Match Punk — MTG Rules & Guides

MTG Rules Explained & How-To Guides

MTG Rules & Guides — Magic: The Gathering, Explained

Sitting down for a game and blanking on whether Pioneer starts at 20 or 40? Wondering how much commander damage is actually lethal, or why your opponent's poison counters just ended the game out of nowhere? You're not alone — and you're in the right place.

Welcome to Match Punk's library of Magic: The Gathering rules and how-to guides. We're players first, so we wrote every guide the way we'd explain it across the table: clear, accurate, and free of the jargon that makes the rules feel harder than they are. Whether you're shuffling up your first Standard deck or commanding a four-player pod, we've got the answers you need to keep the game moving.

Start Here: What You'll Find in These Guides

Every guide on this site exists to answer a real question we've heard at the table, at our LGS, or in the middle of a heated Commander game. We've grouped them into a few simple lanes so you can jump straight to what you need.

If you're brand new, head to the format basics. If you're mid-game and need a fast ruling, the rules guides have you covered. And if you live in the Commander zone like most of the format does, we've got deep dives built specifically for multiplayer pods.

Rules Guides Every Player Reaches For

These are the questions that come up in almost every game — the ones worth bookmarking before someone reaches for a judge call.

Starting Life Totals by Format

Standard, Modern, and Pioneer all start at 20 life. Commander bumps you up to 40. Two-Headed Giant runs on a shared 30. Our starting life totals guide walks through every format, including the edge cases players forget.

Commander Damage Rules

A single commander dealing 21 combat damage to you ends your game — no matter how much life you have left. It's one of the most misunderstood rules in the format, especially once partner commanders enter the picture. Our commander damage guide breaks down how the threshold works and how to track it cleanly.

Poison Counters & Infect

Stack up 10 poison counters and you're out, regardless of your life total. Infect is the keyword that hands them out — dealing damage to players as poison counters and to creatures as -1/-1 counters. Our poison and infect guide explains the difference players mix up most.

MTG Counter Types Explained

Poison, energy, experience, charge — Magic has a counter for almost everything, and tracking them on dice is a recipe for arguments. Our counter types guide covers what each one does and which formats you'll see them in.

New to Magic? Start With the Basics

Crossover sets like Final Fantasy and Marvel have brought a wave of new players to the table, and we're genuinely glad you're here. No gatekeeping, no assumed knowledge — just the fundamentals, explained from the ground up.

Our beginner guides cover how a turn flows, what mulligans are and when to take one, how the five colors of mana work, and what separates one format from another. You'll never feel like you need a glossary just to follow along. Everyone at this table started somewhere.

Commander & EDH Deep Dives

Commander is the biggest format in Magic, and multiplayer comes with its own rulebook. From color identity and the 100-card singleton structure to tracking commander damage from multiple sources at once, these guides are built for the way most of us actually play.

We cover how to run a smooth four-player pod, how partner commanders change your damage math, and the unspoken etiquette that keeps game night fun. In our experience, the best pods aren't the ones with the strongest decks — they're the ones where everyone knows the rules and trusts the count.

Track your next game with Match Punk. It handles commander damage from every source, poison and energy counters, and full match history for the whole pod — all free, no account required to start.

Why Trust Match Punk's Guides

We don't write from a template. Every guide here comes from people who've shuffled up across hundreds of Commander games, grinded Friday Night Magic, and argued more than a few rulings into the night. When the rules get technical, we check our work against the official Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules and link to Wizards of the Coast resources so you can verify it yourself.

We're also transparent about who we are: Match Punk publishes these guides, and we built the app that puts every one of these rules into practice. That's the whole point — understand the rules, then let Match Punk handle the math so you can focus on the game.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much commander damage is lethal in MTG? 21 combat damage from a single commander eliminates a player, no matter their current life total. Damage from different commanders is tracked separately, so two commanders dealing 20 each won't combine to reach the threshold.

What life total do you start with in each format? Standard, Modern, Pioneer, Limited, and Pauper all start at 20 life. Commander starts at 40. Two-Headed Giant uses a shared 30 life total per team.

How many poison counters does it take to lose? A player with 10 or more poison counters loses the game immediately. Poison counters carry no relation to your life total — you can be at full life and still lose to poison.

What's the difference between poison and infect? Poison counters are what accumulate on a player. Infect is the keyword ability that hands them out, dealing damage to players as poison counters and to creatures as -1/-1 counters. So infect is the cause; poison counters are the result.

Can Match Punk track all of this automatically? Yes. Match Punk tracks life totals, commander damage from each source independently, and counters like poison, energy, and experience — plus full match history. It's free, ad-free, and works for every format.

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