| 1 | The basic play of TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering is as follows: Each player starts with a deck of cards (referred to within the game as a "library"), which must contain a minimum number of cards (usually 60 or 40, depending on the game format — see below), and draws a hand of seven to begin with. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | There are two major rules that need to be noted before continuing: |
| 4 | # If a game rule ever contradicts the text on a card, the card wins. [[note]]There is one exception to this rule - A player can always concede the game and can never be forced to concede the game.[[/note]] |
| 5 | # If one card's effect states that a special action can be taken, and another one says that you cannot, then you cannot do so. "Can't beats Can." |
| 6 | |
| 7 | !! '''Object of the Game''' |
| 8 | The game can be won in any of the following ways: |
| 9 | * Reducing your opponent's life total to 0 (by far the most common). |
| 10 | * Emptying your opponent's library (known as "decking" them, or alternatively "milling" them, after [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370737 Millstone,]] one of the earliest cards to support such a strategy). They will lose if unable to draw a card when required to do so, so if you can somehow manage to force them to draw 54 cards[[note]]sixty cards in a deck minus a seven-card opening hand, plus one card drawn from an empty library[[/note]], you've won. |
| 11 | * Giving your opponent 10 [[BreakMeter poison counters]] through cards [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130708 such as this.]] |
| 12 | * Through the use of a variety of cards [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23216 which]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136048 set]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83133 up]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=135259 alternate]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29978 win]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=33697 conditions.]] These are what Website/TVTropes calls "{{Golden Snitch}}es," and there is a big list of them on the trope page. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | ''Magic'' is largely played in one-on-one duels and multiplayer free-for-all games, mostly because anything else involves new sets of rules which have to be developed and implemented. Having said that, such rules ''have'' been implemented, anything from 5-player formats to 3v3 teams or even the simple rule that you can only attack the player sitting to your left (thus resulting in a DwindlingParty until only two players remain). In recent years, Wizards has been known to get involved with "Casual" multiplayer formats, as with ''Archenemy'', ''Planechase'', and co-opting the much-loved Elder Dragon Highlander format as ''Commander''. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | ! '''The Basic Turn Structure''' |
| 17 | # '''Beginning Phase.''' This phase is divided into three steps: |
| 18 | ## ''Untap Step:'' Untap all permanents you control. "Tapping" is caused by using land for mana, activating abilities of other cards, and attacking. It generally represents being "used up." Tapped cards can only untap during this phase of the turn,[[labelnote:*]]Like almost every rule in the game, there are some cards that have effects to negate this clause[[/labelnote]] and all tapped cards ''must'' untap unless something on the card says they can't or don't have to. [[note]]Some cards say, "Tap me to tap something your opponent controls," and under those circumstances you might ''want'' to keep them both tapped. Said card will not (or might not) untap during your opponent's turn because your card trumps standard rules.[[/note]] There is one other thing that happens during this step regarding the obsoleted "Phasing" mechanic, but this almost never comes up, as the mechanic was permanently retired after the ''Mirage'' block. |
| 19 | ## ''Upkeep Step:'' Some cards say, "At the beginning of your upkeep, do [X]," and these abilities trigger at this time. Things that might happen during this phase vary from recurring mana costs to discarding something which [[WeAreAsMayflies has a limited lifespan]]. |
| 20 | ## ''Draw Step:'' The active player draws a card. The only exception is the person who takes the first turn of a two-player game. |
| 21 | # '''Main Phase.''' During which, you may: |
| 22 | ** Play one land from your hand. Basic lands generate {{Mana}} naturally; it is part of the gameplay and isn't required to say such on the card. They generate one mana of its associated color when tapped. Nonbasic lands sometimes generate a different amount (or color!) of mana, or have completely different abilities altogether. |
| 23 | ** Cast any number of spells from your hand, as long as you have sufficient mana to cast them.[[note]]Mana "evaporates" at the end of each step or phase, though [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130494 there are]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=259295 cards that]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=380446 get around]] this rule as well.[[/note]] Some cards require additional, non-mana costs to cast, such as sacrificing creatures or paying life. The majority of spells summon things such as creatures or artifacts, and almost all of them can only be cast during your Main Phase (and ''yours'', not your opponent's). Spells are broken down in more detail further down the page. |
| 24 | # '''Combat Phase.''' The combat phase is divided into five steps: |
| 25 | ## ''Beginning of Combat Step'': Activated abilities can be activated here, and "Instants" can be cast. Instants are spells which, as the name suggests, are "fast" enough to be cast at any time, even during your opponent's turn. Additionally, abilities that trigger "at the beginning of combat" trigger here. |
| 26 | ## ''Declare Attackers Step'': At the beginning of the step, the active player chooses which creatures, if any, will attack. They also choose which player or planeswalker each creature will attack. If no creatures are declared as attackers, skip to the End of Combat Step. |
| 27 | ## ''Declare Blockers Step'': At the beginning of the step, the non-active player(-s) choose, for each creature attacking them or a planeswalker they control, how to block that creature. If an attacking creature is blocked by multiple creatures, the attacking player must declare in what order the defending creatures will be dealt damage. If one creature is blocking multiple attackers [[labelnote:*]]This is much rarer, since a creature can only block one creature unless an effect states otherwise.[[/labelnote]], the defending player chooses in what order the blocker will assign damage to the creatures it blocks. |
| 28 | ## ''Combat Damage Step'': At the beginning of this step, damage is assigned, and then creatures deal damage to one another simultaneously. [[labelnote: Exception]]If one or more creatures in combat have First Strike or Double Strike, an additional combat step is created just before this one to allow them to deal damage - if creatures die in the First Strike Damage step, they don't deal damage in the normal step.[[/labelnote]] |
| 29 | ## ''End of Combat Step'': No turn-based actions happen here, but instants can be cast and activated abilities can be activated. Also, abilities that trigger "at end of combat" trigger here. |
| 30 | ** Regarding the combat phase in general — Attacking and blocking is a fairly significant branch of game strategy. Attacking causes a creature to become tapped, and tapped creatures cannot block, which means they're out of the fight when it's your opponent's turn. Also, if an attacker is blocked, ''it is blocked''; it fights only the creature that got in its way, even if it's a PhysicalGod and the blocker is a RedShirt making a HeroicSacrifice. (This tactic is called "[[YouShallNotPass chump-blocking]].") [[note]]Ways around this do exist — the most notable being trample, which allows excess damage to leak through a blocking creature to the player behind it — but for the most part, once a creature is blocked, it cannot deal damage to the player it was attacking, even if the creature that blocked it gets swept aside and thrown out.[[/note]] Knowing when to block (and possibly sacrifice your creatures) versus how much damage you can afford to take from unblocked creatures is key... especially since some of your creatures may have important roles in your long-term strategy, making it dangerous to use them as {{Stone Wall}}s. Suffice it to say, the combat phase is SeriousBusiness. |
| 31 | # Another '''Main Phase.''' You can still only play one land per turn, so if you played one during the first main phase, you've got to wait until next turn. However (free tip), a lot of players just attack first and use their First Main Phase only for land drops. This is because newly-cast creatures have what's called "Summoning Sickness," which prevents them from doing anything except blocking until your next Untap Step. Thus, summoning new creatures before attacking doesn't actually gain you anything. In fact, it may actually hamper your efforts: if you attack first, your opponent may commit creatures, mana, spells, or other resources that they could otherwise use to mess with your Main-Phase spells. Plus, if your plan is to bait your opponent into committing those resources to stop Creature A, only to play Creature B afterwards and ''really'' ruin their day, then playing Creature B ''first'' could, y'know, tip them off. And casting Creature B might tie up mana and other resources you could otherwise have used to play Instants and swing the battle in your favor. (None of these limitations really affect land, which is why it's safe to play one during your First Main Phase. Additionally, some creatures have triggered abilities that you might want to take advantage of: Creatures with "Landfall" bonuses get stronger when you play a land, so it benefits you to do so ''before'' you attack with them.) |
| 32 | # '''End Phase.''' End your turn. This phase is also divided into two steps: |
| 33 | ## ''End Step'': Abilities that trigger "At the beginning of your end step" trigger now. Instants can be cast and activated abilities can be activated here. |
| 34 | ## ''Cleanup Step'': Damage built up over the course of the turn wears off here, and simultaneously, abilities which last "Until End of Turn'' end here. The active player then discards down to their maximum hand size [[labelnote:*]]usually seven, unless a card effect specifies otherwise[[/labelnote]]. Instants cannot be cast here, and activated abilities cannot be activated, though there are a small number of effects which trigger here (and some, such as that of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189904 Megrim]], can trigger off the discard at this time). If any of these effects happen, Instants and activated abilities may be played during this step, and then there will be additional cleanup steps until nothing more triggers. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | Then your turn ends, and it's your opponent's turn. (Or the next player's turn, in a multiplayer game.) |
| 37 | |
| 38 | The gameplay mechanics of specific spells provide ways to change just about any of the rules above, including turn order. There are ways to both increase and decrease the base hand size for all players, play more than one land card in a turn, draw additional cards, create an additional combat phase, and even ''skip'' your opponent's turn altogether. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | !! '''The Colors of Magic''' |
| 41 | Spells in ''Magic'' are associated with one of five "colors". Each color draws mana of its color from a basic land, which is included in parentheses. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | Each color in ''Magic'' is not just a collection of spells: it is an ideology. Website/TheOtherWiki currently describes an "ideology" as "a 'coherent system of ideas' that rely on a few basic assumptions about reality that may or may not have any factual basis." In other words, each color makes assumptions about how the world works and how it, the color, should therefore respond. This creates an inherent TacticalRockPaperScissors: each color has things that it's good at, but also things that it's ''bad'' at, because of its ideology. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | * '''White:''' (Plains) The color of peace. Its trademarks include LightEmUp, civilization, and law (but [[LightIsNotGood not necessarily good]] -- white is also the color of [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]], {{Cult}}s, and AllOfTheOtherReindeer). White cards focus on [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=25886 healing]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83027 preventing damage,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=14481 changing the rules of the game,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129572 strengthening its own creatures,]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=14500 clearing]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129808 the]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5637 playing]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=41168 field.]] White doesn't like killing a single creature, but it has no problem with [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=141817 destroying everything]]; a core strategy with white is breaking the symmetry of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2321 its supposedly "fair" effects]] and MutualDisadvantage. It uses its discipline to create armies, composed of lots of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=44212 small,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129668 fast,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48988 weak]] ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=79217 but efficient]]) creatures, with an [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=42049 occasional large champion.]] Its strategies lend themselves to either [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136148 defensive control]] decks or aggressive "[[RedshirtArmy weenie]]" decks that commit everything in a single rush. Its biggest weaknesses revolve around its adherence to MutualDisadvantage and {{Power Nullifier}}s; almost everything it does either can be undone or gives the opponent something in exchange. Additionally, while it has a massive arsenal of rules to counter any threat, a big rulebook takes a long time to flip through; White has deliberately been designed to have trouble getting its hands on the thing it needs ''right now''. A more in-depth discussion of white can be [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr57 found here.]] |
| 46 | * '''Blue:''' (Island) The color of perfection. Blue's hallmarks are logic, reason, coldness (MakingASplash, BlowYouAway, AnIcePerson, etc), and TheTrickster. Blue's intellect makes it good at strategy and research, but it has nothing but contempt for [[ThePowerOfLove The Powers of Love]] and [[ThePowerOfFriendship Friendship]]. The strengths of blue include the ability to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5677 draw extra cards,]] a wide array of powerful spells, and the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=178092 ability]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=153966 to]] [[{{Counterspell}} counter]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=111057 enemy]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4706 effects.]] Blue is also the color of AwesomenessByAnalysis, allowing it to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=176435 work]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=8883 best]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=51634 with]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194980 artifacts,]] and is able to [[RealityWarper apply raw power to simply alter reality]], getting a new, unusual, unique effect (which has caused problems in the past; look no further than the [[GameBreaker/MagicTheGathering Power Nine]], of which six are artifacts, and the other three are Blue). They have trouble causing damage, as most Blue creatures are quite weak; further, Blue is a slow starter, often needing a lot of mana, and involves a lot of ''re''action instead of action. Its last problem is how deeply cerebral it is; there's an extent to which you can't play Blue properly unless you're an expert on the {{metagame}}. However, Blue is ''the'' color of strategy, and given enough time, it can become a powerhouse of steady damage behind an [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10421 impenetrable wall]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=19809 of defense.]] A more in-depth discussion of blue can be [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr84 found here.]] Blue has historically been the strongest color in ''Magic'', due to its power set; card drawing alone is a borderline GameBreaker, since every card you draw is another chance to win the game, and countermagic is notoriously difficult to defend against. Most of its more broken mechanics have since been toned down, though. |
| 47 | * '''Black:''' (Swamp) The color of power. Black utilizes death, [[ItsAllAboutMe selfishness]], [[DespairEventHorizon despair]], ambition, [[TheCombatPragmatist pragmatism]], and [[PowerAtAPrice power at all costs]] (but [[DarkIsNotEvil not necessarily evil]] -- black is also the color of self-improvement, individualism, and {{Anti Hero}}es). Black's strength is death; they can [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45988 kill]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83046 enemy]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=6097 creatures]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=174967 quickly]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=50210 cheaply,]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21160 bring]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=21155 their]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83220 own]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10655 creatures]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5629 back]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48588 from]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=6103 the grave.]] Black can use [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129544 fear]] to make its creatures almost unstoppable, and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=27171 force]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4653 your]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24619 opponent]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29746 to]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5187 discard]] their cards. [[YouCantMakeAnOmelette Black is among the most versatile of colors,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=69 willing]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29952 to]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15193 do]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=89088 anything,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=29953 make]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=20361 any]] [[DealWithTheDevil dark]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3629 deal,]] in order to achieve their goals, but often at the cost of AnArmAndALeg -- literally. "CastFromHitPoints" is a rare penalty in the other colors, a way of life in Black. In addition, a good chunk of its spells can't be used against certain creatures, [[ApeShallNeverKillApe most often black creatures themselves]] (artifact creatures being a second, green creatures being a far third), or care about creature types. Lastly, Black can have trouble with a target if it's not a creature, player or something else it can [[FrightDeathtrap Scare To Death]]; enchantments particularly can stymie a black mage. A more in-depth discussion of black can be [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr109 found here.]] |
