Magic: The Gathering : Originally in English Magic: The Gathering and often abbreviated as Magic, MTG, and Magic Cards, is a collectible card game designed in 1993 by Richard Garfield , professor of mathematics, and marketed by the American company Wizards of the Coast . Magic is the first example of a modern trading card game, with more than six million players in fifty-two different countries, remaining in force today. Magic can be played by two or more players, each using an individual deck. There is also a digital version that can be played online through the Internet.
Each game represents a battle between powerful Planeswalkers who can use spells (spells, artifacts, lands, fantastic creatures, etc.), represented individually on each card, to defeat their opponents. In this way, the original concept of the game is remarkably inspired by fantasy themes covered in traditional role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons . The structure of the game replaces the tools used in paper and pencil adventure games with a large number of cards and more complex rules than most other card games. An organized tournament system and a community of professional players has been developed around the game, as well as a secondary card market. The letters ofMagic are valued not only for their scarcity, but also for their value in the game and for the aesthetic value of the illustrations.
Summary
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- 1 Plot
- 2 How to Play
- 3 Deck Construction
- 4 Colors
- 5 Organized Play
- 1 DCI
- 6 Types of Tournaments
- 1 Eternal
- 2 Built
- 3 Limited
- 4 Other classifications:
- 7 Secondary Market
- 8 Sources
Plot
Online game
An intricate plot lies behind the cards released in each expansion and is shown in the design and “set text” of each of the cards, as well as in the novels and anthologies published by Wizards of the Coast (and formally by HarperPrism ). This plot takes place in the Magic multiverse , originally called “Dominia” but which was changed to avoid confusion with Dominaria, and a multiverse consisting of an infinite number of planes. Plot objects or characters appear as “Legendary” cards in the various expansions, cards of which only one can be in play at a time.
Expansion sets ranging from Antiquities to Scourge (with the exception of Homelands) are sets located on the Dominaria plane and make up an approximately chronological timeline of that plane’s history (with the sole exception of the Saga Block of Urza). Frequent characters included Urza and his brother Mishra .
Sets from Light Weather to Apocalypsein particular, they follow the story of the Weatherlight crew, Urza’s allies against Yawgmoth. Magic began venturing out of Dominaria and into various other planes, such as Mirrodin, Kamigawa, and Ravnica. The plot of Magic returned to Dominaria with the Time Spiral block, and visited Lorwyn with the Lorwyn block, the Shadowmoor block, is the set located on the plane of Shadowmoor, the dark inverse of Lorwyn. In the Alara block, the five different planes resulting from the fragmentation of the Alara plane were explored and their restoration as the new Alara where the plot of the new Planeswalkers begins to be introduced. In the Zendikar block an indomitable plane full of treasures and dangers is explored. In addition to that in the course of the Alara Block until now,planeswalker .
Although the books released after the Lorwyn cycle focus more on the Planeswalker themselves than a specific shot and as for the novels on the block drawing in turn only one novel is released. Similarly, the comics focus mainly on planeswalkers.
How to Play
In Magic: The Gathering each player represents a wizard who, as such, must defeat his enemy using his powers: magical creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, drawing power or mana from his lands, some also with their own powers. The game was designed for two players, although new rules have been added to play with more participants, almost always in even numbers since if it is an odd number, for example 3 players, it may be that 2 ally to defeat the other, which constitutes an incorrect practice.
Each player starts with 20 life points and a deck (library) of at least 60 cards (in some special tournaments it is allowed to use decks of 40), of which approximately (for strategic considerations) a third are mana producing lands, the energy required to play the other cards (Think of the Mana as in-game money, which is used to pay the costs of the cards to play). Nonland cards can be collectively grouped as spells. They require a certain amount of mana to be played, usually a combination of single-color and colorless mana. They are divided into cards that generate a permanent effect ( creatures, enchantments, artifacts, and even lands are existing permanents in play) and those that go to the graveyard (generally) after being used (snapshots and spells).
A player loses when he runs out of resistance points, when he tries to draw a card and his library is empty, or if the condition of any card indicates so. The last player left is the winner, although there are cards that indicate new ways to win once a player puts them into play, such as winning the game if that player gets certain life points or if he has a certain number of creatures in play. There are also skills whereby a player cannot lose the game.
Deck Construction
A player needs a deck before he can play a Magic game. Beginners usually start with a pre-built beginner deck. In many game formats, players can modify their decks with any of the cards they possess, based on the opponent’s technique, their style of play, or even anticipate an opponent’s deck. In general, decks must be made up of a minimum of sixty cards. Players cannot use more than four copies of any card, except for so-called ” lands “, which act as a standard source of resources in Magic. These two rules are less flexible in “limited” formats, where the minimum deck sizeis forty letters. Depending on the type of game, some more powerful cards are “restricted”, that is, only a single copy is allowed per deck ; or “banned”, that is, its use is not allowed. The decision about which colors to use is an important part of the process of creating a deck. Spells in Magic come in five different colors, each with its strengths and weaknesses; hence playing with more than one color can help give a deck more versatility and better performance. However, reducing the number of colors used greatly increases the chances of stealing the land it takes to play the most important spells. Therefore, in practice, one or two color decks are the most common, three, four or even five color decks can be successful if they are well designed.
