The core game follows the standard rules of the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, first released in 1993; each player has a deck of cards consisting of lands and spells.
Lands are used to generate "mana", the resource needed to cast spells. Mana comes in five colors, and cards may require colored or generic (mana of any color) to be cast. Spells come in many varieties, from sorceries and instants which have one-time effects, to summoned creatures which can attack and defend from opponents. Players alternate turns playing land cards, casting spells, and attacking opponents until all but one player's life total is reduced to 0.
There are four campaigns; an initial campaign, a "revenge" campaign, a challenge campaign, and a campaign featuring the new "planechase" mode. The "standard" campaign consists of ten player matches; defeating each opponent unlocking their respective deck; and eight "encounters", which are matches against an AI who plays specific cards in a specific order each turn, to test individual aspects of your deck. The "revenge" campaign consists of eleven matches which are a more difficult version of each of the main-campaign planeswalkers. The "challenge" campaign is ten challenges long - these are set scenarios which can generally be won within a turn and the player must figure out how to use the cards at their disposal to ascertain this method. The "planechase" campaign consists of four games against groups of three opponents. A new plane card deck is situated in the middle of play and each turn a player may roll a die to either activate the planes effect or change it to another; the effects of these planes are generally quite dramatic.