| 48 | * '''Red:''' (Mountain) The color of freedom. Red trades in PlayingWithFire, ShockAndAwe, DishingOutDirt, passion, creativity, and anarchy. Red is the color of aggressiveness and war, but it is also a force of passion, art, and change; however, these aspects of its personality [[InformedAbility do not often come through in cards]], due to the game's focus on war and conflict. Red can deal [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23087 massive]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24650 damage]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4040 to the enemy]] ([[KillItWithFire fire]] and [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning]] are common damage-dealing motifs, though it can even do NonElemental damage), and has [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108835 the most]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=87972 cards]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=79223 for directly]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=26260 destroying]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5817 an opponent's]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5544 lands,]] but [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4031 many]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39737 of]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45127 its]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=108922 creatures]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=145981 are]] [[GlassCannon Glass Cannons]]. Red's [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=78606 affinity]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1326 for chaos]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3167 makes randomness]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2615 an integral part]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45395 of many Red cards.]] Red [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=87971 trades long-term survivability]] for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=80275 early-game power,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2288 sacrificing long-term resources and life points for direct and immediate damage]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=243487 sudden spurts of mana]] ([[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer usually used for direct and immediate damage]]). It's the ZergRush color, and [[FragileSpeedster a Red deck]] [[AttackPatternAlpha often wins either fast]] [[DeathOrGloryAttack or not at all]]. Red is the TropeNamer for the BloodKnight. A more in-depth discussion of red can be [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr133 found here.]] |
| 49 | * '''Green:''' (Forest) The color of acceptance. Green loves its GreenThumb, beasts, nature (in the NatureEqualsPlants sense), and instinct; it believes that the natural world is already perfect, and thus is inherently conservative. Green can be [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130506 highly dangerous]] due to its [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=136288 unthinking primal tendencies]]; on the other hand, Green can also be [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3150 tender,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=11517 nurturing]], and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=11540 even peaceful.]] The rare Green villain rages [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159215 against the corrupting influence]] of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3970 civilization and artifice,]] but Green also ''defines'' the NatureHero. Green creatures [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=22892 have]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4505 the]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=35166 strongest]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=8820 stats,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39669 making]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121264 them]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=152068 mountains]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=24671 on]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74613 the]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83977 battlefield,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=23120 and]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=184692 many]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=146777 of]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=12433 its]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=122367 spells]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5720 make]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=26838 those]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=81702 creatures]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74049 even]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=75366 stronger]]; however, Green has difficulty dealing direct damage and destroying enemy creatures. Green is a color that lacks flying and other evasive creatures, causing them difficulty in punching through some defenses, though it's also one of the better colors for defense against aerial attacks. Because Green believes LuddWasRight, it has the best DispelMagic abilities in the game. Green is also the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10422 "mana color,"]] having the most ways to get [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=49437 land into play,]] the most [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189878 creatures that can make mana]], and has [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2203 the easiest time]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=73565 generating mana of]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=139502 the other four colours.]] Green was historically considered the weakest color in competitive play due to its lack of strategic, non-creature-related abilities; in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, the game developers have focused on it more, and it's shaken off this reputation (although it might've just transferred it to White). A more in-depth discussion of green can be [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr43 found here.]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | The colors are arrayed in a "color pie." Each color has two allies, the colors next to it, and two enemies, the colors across from it. The color wheel follows the order seen above (white-blue-black-red-green). The mechanics of the cards often reflect these relationships; white, for example, has a number of creatures with "protection from black" or "protection from red", as well as creatures who are stronger or have extra abilities when paired with Green or Blue. |
| 52 | |
| 53 | Often, the colors are referred to by their initials: WUBRG (pronounced "woo-berg"). "U" is used for blue, since black has already taken "B" (Black is, after all, the selfish color) and "L" was for land. The balance between them and the resulting FactionCalculus is one of the defining features of the game. |
| 54 | |
| 55 | When assembling their decks, the player is ''not'' required to stick to one color; there have been tournament-winning decks involving two, three, four, five, or even ''no'' colors (often colloquially referred to as "mono-brown" after the brown color of the original card frame for artifacts). Adding more colors allows access to a greater variety of spells, but also makes you statistically less likely to, on any given turn, have spell cards in your hand that you can actually cast with the lands currently available to you. And, just for fun, there are Gold multicolor cards, which mix colors and so bring the strengths of both, sometimes compounding or removing the individual colors' weaknesses. Two-, three-, four-, and five-color cards have been published, in varying amounts. |
| 56 | |
| 57 | Mono-color decks result in a LimitedMoveArsenal, but an arsenal that is extremely focused; theoretically, every spell you draw is a spell you can use to (try to) win, and every land you draw is a land that can help you cast those spells. However, every color comes with the ability to lock down the colors it is opposed to, and you can suddenly find yourself with no useful options because you only use that one color. The next step, two colors, starts edging into tricky territory: if you draw (say) a hand that has all Green spells but all Red mana, you're kind of screwed. And, the RandomNumberGod being the malicious beast he is, it's far too likely to draw such a hand. The more colors you have, the harder it is to guarantee you can cast your current spells with your current lands. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | However, there is a converse to the color system, in the form of "AwesomeButImpractical". Every spell has a casting cost, and this casting cost can involve numbers and/or colored-mana symbols. When written out on the Internet, players typically just use the letters above -- WUBRG -- and we'll be using the same convention. So [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5747 Blanchwood Treefolk]], say, would be marked as "4G". What does "4G" mean? It means that, to cast this spell, you need 1 Green mana (the "G") and 4 more additional mana of any color(s) (the "4"). |
| 60 | |
| 61 | However, some spells require more than one colored mana to cast. Let's compare Blanchwood Treefolk, who does 4 damage and has 5 HitPoints, to the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197856 Leatherback Baloth]], which has the same "body" but costs GGG (IE three points of Green-colored mana) instead of 4G. It seems ridiculous: the Baloth has a "mana value" of 3, while the Treefolk is 5! What gives? Well, the answer is simple: the Treefolk are ''way'' easier to play in a multicolored deck. They only need 1 Forest out. The Baloth needs three... and if you're playing a two-color deck, it's not unreasonable for you to not have 3 Forests out until Turn 5 -- which, [[BlatantLies by what is undoubtedly pure coincidence]], is the same time the Treefolk become playable. In the same vein, Gold multicolor cards get an additional power boost because their casting costs are even more difficult to obtain, at least unless you've essentially designed the deck around accessing them (and, to be fair, one could do so). Simply put, the more colored-mana symbols a spell has, the more powerful it is likely to be... but, accordingly, the harder it is to cast. 3R and 1RRR have the same mana value, but ''very'' different practical costs. |
| 62 | |
| 63 | The existence of cards that have only 1 colored mana symbol has given rise to the practice of "[[http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Splash splashing]]" a color into your deck. Your main emphasis might be on, say, blue-black Faeries, but without too much alteration to your mana base you can sneak in some spells of another color (say Lightning Bolt), so long as those spells only require 1 of that other color of mana. The resulting deck is not so much three colors as it is two-and-a-half. |
| 64 | |
| 65 | "Tapping", where one turns a card to a 90-degree angle, represents the usage of the card's available resource (whether extracting mana from a land or attacking with a creature). Players untap all their permanents at the beginning of their turn. Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast issued a controversial patent on the "tapping" mechanic, and for many years was able to legally challenge any card game which involves turning cards to a 90-degree angle to show that the card has been expended somehow. However, after some legal kerfuffles with The Pokemon Company (Wizards held the American publishing rights to the TabletopGame/PokemonTradingCardGame for its first decade of existence), Wizards allowed said patent to expire in 2019. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | !! '''Card Types''' |
| 68 | Cards in ''Magic'' basically fall into one of two categories: Land and Spells. |
| 69 | * Lands give you {{mana}}. |
| 70 | * Spells consume {{mana}} to do something to the game. Once that thing has been done, the spell goes to the "graveyard," the in-game zone for expended cards. |
| 71 | |
| 72 | Technically, all spells are one-use; if they "resolve," they're done and they go away. However, some spells create an object with OntologicalInertia that stays in play even after the spell has finished creating it. Such objects are called "permanents," and the spells which summon them are left on the battlefield (IE table) to represent said permanent; if the permanent is destroyed, the card is retired to the graveyard. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | Cards, especially spells, also have specific card ''types'', which we will cover now: |
| 75 | * '''Lands''' are cards that represent your sources of {{mana}}, the magical energy you use to do just about everything in the game; it is almost impossible to design a deck without Lands in it, and can be just as difficult to ''play'' the deck if you don't draw enough of them during the game. Lands are tapped to produce mana, but may also have other abilities. Lands don't cost mana to play, but only one may be played per turn. The BoringButPractical foundation of ''Magic'' for nearly two decades, Lands have recently been put in the spotlight gameplay-wise and graphically fancied up by the Zendikar set. |
| 76 | ** As mentioned above, at the end of each phase, your "mana pool" empties of any mana you didn't use. A bit of the rules now removed was the idea of "Mana Burn": if there ''was'' any mana lost this way, you took one damage for each mana. While this was flavorful, it didn't really add anything to gameplay — most players don't ''have'' extra mana to activate, and the few who did were experienced enough to not really care if they took a few points of damage — and so the rule was removed in 2010. In 2012, this was revealed to be a ChekhovsGun as well. By removing mana burn, Wizards can now use a player's life total as a threshold, because you (personally) don't have reliable ways of lowering your own life total. This was first seen in the ability "Fateful Hour," which makes your creatures stronger if you (personally) are at 5 life or less. |
| 77 | * '''[[SummonMagic Creatures]]''' (known in older sets as "Summon (creature type)") are the most common type of card, making up more than half the total cards published — one set was even ''entirely composed of creatures''. They are permanents and represent the magical army summoned by the player/planeswalker to do battle on their behalf. They always have at least one {{Splat}} consisting of a creature ''type'' (Shark; Octopus; Crab; [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=457350 Shark Octopus Crab]]) and sometimes a class as well (Scout, Soldier, Cleric). They have two numerical values associated with them, found in the bottom-right corner of the card and separated by a slash: "power", the amount of damage they deal in combat, and "toughness", the amount of damage it takes to destroy them. As a rule, any damage a creature takes only lasts until end of turn, and it goes away if the creature is still alive at that point. This leaves it completely unhurt again at the start of the next turn, simplifying bookkeeping immensely. (This does not mean a creature always has to receive a OneHitKO; a DeathOfAThousandCuts is possible, so long as all that damage happens in a single turn.) Creatures are one of the most popular aspects of ''Magic'', and most decks use them; the few that don't are often notorious for that reason and treated with some skepticism by newer players. (For the curious, the ''second''-most-popular aspect of ''Magic'', and the only ''other'' theme to get an entire set built around it, are the Gold multicolor cards.) |
| 78 | * '''Artifacts''' and '''Enchantments''' are the other permanents, representing magic items and spells with lasting effects, respectively. Artifacts typically use colorless mana & activation costs, meaning that any deck can employ them. They often fall into two categories — BoringButPractical, with features that WordOfGod felt any color should have access to, but less efficiently than the color that specializes in it (more limited card drawing than blue, more expensive direct damage than red, less aggressive creatures than white or green, etc.), and pure awesome, in a deliberate attempt by Wizards to evoke the "LostTechnology" trope. Meanwhile, Enchantments are always colored and can thus be more powerful and specific in their effects. Both types of card might feature abilities that need to be "activated" (by paying mana for them) ''or'' abilities that are "always on." |
| 79 | * '''Instants''' and '''Sorceries''' are the ''non''-permanent spells in the game. (Lands are also permanents, for the record.) The primary difference between Instants and Sorceries is when they are allowed be played: sorceries can only be cast during your Main Phase, while instants can be used at basically any time, including during the combat phase ''and'' during your opponent's turn. This has enormous tactical value. A Sorcery that makes your creature stronger has basically one use: buff your creature and hope your opponent is dumb enough to put a RedShirt in the way. (Note: they probably aren't.) An ''Instant'' that has the same effect can be used to lure your opponent into a false sense of security -- "Whatever, my MauveShirt can handle it" -- ''or'' can be used at a later time to save your creature from GreatBallsOfFire or something by giving it extra HitPoints. For this reason, Instants are often weaker or more expensive than Sorceries of comparable effect.\ |
| 80 | \ |
| 81 | There used to be two other categories of non-permanent spell that were similar to instants. An "Interrupt" was even faster than an instant, allowing them to "interrupt" any other spell as it was being cast. A "Mana Source" was also "faster-than-instant" speed, as it could be cast to generate Mana while you were paying the cost for another spell that you'd already started casting. As part of a major overhaul of the game rules in ''Sixth Edition'', both of them have since been [[RetCon folded into the Instant category]] — with the rider that mana-providing abilities or spells in general can't be countered. Meanwhile, Instants played ''as'' interrupts, in response to each other, go on "The Stack", the game's ActionInitiative system where whichever spell was played last has its effect first. This seems counter-intuitive, but it ultimately makes sense in gameplay. [[labelnote:*]](i.e. Player 1 casts a creature spell, player 2 casts a counterspell, player 1 casts their own counterspell on player 2's counterspell. Player 1's counter counters player 2's counter, then the creature resolves and enters play.)[[/labelnote]] |
| 82 | * '''Planeswalkers''', added in 2007's Lorwyn set, representing a temporary ally in the form of another powerful wizard — a planeswalker like yourself — whom you can call on for aid. They come into play with a particular amount of "loyalty" (read: HitPoints), and, on each of your turns, can use one of their abilities at the cost of gaining or losing loyalty. They can also be attacked like players, which ''also'' damages their loyalty. Planeswalker cards are supposed to invoke the idea of {{Guest Star Party Member}}s, with their decks represented by the character's on-card abilities. |
| 83 | * '''Battles''' are a permanent type added in 2023's March of the Machine set. Similar to Planeswalkers' loyalty counters, Battles come into play with a particular amount of defense counters on them. When casting a Battle spell, a player must designate an opponent to defend that Battle, which can then be attacked and targeted much like a Planeswalker. When the Battle is defeated, its controller can cast the spell printed on the back face of the card, which can be a spell of any other type. |
| 84 | * '''Tribal''': the RedHeadedStepChild of Card Types. There is no singular "Tribal" card; instead, Tribal always has a second non-creature type. Tribal cards are non-creature spells that are nonetheless assigned to a creature Splat -- a Goblin Enchantment or an Elf Sorcery -- because this makes them valid targets for EnemySummoner effects. It is a card type rather than a supertype because it has subtypes. A supertype can't have an associated subtype without causing the rules to explode. [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRules (Again.)]] |
| 85 | |
| 86 | '''Cards often also have subtypes, which are types within types. Common subtypes include, but are not limited to:''' |
| 87 | * '''Creature Types:''' Most creatures have at least one creature type, typically their [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRaces race]] and/or CharacterClass. Creature types can have a significant effect on gameplay, as many cards have effects that depend on creature types (e.g. "This card strengthens all Elves you control"). Creature types are also used to give flavor to common game mechanics. For example, Knights will often have first strike and other combat-altering abilities, Goblins tend to be self-destructive, many Demons are exceptionally powerful but have dangerous drawbacks to using them, and Druids almost always generate mana or manipulate land in some manner. |
| 88 | * Planeswalkers have analogous but separate '''Planeswalker Types''', which are typically their given names; for example. "Chandra Nalaar" and "Chandra Ablaze" both have the subtype "Chandra". As of the ''Ixalan'' set, every castable Planeswalker has been retconned to also be a Legendary permanent, and all Planeswalkers going forward will be printed as Legendary Planeswalkers (this is because Planeswalkers are supposed to be unique, and the main characters of the ''Magic'' storyline, though this retcon opens the possibility of "generic" planeswalkers at rarities below Mythic being a real possibility in the future). Prior to this rule, Planeswalkers were more restrictive than even Legendary permanents, because you could only have 1 Planeswalker of each TYPE under your control. |
