magic the gathering?

Question

how mana burn works

Answer 1

Mana burn occurs when you have drawn mana into your mana pool (either by tapping a land or another mana source) but do not spend all of the mana before the end of the current phase.

The practical application is that it is to prevent a player from tapping all of his or her lands in response to an opponent's card that draws all of the mana from a player's lands (like Drain Power) or when a mana source generates more mana than a player can use in a phase (e.g. Basalt Monolith, Sol Ring, or one of the Urza lands that generates multiple colorless mana). Additionally, in some earlier series cards, basic lands might produce extra mana (Mana Flare, Gauntlet of Might) and if a player did not use all of the mana drawn, that extra mana caused burn. Power Surge was also a card which affected a player because untapped lands did damage to a player (e.g. a player would take one damage for each untapped land, but if that player tapped lands but did not spend the mana, that player would take damage for the mana burn).

The enchantment card Upwelling counteracts mana burn by preventing mana pools from "draining" at the end of each phase.

Answer 2

Mana burn occurs when you add mana to your mana pool and then end a phase without spending it. Let's say you opponent plays Stone Rain on a Mountain and you tap it in response for mana. Then your opponent goes on to their combat phase and you can't spend the mana. Since you added one mana to your mana pool and you didn't use it you're "burned" for one point of life loss by the unused mana. It has to do with the notion that the players are dueling Planeswalkers. Note: Mana burn is loss of life not damage. So you can't prevent it.

Answer 3

Back when we got 4-6 lands in a pack, there would be bonfires for us to burn the mana and whatever cards weren't wanted, especially those dang Atogs. So when the flames of the fire touched the mana cards, they burned.

Answer 4

every turn you can tap a number of land cards to add mana to your mana pool. This is then used to summon creatures or cast spells. When, at the end of a turn, you have added too much mana to your pool, you receive one point of damage per point.
This doesn't happen a lot, because you tap the right number of lands per card when you play that card. It occurs mostly by mot paying attention, or leaving lands tapped when you start your turn. (maybe there are cards your opponent can use to inflict mana burn, but I have not yet seen such strategy)