How a Turn Works
Guides · beginner
A Magic turn always goes in the same order. You'll mostly fly through these steps without thinking, but knowing the structure helps when something tricky comes up.
In order
- Untap your tapped permanents.
- Upkeep -- triggered abilities at the beginning of upkeep happen.
- Draw a card.
- Pre-combat main phase -- play lands, cast spells, etc.
- Combat (optional, but usually the highlight of the turn):
- Beginning of combat
- Declare attackers
- Declare blockers
- First strike damage (if any)
- Combat damage
- End of combat
- Post-combat main phase -- another chance to cast spells.
- End step -- "at the beginning of the end step" triggers happen.
- Cleanup -- discard down to 7, damage wipes off creatures.
Then the next player begins their turn.
What new players get tripped up on
- You don't have to attack. Attacking is optional. If you have a 1/1 facing down a 5/5, blocking it is fine.
- You can play one land per turn. Not one per main phase -- one per turn.
- Tapping happens automatically. If you cast something requiring {G}, the relevant land taps.
- Damage stays on creatures until cleanup. A creature taking 2 damage at noon is still missing 2 toughness in the post-combat main phase. Cleanup wipes the marks.
Don't worry about
- Knowing every step's name. The rules are forgiving in casual settings.
- Catching every trigger every time. Triggers get missed all the time. The table will sort it out.
See the Phases tab for per-step detail.