| 89 | ** The impetus for this change was an attempt to streamline the uniqueness rules of the game, prevent like-typed Planeswalkers being "dead cards" in hand, and make deck building easier. Additionally, it's believed this was also done due to a desire from R&D to remove the limiting quality of the Planeswalker card-type (Supertypes are ostensibly what dictate any deviation from normal quantity limitations of the game; World, Legendary, & Basic are all Supertypes that alter the "X copies per deck / unlimited copies in play" nature of the game, while Planeswalkers were the only straight Type which had built-in limits — a major design snarl from everything else). |
| 90 | * '''Auras:''' Auras are a special type of Enchantment that are attached to a specific target, usually a permanent but possibly a player, a graveyard, etc. Standard Enchantments are permanents in their own right and have OntologicalInertia; they sit on your side of the table and have their effect. Auras, on the other hand, have NoOntologicalInertia and leave play when the thing they are aura-ing is removed. Auras used to specify their targets in the type line (e.g. "Enchant Creature", "Enchant Artifact", "[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48 Enchant Dead Creature]]"), but this got unwieldy, leading to a naming generalization. You can still enchant a dead creature, but the card now says so in its text box instead of its type line. |
| 91 | * '''Equipment:''' Equipment are artifact cards that typically do nothing on their own, but have an additional cost that lets it attach to creatures to give them bonuses or new abilities. Unlike Auras, Equipment is fungible and can be moved between creatures during your turn (usually for some sort of cost); they also remain in play if the creature wearing them dies. |
| 92 | * '''Land Types:''' While most nonbasic Lands have no subtype at all, Lands ''can'' have subtypes unto themselves. These are broken down into straight "''Land Types''" like Desert, Lair, etc., and the much-more-commonly-applied... |
| 93 | ** '''Basic Land Types:''' There are exactly 5 Basic Land Types, which correspond to 5 of the 6 different types of Basic Land and their Color - Plains (White), Island (Blue), Swamp (Black), Mountain (Red), Forest (Green). These Subtypes are the only subtypes in the game which carry inherent qualities to them. If a Land has one or more Basic Lands Types, it has the innate ability to be tapped to add the correlating mana to your Mana Pool. For example, [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=457389 Blood Crypt]] is a "Land - Swamp Mountain"; this means that you can always tap the card to add 1 Black or 1 Red Mana to your Mana Pool. This also means that it interacts with cards which care about Swamps or Mountains, such as [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202629 Gauntlet of Might]] or [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426074 Verdant Catacombs.]] Cards that only interact with the CARDS "Swamp" and "Mountain" will say "Basic Swamp" or "Basic Mountain", but even then, it's possible to have the card "Mountain" have the Swamp Subtype due to gameplay chicanery (in which case, that "Mountain" will actually ''be'' a Basic Swamp despite all logic to the contrary... '''''WELCOME TO MAGIC: THE GATHERING!''''') |
| 94 | |
| 95 | '''There are also supertypes, which can apply to any card type:''' |
| 96 | * '''Basic''': This supertype is only used for lands. The four-copy limit does not apply to basic lands, and basic lands are usually the only lands you need in your deck in order to play the game. Plains, Forest, Mountain, Swamp, and Island cards are basic lands, as are the snow-covered lands from Ice Age. Keep in mind that "Island", "Mountain", "Plains", "Forest", and "Swamp" are all subtypes, meaning that nonbasic land cards can have any of these types without being considered a basic land. The Battle for Zendikar block added the “Waste” basic land for colorless mana, but it has no corresponding land type. |
| 97 | * '''Snow:''' The alternate "snow-covered" basic lands in the ''Ice Age'' block, as well as some other permanents from the ''Coldsnap'' set, are called "snow permanents." Many cards in the block, such as [[http://magiccards.info/cs/en/97.html Skred]], are interested in snow permanents, and mana produced by snow permanents has the special "snow" quality, which is required to pay for some costs in the ''Coldsnap'' expansion, such as [[http://magiccards.info/cs/en/53.html Chilling Shade.]] |
| 98 | * '''Legendary:''' Legendary cards depict figures that, in their own worlds, are [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin spoken of in legends.]] They are usually more powerful than non-legendary cards, and only one legendary card of the same name can be under any one player's control at a time: if a player controls more than one legendary card with the same name, they choose one and the rest die. |
| 99 | ** Legendary permanents used to be only creatures, of type "Legend", and lands ("Legendary Land"), all introduced in the ''Legends'' expansion set. At first, only one creature type could be written on the type line. Legends who needed an additional type had the text "Counts as a <whatever>". The "Legend" type was later expanded to "<some other creature type(s)> Legend" when creatures with multiple types appeared. "Legendary" later became a general-purpose supertype to allow for a few legendary artifacts and enchantments. |
| 100 | ** Originally, the rule was that if two legendary cards with the same name were on the battlefield, the newest one would be put in its owner's graveyard immediately. This was changed in the ''Kamigawa'' block to encourage the use of legends (a major ''Kamigawa'' theme). Then, if two or more legendary permanents with the same name are on the battlefield, all are put in the graveyard ([[https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=74555 although, of course, there are ways to circumvent that rule]]). As of Magic 2014, if a player controls two or more legendary permanents with the same name, that player chooses one and places the rest in their owners' graveyards. |
| 101 | ** The Dominaria set introduces "Legendary Sorcery" spells, which work a bit differently. They're not limited by number, but can only be cast if you have the right kind of Legendary permanent to aid in casting them. |
| 102 | * '''World:''' A defunct supertype, World only appears on some Enchantments (World Enchantment) introduced before the ''Weatherlight'' block. They represented effects that are so game-changing that no more than one can be active at a time. If a new World Enchantment enters the battlefield, all other World Enchantments automatically leave play immediately. The intent was to represent the flavor of taking your battle to a new world with its own unique set of rules; Wizards would later re-attempt to capture this idea with 2009's ''Planechase'' format. |
| 103 | |
| 104 | !! '''On-Card Effects''' |
| 105 | Every card tends to be unique in itself, but every set introduces new game mechanics that alter the natural order of battle, usually an ability unique to a certain set of cards. Some of these effects eventually transfer over into later sets and become a commonly-used effect, sometimes to the point where it gets a shorthand to explain a more complicated power. Listing all possible card effects would take up more space than is really necessary (there's [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Keyword_ability over 120 of 'em]]), but here's some of the more common effects that have been used in more than one set. |
| 106 | |
| 107 | These effects show up in pretty much every set, and are important to know: |
| 108 | |
| 109 | * Deathtouch: Any creature that is dealt damage by this creature will be destroyed regardless of the toughness of the creature. This makes it a giant killer and is especially dangerous on weak 1/1 creatures that are easily replaceable. Generally green and black. [[note]]Deathtouch has been a bit controversial in the community, because originally this effect had much greater limitations on it, as it was a triggered rather than passive effect and was limited to combat damage. Combos that involve doing a single point of damage to lots of creatures become game-altering when the source has deathtouch.[[/note]] |
| 110 | * Defender: Creature cannot attack, but is able to block. Typically, [[NecessaryDrawback because of this limitation]], they have a larger-than-average power and toughness for their mana cost (e.g., paying [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45209 4 mana for a 5/6 creature with flying]] is unheard of normally). Some Defenders also have abilities, usually triggered, that let them attack for a turn as though they didn't have Defender. Beforehand, it was an innate ability of creatures called a Wall, who are now retroactively considered to have the Defender ability. Generally white and blue, though found in all colors. |
| 111 | * First Strike: Under normal circumstances, when two creatures fight each other, they [[CrossCounter hit simultaneously]]. A creature with First Strike, on the other hand, gets to hit first, meaning it might be able to kill its opponent pre-emptively. This is particularly useful in warding off enemy creatures whose abilities activate when they deal combat damage, like Deathtouch or Lifelink. (If two creatures with First Strike fight each other, the effect essentially cancels out and they hit simultaneously; they just hit each other simultaneously ''before'' everyone else in the battle does.) This also enables GlassCannon creatures with high power but low toughness. Generally white and red. |
| 112 | ** Double Strike: When attacking, the creature will deal First Strike damage ''in addition to'' hitting during the "normal" phase. This essentially doubles the creature's power when in combat, as a creature with power 3 would deal 6 damage when attacking. Also generally white and red. Double Strike also has some very odd combinations with other abilities. [[labelnote:Interaction with Trample]]Normally, Double Strike deals First Strike damage, and then, if the blocking creature is dead, the normal Combat Damage fizzles, because there is nothing left to damage. Combined with Trample, however, Double Strike functions like First Strike + Trample as usual, with any excess First Strike damage barreling through with trample, and ''then'', if the blocked creature is dead, all the normal Combat Damage carries through directly to the defending player.[[/labelnote]] [[labelnote:Interaction with Triggered/Activated Abilities and Instants]]Triggered & Activated Abilities and Instants: After the 2012 rules change, removing the rule that Combat Damage uses the stack, all Triggered Abilities had to wait until Combat was concluded and damage was dealt... except that Double Strike creates a very small window of opportunity between First Strike and Normal damage wherein activated abilities, triggered abilities, and Instant spells can be activated/triggered/cast. This allows for cards like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=81979 Umezawa's Jitte]] to be abused even more than usual — the attacking player removes both charge counters to give the Double Striker +4/+4 until end of turn, the equipped Double Striker deals First Strike damage, and the game proceeds into the gap between First Strike and normal Combat Damage calculation; this triggers Umezawa's Jitte, putting 2 charge counters onto the Jitte, and then allows the player to remove those two counters, giving the equipped Double Striker an '''additional''' +4/+4 until end of turn, meaning that the creature has a total of +8/+8 and is doing at ''least'' 12 damage that turn.[[/labelnote]] |
| 113 | ** Jokes and urban legends have extended the concept of first strike to things like "firstest strike" and "last strike," but neither exists in the current rules. (Last Strike ''did'' appear on the joke card "Extremely Slow Zombie." Firstest Strike, meanwhile, was always an UrbanLegendOfZelda... Until the card "Throat Wolf" was {{Defictionalized}} in [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=476195 another not-meant-to-be-played-seriously set]]. |
| 114 | * Flash: this started out as a modifier on creature cards, which, like sorceries, can only be played during your turn. "Flash" allows them to enter the battlefield at "instant speed" and therefore at any time. Gradually, "Flash" began to appear on artifacts and enchantments as well, and Mark Rosewater is now on record as stating that, if he could, he'd get rid of "Instant" as a card type and instead make it a ''supertype'' which grants the Flash ability to just about anything. [[labelnote:Explanation]]For instance, just as one would have a "Legendary Creature — Warrior", one could have an "Instant Sorcery".[[/labelnote]] But he can't, because it would cause the rules to explode. So Flash continues as a keyword, mostly found in green, blue, and white. |
| 115 | * Flying: The most common and famous ability in the game. A creature with flying, for fairly obvious reasons, can only be blocked by other creatures with Flying. This is one of the oldest "evasion" abilities — ways to make a creature harder to block. Note that creatures with flying ''can'' block land-bound creatures. All colors besides green get flying; blue and white get most of them. (Failed attempts at replicating Flying include [[http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Flanking Flanking,]] [[http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Shadow Shadow,]] and [[http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Horsemanship Horsemanship,]] which is practically identical to Flying but still fell flat because the word itself is not self-explanatory. The fact that Horsemanship is exclusive to the Portal Three Kingdoms set also does not help.) |
| 116 | ** Reach: Green's answer to its lack of flyers, creatures with "Reach" can block flying creatures despite not being fliers themselves. Typically, this is represented in the card art as them having a bow and arrow, or by being a [[http://magiccards.info/al/en/107.html giant spider]] that weaves dragon-snaring webs. Nearly always in green; if not, it'll be white or red. |
| 117 | * Haste: Remember "summoning sickness," how creatures must wait a turn upon being summoned before using a tap effect or attacking? Haste allows creature to do either on their first turn. This has lead to some first-turn victories. Mostly in red; green and black can have it as well. |
| 118 | * Indestructible: An Indestructible creature cannot be destroyed by card effects that say "Destroy this creature", or by combat damage. The creature is still vulnerable to non-destruction effects (return to hand, take control, sacrifice creature, and others), and can be slain if enough -1[=/=]-1 counters are placed on them to reduce their toughness to zero. Mostly found on green, white, and artifact cards. |
| 119 | * Lifelink: Damage dealt by the creature adds an equal number of hit points to the controller's life total. Generally white and black. [[labelnote:The story of spiritlink]]Spiritlink is the original Lifelink. A bit of context needed here: Back in the day, there was no keyword, only an ability which said "Whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life." This is/was a Triggered ability that happened in response to creatures dealing damage (usually Combat Damage), and worked because Combat Damage used to use The Stack (it could be responded to, and have things happen before the creature died). It was originally a very rare ability, and one of the few cards to use it was an Aura called Spirit Link. As the years went on, the Devs decided to make it a fairly common ability, and eventually dubbed it Lifelink, even printing a functional reprint of Spirit Link ''named'' Lifelink to seal the deal; however, in doing so, they also removed the ability for the effect to stack (keywords don't stack, after all). All but one of the cards containing this original un-keyworded ability were errata'ed to have Lifelink, rather than the original text, but only one such card was actually reprinted with the word "Lifelink" on it. ''THEN'', a few years later, the Devs decided that Combat Damage would no longer use the stack, and so had to redo how Deathtouch and Lifelink worked. '''NOW''', Lifelink was a static ability (always on) that caused Damage dealt by a source to give you life in an equal amount as was dealt. This left some real issues, and Wizards decided to ''reverse'' the earlier errata to fix the problems: now, all cards that say "whenever this creature deals damage, you gain that much life" [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin do exactly that]]; this means that every single card but the one reprinted with the word "Lifelink" on it ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=433148 Loxodon Warhammer]]) reverted back to its original wording, function, and (best of all) ability to stack with itself ''and'' Lifelink, including the original Aura, Spirit Link. As such, many players refer to this ability as Spiritlink, in homage of the card, and a nod to its relation to Lifelink.[[/labelnote]] |
| 120 | * Menace: Creatures with menace must be blocked by at least two creatures at a time. Originally an unnamed static ability associated with Red, introduced in Fallen Empires on the card, Goblin War Drums. Later appeared as an effect of a few choice cards, including, most noticeably, Two-Headed Sliver. Later codified & keyworded as a replacement for Intimidate (see below) that was a little more consistent in its effects from game to game. |
| 121 | ** "Daunt": A sort-of variation of Menace which isn't keyworded, but is instead R&D slang for an ability preventing creatures with 2 or less power from blocking its user. Currently only found on Green creatures, although some of them are also part Black or Red. |
| 122 | * Scry: A spell or effect that asks its user to Scry X (where X is a number, usually 1-3) means that you look at the top X cards of your deck, then put them on the top or bottom in any way you want, allowing you to "fix" potential upcoming dead draws. Available in all colors, though Blue gets it the most and also gets the highest numbers, often combined with card draw effects. |
| 123 | * Shroud: Creature cannot be targeted by spells or abilities. As with Protection From Whatever, this doesn't stop non-targeting effects or wide-scale spells that affect more than one creature. Generally green and blue. Because a lot of players had trouble thinking through the implications of "cannot be targeted by spells or abilities" without a big old "[[ExactWords Yes, including yours, dummy]]" rider attached to it, Shroud has been retired in favor of... |
| 124 | ** Hexproof: Shroud the way everyone thought it was supposed to play. Previously called [[FanNickname "troll-shroud"]] by players due to its presence on the popular [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=373416 Troll Ascetic,]] hexproof means the creature that has it can't be targeted by spells or abilities ''your opponents control''. Its controller, you, can target it all you want, with all the offensive and defensive implications that brings along. It's primarily in green, but it's found in white and blue as well. (See again: "does the ability work the way players ''think'' it should?" Being unable to StatusBuff your own creature is unintuitive.) |
| 125 | ** ''Dominaria'' pioneered the use of "hexproof from X", a hexproof variant that only protects against some specific subset of spells and abilities (such as ones of a specific color). |
| 126 | ** ''Strixhaven'' has introduced a less-powerful variant of hexproof known as Ward, in which the creature ''can'' be targeted, but the spell costs more if you do. It's found in all colors, but manifests differently depending on the card: White, Blue and Green wards make spells cost extra mana, while Black and Red wards ask for life or make the caster discard cards or sacrifice creatures. Currently, ward and hexproof are both in use for different situations. |
| 127 | * Trample: Normally, any excess damage in combat between two creatures is ignored; "YouShallNotPass", played straight. A creature with trample doesn't fall for this: if it has damage left over after its blocker is dead, that damage ''does'' go through to the defending player. This only works if the creature with trample is ''attacking''; if you block with it, the excess damage is still wasted.[[note]]Imagine that, when attacking, creatures travel to the enemy territory, and it becomes obvious why a blocking creature wouldn't trample over.[[/note]] Trample can be found in all colors, but green has the most. |
| 128 | * Vigilance: Attacking does not cause a creature with vigilance to tap. This is useful because, as mentioned way up higher in the article, tapped creatures cannot block. Generally white and green. |
| 129 | |
| 130 | And here are some that show up less often, but are still useful to know: |
| 131 | |
