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Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering card backThe distinctive card back design has remained unchanged since the game's introduction in 1993.
Players2
Setup time< 5 minutes
Playing time< 30 minutes
ChanceSome
Age range13 and up
SkillsCard playing
Arithmetic
Some optional rules allow more players.
Games may take much longer depending on a deck's play style and the number of players.

Magic: The Gathering (colloquially "Magic" or "MTG"), is a collectible card game created by Richard Garfield, Ph.D. and introduced by the company Wizards of the Coast in 1993. Magic inspired an entirely new game genre, and has an estimated six million players in over seventy countries worldwide, as well as a successful Internet versionTemplate:Fn. The game is a strategy contest not unlike chess, but like most standard card games includes an element of chance due to the random distribution of cards during shuffling.

Each game represents a battle between very powerful wizards called "planeswalkers" who use magical spells, items, and fantastic creatures. Though the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, Magic as a game bears little resemblance to role-playing games.

The game has an official tournament system, in which the game is played for cash and scholarship prizes, and the game has a number of professional players. The cards themselves also have value, much like other trading cards, but in this case based on both scarcity and game play potential.

History

When Peter Adkison, then CEO of the fledgling Wizards of the Coast games company, met Richard Garfield, then a graduate student who would become a mathematics professor, it was to discuss Garfield's new board game Roborally. Adkison was not very keen on the idea, as board games are expensive to produce and difficult to market. He did enjoy Garfield's ideas and mentioned that he was looking for a portable game that could be played in the downtime that frequently occurs at gaming conventions. Garfield returned later with a prototype he had been working with on and off over the last few years under the development name of Mana Clash. Adkison immediately saw the potential of the game and agreed to produce it.

Role-players were enthusiastic early fans of Magic, but the game achieved much wider popularity among strategy gamers. The commercial success of the game prompted a wave of other collectible card games to flood the market in the mid-1990s. Many of them were poorly designed and failed both commercially and in popularity. Although Magic's gross card sales have been surpassed in recent years, particularly by Japanese import games based on the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! franchises, Magic's popularity continues to grow steadily.

In 1996, Wizards of the Coast established the "Pro Tour", a circuit of tournaments where players can compete for top prizes in excess of US$30,000 for a single weekend-long tournament, with a total purse of over US$200,000. Sanctioned by the DCI, the popular series of tournaments adds an element of prestige and weight to the game by virtue of the large payouts and media coverage from within the community. The system is similar to the ones used in golf, tennis and other professional sports. The company publicizes good players who win frequently in order to create a "star" system, and examples to which other players to follow and aspire.

In 2002, an official online version of the game was released. While less functional methods of online play exist, Magic: The Gathering Online was the first to capitalize on this interest. It has features which are lacking in other methods; specifically, it handles game rules automatically. The online version has been a runaway success for the company and has inspired similar products from many popular collectible card games.

Awards

  • 1994: Origins Awards for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Boardgame of 1993 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Boardgame of 1993
  • 1999: Inducted alongside Richard Garfield into the Origins Hall of Fame
  • 2003: GAMES Magazine selected it for its Games Hall of Fame

Game play

Main article: Magic: The Gathering rules
File:MagicCards.jpg
Magic: the Gathering cards are designated by various types and colors.

In a game of Magic, two players are engaged in a duel. A player starts the game with twenty "life" points and seven cards in their hand. If a player is reduced to zero life, that player loses the game. The object of Magic is to be the last surviving player.

Players fight each other by casting spell cards by drawing upon mana, or magical energy, from Land cards. There are two basic types of spells: those which become a "permanent", which stay on the table once they have been played, and those which affect the game immediately and are then put into their owners' graveyards. The types of cards are:

Permanents

  • Lands: The basic resources of the game. Players may play only one land during each of their turns. A land may be "tapped" for energy, or mana, once per its owner's turn.
  • Creatures: Magical beasts or warriors that can attack the other player or be used for defense.
  • Artifacts: Machines, automatons, magical items and/or weapons which can enhance creatures, provide useful abilities, or create unusual effects.
  • Enchantments: Lasting magical effects which modify the game environment or a specific permanent.

