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Magic: The Gathering

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Magic: The Gathering
Magic: The Gathering card back
The distinctive card back design has remained unchanged since the game's introduction in 1993. There is a small bluish mark at the bottom right of the DECKMASTER that was the result of a printer error during the first printings. The bluish mark has been put there ever since, to ensure continuity.
DesignersRichard Garfield
PublishersWizards of the Coast
PlayersTwo and up
Setup time< 5 minutes
Playing time~ 30 minutes1
ChanceSome
Age range13 and up
SkillsCard playing
Arithmetic
1 Games may take much longer or shorter depending on a deck's play style and the number of players.

Magic: The Gathering (colloquially "Magic", "MTG", or "Magic Cards"), 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 version[1]. The game is a strategy contest which includes an element of chance due to the random distribution of cards during shuffling.

Each game represents a battle between very powerful wizards called "Duelists" or "Planeswalkers" who use magical spells, items, and fantastic creatures to defeat their opponents. 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. Tournaments have been played on all seven continents, including Antarctica. The cards themselves also have value, much like other trading cards, but in the case of Magic, a card's value is based not only on scarcity and intangible aesthetic qualities such as the quality of the card's artwork, but is primarily a function of its game play potential, with more powerful cards carrying a correspondingly greater value.

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 enthusiastic, 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 while others were quite good and considered equal in gameplay quality, stature, and popularity to Magic the Gathering. 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. This could be interpreted as an overall decline in Magic's popularity since its heyday, though it has still maintained a sizable player base.

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$35,000 for a single weekend-long tournament, with a total purse of over US$1,000,000. Sanctioned through the Duelists' Convocation International, the popular series of tournaments adds an element of prestige to the game by virtue of the cash payouts and media coverage from within the community. The system is similar to those used in golf, tennis and other professional sports. The company publicizes good players who win frequently in order to create a "star" system; the stars are offered as inspirations to which other players aspire.

In 2002, an official online version of the game was released. While unofficial methods of online play existed beforehand, Magic: The Gathering Online quickly became a success for the company thanks to its rules enforcement, feature-rich environment, and accessible nature. Magic: Online has inspired similar products from other popular collectible card games, though in some cases these pre-dated Magic: The Gathering's version. A new version of Magic Online (version 3.0) is expected in the autumn of 2006.

Awards

  • 1994: Origins Awards for Best Fantasy or Science Fiction Board game of 1993 and Best Graphic Presentation of a Board game 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 or more players are engaged in a duel. A player starts the game with twenty "life" points and seven cards in his or her hand. If a player is reduced to zero life, that player loses the game. A player also loses the game if he or she is required to draw a card, but cannot (because his or her deck, or "library", has no cards remaining in it). The object of Magic is to be the last surviving player.

Players duel each other by casting spell cards by using mana, or magical energy, drawn from various sources, most often land cards. There are two basic types of cards: those which become "permanents" and 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. Lands require no mana to play, but players may play only one land during each of their turns. Lands generally possess the ability to be "tapped" (turned sideways) in order to produce mana with which it becomes possible to play other cards.
  • Creatures: Magical beasts or warriors that can either attack the other player or be used for defense against the opponent's creatures. Creatures, like other permanents, may also possess a variety of special abilities that can be used in different ways.
  • Artifacts: Magical objects, machines, automatons, 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 can't look into the libraries (unless a card's ability allows a player to do so) and may see only their own hands, but may normally view all other cards without restriction.

Some spells have effects that override normal game rules (e.g., allow a player 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[2] 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, which 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 permutations, 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 effect 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 should 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. A useful benchmark is to start with 24 lands and then modify the count if necessary.

However there are variations on the game where the first part of the tournoment is a draft where players select cards from sealed boosters, or build a deck from a starter deck and three boosters. These type of games have a forty card minimum and one can play as many copies of a card as one has.

Although five colors of spells 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

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 colors can be seen on the back of the cards, in a pentagonal design, called the "Pentagon of Colors". 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. Each color is also associated with a basic land type; respectively, plains, islands, swamps, mountains, and forests.