| 132 | * Banding: ThatOneRule of Magic. Possibly the TropeCodifier. Intended to be IAmLegion, on the offensive, it allows any number of banding creature and ''one'' additional creature to attack and be blocked as a single unit and allowed the attacker to assign damage to their creatures rather than the controller of the blocking creature as normal. On the defensive, same as above, only the defender chose how the attacking creatures dealt damage to the defenders, not the attacking player. The problem is that other creatures have abilities like First Strike, Trample, Fear, Flying, etc., and these were ''not'' transferred to the rest of the Band, so tramplers automatically did all damage through to the defender, flying creatures broke off and continued attacking as normal, all first strike creatures broke off to become a second Band while still being blocked by the current blockers... |
| 133 | ** ...so, when Wizards realized it added ''nothing'' to the basic strategy of the game besides allowing players to decide how damage is done to their own creatures, and created mass confusion otherwise, they publicly dropped it like a brick. AndThereWasMuchRejoicing. Originally mostly white, and intended to be white's trademark move (since its dropping, First Strike has basically become white's signature ability instead). |
| 134 | ** If you thought Banding was confusing, feast your eyes on "Bands With Other": imagine the above, and now add a restriction on who a creature can band with. A grand total of [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Abands+o%3Awith+o%3Aother&v=card&s=cname nine cards]] referencing this ability were printed, eight of them from the ''Legends'' set: five lands that produce no mana but give all your Legendary creatures of a certain color Bands With Other Legendary Creatures, a green creature that creates tokens that band with each other, a green creature and a land that ''remove'' Bands With Other from a creature. (Note that none of these are ''creatures with the ability as standard''.) The ninth is a CallBack in ''Unhinged'', the second "joke cards" set. |
| 135 | * Convoke: A spell with Convoke can be cast at a discount if you tap a number of untapped creatures as you cast that spell, with each creature being tapped this way reducing the cost of that spell by 1 generic mana, or 1 mana of that creature's color. For example, if you cast a spell with Convoke that costs 4 generic mana and 1 green mana, you may tap up to five creatures to reduce the cost of that spell, potentially for free if one of those creatures is green. Convoke originated from the green-white Selesnya Guild in Ravnica, and made a return in Magic 2015 in all colors. |
| 136 | * Cycling: A keyword that does not affect cards on the battlefield. "Cycling: [Cost]" means "[Cost], discard this card from your hand: draw a card". Some cards, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45141 Decree of Justice]], have additional effects that trigger on being cycled; others, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=41148 Astral Slide]], have abilities that trigger when a card is cycled. It is found in all colors. |
| 137 | ** "X"cycling: A subtype of Cycling which activates in the same way but has a radically different effect. While a pure "Cycling" card draws you the top card of your deck, "X"cycling cards effectively become "Tutors" (cards which let your search your Library). For example: a card with "Mountaincycling" lets you search your Library for a Mountain card and put it into your hand when you pay its Cycling cost; a card with "Wizardcycling" lets you search for a Wizard. Again, found in all colors, though much, much more rarely than standard Cycling because of the [[GameBreaker sheer potential for abuse]]. |
| 138 | ** Cycling has the interesting distinction of being a purely mechanical mechanic. There's no explanation for what this means ''in-universe'', how a planeswalker contemplates cycling and what it looks like when you do it. That said, it's a really simple and practical mechanic; invented within 5 years of the game's creation (by Richard Garfield himself, no less), it has been used the most frequently out of every mechanic on this list of Things That Don't Appear In ''Literally'' Every Set. |
| 139 | * Exalted: When a creature attacks alone, it gets +1/+1 for each Exalted permanent its controller controls. A creature does not need to be Exalted to recieve the boost from other Exalted permanents. If an Exalted creature attacks alone, it also gives itself +1/+1. Unique lands and enchantments can be exalted just like a creature, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=279702 Angelic Benediction]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=259680 Cathedral of War.]] Exalted decks are constructed by putting together lots of Exalted cards to stack the exalted boost on any solo attacker. For example, Tormented Soul is normally unblockable, but only hits 1/1. If you have multiple Exalted cards in play, that unblockable weak creature hits much harder and becomes a dangerous threat. Originally the Bant keyword ability (white, blue, and green), returned as M13's Core Set ability in white and black. |
| 140 | * Fear / Intimidate: The original Alpha magic set had a creature enchantment called [[http://magiccards.info/al/en/17.html Fear.]] The creature enchanted with Fear cannot be blocked except by black or artifact creatures (the idea being that these creatures are so fearsome that only black creatures, unafraid of death, and artifact creatures, with no mind of their own, are willing to do battle with them). It eventually started appearing innately on other cards, almost exclusively on Black creatures, but still often enough that Wizards decided to make it a keyword ability, called, appropriately enough, "Fear". |
| 141 | ** It has since been reworked into an ability called "Intimidate", which makes the creature unblockable save for artifact creatures and ''creatures that share a color'' with the attacker -- a subtle difference, but one that allows the developers to put it on Red and Green creatures in addition to Black. This too was eventually retired because there was no in-game way to stop it; either you {{retcon}}ned your deck to be different colors, or you were powerless before it. Intimidate has therefore also been replaced, in this case by Menace (see above). |
| 142 | * [[FanNickname Firebreathing]]: Denotes a specific activated ability which allows the player to freely spend mana to pump the creature's power by 1 for the remainder of the turn for each time the cost is paid. The original, and most common, form is "R: (This) gets +1/+0 until end of turn," but variants have existed through ''Magic''[='=]s history. Like Fear above, this ability gets its name from [[http://magiccards.info/al/en/151.html a card]] that granted that ability to the creature enchanted with it. It is most usually associated with the Dragon subtype. Almost always a Red ability, and is often considered Red's most devastating combat ability — an unblocked Firebreather with a lot of untapped Red mana behind it can potentially end the game right there. |
| 143 | ** "Shade pumping" is a similar ability that allows a player to pump black mana into a creature to increase both its power and toughness by 1 for the rest of the turn. Mostly found on black Shades. |
| 144 | * Landwalk: A creature with landwalk becomes unblockable if the opposing player controls a land they are affiliated with. For example, Islandwalk allows that creature to directly attack a player who controls an Island. It hasn't shown up regularly in a while, but used to appear in all colors, though white got it rarely; when it does show up, it's typically as Islandwalk, and is heavily associated with Merfolk or other aquatic creatures, for obvious flavor reasons. |
| 145 | ** Landhome: a creature with Landhome could not ''attack'' a player unless that player controlled a [Land], and must be sacrificed if ''you'' don't control a [Land]. This was predominantly Blue (Island), representing seagoing leviathans which would be helpless out of water, but appeared so infrequently that Wizards [[{{Retcon}} un-keyworded]] it, preferring to just spell out the two sentences instead. |
| 146 | ** Both of these have been mostly dropped, because there's been a general trend away from the idea that land cards represent the physical terrain your creatures are fighting on. It also didn't help that the ability was an unintentional LampshadeHanging on the fact that Merfolk, typically illustrated on the cards with fish tails and everything, don't have this drawback. |
| 147 | * Morph: Allows creatures (later, other cards as well) to be played face-down, a-la ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'', for 3 colorless mana, and count as a colorless, creature-type-less 2/2 creature. It can then be turned face-up at any time if its Morph cost is paid (usually in the form of mana, which is often far less than the normal mana cost of the spell itself; other costs exist as well, such as discarding cards). Typically, this allows for the quick play of creatures which would normally be AwesomeButImpractical due to excessive mana costs; however, it's also been used to add bonuses to creatures: "When CARDNAME is turned face-up, do [X]." Found in all five colors, and then some, and has been the centerpiece of two different blocks (Onslaught and Tarkir). |
| 148 | ** Gained a slight modification for the ''Dragons of Tarkir'' set in the form of "Megamorph," which works almost exactly the same, but gives the creature a +1/+1 counter on being turned face up. |
| 149 | ** Manifest: another mutation of Morph, this ability allows ANY card to be placed face-down as a colorless 2/2 creature, then later flipped up by paying either the card's mana value (if it's a creature) ''OR'' its Morph Cost (if the card has one). Functionally almost identical save for 2 key points: First, Morph cards "Morph" themselves, while Manifest abilities "Manifest" cards ''other'' than themselves (i.e. T: Manifest a card from your hand); second, any Manifested card gains the "Manifested" marker and so can be actively flipped up for either its CMC or Morph cost, depending on whether it's a creature (CMC), is a Morpher (Morph), or both, but Morphed cards gain the "Morphed" marker and ''can only'' be actively flipped up for its Morph cost (i.e., you can't just pay its CMC to Un-Morph it). This ability was introduced in Khans of Tarkir and is generally a Green, Black, and Blue ability. |
| 150 | * Persist and Undying: |
| 151 | ** When a creature with Persist dies in its natural state, it comes back, albeit slightly weaker. Specifically, the rules are, "If this creature dies and does not have a -1/-1 counter on it, return it to play with a -1/-1 counter on it." Short of removing the -1/-1 counter from it before it goes back to the graveyard, [[OutOfContinues it won't come back a second time]]. |
| 152 | ** Undying: The polar opposite of the above — when a creature with Undying dies, it comes back ''stronger'', with a +1/+1 counter on it. Much like Persist though, [[OutOfContinues the death sticks]] if the counter is not removed. |
| 153 | ** It's already been announced that Persist and Undying will never be in the same block, because it would be a MindScrew of epic proportions. |
| 154 | * [[NoSell Protection From X]]: Protection conveys a number of resistances: the thing with protection cannot be damaged, enchanted, equipped, blocked, or targeted by what it has protection from. (The acronym DEBT is a good way to remember this somewhat random assortment.) Protection, however, does not stop effects that don't target the creature itself (which is part of why [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=27251 Diabolic Edict]] is so useful), or ones that don't deal damage (like the classic [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129808 Wrath of God]]). Many cards allow the player to choose a color of protection, and others protect against artifacts or even a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=154005 chosen card.]] Taken to ridiculous extremes by the cards [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376562 True-Name Nemesis,]] which grants protection from everything owned by a specific player, and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=179496 Progenitus,]] which has "Protection from everything". Mostly a white ability, though found in all colors. |
| 155 | ** Please note that, despite the wording on Progenitus, it has been empirically verified to ''not'' have protection from [[OutsideContextProblem spilled drinks at the kitchen table]]. |
| 156 | ** While Protection was one of the original Keywords (introduced in Alpha), and was around for a ''very'' long time as an "evergreen" ability, it was quietly retired sometime in the mid-2010s because the Devs feared it was too confusing an ability for any product outside of Commander and Un- sets. This ability is in many sets, but is not currently in every one. |
| 157 | * Prowess: Introduced in ''Khans of Tarkir'', this ability gives a creature +1/+1 until end of turn every time you cast a non-creature spell. Because it's relatively easy to grok, Wizards promoted it to an every-set keyword for a while, but then discovered how often it doesn't fit in various environments and scaled it back. |
| 158 | * Rampage X: A retired ability, and for a good reason; rampage ups the creature's offense by X for each creature blocking it ''in excess'' of the first — this means it only triggers if 2 or more creatures block this creature. This is confusing -- a big part of Wizards R&D is making sure abilities work the way players ''think'' it should work, and this one is unintuitive -- so now you just have "this creature +X for each creature blocking it" and start the creature off smaller than normal. Still, it lasted for almost 4 years. |
| 159 | * Regeneration: When a creature with Regeneration takes damage that would normally destroy them, you can pay a cost and keep them alive; they never enter the graveyard. However, this only works when the creature is ''destroyed'', which is different than you asking your ''own'' creature to "[[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice]]" itself as part of a ThanatosGambit spell. Found mostly in green and black. This is kind of a clunky mechanic and has been mostly replaced by "gains indestructible until end of turn". |
| 160 | * Storm: a keyword ability on instants and sorceries, it allowed you to make copies of the spell you were playing, one for each spell that had been cast already this turn, with new targets if you desire. This may not sound like much, but the keyword was such a GameBreaker that Wizards, when evaluating new mechanics on how problematic they are, rates them from 1 to 10 on... the [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Storm_Scale Storm Scale]], with Storm itself the definitive 10. |
| 161 | * Unblockable: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The creature can't be blocked.]] This pertains only to the action in the declare blockers step; spell effects can be used to cause a creature to become blocked, and they work just fine on an unblockable creature. This keyword has been un-keyworded in favour of simply stating "This creature can't be blocked." |
| 162 | * Wither and Infect: Against other creatures, a creature with Wither or Infect deals damage in the form of -1[=/=]-1 counters. This has several implications. First off, whereas normal damage to creatures is regenerated at the end of combat, a -1[=/=]-1 counter is ''permanent'' and needs to be removed by other means. Second, whereas normal damage to a creature [[CriticalExistenceFailure doesn't impair its damage-dealing ability]], -1[=/=]-1 counters do. Finally, Wither and Infect creatures can, as mentioned up in its heading, kill Indestructible creatures: any creature whose Toughness has been reduced to zero (say, by -1[=/=]-1 counters) experiences instant StatDeath, regardless of any other considerations. (Honorable mention on ''that'' score to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=130713 Force of Savagery,]] a card with 8 Power and ''0'' Toughness; it arrives dead unless you used a separate spell to cast it that grants +1[=/=]+1 counters, or have something in play that buffs all your creatures.) |
| 163 | ** Infect is Wither with an additional clause: whereas Wither creatures deal normal damage to a player, Infect creatures deal player damage in the form of [[BreakMeter poison counters]]. For example, if the creature would deal two damage, the player would get two poison counters instead of losing two life. Any player with 10 poison counters loses the game, and poison counters are nigh-impossible to get rid of. This ability was a little too powerful and has instead been replaced with "Toxic," in which a creature inflicts a specified number of poison counters ''in addition to'' normal combat damage. |
| 164 | |
| 165 | Wizards regulates when and where each effect in the game is used via the “Council of Colors,” a group of six Wizards employees, one for each color and one for Colorless, which strictly enforce what effects each color can have, ensuring that no color ever gains the ability to completely nullify its own weakness while still allowing for acceptable bends. Each color has its own strengths, but also its own weaknesses so that no color is superior to the others: both White and Red struggle with card draw, with Red in particular often running out of steam quickly; Blue can’t mount as strong of offense as the other colors, Black can't deal with non-creature permanents, enchantments especially, very easily, and Green’s creatures usually lack evasion to balance their high power-to-cost ratio. To guide where these abilities can be used, abilities are divided up into three categories for each color: |
| 166 | * '''Primary:''' An ability is Primary in a color if it shows up there the most, if not exclusively. Primary abilities will be printed the most and at the lowest allowable rarities in that color, will push the boundaries of what they’re capable of in that color at higher rarities, and will show up in that color in every set if it’s an ability that’s done in every set. That being said, certain powerful abilities will show up less than more mundane ones - for example, Flying is Secondary in Black, but Black flyers are far more common than cards that let you take extra turns, an ability Primary in Blue. Examples of Primary abilities include Lifelink and First Strike in White, Flying and card draw in Blue, Deathtouch and targeted creature destruction in Black, Haste and direct damage in Red, and Trample and making creatures fight each other [[note]]Unlike Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, you're not usually allowed to have a creature directly attack another unless a card effect instructs you to[[/note]]in Green. |
| 167 | * '''Secondary:''' An ability is Secondary in a color if it frequently shows up in a color, but not as often and/or at as low of rarities as if it were Primary. If an ability is seen in every set, the color will get it most of the time. Often, the abilities will come with restrictions. Examples of Secondary abilities include targeted creature destruction in White [[note]]Compared to Black, White’s targeted removal has to have caveats, such as only targeting tapped or attacking creatures, only targeting powerful creatures (as White is friendly to small creatures), only targeting creatures of a certain type or color (most often Black and its signature Vampires, Zombies and Demons), compensating the creature’s controller (such as [[https://scryfall.com/card/nec/89/swords-to-plowshares Swords to Plowshares]]), or just simply cost more[[/note]], nonland mana production in Blue [[note]]Compared to Green, Blue mana production is either colorless, can only be used to cast things like Artifacts, or both[[/note]], card draw in Black [[note]]Compared to Blue, Black’s card draw has to involve an extra cost such as paying life, discarding cards and sacrificing creatures and other permanents[[/note]], Flying in Red [[note]]Red’s flyers are largely restricted to Dragons and Phoenixes[[/note]], and card draw again in Green [[note]]Green’s card draw is tied to creature effects[[/note]]. |
| 168 | * '''Tertiary:''' Tertiary abilities show up in a color from time to time, but not in every set. In some cases, a color may go years without having a new card with this ability printed. Often, it also comes with narrow, restrictive rules as to when it can be used, often tying in with flavor. Examples include Reach in White [[note]]Given to archers[[/note]], +1/+1 counters in Blue [[note]]Blue isn’t an aggressive color, but the “creation” and “innovation” aspects justify this occasionally[[/note]], First Strike for Black [[note]]Given to Knights[[/note]], ending turns and taking extra turns for Red [[note]]This effect is much rarer in Red than Blue, and usually comes at the cost of the effect’s controller losing the game at the end of their extra turn[[/note]] and Flying for Green [[note]]As mentioned before, evasion is meant to be one of Green’s weak points; a Green creature may be granted Flying if flavor and story reasons require it, but compared to the other colors it’s extremely rare[[/note]]. |