Non-Permanents

  • Instants: Spells which have a one-time effect and are then discarded. Instants may be played at almost any time, and as such are valued for their versatility.
  • Sorceries: Spells similar to Instants, except may be played only during the player's own turn.

Each player has a library, (a deck) or draw pile; a hand containing cards drawn but not yet played; an area on the table for his or her permanents; and a discard pile called the graveyard. Players may never look into the libraries (unless a card's ability allows you to do so) and may see only their own hands, but may normally view all the other cards on the table without restriction.

Some spells have effects that override normal game rules (e.g., allow you to play more than one land per turn). The so-called "Golden Rule of Magic" is that if a card's text conflicts with the rules, the card has priority. Resolving interactions between conflicting spell effects is one of the more difficult aspects of game play. A detailed rulebook Template:Fn exists to clarify these conflicts.

Deck construction

A player needs a deck ready before he or she can play a game of Magic. Beginners typically start with only a starter deck, that is pre-built and ready for play, but over time, more cards are added to the player's stock through purchases or trading with other players. Due to the many possibilities, two players seldom play with the same decks.

Normally, decks are required to be at least sixty cards. Players may use no more than four of any named card, with the exception of the "basic lands" that act as a standard resource in Magic. When deciding which cards to include, it is often beneficial to use the minimum deck size, combined with the maximum number of card copies, to provide consistent draws to minimize the affect of luck on a particular game. A proper balance of mana sources, including basic land and mana-producing artifacts and creatures, to spells is also important in creating an effective deck. A deck must have enough mana sources to fit the mana curve of the deck's spells. In a sixty card deck, it is usually best to have 16 – 27 mana sources and 33 – 44 other spells (either creature spells, enchantments, instants or sorceries). A deck composed of mostly cheap spells can run smoothly on fewer mana sources, while a deck with large creatures or expensive spells often requires a larger number of mana sources.

Although five colors of spell are available, it may help to play just one or two in a deck so that the color of spells drawn will match the color of mana available. On the other hand, the five colors each have different strengths and weaknesses, and playing more colors may help create a more versatile and well-rounded deck. Many players feel that it is essential to use more than one color in a deck in order to increase the versatility and midgame play. The decision on what colors to use is vitally important, and successful decks have used nearly every combination of colors.

See also: Magic: The Gathering deck types and Combo deck

The colors of Magic

Most spells come in one of five colors: white, blue, black, red, or green. To play a spell of one color, mana produced by a land of the appropriate type is required. The equilibrium among the five colors is one of the defining aspects of the game. The various strengths and weaknesses of each color are attributed to the fact that each color represents a different "style" of magic. Because the trade-offs between the abilities of each color are integral to keeping the game balanced, it is helpful to discuss the various color philosophies.

