Magic: The Gathering

The Original Trading Card Game

Magic: The Gathering (colloquially known as Magic or MTG) is a tabletop and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast (now a subsidiary of Hasbro), Magic was the first trading card game and has approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.

The player in Magic takes the role of a Planeswalker, doing battle with other players as Planeswalkers by casting spells, using artifacts, and summoning creatures as depicted on individual cards drawn from their individual decks. A player defeats their opponent typically (but not always) by casting spells and attacking with creatures to deal damage to the opponent's "life total," with the object being to reduce it from 20 to 0. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay bears little similarity to pencil-and-paper adventure games, while simultaneously having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

Magic can be played by two or more players, either in person with printed cards or on a computer, smartphone or tablet with virtual cards through the Internet-based software Magic: The Gathering Online or other video games such as Magic: The Gathering Arena or Tabletop Simulator. It can be played in various rule formats, which are listed here .

New cards are released on a regular basis through expansion sets. Certain cards can be valuable due to their rarity in production and utility in gameplay, with prices ranging from a few cents to tens of thousands of dollars.

• Artifacts: Artifacts are cards that represent magical items, animated constructs, pieces of equipment, or other objects and devices. Artifact, the card type, is broader than the normal definition. Natural items can be a Magic “artifact”.
• Creatures: Creatures are cards representing the various creatures a player uses to attack and defend with. They have a defined power (attack strength) and toughness (defense strength).
• Enchantments: Enchantments are cards that impose persistent magical effects, usually remaining in play indefinitely until destroyed or otherwise removed.
• Instant: Instants are spells like sorceries; however, they may be played during any phase of any player's turn.
• Planeswalker: Planeswalkers are cards that are controlled by the player but treated as targets during combat in the same way the player is. They have abilities determined by whether the controller chooses to increase or decrease the Planeswalker's life total. Planeswalker abilities can only be triggered once per turn on the the controller's turn.
• Sorcery: Sorceries are cards which can only be played during the owner's main phases. They are "spells" which affect the conditions of the battlefield.

Want to learn more?

Interested in learning more?