Planeswalkers are powerful allies you can call on to fight by your side.

Once you have mastered the basic rules of play, it’s time to advance by wielding more power. A Planeswalker is a cross-dimensional magic-user which has a broad spectrum of abilities that can perform sensational things on the battlefield. These characters play a huge role in Magic: The Gathering. Some players like to think of a Planeswalker as an additional team mate.

While you could start immediately with a Planeswalker, we would recommend progressing from a basic deck and building up. They are available in sets of 1 or 2 and just like starter packs, correspond to one element, so all other cards in the deck operate off the same mana.

Planeswalkers give the game a touch more versatility and require a little more strategy when taking into battle.

There are 5 types of land cards:

Plains: (Creatures such as knights, soldiers and clerics) White mana represents civilisation and its spells focus on increasing the health and the attack of your minions (these can be also known as buffs) or healing them (or yourself) instead.

Islands: (Creatures are often wizards, merfolk or spirits) Blue mana is associated with foresight and knowledge, it’s used for casting spells that interrupt the other player or help you draw cards faster.

Mountains: (Red spells like Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Creature types like goblins and warriors make for fast games) Red mana casts aggressive spells and creatures and is used to beat your opponent in the quickest means necessary.

Swamps: (Zombies, demons and other infernal creatures can be used to finish the job) Black mana is the most sinister of the land cards, you’ll often use these cards as a way of leeching away at your opponents health.

Forests: (Beasts, elves, druids of the wood bring you victory) Green mana exudes raw natural energy. While most spells or creatures will belong to one of these colours, there are some exceptions. Multi-coloured cards overlap two colours e.g. a vampire cleric belongs to both black and white. This requires both colour land to play the card.

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Colourless: cards have no colour, so any type of land can be played to summon these types of creature spells, these are often golems, various automata and constructs.

Works like an enchantment, but usually represents a physical object rather than a magic spell. They can include equipment that can make your creatures even stronger. Unlike creature enchantments though, equipment stays in play even if the creature is destroyed.

Works like a spell or sorcery, but stays in play indefinitely until your opponent can discover a way to dispel it. Enchantment cards can also include creature enchantments which continually buff a card until it’s dispelled or the creature is destroyed

These extremely powerful cards represent other Planeswalkers who have come to assist you in winning your battle. These cards come with tokens and are played differently to other traditional Magic cards. We will explain in greater detail later.

The most basic attacker and defender, a creature spell can range from a pious angel to a demonic imp. Each individual creature comes with an attack and defence rating which can be found in the bottom right corner of the card. This signals how powerful the creature is and sits besides a number of additional abilities listed on the card.

Sorcery is a spell you cast, only on your turn, with a one time effect. This card is then discarded.

This card also has a one-time effect. However, it can be played on your turn or your opponent’s turn. This provides more game interaction.

In summary, you draw random cards from your deck, lay down mana and decide how to use it.

1. Take your starter deck with 60 cards. Each shuffle your deck so they are in a randomised order and draw out 7 cards.

2. There are two types of cards in your deck; land and spells which have been covered above. To create a successful game you need a good mix of both in your starting hand.

3. If you’re unhappy with your hand you can mulligan. While there are usually special rules for this, as you’re just starting off you can simply shuffle your hand back into your deck and draw another 7 cards.

4. Once you decide on your hand you then continually draw cards with each round of play.

5. At the start of each of your turns you need to lay down a land card to power anything else you need. The more powerful the card is, the more mana it needs to run.

6. Any monster or spell you want to ‘summon’, will ‘tap’ your mana. When a card is ‘tapped’ it is turned 90 degrees to the side, to make it clear that it’s in use

7. All cards can only be ‘tapped’ once per round. Creatures and spells also get ‘tapped’ just like this, but for different purposes. For example, a creature gets ‘tapped’ when it attacks, meaning it can’t block on the next round.

8. A player wins when their opponent’s life reaches zero, or when their opponent cannot draw a card for their turn.

9. If you play a creature, you must wait until your next turn to attach with it. Other spells, however, can be played or used straight away in that round.

10. Your creatures have a defence and attack value. If you find yourself being attacked by your opponent(s) you can choose whether to take the damage or defend with a creature block.

11. If you’re attacking with one or more creatures, tap the creature you’re attacking your opponent with. They then have the choice whether to block with a creature.

12. If your creature’s attack value is equal or greater than your opposition's creature’s defence, the opposing creature will die. However, if your opposing creature’s attack is equal or greater than your creature’s defence, your creature will die.

13. Some, none or all creatures can die in a battle, depending on card values.

14. Some spells stay permanently while others are discarded after being used once. (check coloured cards and card types if you’re not sure.

15. Once you have got to grips with the basics of the game, use a deck builder's toolkit to help you build your own decks to play with.

It’s a complete mix of strategy with an edge of luck, although obviously the better built your deck the more likely you are to win.