Had a great time at today’s Magic2010 release events. Six teams competing in Two-Headed Giant, 12 players for the Sealed main event and then 8 more for a draft after that, the store was the place to be!

Many players (new and old) had questions about the rules for magic, so I decided I would share my sources for the rules used at our (and most) events.

The rules for all Magic: The Gathering events are written by a group called the DCI (Duelist’s Convocation International), made up of the game developers, players, and judges.

There are several important (and complex) documents to read to know ALL of the rules of the game, and there are some very basic, fairly simple (in comparison) ones that we use every day to play. The most basic rules can be found in the Basic Rulebook (pdf), these can be used to run most games. When playing at higher levels or with more complex interactions, players should refer to the Comprehensive Rules (links to DCI Rules page so you can get the latest version).

The Comprehensive Rules are exactly that, the COMPLETE rules to the game. Every rule for every keyword and mechanic ever placed in the game. It is a dauntingly technical and complex document, not designed to be read through like the Basic Rulebook, but referred to in specific situations as neccessary.

Magic 2010 brought a fairly large update to the core rules of the game, which has remained largely unchanged for more than 10 years. You should check out the illustrated description of the changes, and then the detailed information [2] [3] [4].

If all that information isn’t enough to confuse you and make you really glad you don’t have to judge, here’s some more! Every event has to follow not only the rules of the game as shown above, but also the Tournament Rules which apply on top of all of those!

Makes me really glad I don’t have to judge these thi… oh wait.

*facepalm*

Anyway, hope this helps some of you out there,

Keep Playing!

– Mike