| 169 | A complete breakdown of the Color Pie rules can be found [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/mechanical-color-pie-2021-10-18 here]]. |
| 170 | |
| 171 | |
| 172 | !! '''Other Various Rules''' |
| 173 | Each player's deck represents the mind of the wizard, with cards representing spells in a VancianMagic sort of way. As such, the deck being called your "Library" doesn't make too much sense... [[FridgeBrilliance until you realize]] that the deck was ''supposed'' to represent a SpellBook, as suggested by the "front cover" motif on the back of the cards. The "graveyard" is where cards go when they're used up. Sorceries and instants go to the graveyard immediately after resolving; permanents go to the graveyard when destroyed or sacrificed. Some spells send cards directly to the graveyard from your hand or library, while others can return cards from the graveyard to your hand, to the battlefield, or to the library. |
| 174 | |
| 175 | Wizards releases four sets of cards annually. These sets used to be organized by story: the fall, winter and spring sets would all be one "block," a contiguous PlotArc (with the winter and spring sets consisting of fewer cards, so that R&D could relax a bit) involving the same characters and the same plane, whereas the summer set would be a "Core" set suitable for introducing new players to the game. This was used to structure the MetaGame: the most commonly played format is "Standard," which allows only cards that are less than two blocks and/or Core Sets old. (This -- at least in theory -- allowed Wizards to stop caring about PowerCreep, since cards had to be balanced against a much smaller, less complicated environment.) The first seven years of the game was a MythArc involving affairs on Dominaria, the hub-world of the ''Magic'' MultiVerse, and specifically the life and times of the planeswalker [[TheHero Urza]], his [[BigBad arch-nemesis]] Yawgmoth of Phyrexia, and the efforts Urza took to defend Dominaria from invasion by same. The individual expansions ''Arabian Nights'' and ''Homelands'' briefly explored new settings, and the ''Tempest'' and ''Masques'' blocks had Dominarian heroes visit new planes on their travels, but it wasn't until ''Mirrodin'' that it became standard practice for the game to visit a new world every year. Plane-hopping became such an accepted practice that it was a shock when the game ''returned'' to a previous setting -- also Mirrodin, as it happens. (See [[Recap/MagicTheGathering our Recap page]] for more details.) |
| 176 | |
| 177 | Eventually, Wizards found the three-sets-per-block paradigm restrictive. At first they discontinued the core sets and started doing fall-winter / spring-summer arcs, with the second set again consisting of fewer cards, but even ''this'' was too restrictive, and now they move to new planes / stories whenever they desire. After giving up the two-set-block model, they spent one set re-visiting Dominaria for the first time in decades (Q2 2018), had ''three'' on Ravnica (Q4 '18 to Q2 '19 -- there was a re-instated Core set in between the Ravnica sets and Dominaria), and then released single-set blocks contiguously until the somewhat-confusing double Innistrad set which released in Q4 2021. |
| 178 | |
| 179 | When ''Magic'' was first released, an "ante rule" was in the official books. This stated that players would add the top card of their deck at the start of the game to the "ante", and whoever won the game would keep the ante cards. Not wanting to turn games into SeriousBusiness, most players just didn't follow the ante rule; in addition, the ante rules fell foul of anti-gambling laws in some US states. Wizards of the Coast made the smart decision to discontinue the rule early on; even the earliest officially sanctioned tournaments did not use ante, and as such banned the use of cards that manipulated the ante. |
| 180 | |
| 181 | The complexity of the game comes from the fact that the cards themselves constantly alter the rules of the game: powering up creatures, drawing extra cards, disallowing attack or making it happen twice as often, and so on. As mentioned, the game's "Golden Rule" sums it up: when the cards contradict the rulebook, ''the card wins.'' Furthermore, many cards interact with each other in [[CombinatorialExplosion interesting]] (and sometimes unintentional) ways, leading to a wide variety of strategies around which decks are built. Even worse, the game's dev team is constantly tweaking the game in new ways; after 16 years, the ''Rise of the Eldrazi'' set has finally introduced colorless, nonartifact creatures and spells, the narrative excuse being that the Eldrazi are {{eldritch abomination}}s that predate the invention of colored magic. (Note that this is not the same as Artifact spells, which have a different card frame. Eldrazi cards have a transparent frame with full art while artifacts are generally a gunmetal color.) |
| 182 | |
| 183 | Finally, let's address '''rarity'''. |
| 184 | * Magic cards come in four rarities: "common", "uncommon," "rare," and the introduced-in-2008 "mythic rare" (basic lands get their own rarity and should not be included). |
| 185 | * On all cards since ''Exodus'', the expansion symbol (at the right side of the typebar) has been colored according to the card's rarity: black for commons and basic land, silver for uncommons, gold for rares, and copper red for mythic rares. [[note]]A few special promotional cards (i.e., not found in booster packs) have a metallic purple logo.[[/note]] |
| 186 | * The math is boring, so let's simplify it by saying that cards are printed in huge sheets which are chopped up later, and the three rarities correspond to how many times per sheet the card is printed. In every pack you open, you are guaranteed W number of lands, X commons, Y uncommons, and Z rares (where the numbers themselves depend on how many cards are ''in'' the pack; you're not going to get [[ClownCar 30 commons from a 15-card pack]]). |
| 187 | ** The standard Booster Pack size is 15, with 11 commons, 3 uncommons, and a rare. Starting at some point in Magic's second decade, one or more commons was replaced with a basic land. There is about a 1-in-10 chance of getting a "mythic rare" instead of a standard rare. |
| 188 | *** Booster packs in ''Arena'' only have 8 cards: 5 commons, 2 uncommons, and a rare, which has a 1-in-10 chance of being a mythic rare instead, the same as physical packs. Starting with ''Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty'', players can also buy “Mythic Packs” which cost more than standard packs but which guarantee a mythic rare in the rare slot. One or more cards in a pack may instead be a “wildcard” of the same rarity, which can be redeemed for a copy of a card of the same rarity. Opening packs also fills up a gauge which awards uncommon, rare, and mythic rare wildcards at different intervals. Finally, the game has a “vault” system: commons and uncommons players obtain past the 4-copy maximum are converted to Vault progress points; accruing enough points resets the Vault and awards players with 3 uncommon, 2 rare and 1 mythic rare wildcard. Rares and mythic rares are instead reimbursed with Gems, the game's premium currency. |
| 189 | ** Some early smaller sets (''Arabian Nights'', ''Antiquities'', ''The Dark'', ''Fallen Empires'', ''Homelands'') had only Common and Uncommon, but further subdivided into C3, C1, U3, and U1. Came in packs of 8, with 5 commons and 3 uncommons. |
| 190 | ** Some older large expansions also came in Starter Decks, later renamed Tournament Packs. These contained 60 (later 75) cards, 20 (later 30) of which were basic land. The remaining 40ish cards followed the same rough distribution as Booster Packs: at least 3 rares, around 10 uncommons, and the rest common. These days, new premier sets are instead accompanied by a number of "Commander Decks," which as the name implies are intended for Commander. These include the standard 100 cards, including a "face" commander which the deck is built around, although every deck also has an alternative commander of the same colors that players can use. They contain a mixture of new cards, set in the same setting as their companion premier set and balanced for Commander, Legacy and Vintage play (and only legal in those formats), and reprints of cards from across Magic's history that aren't on the Reserved List. |
| 191 | |
| 192 | Often PowerEqualsRarity, though ''useful'' cards come at all rarities; SimpleYetAwesome common staples include [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=14460 Pacifism,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=241831 Mana Leak,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=190535 Doom Blade,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2291 Lightning Bolt,]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3982 Giant Growth.]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | For much of the game's lifespan, there was not much correlation between complexity and rarity. Commons might have really confusing abilities, and rares could be bland and boring. Additionally, R&D had some trouble keeping themes relevant; the ''Kamigawa'' block was centered around Legendary cards, but very few players were able to apprehend this because all the Legendaries were rare, meaning that a tournament player (who builds a deck using 3 or 6 booster packs) would only have 7% of their cards displaying (what was supposed to be) the most visible and accessible element of the set. It didn't work very well, and Wizards eventually instituted their "New World Order", which uses rarity as a guideline for content. They employ the InverseLawOfComplexityToPower and save the confusing cards (not to mention the {{Junk Rare}}s) for the higher rarities. This stops a beginning player — who mostly sees and owns commons — from being overwhelmed by waves of minutiae and giving up in confusion. (And that's not an idle concern; in reading this page, you've seen the LoadsAndLoadsOfRules for yourself.) There’s also some GameplayAndStoryIntegration at play here, based on how often an average planebound individual in-story is to encounter something. |
| 195 | * Common cards usually cover the basics of the set. This includes the nuts and bolts that make a set functional, and are simple to understand. Certain complex mechanics are either not printed at common or are rarely printed; however, if a set has a certain theme (such as “artifacts matter”), that theme has to be present at common even if it’s typically prohibited or seldomly printed there. Lands that produce mana of multiple colors used to be, well, rare, but as Wizards increasingly visits the multicolor space (Ravnica sets are designed around two-color factions; "Shards of Alara" and "Khans of Tarkir" focused on ''three''-color factions; Ixalan had both!), it became clear that players would need easy access to multiple colors of mana, and lands which provide this are now routinely printed at common. |
| 196 | ** In-universe, a common is usually something that a planebound resident has encountered at least a few times in their life, and has almost certainly heard about from others. If it’s a creature, it’s probably one of the plane’s ComMons, and if it’s a spell, the card depicts an event that has been witnessed by multiple people and/or was widely publicized. One reason why Legendary creatures aren’t printed at common is because, well, they wouldn’t exactly be "legendary" if everyone knew about them and had perhaps met them as well. |
| 197 | * At uncommon, they print a lot of "build-around" cards, spells which can be used to guide the design of an entire deck. This lowers the difficulty of the Draft tournament style (which has a ''ton'' of extra complexity to begin with) and makes it that much easier for players with limited resources to still have cohesive, functional decks instead of just a pile with no synergy. |
| 198 | ** In-universe, a planebound resident is unlikely to have seen an uncommon personally, although they may have seen it a couple times or so in their life. More likely, they have heard about it secondhand, and its existence is still widely known. |
| 199 | * Rare is where the really complex stuff lives, particularly the cards that break the rules in some way. Legendary creatures depicting the set’s main and/or significant characters are printed at this rarity at a minimum, if they’re not mythic rare instead. |
| 200 | ** In-universe, a planebound resident has most likely never encountered this in person. If they know about it, it’s because they heard about it from someone else. Their existence may or may not be common knowledge. |
| 201 | * And finally, Mythic rares have to feel badass in some way. This doesn't mean they are automatically {{Game Breaker}}s or instant game-winners -- there are mythics that have lower prices than uncommons -- but they do have to make your eyes bug out with possibility. Some cards have actually been ''demoted'' to Rare because they failed this test. Additionally, outside of ''War of the Spark'', Planeswalkers are only ever printed at this rarity. Creatures and Planeswalkers printed at this rarity are the ones most often featured in the set’s advertising, and are usually the main characters of the set as well. |
| 202 | ** In-universe, a planebound resident has almost certainly never encountered this thing. They have only heard of it from others, if even that, since Planeswalkers from other planes are unknown to the populace by definition. If they ''do'' encounter a mythic rare and live to tell the tale, their first reaction is likely to be "what the hell did I just see?!?" |
| 203 | |
| 204 | |
| 205 | !! '''Deck Design''' |
| 206 | We've talked about individual cards, and you're now going to assemble them into a 60-card deck. There are three very basic strategies one can follow. |
| 207 | * '''Aggro''', the ZergRush deck. These decks win by introducing damage-dealing creatures to the opponent's face, often in high numbers and at high speed. They are carefully designed so that they draw a land to play every turn, cast as many creatures as they can every turn, and attack (successfully) every turn; since the creatures are typically smaller, low-cost ones, these are also called "Weenie" or "Weenie horde" decks. The best designs in this strategy can secure a victory in four or five turns. Aggro's biggest flaw is that it typically runs out of steam past a certain point, meaning it wins either fast or not at all. Red is the best at this strategy, followed by White, Green, and Black; Blue can do it sometimes, but not often. Some of the most popular variants include: |
| 208 | ** Red Deck Wins, also named "Sligh" after the player who popularized it, seeks to overwhelm the opponent with fast, undercosted creatures in combination with PlayingWithFire, using all the mana available to it every turn. It was one of the first decks to be designed with an eye to efficiency: [[AwesomeByAnalysis statistical analysis was used]] in choosing the combination of land and spells so that it was ''impossible'' for the RandomNumberGod to give you a hand you could not use to full advantage, primarily by overloading on 1-mana spells. It single-handedly invented the concept of the "mana curve" and the attendant math; as such, it arguably represents the point when ''Magic'' first became SeriousBusiness. |
| 209 | ** In modern times, "Blightning Aggro," named after its most prominent card, is a Red-Black deck that, while sharing some of Sligh's properties, tempers the loss of gas a typical aggro deck faces by forcing the opponent into card disadvantage as well (either through combat tricks or, well, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=174917 Blightning.]]) |
| 210 | ** Though Sligh is the most famous version of aggro, "White Weenie" is the oldest and most popular. It swarms the opponent with cheap creatures with evasion abilities, often pumped up by enchantments. It's not nearly as fast as RDW, but it has a lot more staying power. |
| 211 | ** "Stompy" is a similar archetype built around Green rather than White. It uses the hyper-efficient green critters such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=178113 Scythe Tiger,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=226896 Garruk's Companion,]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197856 Leatherback Baloth]] to power through any early-game defenses, as well as mana-producing critters such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221892 Llanowar Elves]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=221896 Birds of Paradise]] to ramp up the mana supply, while using the new breed of green card draw spells such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249369 Lead The Stampede]] to refill the hand and keep up the assault. The main drawbacks of the deck are that Green 1) does not have much in the way of removal and 2) does not have many creatures with evasion abilities, meaning it has trouble breaking through stalemates. |
| 212 | ** Because red and white are typically the best colors at aggro, the two will occasionally be combined into "Boros" decks ("Boros" being the red-white guild in the ''Ravnica'' expansion, when the deck type started becoming popular). In the vein of similar red decks the prior year, it was called "Boros Deck Wins." It often utilizes cheap, efficient creatures and removal spells to achieve victory. Prime amongst them was [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205361 Lightning Helix]], which offered a six-point swing in life totals for two mana. |
| 213 | ** Some years later, Boros returned in ''Zendikar'' with a Landfall variant. Landfall is an ability that improves your creatures or spells in some way (usually an increase in power and toughness) if a land enters play under your control. It combined incredibly [[http://magiccards.info/zen/en/36.html cheap]] [[http://magiccards.info/zen/en/141.html Landfall]] [[http://magiccards.info/zen/en/195.html cards]] with a number of effects that allowed you to play multiple lands in a turn. This buffed your cheap creatures at little cost to you, making them very powerful very early. |
| 214 | ** Suicide Black decks have a "win at all costs" philosophy, utilizing powerful creatures with ''big'' drawbacks and hoping they win before they self-destruct. [[CriticalExistenceFailure Winning with 1 HP is the same as winning with 20]], so why not use those 19 life as a resource? Suicide Black does exactly that. With the help of a couple LifeDrain spells, it can even succeed. |
| 215 | ** Black also has a variant called "Reanimator," which uses cheap spells that [[TheUndead bring dead creatures back from the graveyard]]. This allows you to get around the usual requirement of "hard-casting" your AwesomeButImpractical [[https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=425897 8-mana badass]]; instead, you find a way to put that creature card ''directly'' into your graveyard, with the express intent of using cheap zombification to get it onto the battlefield. Players using the most successful Reaminator decks do this ''long'' before their opponent has 8 mana of their own for an effective defense. And, even if they do manage to kill your creature, well, [[DeathIsCheap you can rez it again]]! HilarityEnsues! (Fortunately for the opponent, there are spells that make creatures DeaderThanDead.) |
| 216 | *** The ''other'' popular deck from ''Ravnica'' block was a black-green Reanimator variant that utilized the Dredge ability. When its creatures died, they could be brought back by putting cards from one's deck into the graveyard instead of drawing a card. This would likely put more cards with Dredge into the graveyard, and the cycle would continue until you ran out of cards or the game ended. |
| 217 | ** Zoo is a tri-color Red/Green/White deck that plays on synergies between the three colors of weenie beatdown to cause pain to their opponents. It relies on creatures that get better if they have allied lands in play ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249382 Kird Ape,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249401 Wild Nactal,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249377 Loam Lion]]), efficient multicolored beasts, ([[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249414 Loxodon Hierarch,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=249368 Wooly Thoctar,]]) and answers for any other permanent type (through the artifact and enchantment hate of green and white, the multiple exiling spells of white, or the direct damage of red) available. Zoo can edge into Aggro-Control at times. |
| 218 | * '''Control''', the StoneWall deck. A Control deck seeks to win by... Well, that's not really accurate. A Control deck doesn't try to win: it tries to stop ''you'' from winning. It does this by using various measures to deprive you of resources. In theory, a Control deck is all about endurance: You use countermeasures until your opponent has thrown everything they have at you, and failed to kill you, after which you send [[MightyGlacier something big and nasty over]] to mangle them at its leisure. In practice, Control is about limiting your opponent's options. Whenever they try to do something you don't like, you stop it. Where precisely along the process they get stopped is something that depends on the deck itself, but when played right, Control gradually establishes a complete lockdown. However, Control suffers from one WeaksauceWeakness: it's not fun to play against, since, if it works correctly, its victim (for all intents and purposes) doesn't actually get to ''play'' the game. For this reason, Wizards have been working to moderate the power of Control decks in general. |
