What can BDE mean for you?
Motivation
Players enter combat as powerful wizards, capable of bringing powerful spells to bear to defeat your opponents and defend yourselves.
Simple
BDE can be learned in 10 minutes with this intuitive and frustration-less game rule set. It plays more like a party game!
Materials
2-6 players use a single large deck of Magic: the Gathering cards - the first and largest trading card game in the world.
Combat
No-holds-barred combat for victory at all costs. No resource management and no pre-work to start the game. Just get in there and fight it out.
Bond
Connect with Magic enthusiasts in your life - bridge the gap and enjoy something together. This is something you can play without being a Magic expert.
Customize
Use our pre-built Big Deck and make whatever changes you like. Tens of thousands of unique cards means you can make your personal Big Deck to adapt to friends play styles.
Game Rules
As a powerful wizard, you can pay any and all costs for any card and ability. This means you can ignore any symbols in the top right corner of the cards, and you can pay the costs for any ability stated on the card.
01.
Shuffle the Big Deck and place it face down in the middle of the table. Deal each player 7 cards. Dead cards go face-up in a graveyard pile.
02.
Each player starts at 20 life and loses the game at zero. Reduce your opponent's life while defending your own.
03.
Each player's turn has these steps: Untap, Draw, Combat, Main, End. You may play one card per turn.
04.
Instants can be played at any time during anyone's turn. Other cards can only be played during Main in your turn.
05.
In combat, you may attack other players with any of your creatures. Defending player may block with creatures or take damage.
What a turn looks like
Your Turn (you can play 1 spell)
Untap your cards
Draw
1 card
Combat
(you can attack)
Main
(can play any spell)
End
discard hand to 7
How combat works
Creature cards can attack opponents. Creatures have power and toughness displayed in the lower right corner (i.e. 2/2).
Power is how much damage the creature can do and the toughness is how much damage the creature can take before dying.
Untapped creatures can attack & block. They can’t
attack the turn they come into play.
Steps of combat
1. Choose an opponent and tap the creatures that you want to attack with
2. Defending player chooses if & how their creatures will block
3. Damage happens to creatures and defending players (when not blocked)
Card Types in the Big Deck
1
Bring creatures to bear to attack your opponents or defend against enemy creature attacks. Many creatures also have abilities that may be used or passive effects.
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Creatures may die in combat or be killed by spells or abilities.
2
Artifacts & Enchantments are powerful cards that stay in play like creatures and have abilities or passive effects that can significantly increase your chances of victory.
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Artifacts & Enchantments are harder to destroy compared to creatures.
3
Sorceries are one-shot spells that have a very powerful effect when they are played. These spells may completely change the state of the game.
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Sorceries go into the graveyard when their effect is complete.
4
Unlike sorceries, Instants are one-shot spells that can be played at any time, even during another player's turn or in response to something.
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"Counter target spell" cards stops a target spell from being played. That card goes to the graveyard without any effect.
Where do I get a Big Deck?
Find some friends who play Magic: the Gathering and share this site with them. The expert section explains (to them) what cards to use to build a Big Deck of their own.
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We have a limited quantity of optimized BDE decks available for purchase via Etsy. You can read more about them here.