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.
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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.)
- Aluren Combo
- Artifact Red
Uses Goblin Welder.
- Blue-Green Madness
- Blue-White Control
Control with Wrath of God, Story Circle and Blinding Angel. Millstone for a win condition.
- Blue Skies
Cheap blue flying creatures and Curiosity to draw and control with free Counterspells.
- Broken Blue (alright, I made this up)
Tolarian Academy + Mind Over Matter + Stroke of Genius = instant death
- Counter-Burn
Shard Phoenix to kill weenies. Sometimes uses Forbid and Squee for reusable counterspells.
- Counter-Rebel
Lin Sivvi and her army of Rebels.
- Counter-Sliver
Fear the Slivers.
- Draw-Go
- Enchantress
- Fires
Fires of Yavimaya combined with Saproling Burst hurts a lot.
- Forbidian
- Fruity Pebbles
Uses Enduring Renewal and Goblin Bombardment.
- Goblins
Goblin Lackey got banned. =(
- Machine Head
- Miracle Grow
An Blue-Green deck that makes Quirion Dryad grow.
- Mono Black Control
- Necro
Revolves around the most powerful black card ever: Necropotence
- Nether-Go
- Orbosition
Uses Opposition and Winter Orb/Static Orb for a lockdown.
- PandeBurst
Pandemonium and Saproling Burst does exactly 21 damage. Spike Feeder laughes at this.
- PT Junk
A variant of Three-Deuce that uses Black instead of White for discard.
- ProsBloom
Prosperity and Cadaverous Bloom combo
- Ponza
- Pox
- Psychatog
- Raffinity
- Reanimator
Uses Entomb to dump creatures and Reanimate or Exhume to get resurrect big creatures.
- Recurring Survival
The deck that won Brian Selden the world championship in 1998.
- Secret Force
Uses Natural Order to fish out Verdant Force for the win.
- Star Spangled Slaughter
- Stasis
Annoying Stasis
- Sligh
- Stompy
- Suicide Black
A fast deck that uses Dark Ritual as its fuel. Cards like Duress and Hatred help its goal.
- Three-Deuce
A utility Green-White-Red deck with cheap spells from the three colors.
- Tinker
The deck that won Jon Finkel the world championship in 2000.
- Tradewind Survival
- Trinity Green
An aggro deck that uses Plow Under, Tangle Wire and Deranged Hermit.
- Trix
Also known as Illusions-Donate.
- Turbo Land
- White Weenie
A White deck that uses small creatures and Armageddon or Cataclysm to win.
The deck that won Kai Budde the world championship in 1999.
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.
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The following cards are banned in the Legacy format as of March 1, 2005.
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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.
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Video Games[]
- Magic: The Gathering (Shandalar)
- Magic: The Gathering Battlegrounds
- Magic: The Gathering Online
See also[]
External links[]
- The best MTG book ever! Learn how to build a better deack and win more games!