| 219 | ** "MUC", or '''M'''ono Bl'''u'''e '''C'''ontrol, is exclusively ("mono") Blue, though some variations exist which get help from White. They rely on "{{counterspell}}s," which create a PhlebotinumBreakdown in a spell your opponent is casting; their spell fails and their mana is wasted. These have been called "Draw-Go" decks because that's what your turn consists of ("I draw a card; I end my turn; go"), and also "Permission" decks because the opponent feels like they need to have your permission before they do anything. However, don't try to play this unless you're GenreSavvy; you need to be familiar enough with the {{metagame}} that you know which of their spells to counter, which means knowing what their deck ''does''. (And no, you can't just [[NoSell blithely counter everything they cast]]; you don't have enough mana ''or'' enough counterspells.) |
| 220 | ** Board Control decks are almost always Black and/or White, and rely primarily on destroying creatures using apocalypses and then dropping something very large and problematic in the aftermath. They tend to be good at that particular job, but are slow and have a hard time dealing with big splashy spells or combo decks, making them almost the opposite of Blue Control. Many decks have successfully hybridized these strategies, though. |
| 221 | *** In particular, Board Control decks these days are generally one descendant of either "Mono-Black Control" or "Dead Guy Ale" or another — that is, Discard & Board Control together. MBC decks are, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin pure Black]], and rely on discarding, coupled with spells which force your opponent to sacrifice their creatures. Dead Guy Ale, on the other hand, is a White & Black deck relying on most of the same cards from MBC, especially the discarding cards, but uses white for more versatile field control; this can be anything from just adding in 4 copies of [[http://magiccards.info/query?q=!Vindicate&v=card&s=cname a single multi-colored spell called Vindicate,]] to making half the deck white to add in the best spot-removal cards in the game as well as strong creatures whose damage causes you to gain HP, in order to offset the life you'll be paying to draw extra cards. |
| 222 | ** A new variant has emerged called "Pillowfort," which uses PowerLimiter and PowerNullifier-style enchantments to limit the opponent's options. Anything they do? You defang. Every time they attack? You benefit from it, and they have to pay outrageous costs either for attacking or to attack again. |
| 223 | ** Most people don't see Green as being able to do Control, but "Fog Decks" occasionally see play. These decks are full of spells and abilities that prevent damage (like Fog, Blunt the Assault, and Chameleon Blur), allowing the player to cast a large number of Beasts and go on the offensive without fear. |
| 224 | ** Remember what we were saying above about how different Control decks stop your opponent at different times? Here's where we qualify that statement. The previous decks have all dealt with an opponent's spells ''after'' they play them, except MUC which stops them ''while'' they play them. Well, now we get into "Land Destruction," which stops the spells ''before'' they are cast. Land Destruction destroys lands in play, on the theory that, if the opponent has no mana, they can't do anything. Most such cards are Red, though Black and Green have a few options as well. This deck also gives an example of how Control has been purposefully {{nerf}}ed. The archetypal land-destruction spell, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2307 Stone Rain]], can be cast on your second turn if you used your first turn to get another mana source into play (which probably requires one of the GameBreaker Moxen, but they were available at the same time Stone Rain was). If you went first, you could use it to destroy your opponent's only land in play. And then do it again next turn. And the turn after that. And the turn after that... And that's why land destruction spells all cost 4 mana or more now. |
| 225 | *** [[http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/productarticle.aspx?x=mtg_tcg_champdeck1999_themedeck#deck1 The winning deck at the 1999 world championship,]] played by Kai Budde, was a variant of this strategy. The deck employed a large number of mana-producing artifacts and [[http://magiccards.info/us/en/228.html Wildfire,]] which dealt 4 damage to all creatures and forced all players to sacrifice 4 lands. Get out mana artifacts, cut off opponent's mana, keep up lock until you find a [[http://magiccards.info/ud/en/80.html Covetous Dragon]] or [[http://magiccards.info/us/en/298.html Karn, Silver Golem]] for the kill. |
| 226 | ** Prison decks accomplish the same thing but by different means. Instead of blowing up your opponent's land with spells like [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Stone%20Rain Stone Rain]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wildfire Wildfire,]] Prison decks usually use artifacts with permanent or recurring effects, such as [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Winter%20orb Winter Orb,]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194979 Trinisphere,]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Smokestack Smokestack,]] to make their opponents' lands useless. |
| 227 | ** Discard is almost exclusively Black, because Black has most of the spells which force the opponent to discard cards from their hand, sometimes cards of your choice. It strikes even lower on the food-chain than does Land Destruction; after all, if your opponent has no hand, they can do even less. Because the point of Discard is to take cards from your opponent's hand and put them in the graveyard, it is essentially immune to Permission: even if they counter your discard spell, [[HeadsIWinTailsYouLose a card from their hand has still gone to their graveyard]]! |
| 228 | ** "Milling" is named after the card [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1126 Millstone]] which provided the original effect. It forces the opponent to take cards from their ''library'' and put them in their graveyard. As Millstone is an artifact, this tactic is technically colorless, but Blue now has spells which do this sort of thing. It's the least focused of the Control options, since it indiscriminately removes whatever's at the top of the library; however, it's also much more mana-efficient than Discard: a one-mana Discard spell typically forces the opponent to lose one card from their hand, whereas a one-mana Mill spell will take as many as ''five'' cards. |
| 229 | * '''Combo''', or the ''ASimplePlan'' deck. A combo deck seeks to win by exploiting a specific combination of cards to produce explosive amounts of a specific resource (e.g. mana, creatures, damage), which it hopes will overwhelm the opponent. Because ''Magic'' has so many different cards, all of which can be played in the same deck (assuming the tournament format you're playing hasn't restricted or banned some of them), combo decks can sometimes break the game in ways that other decks -- and sometimes ''the game's designers'' -- weren't expecting. On the other hand, combo decks often end up being AwesomeButImpractical, because there are many ways to stop a combo from coming together: use a {{Counterspell}} on a critical component, or KillItWithFire if it's a creature, or [[NoNonsenseNemesis just shoot him]] while they're putting their IKEAWeaponry together. If you don't, then you deserve to be stuck with the OverlyLongFightingAnimation that results.\ |
| 230 | \ |
| 231 | Because there are OverNineThousand ''Magic'' cards, trying to list every type of combo that has ever been used in a deck would be futile. However, here are some of the most famous: |
| 232 | ** ''Magic''[='=]s oldest OneHitKill is [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=144 Channel]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=189231 Fireball,]] both of which were in the game's very first set. Channel lets you [[CastFromHitPoints turn life into mana]], and Fireball does damage equal to the amount of mana you spend. Together, they result in a KamehameHadoken OneHitKill. Notably, you could do this on the first turn using [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=600 Black Lotus,]] a [[PowerEqualsRarity rare]] and [[GameBreaker absurdly powerful]] card that also appeared in ''Magic''’s first set. (Today, Black Lotus is illegal in almost every tournament format; the only exception is Vintage, which restricts it to one copy per deck.) |
| 233 | ** The first really famous combo deck was [="ProsBloom"=], using [[http://www.magiccards.info/vi/en/40.html Prosperity]] (draw more cards the more mana you pay, at a 1-1 ratio) and [[http://www.magiccards.info/mr/en/318.html Cadaverous Bloom]] (get 2 mana for every card you exile from your hand) to work its way up to a gigantic, game-ending [[http://www.magiccards.info/fnmp/en/25.html Drain Life]]. With [[http://www.magiccards.info/vi/en/137.html Squandered Resources]] (sacrifice lands for mana) and [[http://www.magiccards.info/mr/en/129.html Natural Balance]] (everybody gets exactly 5 lands), the deck could go off as early as turn 3. |
| 234 | ** Here's one that's relatively easy to understand: [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121155 Dark Depths]] is a Land which hosts a SealedEvilInACan. Hidden under the ice is a creature called "Marit Lage" -- at 20/20, the biggest single thing in the game -- which can really mess with an opponent's day. Of course, if you want to unleash it, you have to spend a lot of time [[DugTooDeep Digging Too Deep]]... unless you also have a card named [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=192232 Vampire Hexmage]]. Intended as a hard counter to [[PhysicalGod Planeswalker]] cards, it can instead be used to unearth Marit Lage in one fell swoop via LoopholeAbuse. If you draw a good opening hand, this is another turn-3 combo (two turns for the Hexmage's two Swamps and another for the Dark Depths itself; technically, if you use a Dark Ritual, you only need one Swamp). |
| 235 | ** A Combo-Control strategy is the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?printed=false&multiverseid=227302 Worldslayer]]-[[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=213749 Darksteel Plate]] combo. What you do is equip Darksteel Plate to a creature, then equip Worldslayer. Once that creature hits a player, you can stick them in a loop which very few cards can get you out of. |
| 236 | ** Decks using the combo of [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159749 Illusions of Grandeur]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=15168 Donate]] once dominated the tournaments where it was legal. "Grandeur" gives its controller 20 [[HitPoints life]] when it comes into play, but when it leaves play, its controller ''loses'' 20 life — and it ''will'' leave play, because you have to pay interest on it in the form of a mana cost that gets larger every turn. So: cast it yourself, gain the 20 life, and then use Donate to make your opponent its controller. You get to sit pretty with twice as much Life as they have, while they worry about losing 20 life (and, hopefully, the game) when s/he runs out of mana. |
| 237 | ** Many combo decks have been built around cards with the "Storm" ability, especially [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46424 Mind's Desire.]] When you play a spell with Storm, it creates an extra copy of itself for each spell played earlier in the turn. Each copy of "Mind's Desire" lets you play a random card from your deck for no mana, so if you play a bunch of spells and follow them with Mind's Desire, you get to play even more spells. If those spells happen to [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83377 make mana]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=79090 draw extra cards,]] this can get out of hand really, really quickly. When it's time to actually end the game, either [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45842 Tendrils of Agony]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=47599 Brain Freeze]] can do the job pretty well. This is why the "Storm Scale" is a thing, and the "Storm" ability will never ever come back. |
| 238 | *** It's also worth considering that Storm spells, due to the way they work, are immune to counterspells (except for [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=228255 Flusterstorm]],[[labelnote:*]]Since Flusterstorm also has the Storm mechanic, each copy of Flusterstorm can target a different storm copy[[/labelnote]] [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=129898 Time Stop,]][[labelnote:*]]Instantly ends the turn and empties the stack[[/labelnote]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=197532 Mindbreak Trap]]; [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=46558 Stifle]] can also counter the Storm ability) (i.e.: if you try to counter a spell with Storm, you end up only countering the last copy of the spell. Therefore, the spellcaster just has to always cast one extra spell before the Storm finisher to avoid failure). The whole "gathering enough mana + casting enough spells" still can be thwarted, though. |
| 239 | ** A creature-based combo involves either [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=244666 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=193474 Splinter Twin]] '''and''' either [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=139428 Pestermite]] or [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=214365 Deceiver Exarch]]. By using the tap ability of either of the first to create a token copy of the second, and the enters-the-battlefield trigger of the second to untap the first, one can create an indeterminate number of creatures (such as [[ZergRush 42 billion]]) to attack with. More recent iterations of the combo have employed [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=222923 Village Bell-Ringer]] and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=240096 Restoration Angel]] — the Angel only combos with Kiki-Jiki, and in a slightly different manner but with the same effect. |
| 240 | ** [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=146022 Painter's Servant]] plus [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=4610 Grindstone]] has seen some use: Painter's Servant makes all the cards in your opponent's library share a color, so Grindstone's ability is guaranteed to repeat itself until s/he runs out of cards. |
| 241 | ** The most powerful combo in the history of the game involved [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=8883 Tolarian Academy]] from Urza's Saga. This land gives you one blue mana for each artifact you control. If you were to have a lot of artifacts, and have the ability to untap the Academy repeatedly -- say, due to a counterspell called [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5670 Rewind]] and other spells like it released in that set -- you could generate absurd amounts of mana. The favored win condition was another Urza's Saga spell, [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5677 Stroke of Genius]], which invokes the secondary win condition of forcing your opponent to draw more cards than they own, at a cost of about 60 mana (counting the overhead of the spell itself). And the worst part was that, like [=Channel/Fireball=] of yore, this deck could win ''on its first turn''. It ushered in an era called [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Combo_Winter Combo Winter,]] where: you either played this deck, one of the other many fast combo decks that popped up slightly after, or you lost; large numbers of players left the game; Wizards needed to announce the largest number of simultaneous card bannings in the game's history; a card was banned ''before it was released''; and the CEO of Wizards of the Coast became so upset at the state of the product that he called the entire ''Magic'' R&D team to his office and ''[[{{Angrish}} yelled at them]]''. |
| 242 | |
| 243 | '''Additionally, there are two common hybrid types that draw on both Aggro and Control:''' |
| 244 | * '''Aggro-Control''' is based around playing a few fast creatures while using control elements to protect your resources and take out your opponent's. For instance, the "U/G Madness" deck archetype (not to be confused with [[Webcomic/UGMadness a webcomic named after it]]) uses Blue counterspells and removal to keep the board clear while Green creatures press the attack. This style is sometimes also referred to as "Countersliver", which replaced the Green creatures with a [[TheSwarm Swarm]]-style family of creatures called "slivers." (Slivers have the additional useful quality of making themselves stronger with every copy you play, which can get OffTheRails fast.) The Faeries archetype is the most recent example of a powerful aggro-control deck. |
| 245 | * '''Midrange''' or '''Midgame''' is sort of like Aggro-Control's reciprocal: it plays defense for the first few turns, uses some control elements to stall the opponent while building up a lot of mana, and finally unleashes some huge creatures that dominate combat. White and/or Green are the best colors at this strategy. A popular deck of this archetype that was the ''other'' dominating deck of the Mirrodin era is the mighty [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=48122 Tooth and Nail]] archetype, which focuses on accelerating rapidly to nine {{mana}} to unleash the signature spell, but can also win simply by hard-casting its powerful suite of creatures, thus playing both combo and midrange. |
| 246 | |
| 247 | Nowadays, it's rare to find a deck that focuses on only one strategy without wandering into another strategy's territory at least a little. Most Aggro decks have spot removal to handle enemy threats; most Control decks keep creatures around just to be safe (or to finish off a now-helpless opponent); most Combo decks use elements of one or both for defensive purposes while it puts its WaveMotionGun together. There's even at least one deck model, [[http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/developing-legacy/181890-primer-12-post 12-post]], that combines elements of all three.[[note]]It uses Control elements to defend while it combos together special lands, the eponymous 12 Posts, in order to cast these honking huge Eldrazi on Turn 4 — which then attack, providing the aggro element.[[/note]] This is especially true as the game gets older, more cards are released, and deck designs get more pernicious. The average deck today is expected to be able to win in at least two ways, so that if the deck's ''main'' plan doesn't work, you've still got a fallback. By far the simplest way to do this is to have enough creatures to fight effectively, but it's not the only way. |
| 248 | |
| 249 | !! '''Formats of Play:''' |
| 250 | |
| 251 | There are many different "Formats" in ''Magic'' — i.e., specific guidelines for deckbuilding, usually meant for some manner of Organized (read: Tournament) Play, which define how many cards must be included in a deck, how many copies of each card are permitted, and, in some instances, what specific cards are, and are not, permitted. Changes to restricted lists and banned lists are announced quarterly. In addition to organized formats, casual play is also popular, using general deckbuilding rules and possibly "house rules". What follows are the major formats of play, by their proper name and what sub-category of Format they fall into, according to the DCI:[[note]]Unofficially, all formats fall into one of 5 different "families" of play - '''Traditional''', which include Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage; '''Limited''', which includes Draft, Sealed, Cube, Jumpstart, and Pack Wars; '''Highlander''' is the ancient "100 cards, 1-copy-each" style and its various permutations (Australian, Canadian, European, etc.); it has speciated into the new '''Commander''' Family, which includes EDH/Commander, Brawl, Tiny Leaders, and Oathbreaker; '''Experimental''' is the final Family, and consists of out-there Formats which don't fit into the other Families, like Momir Basic and 5-Color.[[/note]] |
| 252 | * '''Standard (Type 2)''' - ''(Constructed)'' |
| 253 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 254 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 255 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 256 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 257 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 258 | *** Legal Sets: [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/standard-formats-magic-gathering Current list]]. All expansions and core sets from current and previous "season", starting with the set released in fall (late September/early October). Older prints or promo versions of currently-legal cards are also legal, as long as they are either white- or black-bordered and have a proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' back. |
