You can play Magic: The Gathering too!!

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In the beginning:

You should all play Magic: The Gathering because it's a really fun game with incredible depth of strategy both in deck design and in in-game calculations and bluffing. The storyline and flavor behind the cards is also really interesting.

I think the best way to learn how to play is to go to a store that sells the cards and buy a "starter set", and follow the instructions inside. Remember to read the stuff they give you and follow the instructions, I know this is a lot to ask for, especially of the kinds of people usually on online game forums, but it's worth it.

If you dont want to buy anything, a good place to start with this is to read the beginner's guide here (this option is gonna be a LOT harder then the starter set option, but it's free so you should be prepared to put in th extra effort): http://www.wizards.com/magic/rules/MagicRulebook_10E_EN.pdf
It may seem like a lot to read, but honestly when you think about it 20 pages really isnt that much, and most of it is pictures. Once you put in this initial time investment you the game is really quite fascinating.

If you didnt buy any cards you should also download and install MWS. I have a guide for it here: http://www.d3jsp.org/viewtopic.php?t=2134

Afterwards, you should play a few games with some friends to get a feel for it, and you can also look up rulings on the Magic: The Gathering rules center here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/rules

Any other questions you can pm me or post asking and I'll do my best to help out.

The Magic Premise:

In this game, you represent a powerful wizard/sorceror and your cards represent lands (sources of energy), creatures (soldiers to attack with), artifacts (trinkets that do something useful), enchantments (auras that help you out or hurt your opponent), or instants/sorceries (spells to blast your opponent or buff your guys with). The world of magic consists of a "multiverse" of different planes of existance.

The Magic Cards:

Whether or not you decide to play with real cards or to download the MWS and play online, the game is at its heart a card game, and new cards are designed and printed every year.
A "set" is a group of cards, usually between 180-350, that sort of go together, both in flavor and function. The storyline behind these cards is related, and many of them will be designed so that there are purposeful synergies between them. When you buy cards, you generally buy a booster pack and get a pack of 15 cards: 1 rare, about 4 uncommons, and about 10 commons (all of which come from one "set").
A "cycle" or "block" is a group of 3 sets consisting of one big set with 350-ish cards and 2 smaller expansion sets with 180-ish cards each. Each "cycle" also has a background story behind it, but 2 different cycles may be completely unrelated in storyline.

Formats of Magic:

Magic is broken up into 4 different "formats" of increasing power and complexity. When you build a deck, you will usually follow one of these formats and only use cards allowed by the format. There are sanctioned tournaments for each of these formats, and most casual players also loosely follow one of these main formats:

--Standard , a.k.a. Type 2: this consists of the 2 most recent "Blocks" (a block consists of 3 sets of cards with a related theme and story-line) and the most recent "Core Set" (this is a set of useful cards that are frequently reprinted to maintain some consistency in deck-building). The card pool rotates half of the card pool changes every year, and the entire cardpool is different every 2 years (except for reprints, of course). Some overpowered cards may be "banned", which means that you can't use them in this format. This is generally the slowest (in terms of game pace) format, but also the most popular.

--Extended: this consists of all the cards from the last time extended was "rotated" until the current set being printed. The extended cardpool is not rotated very frequently. Some overpowered cards may be "banned", which means that you can't use them in this format.

--Legacy, a.k.a. Type 1.5: the cardpool consists of all cards ever printed. Some overpowered cards may be "banned", which means that you can't use them in this format.

--Vintage, a.k.a. Type 1: the cardpool, like Legacy, consists of all cards ever printed. HOWEVER, cards are NOT banned based on being too powerful. They are, instead, "restricted" (meaning you can only have 1 per deck). This is BY FAR the most intense and brutal format (as well as the most expensive to play with real cards in).

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Magic: The Gathering was the first collectible card game, launching a new genre of hobby games in which each card could change the game rules in some way. Players are wizards attempting to reduce their opponent's life total to zero (or run them out of cards) by casting spells and attacking them with various creatures. Cards can be lands, which usually generate mana of various colors, or spells, which require a certain amount of mana to be used. Some cards (creatures, artifacts, and enchantments) stay on the board and continue to affect the game, while others have a one-time effect. An important part of the game is deck construction, which is done prior to the actual game by selecting what cards are included in a particular deck.