Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering (Magic and MTG are common nicknames) is a card game originally created by Richard Garfield, but is now owned released by Wizards of the Coast since 1993. Players use decks of illustrated playing cards to play. Games of MTG typically have two players, but any number of players may play.

Card sets
There are three types of sets, starter, advanced and expert. Expert sets starting with Ice Age have one core set and two expansion sets.

Starter sets
 * Portal
 * Portal: Second Age
 * Portal: Three Kingdoms

Advanced sets
 * Limited Edition Alpha
 * Limited Edition Beta
 * Unlimited Edition
 * Revised Edition
 * Fourth Edition
 * Fifth Edition
 * Sixth Edition
 * Seventh Edition
 * Eighth Edition
 * Ninth Edition (coming July 2005)

Expert sets
 * Arabian Nights
 * Antiquities
 * Legends
 * The Dark
 * Fallen Empires
 * Ice Age
 * Homelands
 * Alliances
 * Mirage
 * Visions
 * Weatherlight
 * Tempest
 * Stronghold
 * Exodus
 * Urza's Saga
 * Urza's Legacy
 * Urza's Destiny
 * Mercadian Masques
 * Nemesis
 * Prophecy
 * Invasion
 * Planeshift
 * Apocalypse
 * Odyssey
 * Torment
 * Judgment
 * Onslaught
 * Legions
 * Scourge
 * Mirrodin
 * Darksteel
 * Fifth Dawn
 * Champions of Kamigawa
 * Betrayors of Kamigawa
 * Saviors of Kamigawa (coming June 2005)
 * Ravnica: City of Guilds (coming October 2005)

Joke sets
 * Unglued
 * Unhinged

Miscellaneous
 * Promotional cards

Tournament formats
There are two forms of tournaments, constructed and limited. Constructed lets you build a deck with a minimum of sixty cards of your own. In Limited, you must build a deck with a minimum of forty cards with the cards given to you through boosters (and tournament packs).

Constructed can be divided into Block Constructed, Standard, Extended, Legacy and Vintage.

Limited can be divided into Booster Draft, Rochester Draft, Sealed and Team Sealed.

Popular archetypes
(Feel free to add and/or correct. Spelling may be incorrect.)

Uses Goblin Welder. Control with Wrath of God, Story Circle and Blinding Angel. Millstone for a win condition. Cheap blue flying creatures and Curiosity to draw and control with free Counterspells. Tolarian Academy + Mind Over Matter + Stroke of Genius = instant death Shard Phoenix to kill weenies. Sometimes uses Forbid and Squee for reusable counterspells. Lin Sivvi and her army of Rebels. Fear the Slivers. Fires of Yavimaya combined with Saproling Burst hurts a lot. Uses Enduring Renewal and Goblin Bombardment. Goblin Lackey got banned. =( An Blue-Green deck that makes Quirion Dryad grow. Revolves around the most powerful black card ever: Necropotence Uses Opposition and Winter Orb/Static Orb for a lockdown. Pandemonium and Saproling Burst does exactly 21 damage. Spike Feeder laughes at this. A variant of Three-Deuce that uses Black instead of White for discard. Prosperity and Cadaverous Bloom combo Uses Entomb to dump creatures and Reanimate or Exhume to get resurrect big creatures. The deck that won Brian Selden the world championship in 1998. Uses Natural Order to fish out Verdant Force for the win. Annoying Stasis A fast deck that uses Dark Ritual as its fuel. Cards like Duress and Hatred help its goal. A utility Green-White-Red deck with cheap spells from the three colors. The deck that won Jon Finkel the world championship in 2000. An aggro deck that uses Plow Under, Tangle Wire and Deranged Hermit. Also known as Illusions-Donate. A White deck that uses small creatures and Armageddon or Cataclysm to win. The deck that won Kai Budde the world championship in 1999.
 * Aluren Combo
 * Artifact Red
 * Blue-Green Madness
 * Blue-White Control
 * Blue Skies
 * Broken Blue (alright, I made this up)
 * Counter-Burn
 * Counter-Rebel
 * Counter-Sliver
 * Draw-Go
 * Enchantress
 * Fires
 * Forbidian
 * Fruity Pebbles
 * Goblins
 * Machine Head
 * Miracle Grow
 * Mono Black Control
 * Necro
 * Nether-Go
 * Orbosition
 * PandeBurst
 * PT Junk
 * ProsBloom
 * Ponza
 * Pox
 * Psychatog
 * Raffinity
 * Reanimator
 * Recurring Survival
 * Secret Force
 * Star Spangled Slaughter
 * Stasis
 * Sligh
 * Stompy
 * Suicide Black
 * Three-Deuce
 * Tinker
 * Tradewind Survival
 * Trinity Green
 * Trix
 * Turbo Land
 * White Weenie
 * Wildfire

Banned and Resticted list
(Maybe we should have a separate page for this. It's pretty huge.)

The following cards are banned in the Standard format as of March 1, 2005.


 * Ancient Den
 * Arcbound Ravager
 * Darksteel Citadel
 * Disciple of the Vault
 * Great Furnace
 * Seat of the Synod
 * Skullclamp
 * Tree of Tales
 * Vault of Whispers

The following cards are banned in the Extended format as of March 1, 2005.

The following cards are banned in the Legacy format as of March 1, 2005.

The following cards are banned in the Vintage format as of March 1, 2005.


 * Any ante card
 * Chaos Orb
 * Falling Star

The following cards are restricted in the Vintage format as of March 1, 2005.

Video Games

 * Magic: The Gathering (Shandalar)
 * Magic: The Gathering Battlegrounds
 * Magic: The Gathering Online