I got some of the Magic The Gathering cards I’d ordered out along with a basic rule book to try and learn the game. I asked my dad to try learn with me but all I’ve learned is that it’s very confusing to try do from an incomplete guide.

The guide came with a starter deck and it told of basic actions like a seven card starting hand and placement of lands for mana. The guide suggested moves which explained combat a little, letting me know how the numbers on the cards would interact. Summoning sickness and Haste were explained but a lot was missed out.

I had a card with Instant written on it, not in the guide. I had one that said Enchantment and another that was Sorcery, neither of which were in the guide. I had a creature card with Trample written as an ability which was also not in the guide.

As for the duel itself, the first four turns for each of us was using a land and doing not much else. Then we started summoning things that couldn’t attack but a search of the internet revealed that Sorceries and Instants could get rid of those creatures. Eventually we had around sixteen lands each and just started ignoring them as there wasn’t much the cards wouldn’t let us do without surplus mana. A creature was allowed to stay on the field but it had zero power so couldn’t attack effectively. More powerful things were summoned and some cards allowed us to regain health. In the end I lost with both me and my dad confused at the game, believing it to be hard work that felt like a waste of time as neither of us had learned much.

I’m certain this game isn’t the boring, confusing mess this experience made it appear to be or it wouldn’t have so many fans worldwide. A conclusion is that as a beginner you don’t want to learn from a guide with another beginner, find yourself someone knowledgeable and get them to teach you by word of mouth. It also didn’t help that I didn’t have the specific decks the guide referred to on hand and we did use other cards just to try get some understanding.