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 order, organization, law, justice, community, righteousness, and light (although not necessarily "good"--laws and the assumptions behind them can be flawed). 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, resetting the board, efficient small creatures (rather than large individual creatures), imposing restrictions on players that favor oneself, punishing actions by creatures (attacking and blocking), preventing action outright, and the ability to "equalize" the playing field. White's weaknesses include its difficulty in removing the opponent's creatures permanently (especially those which are not used to participate in combat), its inability to change game plans, and the fact that many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally.
  • Blue is the color of knowledge, illusion, reason, ingenuity, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Typical blue creatures include wizards, faeries, merfolk, drakes, and air and water spirits. Blue's cards are best at letting a player draw additional cards, stealing control of opposing permanents indefinitely, returning permanents to their owner's hands (informally called "bouncing"), and countering (canceling) spells as they are being played. 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 "locks," situations in which the opponent cannot do anything to win the game and can only watch as the blue mage slowly drains them of cards in deck or life. Blue's creatures tend to be "tricky" and precise; they often have weaker base statistics than other colors, but commonly have evasive abilities such as flying to evade an enemy's blockers. Blue's weaknesses include having only limited ways of dealing with opposing threats once they have entered play, combined with a fairly passive creature corps and a lack of ways to increase its mana production. Blue is often the slowest of the five colors.
  • Black is the color of death, darkness, plague, selfishness, ambition, greed, corruption, and amorality (although not necessarily "evil"). Typical black creatures include rats, undead, vampires, demons, and necromancers. Within the game, black cards are best at killing opposing creatures, making players discard cards from their hand, and raising creatures from the dead. Black is also the most flexible color in some ways; it's willing to do anything, which is reflected in being able to cast many unusual out-of-color effects if it sacrifices enough creatures, cards, or life. Black's main weaknesses are its tendency to hurt itself in order to gain an advantage, an almost complete inability to destroy enchantments and artifacts, and difficulties in removing other black creatures directly from the field. This third restriction has been lightened in recent years, though.
  • Red is the color of chaos, destruction, war, art, passion, and anger, as well as lightning and the classical element of fire. Red shares an association with the classical element of earth with the color Green--Red has an affinity for the nonliving aspects of Earth--stone, metals, and seismic effects, while green is focused on the living aspects. Typical red creatures include goblins, barbarians, dragons, 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 (colloquially, "burn" or "direct damage"). Red also has the vast majority of cards that involve random chance and/or effects, including temporarily stealing the opponent's resources, and has the abilitiy to destroy much of the board in order to "reset" the game. Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments, the random or self-destructive nature of many of its spells, and its generally weak late-game play. Red is generally the fastest of the colors.
  • Green is the color of life, nature, growth, instinct, and interdependence. Typical green creatures include beasts, elves, insects, centaurs, wurms and druids. Because it is concerned most with the natural order of life, green is the home of some of the most powerful creatures in the game, and has numerous ways to destroy unnatural artifacts and enchantments, increase a player's life total, increase its mana-production capabilities, and gain access to 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. Green is often the best color for beginners because of its flexible mana generation and straight forward creature strategies.

The colors adjacent to each other on the wheel are "allied" and often 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 complementary 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. This pie is not static. For example, blue used to have a monopoly on spell-on-spell interactions and stealing. Now, Red has cards that allow temporary stealing and redirection.

A series of six articles written by Mark Rosewater describing each color in depth (as well as multicolor cards) 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 background to distinguish them. These cards tend to combine the philosophy and mechanics of all 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 either 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 vie with 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, all rare cards are disallowed, 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 4" 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 a player's hand can be played as any card in the game with the same mana cost. However, each spell can be played only 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 tremendously 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, schools, universities and (in Europe) pubs and bars. 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/standard 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 (Type 1), Legacy (Type 1.5), Extended(Type 1.x), Standard(Type 2), and Block. The DCI maintains a Banned/Restricted list for each format, which defines certain abusive cards as not allowed. Banning has generally been rare in the more modern formats, but is considered necessary for some of the older formats to control their power level. Restricted cards are cards that a player may only use one of in his or her deck. Restriction was more common in Magic's past, but currently the only format in which there is a Restricted list is Vintage, as the DCI prefers to ban cards outright rather than restrict them in modern times.

