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Mana time

Work together to collect as much Magic mana as you can in this fast paced, outdoor team game.
Plan a session with this activity

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You’ll need

  • Box or container
  • Coloured card
  • Magic: The Gathering Welcome Deck (optional)
How To Play Jumpstart
– 0.0KB
Download How To Play Jumpstart
How To Play MTC
– 0.0KB
Download How To Play MTC

Before you begin

  • You could order a Magic: The Gathering Welcome Deck free from Scout Store and use the land cards in this game, complete Magic: the crafting first to make some counters to use, or just use pieces of colourful card.
  • You’ll need an area full of hiding spots to play this game. It’ll only work if there are plenty of places for people to hide. 

Magic: The Gathering is a collectible card game. You take on the role of a planeswalker, who collects magic energy (called mana) from the land around you. You use that mana to summon creatures and cast spells during the game. There are five different colours of Magic cards; each colour handles things differently, so you can choose what kind of planeswalker you want to be. Your deck of cards represents all the spells you know and the creatures you can summon.

Find out more on the official Magic website.

Magic players craft their own decks and choose cards that suit their own playing styles and strategies. When they’re building a deck, people often focus on taking advantage of the different powers in each of Magic’s five mana colours:

  • White magic focuses on teamwork by using massive armies and sinking their abilities to protect both the controlling player and their creatures. White cards generally include spells like protection, balance and peacemakers.
  • Blue magic allows a Planeswalker to preview cards in their library, banish opponents from the battlefield and even manipulate time. Blue cards can include counter spells, banishments, and control cards.
  • Black magic is centred on the quest for power by any means possible. Black cards can include invasive creatures, discard spells and the ability to bring a card back from the graveyard, or prevent them from going there.
  • Red magic uses direct damage to opponents, quick acting spells and cool creatures like dragons. Red cards include fast creatures, power builders, and destruction spells.
  • Green magic combines the healing power of nature with the ferocity of the animal kingdom. Green spells include trampling creatures, life gaining spells and mana generation.

To watch in full screen, double click the video

 

Play the game

  1. The person leading the game should explain that everyone is a planeswalker. The aim of the game is for the planeswalkers to collect different coloured mana for their team without getting caught.
  2. The person leading the game should set clear boundaries for the area and place a box or container in the centre of the space.
  3. Everyone should get into teams.
  4. Each team should choose one planeswalker to stand by the box in the middle.
  5. The person leading the game should give everyone else a number of coloured counters or land cards to represent their mana. Each team should have a different colour, but the same number of mana. 
  1. The planeswalkers in the middle should close their eyes and everyone else should run and hide.
  2. Once everyone’s hidden, the planeswalkers in the middle should open their eyes. Without moving, they should try to spot players from the other teams.
  1. After a minute or so, the planeswalkers in the middle should close their eyes again. They should shout ‘mana time’, then count slowly down from ten, out loud, keeping their eyes closed.
  2. As soon as the other planeswalkers hear ‘mana time’, they should run, put one of their mana tokens in the box in the middle, run back, and find a hiding place before the planeswalkers in the middle reach zero.
  3. When the planeswalkers in the middle get to zero, they should open their eyes again and see if they can spot any planeswalkers from other teams. 
  4. Repeat steps six to eight – decrease the time everyone has to hide again each time you play.
  5. Keep playing until all the planeswalkers are caught or the time reaches zero. The team that managed to collect the most mana wins.

Reflection

This game was all about getting active and having fun outdoors. Take the time to think about what you did and why – you’ll be amazed at what you learn. Try out a quick, active reflection from our reflective toolkit to lock in the great things you tried and learned in this activity.

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Active games

The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.

  • You could hide the mana so that everyone needs to find it and take it back to the box during the game.
  • You can easily change the size of the playing area and the amount of time everyone has to hide.

Think about how everyone will move around during the game, and make sure the area you’re using is suitable for the whole group.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Scouts Hobbies Activity Badge

Check out Magic: the crafting to create your own mana tokens for the game, or Learn to play Magic for some info on how to get started playing Magic: The Gathering.