  • White is the color of equality, order, law, righteousness, and light (although not necessarily "goodness"). Typical white creatures include knights, soldiers, clerics, and angels. Within the game, white's strengths lie in protecting and enhancing its creatures, healing damage dealt to players, tools to even out board disadvantages (or clear them entirely), imposing restrictions on the other players, and dealing devastating blows to all players. White's weaknesses include its difficulty in removing the opponent's creatures through direct removal, its lack of speed (with a few notable exceptions), and the fact that many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally. At its best, white is just and protective, controls the flow of the game by initiating basic combos or structures. At its worst, white is fascist and absolute.
  • Blue is the color of knowledge, illusion, reason, ingenuity, and trickery. Typical blue creatures include wizards, faeries, merfolk, and air and water spirits. Blue's cards are best at letting a player draw additional cards, stealing control of opposing permanents, sending permanents back to their owner's hands (informally called "bouncing"), and countering (cancelling) spells as they are being played, fully negating their effects. Also, blue is the color that most focuses on alternate methods of winning the game, such as emptying the opponent's deck and setting up "lockdowns," situations in which the opponent cannot affect the playing field. Blue's weaknesses lie in that it has the least aggressive creatures of any color and only limited ways of dealing with opposing threats once they have entered play.
  • Black is the color of death, darkness, plague, selfishness, ambition, greed, and amorality (although not necessarily "evil"). Typical black creatures include rats, undead, demons, and necromancers. Within the game, black cards are best at killing opposing creatures, making players discard cards from his or her hand, and raising creatures from the dead. Also, black cards often have cheaper costs in mana in exchange for alternate sacrifices, such as creatures or life points. Black's weakness is its almost complete inability to destroy enchantments and artifacts, in addition to it's inability to remove other black creatures directly from the field.
  • Red is the color of destruction, war, passion, chaos, and anger. Typical red creatures include goblins, barbarians, dragons, and earth and fire spirits. Red is one of the best colors for destroying opposing creatures, trading long-term resources for short-term power, and for playing spells that reduce the opponent's life points (so-called "burn" or "direct damage"). Red also has the vast majority of cards that involve random chance. Red's weaknesses include it's inability to destroy enchantments, the random or self-destructive nature of many of its spells, and it's generally weak mid-game play..
  • Green is the color of life, nature, growth, instinct, and interdependence. Typical green creatures include beasts, elves, insects and druids. Green has powerful creatures, numerous ways to destroy artifacts and enchantments, spells that increase a player's life total, and permanents that produce mana more quickly than other colors and can produce mana of different colors. However, green has difficulty removing opposing creatures from play, and it lacks damaging or controlling spells; nearly all of its strategies are creature-based.

The colors can be seen on the back of the cards, in a pentagonal design, called the "color wheel". Starting from the top, going clockwise, they are: white, blue, black, red, and green. These can sometimes be abbreviated as W, U, B, R, and G respectively. (Many times a player will refer to a five-color card as a WUBRG card, pronounced: "woo-burg.") The colors adjacent to each other on the wheel are "allied" and have similar, complementary abilities. For example, blue has few efficient, aggressive creatures in general, but does have a relatively large number of flying creatures. White and black, being next to it, also have many flying creatures. Red and green are opposite blue and have very few flyers. The two non-adjacent colors to a particular color are "enemy" colors, and are thematically opposed. For instance, red is the color of chaos, while white and blue are the colors of order and logic.

In general, a deck that uses opposing colors can be more powerful and versatile, but has more intricate strategies and requires an expert-level player to utilize it efficiently. A deck using colors that are complimentary generally revolves around one strategy, and it can be played by a more intermediate or beginner level player. However, it is generally less powerful and less equipped to face many different types of decks, such as those found in a tournament.

The R&D team at Wizards of the Coast balances the power between the five colors by using the Color Pie to define the strengths and weaknesses of each. Each color, as noted above, has its own distinct attributes and the pie is used to put new cards where they belong, so that one color does not impede on the territory of another.

A series of six articles written by Mark Rosewater describing each color in depth can be found at the game's official site at MagicTheGathering.com: The Great White Way, True Blue, In the Black, Seeing Red,It's Not Easy Being Green, and Midas Touch.

Multi-color cards were introduced in the Legends set and use a gold border to distinguish them. These cards tend to combine the philosophy and mechanics of the colors used in the spell's cost. Due to the restriction of having to play all the colors in the casting cost, multi-color cards tend to be more powerful for their cost compared to single-color cards.

More recently, two-color "hybrid" cards that can be paid for with either of the card's colors (as opposed to both, as is the case with normal multi-color cards) were introduced in the Ravnica set. The border of these cards has a distinctive "half-and-half" design, with a vertical merge between colors in the middle. Hybrid cards also introduced a series of "split" mana symbols, designating a mana cost which can be paid with one of the two colors.

