Basic Rules From the Playmat
For reference, here are the rules that appear on the Harry Potter TCG Starter Set playmat. If you want to play without using the playmat, you can just refer to this section if you forget anything!

Start Here!
You and your opponent are wizards duelling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Many spells and magical creatures you play will 'damage' your opponent, which means your opponent has to discard cards from his or her deck.

You win the game when your opponent's deck runs out of cards.

Before You Play
o Pick which deck you want.
o Put your Wizard or Witch card in the 'Wizard/Witch' spot.
o Shuffle your deck and put it in the 'Deck' spot.
o Draw 7 cards for your starting hand.
o Decide who goes first.

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Steps of Your Turn
Step 1. Draw a card from your deck and put it into your hand.
Do this first every turn!

Step 2. Damage your opponent with your Creatures that are already on the table. (Don't worry about this on your first turn -- you won't have any Creatures on the table yet.)

Step 3. You have 2 Actions.
You can use an Action to:
o Play a Lesson card; or
o Play a Creature card (you'll need enough Lesson cards on the table -- see 'Types of Cards' on p. 12); or
o Play a Spell card (you'll need enough Lesson cards on the table -- see 'Types of Cards' on p. 12); or
o Draw an extra card.

You can do the same Action twice instead of doing two different Actions.

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Lesson Cards
Lessons give you the power you need to play other cards. When you play a Lesson card, all you need to do is take it from your hand and put it on the table. Lessons stay on the table ('in play') after you play them.

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Creature Cards
Creatures damage your opponent's deck -- not other Creatures. They stay on the table ('in play') after you play them.

Power needed: You must have this many Lessons already on the table to play this card. Only one of your Lessons has to match the Lesson symbol.

For example, Surly Hound has a cost of 3 Lesson cards. To play it, you'd need 3 Lessons on the table, and only 1 of them would have to be a Care of Magical Creatures Lesson card.

Health: If your opponent's Spell card does this much damage or more
to your Creature, discard it.

Damage each turn: Your opponent discards this many cards from his or her deck every turn. The damage happens on step 2 of your turn
(so your Creature doesn't do damage on the turn that you play it).

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Spell Cards
To play a Spell card, show it to your opponent, do what it says and put it in your discard pile. Spell cards don't stay on the table like the other cards do.

Power needed: You must have this many Lessons already on the table to use this card. Only one of your Lessons has to match the symbol.

What the card does: This is what happens when you play the card. Some cards do damage to your opponent (which makes your opponent discard that many cards from his or her deck) or to one Creature that's on the table.

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Next: Learning the Advanced Game