History MagicTheGathering / GameplayTropesAToI

* DoppelgangerAttack: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130588 Nacatl War-Pride]], which when it attacks makes a temporary copy of itself for each creature the defending player controls.

** Artifacts changed a lot from the early game both from a flavour and a gameplay aspect. Artifacts were initially conceived as magical items created by wizards, with their casting cost being the energy required to start them up. Continuous Artifacts needed to be untapped to apply their effects, as being tapped would "turn them off", early White cards like Demystify could destroy both Enchantments and Artifacts because Artifacts were by definition enchanted, and the distinction of being an Artifact Creature fell solely on artificial beings like golems which are moved by magic. From a gameplay design perspective, Artifacts were the only cards that did not require colored mana so that they could be splashed into any deck, and their effects were either unique or costed more than equivalent effects from colored cards, and they were also divided into Mono (need to be tapped to activate their abilities), Poly (require a cost other than tapping to activate to activate their abilities), and Continuous (exert a continuous effect while untapped).
Over time, Artifact simply became the game's term for any inanimate object, even those that are entirely mundane, and the flavour of them being magical items became lost. White generally lost the ability to remove them and instead became "friendly to artifacts" like Blue, the rule about Artifacts needing to be untapped to work was removed in 1995 along with the Mono, Poly, and Continuous subtypes, and the introduction of colored Artifacts made the distinction between Artifacts and Enchantments something based purely on flavour rather than gameplay.

** No, '''the''' biggest in the whole game is [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=9780 the B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)]]. It takes two cards to actually play and costs 15 Black mana. And being from the Unglued set, is not legal in anything but casual joke games.

* DropTheHammer: Often takes the form of artifact equipment. To note some prominent examples:
** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=466977 Colussus Hammer]] has a cheap summoning cost, but a massive equip cost. Once equipped, it grants that creature a whopping +10/+10 bonus, allowing it to destroy all but the most powerful creatures in the game. It's also so heavy that if the equipped creature has Flying, it loses Flying.
** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=234721 Hammer of Bogardan]] is implied to be a ''thrown'' hammer, dealing direct damage and being a sorcery.
** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=433292 Hammer of Nazahn]] is a legendary artifact equipment which gives a +2/0 bonus as well as making the equipped creature indestructable.
** [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=373587 Hammer of Purphoros]] grants all creatures you control Haste. It can also be tapped, which transforms your lands into 3/3 golem tokens.

** Creatures with the "Intimidate" keyword can only be blocked by creatures of the same color or by artifact creatures. It replaced the much older mechanic, "Fear", hich was the same ability but keyed specifically to black or artifact creatures.

*** Blue-White control decks takes this trope to its most literal meaning. With a slew of cheap blue counterspells and white removal, you effectively render your opponent impotent throughout the entire match while either digging up your own combo or pinging him with consistent yet hard to remove damage. As expected, when your opponent has to face the likes of [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=render+silent&v=card&s=cname Render Silent]] and [[http://magiccards.info/m14/en/35.html Silence]] every single turn, it gets hilariously annoying and boring for them, especially if you just wiped the field (so they don't have any existing stuff to use either).

** The art for the cards has evolved over the years due to both a preference for more detailed, elaborate art, and much more meticulous guidance given to the artists. For example, when the company commissioned the art for the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=70 Lord of the Pit]], they reportedly gave the artist a one-word instruction: "balrog". (This was years before ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies were made.) Under the circumstances, it came out pretty well, but today artists get multi-paragraph descriptions of what the image on the card should look like, generally designed taking into account both exactly what the card itself does and the flavor and description of the world of the current set. Nowadays comprehensive style guides and concept art are made for each set, or consecutive block of set that share the same setting: for example, the goblins of the ''Scars of Mirrodin'' block have a large round head with a sharp snout and long pointed ears.

** Green has the worst creature removal of any of the colors, instead having to rely on using its own creatures in combination with spells that force creatures to fight each other. Its also the only color that doesn't regularly have access to flying creatures, although it has creatures which can block as if they had flying (the "reach" ability typically found on spiders or archers) and various spells which can kill flying creatures.