Variant rules

While the primary method of Magic play is one-on-one using standard deck construction rules, casual play groups have developed many alternative formats for playing the game. The most popular alternatives describe ways of playing with more than two players and change the rules about how decks can be built.

  • Multiplayer — The simplest format is the free-for-all, where players sit in a circle and combat those around them to be the final surviving player. One popular variant is "Rainbow" (or "Five-Player Star") and involves exactly five players, each one playing one of the colors of Magic and trying to defeat the diametrically opposed ones. Team-based play is also extremely popular. "Two-Headed Giant" is a team game where pairs of players share turns and life totals. In "Emperor", two teams, each generally composed of three or five players, play to ensure their central player (the "emperor") outlasts the other. In June 2005, rules for handling multiplayer games were added to the official rulebook, and "Two-Headed Giant" team play is the first multiplayer variant to be sanctioned.
  • Vanguard — In this variant, each player has a special card that affects the game. These cards change the players' starting life total and cards in hand, and have additional effects as well. Vanguard initially began with special oversized Vanguard cards, released as part of various promotions. Although three cycles of cards were made, interest never caught on due to relatively low production and lack of sanctioned tournaments. Vanguard was reborn online, with a player's avatar filling the role of the oversized physical cards. Players are given a standard set of avatars and can receive more as entry and high-finishing prizes in release events. The wider availability online, combined with occasional tournaments, has made online Vanguard more of a success than its physical predecessor
  • Alternative deck construction — Various alternative rules can be used to govern the construction of decks. In one system, players are allowed to use only one of each card instead of the usual limit of four; this is called "Singleton" or "Highlander" ("There can be only one"). In the "Pauper's Deck" or "Peasant Magic" variants, the more powerful rare cards are not allowed, and players must construct decks using only the more commonly available cards as a way of balancing the games for players on a budget. In "5-Color" or "Prismatic Magic", players must build very large decks (at least 250 cards) and accommodate a minimum number of cards of each color, usually twenty. In order to alleviate problems with the mana resource system, some play variants include rules for building decks without lands. These variants often include other compensating controls, such as restricting players to one spell per turn (as in "Type Four" or "DC-10"), or in using spell cards themselves to be played as lands and produce matching colored mana. "Mental Magic" uses a stack of whatever cards are at hand as decks for each player. Play is normal except that the cards in their hand can be played as any card in the game with the same mana cost, but each such card can only be used once per game.

Organized play

Officially sanctioned Magic tournaments attract participants of all ages and are held around the world. These players in Rostock, Germany are competing for an invitation to a professional tournament in Nagoya, Japan.
Main article: Duelists' Convocation International

Magic: The Gathering has grown a lot since it was first introduced in 1993, and a large culture has developed around the game. Magic tournaments are arranged almost every weekend in gaming stores. Larger tournaments with hundreds of competitors from around the globe sponsored by Wizards of the Coast are arranged many times every year. Large sums of money are paid out to those players who place the best in the tournament, and the winner receives sums upward of US$50,000. A number of websites report on tournament news, give complete lists for the most currently popular decks, and feature articles on current issues of debate about the game. The Duelists' Convocation International (or DCI) is the organizing body for professional Magic events. The DCI is owned and operated by Wizards of the Coast.

There are two basic types of organized play, Constructed and Limited.

Constructed

In Constructed tournaments, each player comes with a pre-built deck. Decks must consist of no fewer than 60 cards, and no more than four of any one card (the basic land cards may be used in any quantity). Various tournament formats exist which define what card sets are allowed to be used, and which specific cards are disallowed.

In addition to the main deck, players are allowed a 15-card sideboard. Following the first game of a match, each player is permitted to replace any number of cards in his or her deck with an equal number of cards from his or her sideboard. Thus a player may alter his or her deck to better deal with their opponent's strategy. Tournaments are normally structured so that the first player to win two games is the winner of the match. The original deck configuration is restored before the start of the next match.