| 259 | *** Banned Cards: [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/content/standard-formats-magic-gathering#standard-banned-cards Current list]]. |
| 260 | *** Current metagame:[[https://mtgdecks.net/Standard Standard decks.]] |
| 261 | ** Popularity: Very High. Generally the "default" format, and the format used in most official tournaments. (If it's a "''Magic'' tournament" with no further qualifications, it's Standard.) |
| 262 | f |
| 263 | * '''Modern''' - ''(Constructed)'' |
| 264 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 265 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 266 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 267 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 268 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 269 | *** Legal Sets: All core sets and expansion block sets from 8th Edition (2003) onward, plus ''Modern Horizons'' set. (Cards only reprinted or introduced in other supplements, like ''Commander'' and ''Planechase 2012'', aren't allowed in Modern.) |
| 270 | *** Banned Cards: [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/formats/modern#modern-banned-cards Current list.]] |
| 271 | ** Popularity: Medium to High, depending on your area (can be expensive, but more accessible than Legacy and Vintage) |
| 272 | *** Current metagame:[[https://mtgdecks.net/Modern Modern decks.]] |
| 273 | * '''Legacy (Type 1.5)''' - ''(Eternal)'' |
| 274 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 275 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 276 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 277 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 278 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than Basic Lands. |
| 279 | *** Legal Sets: All sets and promo cards printed with white or black borders and a proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' back. |
| 280 | *** Banned Cards: [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=judge/resources/sfrlegacy Current list.]] |
| 281 | ** Popularity: Low to Medium, depending on your area. (Due to allowing cards from all of ''Magic'''s history, this format is infamously expensive to play, as you have to find copies of old, powerful cards that have long since rotated out of Standard in order to compete with the other players who have them.) |
| 282 | *** Current metagame:[[https://mtgdecks.net/Legacy Legacy decks.]] |
| 283 | * '''Vintage (Type 1)''' - ''(Eternal)'' |
| 284 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 285 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 286 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 287 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 288 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than Basic Lands; some cards, denoted as "Restricted", are only allowed 1 copy each. |
| 289 | *** Legal Sets: All sets and promo cards printed with white or black borders and a proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' back. Many "Non-Sanctioned" tournaments also usually allow a specific number of "Proxy" cards — cards that are used to take the place of other cards in a deck (i.e., saying the single Forest in your White deck is a Black Lotus). |
| 290 | *** Banned Cards: 38 cards, which are all cards that disrupt the game somehow. There is also a list of "restricted" cards, limited to 1 copy per deck and sideboard combined. [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=judge/resources/sfrvintage Current list.]] (There is no banlist for power level in Vintage. This format essentially exists so that there's ''somewhere'' you can play the cards that have been banned even from Legacy.) |
| 291 | ** Popularity: Low to Medium, depending on your area, particularly San Francisco & New York. (This one is even more infamously expensive to play than Legacy.) |
| 292 | * '''Pauper''' - ''(Semi-Officially Recognized Eternal)'' |
| 293 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 294 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 295 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 296 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 297 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 298 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets and promo cards which have White or Black Borders and proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' backs, as long as those cards have been printed at "common" rarity. |
| 299 | *** Banned Cards: Everything that has never been printed at common, plus [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=420866 Cranial Plating]] (which is horrendously powerful for a common), [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426588 Grapeshot]] (made storm combo too powerful), [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426587 Empty the Warrens]] (same), [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=442162 Invigorate]] (works too well with Infect), [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=382945 Frantic Search]] (which is just horrendously overpowered in general), and soon [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=426584 Temporal Fissure]] (same as Grapeshot) and [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=49050 Cloudpost]] (generated far too much mana without drawbacks when combined with free spells that untapped lands). |
| 300 | ** Popularity: Medium to High |
| 301 | *** Note: Pauper's "Semi-Officially Recognized" status stems from the fact that, while the format has no IRL tournament support from WOTC itself, it ''is'' given its own format status on MTGO, and real-life cards have been rarity-shifted down, seemingly to help expand the format. (As of Late 2019, it's quickly becoming the most-popular Eternal Format by virtue of allowing Legacy staples, like Brainstorm and Lightning Bolt, to be played, while simultaneously not costing the down-payment of a car to build a deck.) |
| 302 | * '''Draft''' - ''(Limited)'' |
| 303 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 304 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 305 | ** Deck Construction: During play — tournaments begin with players in "Pods" of typically 4 to 8 players, each with 3 packs of cards. Each player simultaneously opens one of their three packs, removes the "filler" card (either a rules insert or token), chooses a single card from the pack, and passes it to the player to their left. All cards are chosen this way until the packs have been completely passed, then repeated for the next pack but passing to the player to the right, and then again for the third player, again passing to the left. All players are left with 45 cards, and must construct a deck with only those cards and any Basic Lands they choose before the matches begin. |
| 306 | *** Deck Size: 40 cards |
| 307 | *** Card Copy Limit: Unlimited for any card, as long as you have drafted them (i.e. you may have 6 copies of a card, as long as you chose all 6 of those copies during the actual drafting) |
| 308 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets featured in the Draft. Usually the current Block, the most recent Set, or the most recent Core Set, depending on the tournament specifics. |
| 309 | *** Banned Cards: No Banned cards in Draft play. |
| 310 | ** Popularity: High |
| 311 | * '''Sealed''' - ''(Limited)'' |
| 312 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 or Two-Headed-Giant |
| 313 | ** Starting Life: 20 for 1v1; 30 for THG |
| 314 | ** Deck Construction: During play — Each player receives 6 packs of cards prior to the tournament. During preparation, all players open all packs they own and must construct a deck using only those 90 cards they opened, plus any number of basic lands. |
| 315 | *** Deck Size: 40 cards |
| 316 | *** Card Copy Limit: Unlimited; it is highly unlikely to have even 4 copies of any one card in only 6 packs, let alone more, but you are allowed any number if you do receive more than 4. In THG matches, however, you may share cards with your teammate, so it is more likely to have multiple copies of any one card. |
| 317 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets featured in the tournament. Usually the current block, the most recent set, or the most recent core set. |
| 318 | ** Popularity: Low (primarily only played at Prerelease & Release Events) |
| 319 | * '''EDH / Elder Dragon Highlander / Commander''' - ''(Officially-Recognized Casual)'' |
| 320 | ** Playstyle: Typically either 3-to-6 Free-For-All, or 1-on-1, but can be anything the players decide. |
| 321 | ** Starting Life: 40 |
| 322 | ** Deck Construction: prior to play |
| 323 | *** Deck Size: 99-card Deck plus 1 Legendary Creature, denoted as the "General/Commander" (98-card Deck if you have 2 "Partner" Generals). |
| 324 | *** Card Copy Limit: [[UniquenessRule 1 copy of each card]] other than Basic Lands. |
| 325 | *** Special Deckbuilding Rules: Each General/Commander's Color Identity (CID) establishes the legal Color ID's of all cards in the deck (if you have 2 "Partner" Generals, they add their CID together).[[labelnote:Explanation]]A card's CID is determined by all Mana symbols printed in its Rules Text (Reminder Text does not count as Rules Text), Mana Cost, and any Color Markers on both sides of the card (i.e. the colored circle on the leftmost side of the Type Bar, shown on transformed cards, cards with no Mana costs, and retroactively added to cards whose colors are different than their Mana Costs like Kobolds of Kher Keep)[[/labelnote]]. Cards cannot have a CID that includes a color other than their Commander's. For example, [[https://edhrec.com/commanders/najeela-the-blade-blossom-warrior-tribal Najeela, the Blade Blossom]] has a Color Identity of Red, White, and Black, because her basic Color is Red (determined by her Mana Cost), while her Text Box includes White and Black mana symbols (hybridized, in this case). All cards in her deck (with her as Commander), including Lands (even Basic Lands), must have a CID of Red, White, Black, Colorless, Red-White, White-Black, Black-Red, or Red-White-Black. [[labelnote:Exception]] Decks with colorless commanders, such as artifact creatures or [[EldritchAbomination Eldrazi]], who feature no colored mana symbols anywhere on their card are permitted to use any ''one'' type of basic land of their choosing.[[/labelnote]] Lands which list no mana symbols and/or say "Add [n] mana of any color to your mana pool" are also legal; lands with such an ability or which are given that ability may produce mana outside of your Commander's CID. [[labelnote:Elaboration]] Cards like [[https://edhrec.com/cards/volraths-stronghold Volrath's Stronghold]] have a CID of Black, because Black Mana Symbols are found in its text box; however, while [[https://edhrec.com/cards/urborg-tomb-of-yawgmoth Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth]] is obviously ''associated'' with Black, it has a Color ID of "Colorless" because it contains no colored Mana Symbols anywhere. This means that Volrath's Stronghold can only be used in decks who's Commander's CID contains Black, while Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth can be played in any deck, including a Mono-White deck![[/labelnote]] |
| 326 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets and promo cards which have White or Black Borders and proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' backs. Cards featuring Gold borders or are squared with non-standard ''Magic'' backs may also be allowed, depending on the play group, though rarely are cards with Silver borders (these are from the Un- Sets and are joke sets not typically meant for serious play, though some groups may make an exception if all cards in the deck besides basic lands are from the Un- Sets). |
| 327 | *** Banned Cards: [[http://www.wizards.com/Magic/TCG/Resources.aspx?x=magic/rules/100cardsingleton-commander Current list.]] |
| 328 | ** Special Gameplay Rules: '''1''' All Generals/Commanders begin the game face-up in the Command Zone, and this is their native Zone (they are not shuffled into the deck at the beginning of the game). '''2''' Commanders all have a unique marker/quality that causes the game to recognize ''those specific cards as unique entities'' under certain circumstances: Commander Damage is unique to each Commander card (i.e., copies of a Commander do not impart Commander Damage); if a Commander Card would change Zones from anywhere ''to'' anywhere, its owner may instead choose to return it to the Command Zone (this is a State-Based Effect); Commanders have a "flag" called a Commander Tax (the "Flag" starts at 0 and ticks up 1 for each time the Commander is cast from the Command Zone - whenever you cast a Commander from the Command Zone, you must pay 2 Generic Mana more for each tick on the Commander Tax "flag".[[labelnote:*]]Each Commander Card tracks its own Commander Tax separately, in the case of Partner Commanders, since they are separate entities[[/labelnote]] '''3''' Each player keeps a running total of how much '''''combat damage''''' each Commander Card has dealt to them - this is called Commander Damage; if any player suffers 21 or more Commander Damage from a single Commander, they lose the game, regardless of their life total (this rule is kept to prevent infinite-life decks from running amok)[[labelnote:*]]Partner Commanders track their Commander Damage separately, since they are still two entirely separate entities[[/labelnote]] |
| 329 | ** History: One of the game's earliest formats, EDH was first codified in 1996. Its name needs some explaining: the "Legends" expansion had just been released, and with it the five Elder Dragon cards, powerful three-color legendary creatures. These became the Generals/Commanders we know today, with the rules later revised to allow ''any'' Legendary creature to take the command. Why Highlander? Because, to quote the slogan of [[Franchise/{{Highlander}} the TV show]], "ThereCanBeOnlyOne" of any card in your deck unless it's a basic land. The resulting decks are (intended to be) DenserAndWackier, as opposed to the SeriousBusiness of streamlined, mana-curved decks which have dominated the game since '94, with more room for HilarityEnsues as players struggle ''against their own decks'' to find a road to victory. |
| 330 | ** Popularity: Very High. Since 2019, it is '''the''' most popular format overall, even overtaking Standard and Draft. It is commonly used as a GatewaySeries introduction to the game as a whole, as it lets the "RuleOfCool" and "RuleOfFun" elements of the game shine. |
| 331 | * '''Duel Commander / French EDH''' - ''(Semi-Recognized Competitive EDH Variant)'' |
| 332 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 333 | ** Starting Life: 40 |
| 334 | ** Deck Construction: prior to play |
| 335 | *** Deck Size: 99-card Deck plus 1 Legendary Creature, denoted as the "General/Commander" (98-card Deck if you have 2 "Partner" Generals). |
| 336 | *** Card Copy Limit: 1 copy of each card other than Basic Lands. |
| 337 | *** Special Deckbuilding Rules: (Same as EDH) |
| 338 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets and promo cards which have White or Black Borders and proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' backs. Cards featuring Gold borders or are squared with non-standard ''Magic'' backs may also be allowed, depending on the play group, though rarely are cards with Silver borders (these are from the Un- Sets and are joke sets not typically meant for serious play, though some groups may make an exception if all cards in the deck besides basic lands are from the Un- Sets). |
| 339 | *** Banned Cards: [[http://www.duelcommander.com/banlist/ Current list.]] |
| 340 | ** Special Gameplay Rules: (See EDH Special Gameplay Rules) |
| 341 | ** Popularity: Medium |
| 342 | * '''Brawl''' - ''(Constructed, Singleton)'' |
| 343 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 or Multiplayer |
| 344 | ** Starting Life: 25 (1-on-1) or 30 (Multiplayer) |
| 345 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 346 | *** Deck Size: 60 Cards (59 Cards plus one Legendary Creature ''or'' Legendary Planeswalker) |
| 347 | *** Card Copy Limit: 1 copy of each card other than basic lands |
| 348 | *** Special Deckbuilding Rules: Cards' CID cannot contain a color outside of their Commanders' Color ID (See EDH construction rules) |
| 349 | *** Legal Sets: Any set legal in Standard. |
| 350 | *** Banned Cards: [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/formats/brawl Current List]] |
| 351 | ** Special Gameplay Rules: See Special Gameplay Rules 1 & 2 of EDH; Brawl does not use Commander Damage (Rule 3) |
| 352 | ** Popularity: Low (Physical) to High (Arena) ("Rotation" being stapled onto a Wizard-created EDH Clone does not sit well with most people, but it works well as a 1-v-1 alternative to Standard on MTG Arena, and has grown in popularity to be a staple on that platform due to the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020) |
| 353 | * '''Pauper EDH / PDH''' - ''(Casual)'' |
| 354 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 or Multiplayer |
| 355 | ** Starting Life: 30 |
| 356 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 357 | *** Deck Size: 99-card deck of all Commons plus 1 Uncommon Creature denoted as your Commander |
| 358 | *** Card Copy Limit: 1 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 359 | *** Special Deckbuilding Rules: Combining EDH with Pauper, each card must be a Common or Basic Land, and must fit your Commander's Color ID. |
| 360 | *** Legal Sets: Any sets and promo cards which have White or Black Borders and proper ''Magic: The Gathering'' backs, as long as those cards have been printed at "common" rarity. |
| 361 | *** Banned Cards: [[https://www.pdhhomebase.ca/rules PDH Rules Page.]] |
| 362 | ** Special Gameplay Rules: Follows EDH Special Game Rules 1 & 2; Commander Damage (EDH Rule 3) is set at 16, instead of 21. |
| 363 | ** Popularity: Low to Medium (It's a rare format, generally overshadowed by EDH Proper, though it has a dedicated fanbase due to the deckbuilding restrictions forcing players to use far more whacky cards than EDH's meta generally allows) |
| 364 | * '''Momir Basic''' - ''(Officially recognized Casual Format, but largely MTGO exclusive)'' |
| 365 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 366 | ** Starting Life: 24 |
| 367 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 368 | *** Deck Size: Exactly 60. |
| 369 | *** Card Copy Limit: Any number of basic lands |
| 370 | *** Legal Cards: The five basic lands — Island, Swamp, Forest, Mountain, and Plains |
| 371 | *** Banned Cards: All other cards. |
| 372 | ** Special Gameplay Rules: Each player has the following ability: "{X}, discard a card from your hand: Put a random creature token onto the battlefield with mana value X. Activate this ability only anytime you could cast a sorcery." Due to this randomness, most games of ''Momir'' are played online. (It's called Momir Basic, because the ability is one of the Momir Vig Vanguard avatar online.) |
| 373 | ** Popularity: Very Low (Real Life); Medium (MTGO). It's very hard to make the format work without the use of a computer. |
| 374 | * '''Cube''' - ''(Semi-Officially Recognized Casual - Subtype of Draft)'' |
| 375 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 376 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 377 | ** Deck Construction: Prior To and During play - a Cube typically consists of around 400 to 1000 cards, plus however many Basic Lands the Cube owner chooses to include for construction purposes. All players in the Cube each take 45 random cards from the Cube and set them aside as 15 cards "packs." They then proceed to follow standard Draft rules and build a Deck in the same manner. The intent of this playstyle is to mimic "Deckbuilding" games with ''Magic'' cards (which has itself been refined to be an excellent Deckbuilding game due to the attention the developers have given to Limited play), as well as play Drafts without the need to constantly buy 3 packs per player to do so (which, at $3.99 MSRP, gets expensive very quickly). |
| 378 | *** Deck Size: 40 cards |
| 379 | *** Card Copy Limit: Same as in a Draft, though Cube owners often include only 1 copy of each card in their Cube. |
| 380 | *** Legal Sets: Whatever cards a player chooses to included in their Cube; because Cubes are built by individuals, they often follow a theme or basic premise, such as a "Legacy Cube," "Ravnica Cube," "Bad-Cards-Only Cube," "Mono-Red Cube," etc. |
| 381 | *** Banned Cards: None by the nature of Cube — players just won't include cards in their Cube that they don't like. |
| 382 | ** Popularity: Low to Medium |
| 383 | ** A quick note: While not "''Officially Sanctioned Casual''" such as EDH or Momir Basic, it has been recognized by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast to the point that Cube exists as a format on MTGO, and the 2014 non-Standard set, ''Conspiracy,'' was created partially with Cube in mind. |