Colors
In magic there are five different colors: white, blue, black, red, and green, each with a different meaning and personality.
White: It is the color of light, justice , and order (but not necessarily good). This color specializes in putting additional rules to the game , in addition to the use of weak but large-scale creatures to overwhelm the opponent, and it is common to see their creatures have some type of protection against some color, creature, enchantment, etc. As well as dealing damage to attacking or blocking creatures . In this color, it is also very common to find the vital link skills, vigilance, damage first, and a considerable number of flying creatures. The types of creatures that stand out in this color are: clergymen, knights, samurais , soldiers, angelsand kithkins. Corresponding Earth: Plain
Blue: It is the color of knowledge, illusion, and deception. This color specializes in stealing additional cards, returning permanents to their owner’s hand, countering spells, and “decking” cards from the top of the library, taking control of permanents, copying spell spells, or instant. In this color are the largest number of flying and unblockable creatures. The creatures that stand out in this color are: sorcerers , illusions , leviathans , birds , fairies , newts and elementals. Corresponding Earth: Island
Black: It is the color of darkness, greed , power, and death. (but not necessarily evil). This color has capacities varied and enhanced to those of the other colors, but they have a higher cost or have a detrimental effect for those who use them. An example is that there are black cards that allow you to draw additional cards, but you lose life for each card drawn. . The specialties of this color tend to be that players lose life, return cards from the graveyard to the game (not necessarily from the corresponding graveyard), destroy creatures without the possibility of regeneration as well as the regeneration itself. In short, gaining enormous self-destructive power, which must be used with care. The almost exclusive ability of this color is the ability to inspire fear. The creatures that stand out are: zombies, (dark) clerics, ghouls and above all Demons. Corresponding Earth: Swamp
Red: It is the color of war, chaos, disorder, fury, passion, violence and fire. This color specializes in dealing constant damage using spells or abilities and raising power status. Destruction of land and artifacts is also an important factor. Another important point of this color is the fact that there are cards that allow you to copy spell or instant spells, temporarily take control of creatures, discard the hand and then draw the same amount and give a second combat phase. Common abilities in this color are haste, the ability to double strike and first strike. The creatures that stand out in this color are: dragons , goblins, shamans , barbarians, ogres and elementals. Corresponding Earth: Mountain
Green: It is the color of life, harmony and nature. This color specializes in creating large or small-sized but large-scale creatures; also strengthening creatures, destroying enchantments and artifacts, and using additional mana or lands. In this color there are very few flying creatures, instead it specializes in eliminating them. The common abilities of this color are: the ability of reach, trample, mortal touch and veil. The creatures that stand out are: elves, beasts, serpents and druids. Corresponding land: Forest.
Exceptions:
Colorless: These types of cards that have no color (can be paid with any land, although they can provide spells of one color), are mostly Artifacts.
Multicolors: They are cards of more than one color (they are paid with different lands). They have characteristics and abilities of all their colors. They have a gold border.
Hybrids: They have “half and half” mana costs (each “half and half” mana can be paid with one of two different colors). Despite not containing the gold border (they have both border colors), they are considered multi-colored.
Organized Play
Wizards of the Coast . Organize all kinds of meetings, from local tournaments to professional tournaments (called Pro Tours) where an invitation is required to participate. There are also regional, national and world championships, which are held annually.
DCI
An organization called Duelist Convocation International (DCI) is in charge of establishing the official rules, providing the mechanisms to organize and sanction all these tournaments, organizing the collective of official tournament judges, etc.
Tournament Types
There are several types of tournament depending on the cards that are allowed in the game. Depending on the type of tournament, there may be some restricted cards (that is, you can use only one copy of them in a deck) and others that are prohibited (“banned”, according to the game’s jargon). Of the others (except basic lands), up to four copies can be used in the same deck. Tournaments are grouped into 3 types:
Eternal
In this type of tournaments all existing cards can be used (except restrictions). Within this category we have:
Type 1 or Vintage . It is allowed to play with all the cards of all the edited expansions respecting the list of restricted and prohibited cards.
Type 1,5 or Legacy . It has a list of prohibited cards, but not restricted, that is, if a card is allowed, 4 can be played.
Constructed
It is allowed to play only with cards of certain extensions (usually the most recent ones), which rotate periodically, with a list of prohibited cards. Within this category we have: Extended. It is the widest built format, in 2005 the allowed extensions are those published from October 1997.