There are various formats in which Constructed tournaments can be held. They include Vintage, Legacy, Extended, Standard, and Block. Vintage is considered an eternal format because the card pool never rotates. This means that all the sets that are currently legal will continue to be legal and any new sets will automatically be included in the legal card pool. The Vintage card pool is therefore restricted solely by the Banned/Restricted list maintained by the DCI. The only banned cards are cards using the ante mechanic, as well as Chaos Orb and Falling Star, two cards that involved flipping the card onto the table. Restricted cards are cards that a player may only use one of in his or her deck. Players are permitted to proxy cards in many Vintage tournaments because of the expense involved in acquiring some older cards.

Legacy is the other eternal constructed format. It evolved from a format called Type 1.5, which was defined by a banned list that merely consisted of all banned and restricted cards in Type 1 (now called Vintage). In 2004, the format was revitalized by separating the banned list from Vintage and banning many cards which had been staples of Type 1.5 including Mishra's Workshop, Mana Drain, and Bazaar of Baghdad.

Block is the format defined by the current cycle of three sets of cards. The current block consists solely of Ravnica: City of Guilds since the next two sets of Ravnica block have yet to be released.

Standard is the format defined by the current block, the last completed block, and the most recent core set. The current Standard card pool consists of Ravnica block, Kamigawa Block, and Ninth Edition Core Set.

Extended format rotates every three years and leaves the six most recent blocks and three most recent core sets. Any additional blocks to be released between rotations are automatically added to this format's card pool. The current extended format consists of Invasion, Odyssey, Onslaught, Mirrodin, Kamigawa, and Ravnica Blocks, and Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Edition Core Sets.

Since these formats are constantly changing and adapting to new sets, more comprehensive rules for each format can be found at the DCI website.

Limited

Limited tournaments are based on a pool of cards which the player receives at the time of the event. The decks in limited tournaments need only be 40 cards; all the unused cards function as the sideboard. In sealed deck tournaments, each player receives five booster packs, or a 75-card Tournament Pack and two booster packs from which to build their deck. In a booster draft, several players (usually eight) are seated around a table and each player is given three booster packs. Each player opens a pack, selects a card from it and passes it to their left. Each player then selects one of the 14 cards from the pack that was just passed to him, and passes the remaining cards to the left again. This continues until all of the cards are depleted. The process is repeated with the second pack, except that the cards are passed to the right. The third pack is distributed like the first pack. Any number of basic lands may be added to a limited deck.

Product information

Main article: Magic: The Gathering sets

Magic: The Gathering cards are produced in much the same way as normal playing cards. Each Magic card, approximately 63 x 88 mm in size (2.5 by 3.5 inches), has a face which displays the card's name and rules text as well as an illustration appropriate to the card's concept. Over 7000 unique cards have been produced for the game, with about 600 new ones added each year. Each player builds a deck of cards, chosen from those which he or she owns (with certain restrictions as discussed below) to be used in a duel against an opponent.

The first Magic cards were printed exclusively in English, but current sets are also printed in Simplified Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Russian.

Magic cards are released in two types of sets: the game itself, also called the base set or core set, and various expansion sets. The base set is periodically revised, with the rules, card artwork, and even card list itself being changed; nine editions of the base set have been made so far, each containing anywhere from 302 to 449 cards. Expansion sets are the sets in which new cards are first printed, and they once consisted exclusively of new cards; but now, almost a third of them are large "stand-alone" expansions, which contain a few reprints of already-existing cards and can be played without the base set. Each stand-alone expansion is also associated with two smaller expansion sets of its own (except Ice Age, which only had one smaller expansion). Each such trilogy of sets is called a "Cycle" or "Block". The most common size for a stand-alone expansion set is 350 cards, with newer sets being slightly smaller; the most common size for a non-stand-alone expansion set is 143 cards, with newer sets being slightly larger.

