| Card Game | |
 The back of aMagic card | |
| Designer | Richard Garfield |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Wizards of the Coast |
| Release date | August 5, 1993; 32 years ago (1993-08-05) |
| Type | Collectible |
| Players | 2 or more |
| Skills | |
| Age range | 13+ |
| Chance | Some (order of cards drawn, varying card abilities) |
| Website | magic |
Magic: The Gathering (colloquially known asMagic orMTG) is acollectible,tabletop, anddigital collectible card game created byRichard Garfield.[1]Wizards of the Coast releasedMagic in 1993 as its first trading card game. As of February 2023[update], it has amassed approximately fifty million players.[2][3][4][5] From 2008 to 2016, over twenty billionMagic cards were printed as the game grew in popularity.[6][7] For the 2022 fiscal year[update], Hasbro announcedMagic had generated $1 billion in annual revenue.[5][8]
Players in a game ofMagic represent powerful dueling wizards called Planeswalkers. Each card a player draws from their deck represents a magical spell which can be used to their advantage in battle. Instant and Sorcery cards represent magical spells a player may cast for a one-time effect, while Creature, Artifact, Enchantment, Planeswalker, and Battle cards remain on the Battlefield to provide long-term advantage. Players usually must include resource, or Land cards representing the amount of mana that is available to cast their spells. Typically, a player defeats their opponent(s) by reducing their life totals to zero, which is commonly done via combat damage by attacking with creatures. Many other sources of damage exist in the game, in addition to alternative win-conditions which do not check life totals.
Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditionalfantasyrole-playing games such asDungeons & Dragons, thegameplay bears little similarity totabletop role-playing 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 paper cards or on a computer, smartphone or tablet with virtual cards through Internet-based software such asMagic: The Gathering Online,Magic: The Gathering Arena,Magic Duels andseveral others. It can be played in various rule formats, which fall into two categories:constructed andlimited. Limited formats involve players creating a deck spontaneously out of a pool of random cards typically with a minimum deck size of 40 cards.[9] In constructed formats, players create decks from cards they own, usually with a minimum of 60 cards per deck.
New cards are released on a regular basis throughexpansion sets. Further developments include theWizards Play Network played at the international level and the worldwide communityPlayers Tour, as well as a substantial resale market forMagic cards. 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.
A typical game ofMagic involves two or more players who are engaged in a battle, acting as powerful wizards known asPlaneswalkers. Each player has their own deck of cards, purchased and constructed from a limited pool of available cards.[10] A player typically starts the game with a "life total" of twenty and loses the game when the total is reduced to zero.[11][12] A player can lose the game if they must draw from an empty deck. Some cards specify other ways to win or lose the game.[11][13]: 50 One of the "Magic Golden Rules" is: "Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence".[11] According toCNET, the game has many variants; "Magic tends to embrace all thathouse ruling, making it official when it catches on. Commander started as a fan-created format, after all."[14]
Cards inMagic: The Gathering generally have a consistent format, with half of the face of the card showing the card's art, and the other half listing the card's mechanics, often relying on commonly-reusedkeywords to simplify the card's text.[15] Cards fall into two classes: lands and spells.[citation needed] Lands producemana, or magical energy. Players usually can only play one land card per turn, with most land providing a specific color of mana when they are "tapped", usually by rotating the card 90 degrees to show it has been used that turn. Each land can be tapped for mana only once per turn.[16]
Meanwhile, spells consume mana, typically requiring at least one mana of a specific color. More powerful spells cost more, and more specifically colored, mana, so as the game progresses, more land will be in play, more mana will be available, and the quantity and relative power of the spells played tends to increase. Spells come in several varieties: non-permanents like "sorceries" and "instants" have a single, one-time effect before they go to the "graveyard" (discard pile); "enchantments" and "artifacts" that remain in play after being cast to provide a lasting magical effect; and "creature" spells summon creatures that can attack and damage an opponent as well as used to defend from the opponent's creature attacks; "planeswalker" spells that summon powerful allies that act similarly to other players.[17][18] Land, enchantments, artifacts, creature, planeswalker, and battle cards are considered "permanents" as they remain in play until removed by other spells, ability, or combat effects.[18]
