How to Play Your First Trading Card Game: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Never played a trading card game before? This guide walks you through everything — from what a card does to your first turn — using Goblins & Gunslingers as your starting point.
What Is a Trading Card Game?
A trading card game (TCG) is a game where two players each build a deck of cards and use them to battle. Each card represents a creature, spell, or ability with specific costs and effects. You spend resources to play cards, attack your opponent, and try to reduce their health to zero.
If you've never played one, think of it like a strategy game where your "army" is a shuffled deck of cards and your "moves" are the cards you choose to play each turn.
The Anatomy of a Card
Every card in Goblins & Gunslingers has the same basic parts:
- Name — The card's identity. Frontier Marshal, Mud Slicker, Midnight Marauder.
- Mana Cost — How much mana you need to play it. Higher cost = generally more powerful.
- Gold Cost — Some cards also cost gold. Gold is earned by dealing damage to your opponent.
- Attack — How much damage this creature deals in combat.
- Defense — How much damage this creature can take before it dies.
- Ability — Special text that gives the card a unique effect. Keywords like Quickdraw or Ambush have specific rules meanings.
- Faction — Which group this card belongs to (Human, Goblin, Desert Devil, etc.).
Resources: Mana and Gold
GNG uses two resources:
Mana grows automatically. Turn 1 = 1 mana, turn 2 = 2 mana, turn 3 = 3 mana, and so on. It fully refills every turn. This is your main way to play cards.
Gold is earned through combat. You get 1 gold per turn as a base, plus +1 for each time you damage the opponent directly. Gold pays for powerful cards and Deputy summons.
Your First Turn: A Walkthrough
Here's what a typical opening looks like:
- Draw Phase — Draw 1 card from your deck. (On turn 1, you already have your 7-card opening hand.)
- Resource Phase — Your mana refills to the turn number (turn 1 = 1 mana, turn 2 = 2 mana). Your gold refreshes to 1 + any bonus from last turn.
- Action Phase — Play cards, attack with creatures, use abilities. You can do these in any order and as many times as your resources allow.
- End Phase — Your turn ends. Temporary effects expire. Your opponent goes.
Turn 1 example: You have 1 mana. You play Mud Slicker (1M, 2/1, Ambush). Because it has Ambush, it can attack immediately. You swing at the opponent for 2 damage. You've now earned +2 bonus gold for next turn. End turn.
Turn 2: You have 2 mana and 3 gold (1 base + 2 bonus). You play Frontier Marshal (2M, 2/3, Quickdraw). It can't attack this turn (no Ambush), but next turn it'll strike first in combat thanks to Quickdraw.
The Battlefield: Lanes
GNG's board has 7 lanes in two rows:
- 2 High-Rise lanes — Elevated positions. Only 1 creature per lane. Fresh creatures here dodge single-target attacks until they swing first. Cannot attack the opponent directly.
- 5 Middle Lanes — The main fight. Creatures must destroy the enemy creature directly in front of them before attacking anything else.
Where you place a creature matters. It's not just about what you play — it's about where.
Building Your First Deck
A GNG deck has 52 cards using up to 2 factions, plus 2 Deputy cards kept outside the deck. For your first deck, keep it simple:
- Low curve — Include plenty of cheap cards (1-2 mana) so you always have something to play.
- Mix of creatures and spells — Creatures fight on the board, spells create instant effects.
- One clear plan — Decide if your deck wants to be aggressive (lots of cheap Ambush creatures) or defensive (Cover Tokens, Warrant, healing). Don't try to do both.
Or skip deck building entirely — GNG has pre-built starter decks for every faction that are ready to play immediately.
Practice for Free
The best way to learn is to play. Goblins & Gunslingers has a free interactive tutorial that teaches lane combat, resources, and keywords in under five minutes. No account required to start — just load the tutorial and play.
After the tutorial, try a Skirmish duel against the AI to practice at your own pace. Once you're comfortable, jump into multiplayer and test your deck against real opponents on the frontier.