you have a main phase, in which you can cast all your non-instant spells, followed by a combat phase, where you attack with creatures, followed by an additional main phase, before your turn ends. At the beginning of your attack phase, you choose and tap which creatures you want to attack with (tapped creatures can't attack, neither can creatures with summoning sickness). After you have declared your attackers, the defending player chooses which creatures will block your creatures. (Tapped creatures can't block either, but blocking doesn't cause them to tap.) A creature can only block one other creature unless specifically noted, and flying creatures can only be blocked by other flying creatures. Several creatures can block a single creature, but rarely vice versa. You do not have to attack with creatures you do not want to, and subsequently, you are (usually) not forced to block with a creature.

Once attackers and blockers have been declared, each creature simultaneously deals damage to the creatures it blocked/was blocked by equal to their power (except for creatures with first strike, which deal damage before creatures without first strike). Each creature dealt damage equal to their toughness or more dies and goes to the graveyard. Damage is removed from creatures by the end of your turn, restoring them to full health, so your opponents cannot just block your huge 12/12 with a single 1/1 over 12 turns in order to kill it.

Alright, I think I got the hang of it now, but what are these terms you keep using? Battlefield? Graveyard?

There's a hefty glossary available, but here's a bit more bite-sized one for newer players:


Alright so how about that discussion?

So, what kind of decks do everyone play? Any favorite cards/colors/combos? Any preferred format? Let the grand discussion begin.

I might need to try this at some point if I ever get to it.

I really love this game, i've had it for a long time

?

Alright, this sounds positively awesome. So how steep is the learning curve?

Also, how much money would I have to invest into this to get a decent deck? Is it like you-gee-oh where cards of high rarity/powerful cards get reprinted every so often? Do cards get switched out every once in a while like Pok?men? Any yooseful links for beginners?

It all depends on what format you're playing. There's standard, including the latest two blocks and the latest core set (currently Innistrad, Scars of Mirrodin, Magic 2012), Extended, including the latest four blocks (Innistrad, SOM, Zendikar, Alara, M2010-2012), Modern (Everything from Eighth Edition and onward), as well as older formats such as Vintage and Legacy. The ridiculousness of combos and general power of decks tend to grow the further back you go, but it's not too major. Go with a standard starter deck to learn the ropes, and then modify and improve it once you learn how the game works.

My deck is a slighty modified Machinations deck.