Players begin the game by shuffling their decks and then drawing seven cards.[19] On each player's turn, following a set phase order, they draw a card, tap their lands and other permanents as necessary to gain mana to cast spells, engage their creatures in a single attack round against their opponent who may use their own creatures to block the attack, and then complete other actions with any remaining mana.[20] Most actions that a player can perform enter the "Stack", a concept similar to thestack in computer programming i.e. the stack follows Last in First Out order where the last card played onto the stack is the first card effect resolved, as either player can react to these actions with other actions, such as counter-spells; the stack provides a method of resolving complex interactions that may result in certain scenarios.[21][22]
Deck construction requires strategy; players must choose cards to play from thousands of cards, requiring players to evaluate the power of their cards, the possible synergies between them, and their possible interactions with the cards they expect to play against. This "metagame" can vary by location and time period.[23][24] The player restricts the choice of cards by deciding which colors to include in the deck.[24] Starter decks, which are part of theMagic product line, are aimed at giving novice players ideas for deck construction.[25] Players expand their card library for deck construction throughbooster packs, which have a random distribution of cards from a specificMagic set and are defined by rarity.[26] These rarities are known as Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic Rare; more-powerful cards are generally the rarest.[27][28]
Most sanctioned games forMagic: The Gathering under theWizards Play Network (WPN) use a Constructed format that require players to create their decks from their own library of cards. In general, this requires a minimum of sixty cards in the deck, and, except for basic land cards and cards that have text superseding this rule, no more than four cards of the same named card.[29][30] The Standard format, by including mostly recently released cards, helps to prevent "power creep" that can be difficult to predict with the size of theMagic card library and help give newer players a fair advantage with long-term players. Other Constructed formats exist that allow for use of older expansions to give more variety for decks.[31] A large variety of formats have been defined by theWPN which allows different pools of expansions to be used or alter deck construction rules for special events.[32]
Commander is a one hundred card constructed format that makes many changes to typical deck construction rules. In Commander, each of the one hundred cards must be uniquely named, excluding basic lands and cards that have text that supersede that rule. Each player must also denote a legendary creature to be their Commander, which is able to be played at any time, without needing to draw it. All other cards in the deck must share their color with the commander. Additionally, Commander also allows any cards from any set release to be used, excluding any specific cards that have been banned from play and most cards from parody sets. Commander as a format has a separate ban list than other Constructed formats.[33]
InLimited formats, a small number of cards are opened for play from booster packs or tournament packs, and generally a minimum deck size of forty cards is enforced. One of the most popular limited formats is Booster Draft, in which players open a booster pack, choose a card from it, and pass it to the player seated next to them. This continues until all the cards have been picked, and then a new pack is opened. Three packs are opened in total, and the direction of passing alternates left-right-left.[34][35] Once the draft is done, players create decks out of the cards they picked, basic land cards being provided for free, and play games with the players they drafted with.[34]
In the event individual cards are listed as "restricted", only one copy can be included in a deck; other cards are "banned" atWPN's discretion.[36] These restrictions are usually imposed for balance-of-power reasons but have been occasionally made because of gameplay mechanics.[37][38][39] For example, with the elimination of the "play for ante" mechanic in all formal formats,[40] all cards with this feature were banned.[37] During theCOVID-19 pandemic, which drew more players to the onlineMagic games and generated volumes of data of popular deck constructions, Wizards of the Coast was able to track popular combinations more quickly than in a purely paper game, and in mid-2020, the company banned additional cards that in specific combinations could draw out games far longer than desired.[41]