Block formats are defined by the cycle of three sets of cards in a given block. For example, the Ravnica Block format consists of Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension. Only cards that were printed in one of the sets in the appropriate block can be used in these formats.

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 the Ninth Edition Core Set.

Extended as a format rotates every three years and leaves the six most recent blocks and two 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 the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Edition Core Sets.

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 only banned cards for Vintage are cards using the ante mechanic, as well as Chaos Orb and Falling Star, two cards that involve flipping the card onto the table. Due to the expense in acquiring the old cards to play competitive Vintage, most Vintage tournaments held are unsanctioned ones where players are permitted to create copies of, or proxy, a certain amount of cards. Proxies are not permitted in sanctioned tournaments.

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 the old Type 1. In 2004, the format was revitalized by separating the banned list from the rechristened Vintage and banning many old, powerful, and expensive cards such as Mishra's Workshop, Mana Drain, and Bazaar of Baghdad. The result is that Legacy has a lower power level than Vintage, which makes for longer games, and is considerably more affordable. Legacy has recently been encouraged to develop further as a format by the DCI's addition of a Legacy Grand Prix circuit.

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 (each containing 15 cards), or a 75-card Tournament Pack (containing 45 cards and 30 basic lands) 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 remaining 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. Players then build 40-card (minimum) decks out of any of the cards that they selected during the drafting, and then adding as many basic lands as they want.

Tournament Structure

The DCI maintains a set of rules for being able to sanction tournaments, as well as runs its own circuit. Many hobby shops offer "Friday Night Magic" as an entrance to casual competitive play. The DCI runs the "Pro Tour" as a series of major tournaments to attract interest. They also run a special tournament set called the Junior Super Series for underage competitors.

Frequent winners of these events have made names for themselves in the Magic community, such as Kai Budde and Jon Finkel. As a promotional tool, the DCI launched the Hall of Fame in 2005 to honor these players.

Product and Marketing

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 8000 unique cards have been produced for the game, with about 600 new ones added each year.

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 divided into three rarities. These are Rare, Uncommon and Common. Most new cards are purchased in the form of “Booster Packs” or “Tournament Decks”. When you open a typical fifteen-card Booster Pack you get one Rare, three Uncommons, and eleven Commons. A Tournament Deck contains three Rares, ten Uncommons, thirty-two Commons, and thirty Basic Lands. This means that three Booster Packs are roughly equivalent to one Tournament Deck. You get one less Uncommon and one more Common from the three Booster Packs than you would from the Tournament Deck.

The vast majority of Magic cards are marketed to the public in one of two ways. The first is via the now biennially-released Core Set, Ninth Edition being most recent. Currently, Core Sets consist of three-hundred and fifty-nine reissued older cards, with a mixture of old and new artwork on the cards. The second is via the release of expansion sets. These are the sets in which newly-designed cards are first sold. A "Block" consists of three theme related expansion sets released over a period of a year. The first and largest part of a Block consists of a set of three-hundred and six cards. It has eighty-eight Rares, eighty-eight Uncommons, one-hundred and ten Commons and twenty basic lands. At subsequent four month intervals the second and third expansion sets of the Block are issued. Each of these sets consists of one-hundred and sixty-five cards divided into fifty-five Commons, fifty-five Uncommons, and fifty-five Rares.

In 2003, starting with the Eighth Edition Core Set, 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 most people have at least made their peace with the new frame design, with many still hailing it as better than 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 above 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. [1]

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. Magic initial few sets were a mixed bag in art quality; while they drew from some established and well-known artists they also commissioned card art from newcomers to the industry with mixed results. Magic has used 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 Mark Tedin, 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, rk post, Keith Parkinson and Boris Vallejo.

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 (with a notable exception for Basic Land 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. Ever since 1995, all artwork commissioned 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.