* AchillesHeel: Each of the five colours has -- at least in theory -- one or two things that it is particularly bad at compared to other colours, encouraging players to make multi-colour decks to cover their weaknesses.
** Blue generally has the weakest and most mana-expensive creatures; notably, it's the only colour not allowed to have "bears" (Creatures with 2 power and 2 toughness for 2 mana; the TropeNamer is the card "[[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=155 Grizzly Bear]]") without any downside. It also has the worst removal in general of any colour, only having access to ForcedTransformation spells which replace a creature with another one, or "bounce" spells which return cards to their owner's hand rather than killing them. (While, at this point, Blue could use a {{counterspell}} to kill the creature as it's re-summoned, this cannot be called an efficient use of resources or mana.)

** Green has the worst creature removal of any of the colours, instead having to rely on using its own creatures in combination with spells that force creatures to fight each other. Its also the only colour that doesn't regularly have access to flying creatures, although it has creatures which can block as if they had flying (the "reach" ability typically found on spiders or archers) and various spells which can kill flying creatures.
** White has an answer to pretty much any threat, but it is by far the worst colour at drawing cards, preventing it from reliably having access to those answers.

** During the first decade game, White and Black both had access to revival spells, with the idea being that White used "true resurrection" (revival with no strings attached) while Black used necromancy to revive creatures with some drawbacks (the creature dies again if the enchantment is removed, or it comes back as a zombie, etc). Over time, revival became one of the defining aspects of Black, which led Black revival cards slowly losing their drawbacks over time, while White revival cards became much rarer and also more expensive than their Black counterparts. Other examples of colour-dissonance in old cards include Black cards that could destroy Artifacts (like Phyrexian Tribute), and Red cards like Anarchy and Apocalypse that could affect all permanents (including Enchantments which Red isn't supposed to touch).
** Artifacts changed a lot from the early game both from a flavour and a gameplay aspect. Artifacts were initially conceived as magical items created by wizards, with their casting cost being the energy required to start them up. Continous Artifacts needed to be untapped to apply their effects, as being tapped would "turn them off", early White cards like Demistify could destroy both Enchantments and Artifacts because Artifacts were by definition enchanted, and the distinction of being an Artifact Creature fell solely on artificial beings like golems which are moved by magic. From a gameplay design perspective, Artifacts were the only cards that did not require coloured mana so that they could be splashed into any deck, and their effects were either unique or costed more than equivalent effects from coloured cards, and they were also divided into Mono (need to be tapped to activate their abilities), Poly (require a cost other than tapping to activate to activate their abilities), and Continous (exert a continous effect while untapped).
Over time, Artifact simply became the game's term for any inanimate object, even those that are entirely mundane, and the flavour of them being magical items became lost. White generally lost the ability to remove them and instead became "friendly to artifacts" like Blue, the rule about Artifacts needing to be untapped to work was removed in 1995 along with the Mono, Poly, and Continous subtypes, and the introduction of coloured Artifacts made the distinction between Artifacts and Enchantments something based purely on flavour rather than gameplay.

** Artifacts changed a lot from the early game both from a flavour and a gameplaty aspect. Artifacts were initially conceived as magical items created by wizards, with their casting cost being the energy required to start them up. Continous Artifacts needed to be untapped to apply their effects, as being tapped would "turn them off", early White cards like Demistify could destroy both Enchantments and Artifacts because Artifacts were by definition enchanted, and the distinction of being an Artifact Creature fell solely on artificial beings like golems which are moved by magic. Over time, Artifact simply became the game's term for any inanimate object, even those that are entirely mundane, and the flavour of them being magical items became lost. White generally lost the ability to remove them and instead became "friendly to artifacts" like Blue, the rule about Artifacts needing to be untapped was removed in 1995 along with the Mono, Poly, and Continous subtypes, and the introduction of coloured Artifacts made the distinction between Artifacts and Enchantments something based purely on flavour rather than gameplay.

** Many rules and keywords have been added, altered, or removed over time. For example, the ability of Regeneration (a complicated scenario in which a permanent is tapped and removed from combat instead of dying) has been largely replaced by Indestructible (if the a permanent would be destroyed this turn, it doesn't instead).