Wizards of the Coast has banned some old cards from all formal play due to inappropriate racial or cultural depictions in their text or illustrations in the wake of theGeorge Floyd protests, and their images have been blocked or removed from onlineMagic databases.[42][43] This includes a card called "Invoke Prejudice", which was displayed on the official card-index site Gatherer "at a web URL ending in '1488', numbers that aresynonymous with white supremacy".[43]
Most cards inMagic are based on one of five colors that make up the game's "Color Wheel" or "Color Pie", shown on the back of each card, and each representing a school or realm of magic: white, blue, black, red, and green. The arrangement of these colors on the wheel describes relationships between the schools, which can broadly affect deck construction and game execution. For a given color such as white, the two colors immediately adjacent to it, green and blue, are considered complementary, while the two colors on the opposite side, black and red, are its opposing schools.[44][45]
The Research and Development (R&D) team at Wizards of the Coast aimed to balance power and abilities among the five colors by using the Color Pie to differentiate the strengths and weaknesses of each. This guideline lays out the capabilities, themes, and mechanics of each color and allows for every color to have its own distinct attributes and gameplay. The Color Pie is used to ensure new cards are thematically in the correct color and do not infringe on the territory of other colors.[44][45]
The concepts behind each of the colors on the Color Wheel, based on a series of articles written byMark Rosewater, are as follows:[46]
Most cards inMagic: The Gathering are based on a single color, shown along the card's border. The cost to play them requires some mana of that color and potentially any amount of mana from any other color. Multicolored cards were introduced in theLegends expansion and typically use a gold border. Their casting cost includes mana from at least two colors plus additional mana from any color. Hybrid cards, included withRavnica, use a two-color gradient border. These cards can be cast using mana from either color shown, in addition to other mana costs. Finally, colorless cards, such as some artifacts, do not have any colored mana requirements but still require a general amount of mana to be spent to play.
The color wheel can influence deck construction choices. Cards from colors that are aligned such as red and green often providesynergistic effects, either due to the core nature of the schools or through designs of cards, but may leave the deck vulnerable to the magic of the common color in conflict, blue in the case of red and green. Alternatively, decks constructed with opposing colors like green and blue may not have many favorable combinations but will be capable of dealing with decks based on any other colors. There are no limits to how many colors can be in a deck, but the more colors in a deck, the more difficult it may be to provide mana of the right color.[45]
Magic, like many other games, combines chance and skill. One frequent complaint about the game involves the notion that there is too much luck involved, especially concerning drawing too many or too few lands.[49] Early in the game especially, too many or too few lands could ruin a player's chance at victory without the player having made a mistake. This in-game statistical variance can be minimized by proper deck construction, as an appropriate land count can reduce mana problems. InDuels of the Planeswalkers 2012, the land count is automatically adjusted to 40% of the total deck size.[50]
A "mulligan" rule was introduced into the game, first informally in casual play and then in the official game rules.[51] With the release of the Core Set 2020, a new mulligan system was introduced for competitive play known as theLondon Mulligan. Under this rule, after taking a mulligan, the player redraws 7 new cards, and then chooses 1 card to place on the bottom of their library for each mulligan they have taken (or chooses to mulligan again, drawing another 7 cards.) This mulligan rule is generally considered less punishing to mulligans than the prior mulligan rule, in which a player would simply draw one less card each time they mulliganed, rather than drawing 7 new cards after each mulligan, and subsequently choosing to "bottom" one card per mulligan taken.[52][53][54] In multiplayer, a player may take onemulligan without penalty.