The biggest rules change in the game's history came with the Sixth Edition of the base set. The game was not originally designed to have expansion sets, so its rules were not designed to accommodate new cards and mechanics. Spell timing and other issues had become quite complicated by 1999 due to the somewhat inelegant ways in which unforeseen interactions had to be dealt with. Wizards of the Coast decided that the best solution was to rewrite the rules from the ground up, regardless of how previous cards had been worded or how poorly those wordings would work under the new rules. Other changes were made to card formatting and terminology, and one creature ability was removed from the rules entirely (it was reinstated later). Sixth Edition also removed more cards from the base set, and for weaker reasons, than any other revision up to that point. Reactions from the game's fans were extremely varied. A few agreed or disagreed with all of the changes, but most fans agreed with some changes and disagreed with others. Some had very strong feelings about the changes, while others pointed out that they made very little functional difference. A large number of fans permanently quit at around this time, though whether this was mostly due to the rules changes or the so-called "combo winter" is still debated.

In 2003, starting from the Eighth Edition, the game went through its biggest visual change since its creation--a new card frame layout was developed to allow more rules text and larger art on the cards, while reducing the thick, colored border to a minimum. The new frame design aimed to improve contrast and readability using black type instead of the previous white, a new font, and partitioned areas for the name, card type, and power and toughness. This change received a mixed reception when first announced, but players quickly adapted, and it is now generally accepted that the new frame design is superior to the original.

Secondary market

There is an active secondary market in individual cards among players and game shops. On eBay, for example, there are an estimated 30,000 Magic: The Gathering card auctions running at any one time. Many other physical and online stores also sell single cards or, more commonly, "playsets" of four of a card.

The game cards are published by Wizards of the Coast in varying quantities – a standard booster pack contains eleven common cards, three uncommon cards, and one rare card. The prices of individual cards vary accordingly. Common cards rarely sell for more than a few cents. Uncommon cards and weak rares typically cost under US$1. The most expensive cards in Standard tournament play usually cost approximately US$10-20.

The most expensive card which was in regular print (as opposed to being a promotional or special printing) is Black Lotus, with as of 2005 average prices of US$500 and high-quality "graded" copies rising above US$3000. A small number of cards of similar age, rarity, and playability – chiefly among them the other cards in the so-called "Power Nine" – routinely reach high prices as well. In 2003, after the rotation of the Extended tournament format and in combination with the first Type 1 Championships, the prices for such old, tournament-level cards underwent a large, unexpected increase.

As new sets come out, older cards are occasionally reprinted. If a card has high play value, reprinting will often increase the original version's price, because of renewed demand among players. However, if the card is primarily attractive to collectors, reprinting will often decrease the original version's value. To help protect the collectible value of many old cards, Wizards of the Coast has formulated an official "Reprint Policy", which details certain cards that are unavailable to be printed again.

Affecting this market, wholesale distributors are not allowed to ship product to foreign nationalities, thereby creating pockets of opportunity. Additionally, several countries still have import restrictions that could be construed to bar the import of Magic: The Gathering or other collectible card games (Italy, for example, places restrictions on the importation of "playing cards".)

Artwork

Each card has an illustration to represent the flavor of the card, often reflecting the setting of the expansion for which it was designed. Since its inception, Magic has used exceptionally high-quality art on its cards, by many well-known fantasy and science-fiction illustrators. Notable artists who have contributed art for Magic cards include John Avon, Brom, John Coulthart, Mike Dringenberg, Kaja Foglio, Phil Foglio, Frank Kelly Freas, Donato Giancola, Rebecca Guay, John Howe, Bill Sienkiewicz, Ron Spencer, Bryan Talbot, Christopher Rush, Kev Walker, Michael Whelan, Dan Frazier and Keith Parkinson.

A few early sets experimented with alternate art for functionally identical cards. This created an unforeseen problem and a lesson learned for the company. Many players learn to recognize a card by its art and, thus, having multiple versions of art caused confusion when players tried to identify a card at a glance. Consequently, alternate art is now only used sparingly and mostly for promotional or chase cards.