As Magic has expanded across the globe, its artwork has had to change for its international audience. For example, the portrayal of skeletons and most undead in artwork is prohibited by the Chinese government. Artwork has had to be edited[2] or given alternate art[3] to comply with the governmental 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, which consists of an infinite number of planes.

The expansion sets from Antiquites through Scourge are set on the plane of Dominaria and are a roughly cronological timeline of that plane's history(with the exception of Urza's Saga Block). The sets follow the war between Urza and Mishra, firt in Antiquites and then in the Urza's Saga Block. The sets from Weatherlight through Apocolypse follow the epic story of the crew of the Weatherlight, and their story to help fight the war with Urza. Recently, Magic has begun to venture out of Dominaria as a result and into new planes including Rath, 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 (also known as 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 players find it a fun challenge to make a good, solid deck on a tight budget. The viability of "budget" decks is at best variable for serious tournament competition; some metagames have strong decks composed entirely of commons and uncommons, but others require an $80 investment in just lands to even begin. The most notorious case is the Type 1 or "Vintage" Metagame, where cards with only a tiny printing in the original release of the game are format-definers and nearly required for competitive play. The average cost of a good quality Block deck (which is arguably the cheapest Constructed format) for the most recent Ravnica block is well over US$100.

Some players who wish to play without paying the considerable price of obtaining the cards use 'proxies', buy the gold borderd tournament decks, or use the free magic software clients. An alternative to the considerable expense of taking part in the sanctioned competiive formats is the tournaments run by the magic leagues with prize support in the form of store credit for online singles retailers.

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 ("mana flood" and "mana screw/drought", respectively), 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. Other cards can minimize the player's dependence on mana. The standard land count in most decks ranges from 18 to 26, although the use of special spells or lands (such as Land Tax, Harrow, Brushlands, Tundra, etc.) and the relative costs of the main spells within the deck can substantially increase or 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 modern "Paris 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. The "standard mulligan," still used in some casual play circles and in multiplayer formats on Magic Online, allows a single "free" redraw of seven new cards if your initial hand contains 0, 1, 6, or 7 lands. An excellent source for information on the "mulligan" can be found in the article "Starting Over" by Mark Rosewater.

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, may be unfamiliar with the operation of the deck, or 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. 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 7,700 different cards, most of which have no relation to demonic themes (in fact, there are more Angels in Magic than Demons). 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, though it still sees occasional usage in friendly games as well as the 5 color format.

Patent

Main article: Collectible card game § Patent

Magic was the basis for a controversial patent obtained by Wizards of the Coast, which covers many mechanics and concepts found in Magic. While most of these mechanics evolved in the public domain for decades, the Magic patent was the first attempt to claim them as intellectual property. (The award of an overreaching patent is not unprecedented or even uncommon; it has become usual practice for the patent office to grant patents liberally and allow overreaching ones to be "trimmed" in court.) Generally, game designers and publishers believe that most of what is covered by the patent would not hold up in court, though few would risk a direct confrontation against Wizards of the Coast, now a subsidiary of Hasbro.

References

  1. ^ Wizards of the Coast (July 8, 2004). Made-In-Seattle Game Is At Center Of High Stakes, International Tournament. Press Release.
  2. ^ "Magic: The Gathering Comprehensive Rules". URL accessed on February 24, 2006.

Sources

  • Moursund, Beth (2002). The Complete Encyclopedia of Magic: The Gathering. New York, NY: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1560254432.
  • "The Games Magazine Hall of Fame". (December 2003). Games, p. 48.
  • "The Magic Touch", The Seattle Times, December 10, 2000, Sunday, Sunday Edition, ROP ZONE; Pacific Northwest; Pg. 32, 3431 words, Seattle Times Staff
  • "Magic ride"; Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), November 28, 2001, Wednesday, LIVING; Pg. 1, 1293 words, by Dayna Harpster; Staff writer
  • Cavotta, Matt. "The Magic Style Guide." URL accessed on October 14, 2005.
  • Magic the Gathering Core Set 9 Starter CD

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Magic: The Gathering.

Official sites

Unofficial sites


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