Confessing his love for games combining both luck and skill,Magic creator Richard Garfield admitted its influence in his design ofMagic. In addressing the complaint about luck influencing a game, Garfield states that new and casual players tend to appreciate luck as a leveling effect, since randomness can increase their chances of winning against a more skilled player. Meanwhile, a player with higher skills appreciates a game with less chance, as the higher degree of control increases their chances of winning. According to Garfield,Magic has and would likely continue decreasing its degree of luck as the game matured.[55] The "Mulligan rule", as well as card design, past vs. present, are good examples of this trend. He feels that this is a universal trend for maturing games. Garfield explained using chess as an example, that unlike modern chess, in predecessors, players would use dice to determine which chess piece to move.[55]
The original set of rules prescribed that all games were to be played forante. Garfield was partly inspired by the game ofmarbles and added this rule because he wanted the players to play with the cards rather than simply collect them.[56] The ante rule stated that each player must remove a card at random from the deck they wished to play with before the game began, and the two cards would be set aside together as the ante. At the end of the match, the winner would take and keep both cards. Early sets included a few cards with rules designed to interact with thisgambling aspect, allowing replacements of cards up for ante, adding more cards to the ante, or even permanently trading ownership of cards in play. The ante concept became controversial because many regions had restrictions ongames of chance. The ante rule was soon made optional because of these restrictions and because of players' reluctance to possibly lose a card that they owned. The gambling rule was also forbidden at sanctioned events. The last card to mention ante was printed in the 1995 expansion setHomelands.[57][58][59]
TheWizards Play Network (WPN), formerly the Duelists' Convocation International (DCI), is the organizing body for sanctionedMagic events; it is owned and operated by Wizards of the Coast. The WPN establishes the set allowances and card restrictions for theConstructed andLimited formats for regulation play for tournaments as well as for other events.[60]
"Thousands of games shops" participate inFriday Night Magic (FNM),[61] an event sponsored by the WPN; it is advertised as "the event where new players can approach the game, and start building their community".[62] FNM offers both sanctioned tournament formats and allcasual formats.[60][63] In 2018,The New Yorker reported that "even as it has grown in popularity and size, Magic flies low to the ground. It thrives on the people who gather at lunch tables, in apartments, or in one of the six thousand stores worldwide that Wizards has licensed to put on weekly tournaments dubbed Friday Night Magic".[64] FNM tournaments can act as a stepping-stone to more competitive play.[65]
Magictournaments regularly occur in gaming stores and other venues. Larger tournaments with hundreds of competitors from around the globe sponsored by Wizards of the Coast are arranged many times every year, with substantial cash prizes for the top finishers.[66] A number of websites report on tournament news, give complete lists for the most currently popular decks, and feature articles on current issues of debate about the game.[citation needed] Additionally, the WPN maintains a set of rules for being able to sanction tournaments, as well as runs its own circuit.[65]
The WPN ran thePro Tour as a series of major tournaments to attract interest.[68] The right to compete in a Pro Tour had to be earned by either winning a Pro Tour Qualifier Tournament or being successful in a previous tournament on a similar level. The Pro Tour would take place over the course of three days. The first two days were usually structured in aSwiss format. On the final day, the top eight players would compete with each other in a single-elimination format to select the winner.[69] At the end of the competition in a Pro Tour, players were awardedPro Points depending on their finishing place. If the player finished high enough, they would also be awarded prize money.[69] Frequent winners of these events made names for themselves in theMagic community, such asLuis Scott-Vargas,Gabriel Nassif,Kai Budde andJon Finkel. As a promotional tool, the DCI launched theHall of Fame in 2005 to honor selected players.[70]
At the end of the year theMagic World Championship would be held. The World Championship functioned like a Pro Tour, except that competitors had to present their skill in three different formats (usually Standard, booster draft, and a second constructed format) rather than one. Another difference was that invitations to the World Championship could not be gained through Pro Tour Qualifiers. They could only be earned via the national championship of a country. Most countries sent their top four players of the tournament as representatives, though nations with minorMagic playing communities would sometimes only send one player. The World Championship also has a team-based competition, where the national teams compete with each other.[71]
At the beginning of the World Championship, new members were inducted into the Hall of Fame. The tournament also concluded the current season of tournament play and at the end of the event, the player who earned the most Pro Points during the year was awarded the title "Pro Player of the Year". The player who earned the most Pro Points and did not compete in any previous season was awarded the title "Rookie of the Year".[71]