Type 2 or Standard. It is allowed to play only with the cards of the last two blocks and the basic collection. Block. Only cards from the last block released were allowed.
Limited
In these tournaments we will not take our deck from home, but will prepare it with some decks or sealed envelopes that are provided to us at the beginning of the tournament. Here we have:
Sealed deck : They will give us a deck and some envelopes, these will be ours and with them we will make our deck.
Booster Draft: We will be given envelopes that we will open, choose a card, and move on to the next player. This type of game is usually used in the top 8 of Limited Tournaments, since exactly 8 players are needed.
Rochester Draft: It is another variant to determine the top 8 in limited tournaments. It consists of opening an envelope and extending it on the table so that all the players see it and take turns taking a card. In this type of game the privacy that is in the booster draft is lost , but in this way the players intuit the strategies of the rest of the competitors. Currently this format is deprecated because it requires much more time (8 times more) than the Booster Draft. It has been stopped playing completely, currently the term draft is only applicable for the Booster Draft variant.
Other classifications:
Regular level
There are from tournaments to find professional players) are the “Pre-Releases” (Prerelease) and the “Releases” (Release).
Competitive level
They are tournaments that anyone can play, but they offer considerable prizes, in some cases cash and in other cases air tickets to and from a place in the world.
Professional level
Not anyone can participate in a professional tournament, only invited players are admitted. Professional tournaments award prizes of more than $ 240,000, distributed among the top 75 in individual formats.
Secondary market
Although Wizards of the CoastIt only sells cards in envelopes and decks, there is an active market for single cards among players and in many specialized stores. Card prices depend, to a large extent, on their rarity and usefulness. Common cards usually cost € 0.08, and sometimes exceed 0.30, while infrequent cards usually cost between € 0.50 and € 1. Rare cards, however, have much higher prices, from 1 or 2 euros onwards. Some particularly useful or ancient rare cards cost more than € 20. There are approximately one hundred cards selling for more than € 100, and they are all cards that have not been republished since 1994. The Black Lotus card (up to € 1,800 depending on its status) is the most expensive Magic playable card: The Gathering. There are also three very rare letters created directly by Richard Garfield that, Although they are not playable, they are valued at prices much higher than the Black Lotus. 2 of these letters were edited to commemorate the birth of their respective children and there are 100 copies of each of them. The third was created to declare itself and there are only 2 copies of them. Older cards raise the price, but more than anything due to the strong speculation that exists in the market. There are several means where you can search for the “price” of Magic cards, but keep in mind that it may depend strongly on the country where you are. The third was created to declare itself and there are only 2 copies of them. Older cards raise the price, but more than anything due to the strong speculation that exists in the market. There are several means where you can search for the “price” of Magic cards, but keep in mind that it can depend heavily on the country where you are. The third was created to declare itself and there are only 2 copies of them. The older cards raise the price, but more than anything due to the strong speculation that exists in the market. There are several means where you can search for the “price” of Magic cards, but keep in mind that it can depend heavily on the country where you are.
In some cases, the price of the cards is influenced by the interests of the entities that control the market. For example, if a magazine that publishes the prices of the cards, at the same time is dedicated to selling them, it will award a lower price to the letters that are not in their “stock”. In any case, people who regularly play tournaments and trade cards know the real value of cards, the price dictated by some means being a simple guide. As new editions go on sale, old letters are sometimes reissued. If a card is expensive because it is useful, the reissue usually increases the price of the original card, because there are more tournament formats that can be played with it and therefore it will be in greater demand among players. However, if its price is due to the collecting it causes, a reissue will lower the price of the original card, because it is no longer so scarce. To protect the value of some old and highly-desired cards, Wizards of the Coast has formulated an official reissue policy, which includes a list of letters that promise not to edit again. One of these cards, the famous counterspell or counterspell, undoubtedly the most famous counter (card with the ability to counter other cards), was published in Alpha and Beta until the 7th basic edition for the simple reason that from this edition semi-immune decks came out to counters and it was no longer a really useful letter for everyone. Wizards of the Coast has formulated an official reissue policy, which includes a list of letters promising not to edit again. One of these cards, the famous counterspell or counterspell, undoubtedly the most famous counter (card with the ability to counter other cards), was published in Alpha and Beta until the 7th basic edition for the simple reason that from this edition semi-immune decks came out to counters and it was no longer a really useful letter for everyone. Wizards of the Coast has formulated an official reissue policy, which includes a list of letters that promise not to edit again. One of these cards, the famous counterspell or counterspell, undoubtedly the most famous counter (card with the ability to counter other cards), was published in Alpha and Beta until the 7th basic edition for the simple reason that from this edition semi-immune decks came out to counters and it was no longer a really useful letter for everyone.