| 384 | * '''Explorer''' - ''(Constructed)'' |
| 385 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 386 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 387 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 388 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 389 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 390 | *** Legal Sets: All core sets and expansion block sets from ''Return to Ravnica'' (2012) onwards currently available on MTG Arena, as well as cards from those sets reprinted in Anthology sets. |
| 391 | *** Banned Cards: [[https://magic.wizards.com/en/game-info/gameplay/formats/pioneer#bnr-pioneer Current list.]] Wizards has also stated that they might hand out Explorer-specific bans until the format is deemed "complete." |
| 392 | *** History: Announced in April 2022 and launched alongside ''Streets of New Capenna,'' Explorer is intended as a true-to-tabletop (as opposed to Historic, which uses Alchemy's live rebalancing) "bridge" format until Pioneer is fully supported on MTG Arena. Wizards has stated that they don't plan to add every single missing card, only the ones that matter in the Pioneer metagame. |
| 393 | * '''Alchemy''' - ''(Constructed)'' |
| 394 | ** Playstyle: 1-on-1 |
| 395 | ** Starting Life: 20 |
| 396 | ** Deck Construction: Prior to play |
| 397 | *** Deck Size: Minimum of 60 |
| 398 | *** Card Copy Limit: 4 copies of each card other than basic lands. |
| 399 | *** Legal Sets: All current Standard-legal sets, as well as "Alchemy" sets released alongside them and rebalanced cards. |
| 400 | *** Banned Cards: No banned cards; instead cards are buffed or nerfed as deemed necessary. A list of rebalanced cards can be found [[https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Rebalanced_card here]]. |
| 401 | *** History: Launched in MTG Arena in December 2021, Alchemy is a "live" format that takes advantage of MTG Arena's digital platform to do something normally impossible: rebalance cards to make them more useful or to nerf overy centralizing cards. In addition to regular Standard cards, it also features made-for-Alchemy cards with effects that can only work on digital. |
| 402 | ** Popularity: High |
| 403 | ** Current Metagame: [[https://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/alchemy#paper Alchemy Decklists]] |
| 404 | |
| 405 | !! Format Variants |
| 406 | Usually, the rules for playing Magic are determined by the specific Format being used. While there may be minor stipulations added, especially in multiplayer formats like EDH (such as "Free-For-All" vs "Attack Left/Right Only", etc.), the rules of play generally remain unchanged. But sometimes, players like to mix things up by staple-gunning radically different rule subsets onto existing Formats, creating entirely new experiences. The following Variants can be added to any and all of the previously established Formats, as well as combined with one another (when combining Variants, if both affect Starting Life, apply both effects). [[note]]These aren't considered proper Formats, because, unlike true Formats, they do not define basic gameplay parameters such as how Libraries are to be built, card legality, etc.; they simply alter existing modes of play & define player interaction - there is no "Two-Headed Giant" as a unique format, for example... rather, you will hear phrases like "Two-Headed Giant Sealed", or, "Two-Headed Giant EDH"[[/note]] |
| 407 | |
| 408 | * '''Two-Headed Giant''' |
| 409 | ** ''Special Setup Rules:'' |
| 410 | *** Team Size: 2 or more teams of 2 players each |
| 411 | *** Seating: Teammates must sit directly adjacent to each other. |
| 412 | *** Starting Life: 1 1/2 times the Starting Life of the base Format, shared between both Teammates (Poison Counters are also shared) |
| 413 | ** ''Special Gameplay rules:'' |
| 414 | *** Two-Headed Giant uses the [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Shared_turns Shared Team Turns Option]] |
| 415 | *** Both Teammates on a Team share Priority and take their turns simultaneously |
| 416 | *** Teammates may share their hidden information (such as hands) with one another. |
| 417 | *** Despite being a Team (i.e., sharing one Body), each player on a Team is still considered a separate Player (i.e., two different "heads") for the purposes of having Attacks declared against them, targeting effects, "each Player" effects, who Controls permanents & spells, mana in their Mana Pools, etc. |
| 418 | *** Players may not declare Attacks or use the Activated or Triggered Abilities of their Teammate. |
| 419 | *** "You" effects only affect the controlling Player, not the entire Team. |
| 420 | *** Each Player may use a creature they Control as a Blocker for Attacks made against their Teammate. |
| 421 | *** Effects that trigger at the beginning of or during "each player's (X) phase/step" will trigger for each Teammate on a Team. |
| 422 | * '''Planechase''' |
| 423 | ** ''Planar Deck Rules:'' |
| 424 | *** Deck Size: 20-40 Planechase cards for the Planar Deck(s) ''(10 Planechase cards per player, Max of 40)'' |
| 425 | *** Card Copy Limit: Typically only 1 copy of each Plane and Phenomenon card per Planar Deck. |
| 426 | *** Legal Sets: Any and all Planes and Phenomenon printed by Wizards of the Coast |
| 427 | *** [[Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast Wizards']] original intent was for each player in a Planechase game to have their own Planar Deck of 15 Plane cards that they customized to suit and support their personal strategy. [[OffTheRails This was immediately ignored by the players themselves, who chose to follow a more-intuitive, and less-expensive, method of play]], whereby all players use a single, communal Planar Deck instead.[[note]]Planes were introduced in a series of 5 special side-products that cost over $20 each; so, to make individual customized Planar Decks, the way Wizards had intended the variant to be played, meant that players might easily have to spend between $40 and $100 for cards that can't even be used in serious tournaments. It was just simpler for each player to spend $20 or one player to spend $100 and have everyone share a single deck, in addition to simply being a more straightforward way to play the variant, anyway.[[/note]] While Wizards has never publicly stated either denouncement or endorsement of this player-driven change, [[AscendedFanon subsequent support products for Planechase hint that they realized how people were REALLY playing it, and just went with it, design-wise]]. |
| 428 | ** ''Special Gameplay Rules:'' Players sit around a communal Planar Deck. After deciding who goes first, the Planar Deck is shuffled and the first Plane card is flipped over. |
| 429 | *** Most cards in a Planar Deck are Plane cards: cards which have a (generally) universal effect, as well as a secondary "Chaos" effect (which is only triggered when a player rolls "Chaos"). When players Planeswalk from one Plane to the next, the current Plane is put into a Discard pile, usually face-down to not confuse things, and replaced with the new Plane. Planes aren't Permanents and can't be targeted by anything, similar to Emblems, though like emblems, they are Sources and as such can be affected by cards like Leyline of Sanctity. |
| 430 | *** Another type of card, introduced later, is Phenomenon — an anomalous event that occurs when the players are planeswalking from one Plane to another; when players encounter these by revealing them from the top of the Planar Deck, they resolve all the effects of that Phenomenon, discard it, and then reveal the next card in the Planar Deck (it is quite possible to have two or more Phenomenons be chained together in this way). Phenomenon are like Instants and Sorceries — they are one-and-done, though several have persisting effects, such as having TWO active Planes cards instead of just one (they aren't spells, however, and cannot be countered or targeted in any way). |
| 431 | *** During each player's turn, whenever they have Priority and the Stack is empty, the Turn Player may choose to roll the Planar Die any number of times; the first time costs 0 mana, with each subsequent roll costing an additional 1 mana. The Planar Die is a d6 with 4 blank faces, 1 "Chaos" face, and 1 "Planeswalk" face. |
| 432 | *** If a player rolls "Planeswalk"[[note]]represented by the five-pronged "fork" symbol that is associated with Planeswalkers[[/note]], the current Plane is discarded, and the top card of the Planar Deck is flipped face-up; if the card revealed is a Plane, that card becomes the new Plane the players are currently on, but if it's a Phenomenon, its effects are fully resolved, then the Phenomenon is discarded, and the top card of the Planar Deck revealed yet again (this process repeats until a Plane is revealed). |
| 433 | *** Whenever a player rolls "Chaos,"[[note]]a symbol resembling a maelstrom[[/note]] the "Chaos" effect of the current Plane is triggered. Some Chaos effects are fairly benign; others can cause table-flipping from nearly every player present. |
| 434 | *** If the game goes on for so long that all Planes in the Planar Deck are used up, the discards are shuffled and set back in the Planar Deck for the insanity to begin anew. |
| 435 | * '''Emperor''' |
| 436 | ** ''Special Setup Rules:'' |
| 437 | *** Team Size & Composition: 2 teams of 3 players each - 1 Emperor and 2 Knights |
| 438 | *** Seating: Teams sit across from one another; The Emperor sits in between their 2 Knights |
| 439 | ** ''Special Gameplay rules:'' |
| 440 | *** Knights and their Emperor may share their hidden information (such as hands) with one another. |
| 441 | *** Each Creature has the "Deploy" ability (Deploy - T: Target Teammate gains control of this creature) |
| 442 | *** Range of Influence: Each Player has an "Range of Influence" - a range measured in "player lengths" to their left and right, that their spells & effects can target & affect. Knights have an Range of Influence of 1, while Emperors have an Range of Influence of 2. For example, we have the Red Team, and the Blue Team: The Red Emperor casts Wrath of God... with a Range of 2, this means it affects herself, both her Knights (1 player length away), and both of the Blue Knights (2 player lengths away), but not the Blue Emperor (3 player lengths away); the right Blue Knight may cast Blue Sun's Zenith on himself, the left Red Knight, and the Blue Emperor (1 Player length Left & Right), but not the Red Emperor nor left Blue knight (2 player lengths away), nor the right Red knight (3 player lengths away). |
| 443 | *** Players may only declare attacks against an Opponent (i.e. not a Teammate), 1 player length away from them (in effect, this means Knights must attack Knight directly opposite them, and they cannot attack the opposing Emperor until their directly-opposite Knight has been eliminated; this also means each Emperor cannot declare Attacks themselves until one of their own Knights has been eliminated) |
| 444 | *** When an Emperor Wins, the entire Team wins. When an Emperor Loses, the entire Team Loses. When a Knight Wins, each opponent 1 player length away Loses (i.e., if their directly opposing Knight has been eliminated, a Knight who uses an instant-Win effect will cause the opposing Emperor Loses) |
| 445 | * '''Archenemy''' |
| 446 | ** ''Special Setup Rules:'' |
| 447 | *** Team Size & Composition: 1 Archenemy and 1 Team of 2-4 players (think a DM/Boss and a Party of Adventurers) |
| 448 | *** Seating: The Archenemy and Team sit opposite of one another; teammates sit in a line from right to left. |
| 449 | *** Starting Life: The Archenemy starts with twice as much life as the base Format; each player on the Team has the standard Starting Life for the base Format, and have separate Life Totals |
| 450 | ** ''Special Scheme Deck Rules:'' |
| 451 | *** Deck Size: Each Archenemy has a Scheme deck with at least 20 Scheme cards; this is kept in their Command Zone |
| 452 | *** Card Copy Limit: 2 copies max of each Scheme |
| 453 | ** ''Special Gameplay Rules |
| 454 | *** The Team uses the [[https://mtg.gamepedia.com/Shared_turns Shared Team Turns Option]] |
| 455 | *** The Archenemy always starts first |
| 456 | *** At the Beginning of their Precombat Main Phase, the Archenemy flips over the top card of their Scheme Deck and places it face-up in their Command Zone; this is turn-based action called, "Setting The Scheme In Motion". (It doesn't use The Stack) |
| 457 | *** Some Schemes are Ongoing, others are immediate effects. |
| 458 | *** Ongoing Schemes remain face-up in the Command Zone until an effect causes them to be "abandoned". Abilities of Ongoing Schemes do allow for Responses as any Activated or Triggered Ability would on the Stack |
| 459 | *** Non-Ongoing Schemes remain face-up in the Command Zone until the Stack is empty of triggered abilities of other Scheme cards, and the Archenemy once again has Priority. When this happens, all non-Ongiong Schemes cards are turned face-down and placed on the bottom of the Scheme deck in a random order. |
| 460 | *** When all the players in the Team have been eliminated, or the Archenemy has Won, the Team Loses. When the Archenemy Loses, all players on the Team Win. |
| 461 | * '''Kingdoms''' |
| 462 | ** ''Special Setup Rules'' |
| 463 | *** Card Restrictions: There is no hard-and-fast rule, but generally it's considered problematic, or against the spirit of the variant, for anyone other than the Regent to play alternate-win cards (cards that say "you win if"), since the goal for most players is to cause the Regent to Lose, and the Regent is the only one who needs to literally "Win" in order to... win. However, cards which say "target opponent loses if" are perfectly fine, because this variant prioritizes the idea of people Losing over people Winning. Semantics, amiright? |
| 464 | *** Number of Players: 5 or 6 |
| 465 | *** Roles: Each player is secretly assigned a role. These roles are Regent, Knight, Bandit 1, Bandit 2, Assassin, and (if playing with a sixth player) Usurper. After everyone gets their role, only the Regent reveals themself. |
| 466 | *** Starting Life Totals: The Regent starts the game with 1 1/4 times the usual Starting Life for the Format; all other players start with the normal amount of Life. |
| 467 | ** ''Special Gameplay Rules:'' |
| 468 | *** Each player's objective is based on their Role. |
| 469 | *** The Regent's goal is to survive and win the game. Simple as that. |
| 470 | *** The Knight's goal is to make sure the Regent survives and wins the game. Even if they are eliminated, if the Regent wins, the Knight also wins the game. |
| 471 | *** The Bandits goal is to kill the Regent. If the Regent is eliminated by anyone, both Bandits win. |
| 472 | *** The Assassin's goal is to kill *everyone*. To do this, they must kill the Bandits first, and *then* the Regent (because if they kill the Regent first, the Bandits win) |
| 473 | *** The Usurper's goal is to become the Regent. If the Usurper directly causes the Regent to Lose (either by reducing their life to zero, or through instant-loss cards), they reveal their Role. When they do, the original Regent *doesn't* lose, their Life becomes 1, the Usurper's life total is set to the Starting Life Total of the original Regent, and the Usurper and Regent switch Roles (the old Regent is the new Usurper and vice versa). The Knight's and Bandits' goal remains the same (Save / Kill the Regent, respectively), though with new the targets in mind accordingly. |
| 474 | * '''Vanguard''' |
| 475 | ** ''Special Setup Rules:'' |
| 476 | *** Vanguards: Each player chooses one of 32 oversized "Vanguard" cards. These cards represent important characters from the Urza's & Weatherlight Sagas of the game's history. Unlike EDH, where the Commander is considered to be a separate entity entirely from the Player, in Vanguard, the player is considered to actually be the represented character. |
| 477 | *** Starting/Max Hand Size: Your starting and maximum hand size is raised or lowered by the value represented on the bottom left of the card. |
| 478 | *** Starting Life: Your Starting Life is raised or lowered by the value represented on the bottom right of the card. |
| 479 | *** Each Vanguard has a special ability which is always available to the player; these can be static, triggered, or activated abilities. |
| 480 | ** ''Special Gameplay Rules:'' |
| 481 | *** The Vanguard begins the Game in the Command Zone of the player. They are similar to, but distinct from, Emblems. |
| 482 | ** ''In MTGO:'' |
| 483 | *** Magic Online has an identical concept called Avatars, which expand beyond the original 32 Vanguard cards. These Avatars represent special Vanguard versions of both Legendary and Non-Legendary Creatures, though the Starting/Max Hand Size and Starting Life are toned down significantly (the extra cards often far outweighed the abilities of the characters in practice, and the overall balance of the original Vanguard cards was a little lopsided as a result) |
| 484 | |
| 485 | !!Advanced Theory |
| 486 | In this section, we want to cover some of the slang terminology that has risen up around the game. It's fairly esoteric, but it gives you a look into just how much analysis has been done on ''Magic''. Some of these terms are also useful because you'll hear them used in just about any other card battle game (''Pokémon'', ''Hearthstone'', ''Yu-Gi-Oh''), and as such it's handy to know what they mean. Typically, their definitions are tweaked slightly to reflect the realities of that game, but the concepts must be pretty similar, or else nobody would be stealing the term. |
| 487 | |
| 488 | Every CCG is a game of resources. On the surface, the big resource in ''Magic'' appears to be {{mana}}. It's actually a little more complicated. |
| 489 | * '''Card Advantage''' is a pretty simple concept: whoever has more cards in their hand has more options and a better chance at winning. The question is, how do you turn this to your own advantage — besides [[GameBreaker playing Blue and drawing a gazillion cards]]. The answer comes in its other name, "Card Economy." Let's say I attack with a 4/4 creature and you only have a 2/2 creature to block with. Either you take 4 damage to the face or you lose your creature, ''and'' my creature doesn't die in either situation. ''But''... You have a [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370654 Shock]] in your hand. If you block with your 2/2 and then throw the Shock, you can do the necessary damage and knock out my creature. So you do... and, as a result, you used two cards where I only used one. And remember, both of us only have 60 cards in our decks, so it's important to get as much mileage out of them as possible. Your two-for-one trade was probably sub-optimal. |
| 490 | * '''Tempo''' is closely related to Card Advantage. A term borrowed from TabletopGame/{{chess}}, it measures how efficiently you accomplish any given goal. In the above example, I used one card to deal four damage whilst you used two, so I gained card advantage... ''but'' I might have used more ''{{mana}}'' to do what I did. The typical mana-to-body ratio for creatures is 1 for 1/1, so my 4/4 creature probably cost me four mana. Your 2/2 creature and Shock, together, cost you three. So while I used my ''cards'' more efficiently, you used your ''mana'' more efficiently. Which advantage will ultimately prove more important? That's a question you have to ask about every match you'll ever play. |
| 491 | * '''The Clock''' is a different way of looking at your HitPoints, the same way "Damage Per Second" is a different way of looking at weapon effectiveness. Let's say you have a 4/4 creature out and I have a 3/3 creature. We both say, "Screw it, AttackAttackAttack, forget about blocking." How many attacks will it take for you to reduce my 20 Life to 0, with your 4/4 creature? And how many attacks will it take for my 3/3 creature to kill you? The answer is, it will take you five turns to kill me. I have five turns to win the game in. That's The Clock in a nutshell: converting the (relatively) abstract idea of "I'm doing damage" into a much more concrete measurement of "This is how long it will take me to win or lose." |
| 492 | |
| 493 | These ways of evaluating the game all have one thing in common: they attempt to form a correlation between cards and the opponent's life total. "I should, in theory, require [X] cards to kill my opponent." Obviously, the relationship is going to vary depending on ''what'' those cards are (see The Clock for the damage relationship; consider additionally that some of your cards are land, whose relationship to your opponent's life total is [[DivideByZero nebulous at best]]), but the relationship ''can'' be established, and has under [[http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/lo/297 "The Philosophy of Fire."]] |
| 494 | |
| 495 | Beyond that, you're on your own. The Philosophy of Fire is the ''Magic'' equivalent of quantum physics. DoNotTryThisAtHome unless you feel confident in your understanding of the game. |
| 496 | |
| 497 | |
| 498 | ---- |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext UsefulNotes / MagicTheGathering
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
