CardsplainPhases and steps. A turn has five phases in a fixed order, and three of them are split into steps.
- Beginning phase: untap step, upkeep step, draw step.
- First main phase: play your land, cast creatures and .
- Combat phase: beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, combat damage, end of combat.
- Second main phase: the same as the first, after combat.
- Ending phase: end step, cleanup step.
What the game does by itself. Some steps start with an action nobody chooses:
- Untap: you untap your . Nobody can cast anything in this step.
- Draw: you draw a card. In a two-player game, the player who goes first skips this on their first turn.
- Cleanup: with more than seven cards in hand you discard down to seven. Then all damage on creatures is removed and every "until end of turn" effect ends. Nobody normally casts anything here either.
"At the beginning of" abilities trigger as their step starts, before anyone can cast a spell. Smaug the Magnificent makes a "at the beginning of your upkeep", so it arrives before you draw. Each you control gets its as your first main phase begins, so its next chapter happens after your draw.