Most of the artwork created was initially left completely in the hands of the artist. However, after a few years of submissions featuring beings with wings on creatures without flying, or multiple creatures in the art of what was supposed to be a single creature, the art direction team decided to impose a few constraints so that the artistic vision more closely aligned with the design and development of the cards. Each block of cards now has its own style guide with sketches and descriptions of the various races and places featured in each new setting.

As cards are reprinted over the years, many older cards eventually return with new art. Even older cards with iconic art such as Serra Angel or Wrath of God are not immune to a visual overhaul. All of this artwork becomes property of Wizards of the Coast once a contract is signed. However, the artist is allowed to sell the original piece and printed reproductions of it, and for established and prolific Magic artists, this can be a lucrative source of revenue.

Oddly enough, as Magic has expanded across the globe its artwork has had to change for its international audience. For example, the portrayal of skeletons and the undead in artwork is banned in China. Due to this existing artwork has had to be edited or given alternate art to comply with Chinese standards.

Storyline

Main article: Magic: The Gathering storylines

An intricate storyline underlies the cards released in each expansion and is shown in the art and flavor text of the cards, as well as in novels and anthologies published by Wizards of the Coast (and formerly, by HarperPrism). It takes place in the multiverse of Dominia, which consists of an infinite number of planes.

The majority of Magic's early story is set in the plane called Dominaria, and can be broken down into several distinct time periods each detailed in certain sets. Recently, Magic has begun to venture out of Dominaria and into new planes including Mirrodin, Kamigawa, and Ravnica.

Controversial aspects

Expense

With three to four new sets appearing each year, many players complain that it requires a substantial investment to maintain a Magic collection that is competitive and/or complete. The principal competitive format, Standard or Type 2, uses only cards from the last completed block (a block being three consecutive sets with common themes and game mechanics), the block currently in print, and the last "core set", forcing players who wish to remain competitive to maintain an updated collection. Other formats, such as Extended, Legacy and Vintage (formerly Type 1.x, Type 1.5, and Type 1 respectively), allow much older sets to be played, but many out-of-print, hard-to-find, or widely-used cards increase in price dramatically over time because they hold higher competitive value.

Many advanced and expert players find it a fun challenge to make a good, solid deck with a tight budget. This can only be accomplished by eitther using newer, less expensive cards, or online internet resources such as Ebay.com, where $10 can buy a lot of 100-1000 cards which can be used to build a solid deck. These types of decks are rarely fit for top flight tournament competition or even advanced play outside of tournaments, though, and certainly not the Type 1 or "Vintage" Metagame. The average cost of a good quality Block deck (which is arguably the cheapest Constructed format) is well over US$100.

Luck vs. skill

Magic, like many other games, combines chance and skill. A common complaint, however, is that there is too much luck involved with the basic resource of the game, land. Too much or too little land, especially early in the game, can ruin a player's chance at victory without the player having made a mistake. A common response is to say that the luck in the game can be minimized by proper deck construction. A good land count and proper shuffling techniques can substantially minimize any mana problems. The standard land count in most decks is about 24, although the use of special spells or lands (eg Land Tax, Harrow, Brushlands, Tundra, etc) and the relative costs of the main spells within the deck can substantially increase/decrease the number of lands required.

A "mulligan" rule was later introduced into the game, first informally in casual play and then in the official game rules. The "mulligan" allows players to shuffle an unsatisfactory opening hand back into the deck at the start of the game, draw a new hand with one less card, and repeat until satisfied. An excellent source for information on the "mulligan" can be found in the article "Starting Over" by Mark Rosewater.

There are resources online that can be used to test the probability of getting a good hand with your deck. is a resource that allows you to enter in your deck and see the statistics for what you may get in your opening hand. When it comes down to it, however, a well-built deck that is refined over the years eventually reaches a point where a good hand is almost always drawn first.

Net decking

The Internet has played an important role in competitive Magic. Strategy discussions and tournament reports frequently include a listing of the exact contents of a deck and descriptions of its performance against others. Using a process known as "net decking", some players will take this information and construct a deck containing the same, or very similar, contents – relying on the expertise and experience of other players. While this strategy is often a good one, it is not a guarantee that the deck will repeat its earlier success. The player may be inexperienced, unfamiliar with the operation of the deck, or they may enter an event where a large number of other players have also "net decked" and in which possibly a metagamed-deck (a deck tuned to fight common builds in a certain metagame) may be a superior choice. Many players advocate Limited formats of competitive Magic over Constructed formats because of this phenomenon.

Demonic themes

For the first few years of its life, Magic: The Gathering featured occasional cards with names or artwork that implied demonic or occultist themes (such as the cards Demonic Tutor and Unholy Strength, which both featured reversed pentagrams in their artwork). For reasons discussed in the article Where Have All The Demons Gone? by Mark Rosewater, these kinds of cards were removed from later sets. Further criticism was a contributing factor for the alternative production of the Revised Edition that became known as the Summer Magic edition. Although there was a long period when all references to demons were carefully avoided, the game still received criticism for its occult themes. For a few years, some schools banned Magic games altogether from being played on school grounds. Later, believing that the concept of "demons" was becoming less controversial, Wizards of the Coast abandoned this policy and restarted printing demons and cards with "demonic" in their name in 2002. This change was foreshadowed in Ask Wizards, a question-and-answer section of MagicTheGathering.com, with a memorable tongue-in-cheek response from Brady Dommermuth, Creative Director of Magic:

So in short, we would never, ever, ever print anything gross like a Demon in a million million years. Unless it was a fun, happy demon. Like a Grinning Demon, for example. That would be super fun!

However, although there are a number of cards that represent demons, Magic boasts over 7,000 different cards, most of which have no relation to demonic themes. The themes most often used in Magic are folklore, classic fantasy and cultures inspired by the real world.

Gambling

The original set of rules prescribed all games were to be played for ante. Each player would remove at random a card from the deck they wished to play with and those cards would be set aside. At the end of the match, the winner would become the owner of those cards. There were a few cards with rules designed to interact with this gambling aspect, allowing replacements of cards up for ante, adding more cards to the ante, or even permanently trading cards in play. This was controversial due to many regions having restrictions on games of chance. The rule was later made optional due to these restrictions and due to the dislike most players have for having to possibly lose a card they own. The gambling rule is forbidden at sanctioned events and is now mostly a relic of the past.

Patent

Magic was the basis for a controversial patent obtained by Wizards of the Coast, which covers many of the game's mechanics and concepts.

Main article: Collectible card game § Patent

Notable players

See Magic: The Gathering World Championship, Hall of Fame and Pro Tour for lists of more notable players and their accomplishments.

  • Kai Budde – 1999 World Champion, four-time Pro Tour Player of the Year, lifetime winnings leader, and lifetime Pro Points leader. Nicknamed "The German Juggernaut".
  • Jon Finkel – 2000 World Champion, 1998 Player of the Year, second in lifetime winnings, and second in lifetime Pro Points. Nicknamed "Johnny Magic", Finkel was the first true Magic superstar, and is considered by many to be the best pure player in the world. He began his Magic career as part of the Junior Pro Tour. Since unofficially retiring from Magic, he has won over $1 million as a professional poker player. In 2005, Finkel became one of the first five players inducted into the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame.
  • Dave Williams – successful Pro player, later became a 2004 World Series of Poker finalist. He was also banned for a year from playing in sanctioned Magic tournaments after he was disqualified at the 2001 World Championships for alleged cheating.
  • Darwin Kastle – A 2005 Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame Inductee, with eight Pro Tour Top-8 Finishes, who played in every Pro Tour from 1996 until in 2004. He won the 2001 Magic Invitational, and is pictured on the card Avalanche Riders.

References

See also

External links

Official sites

Unofficial sites

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