Invitation to a Pro Tour, Pro Points, and prize money could also be earned in lesser tournaments calledGrand Prix that were open to the general public and held more frequently throughout the year.[72] Grand Prix events were usually the largestMagic tournaments, sometimes drawing more than 2,000 players. The largestMagic tournament ever held was Grand Prix: Las Vegas in June 2013 with a total of 4,500 players.[73]
In 2018, Wizards of the Coast announced that 2019 would be the last season for The Pro Tour and the Pro Club.[74] With these changes, the system eliminated Nationals, the World Magic Cup, and the Team Series.[74]
Starting with a partial season in 2019, the new organized play structure for Magic: The Gathering split into digital and tabletop play with separate Mythic Championships forMagic: The Gathering Arena and tabletop play.[75] The Magic Pro League (MPL) included the top 32 players from the previous season, although two players turned down their spots.[76] The players were notably given a $75,000/year salary and the opportunity to win much more money in exclusive tournaments.[76] The new system consisted of several interconnected circuits: The Player's Tour, The Magic Pro League, Challengers/Rivals, Tabletop Mythic Championships, and Arena Mythic Championships.[75] The new organized play system did maintain the yearly World Championship, but it was made a more exclusive 16 player tournament. In order to compete in the World Championship in this structure you must have placed top four in MPL, placed top four in the Challengers/Rivals League, won one of the seven tabletop or arena Mythic Championships, or won of the previous year's World Championship.[75]
While the Mythic Championships and Magic Pro League catered to the highest level of competitive play, the Player's Tour system was meant to give a path for average players to go from their local game store to the World Championship.[75] There were three regional Player's Tours for Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas.[75] There were several ways to qualify for a regional Player's Tour, including local store events, accumulating points at Gran Prix/MagicFests, and winning onMagic: The Gathering Online.[75]
In 2021, it was announced that the competitive play system would undergo another shift. Wizards of the Coast stressed a return to in-person play and the disbandment of The Magic Pro League after the 2021–2022 season.[77] According to several players from the MPL, the messaging they received was that competitive Magic would no longer be supported as a full-time, high-paid esports profession.[78]
After announcing that The Magic Pro League would no longer be supported, Wizards of the Coast announced a return to the branding of The Pro Tour.[79] With a simplified structure, the new Pro Tour system kept some of the original aspects from the system introduced in 2005, like a point system and the World Championship tournament each year.[79] The new system starts players at Regional Championship qualifiers. Winners of local qualifiers advance to Regional Championships which would be comparable to a Grand Prix in the previous systems.[79] If a player performs well enough at their Regional Championship, they can qualify for a Pro Tour tournament. Players who earned 10 wins in the previous pro tour or have enough Adjusted Match Win (AMW) points from the previous season also earn a Pro Tour Qualification.[79] The World Championship under the new system will have around 128 players who will compete for a $1,000,000 prize pool.[79]
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Richard Garfield had an early attachment to games during his youth: before settling down inOregon, his father, an architect, had taken his family toBangladesh andNepal during his work projects. Garfield did not speak the native languages, but was able to make friends with the local youth through playing cards or marbles. Once back in the United States, he had heard ofDungeons & Dragons but neither his local game store nor his friends had a copy, so he developed his own version of what he thought the game would be based on the descriptions he had read, which considered closer toClue, with players moving from room to room fighting monsters with a fixed end-goal. When Garfield eventually got copies of theDungeons & Dragons rulesets, he was surprised that it was a more open-ended game but was "dreadfully written".[64]Dungeons & Dragons's open-endedness inspired him, like many others, to develop their own game ideas from it.[64] For Garfield, this was a game he calledFive Magics, based on five elemental magics that were drawn from geographically diverse areas. While this remained the core concept ofFive Magics, Garfield continued to refine the game while growing up, often drastically changing the base type of game, though never planned to publish this game.[64]
In 1991, Garfield was a doctoral candidate incombinatorial mathematics atUniversity of Pennsylvania and had been brought on as anadjunct professor atWhitman College. During his candidacy, he developed his ideas and hadplaytestedRoboRally, aboard game based on moving robots through a factory filled with hazards. Garfield had been seeking publishers for the title, and his colleague, Mike Davis, suggested the newly formedWizards of the Coast, a small outfit established byPeter Adkison, asystems analyst forBoeing in Seattle.[80][64] In mid-1991, the three arranged to meet in Oregon near Garfield's parents' home. Adkison was impressed byRoboRally but considered that it had too many logistics and would be too risky for him to publish. He told Garfield and Davis that he liked Garfield's ideas and that he was looking for a portable game that could be played in the downtime that frequently occurs atgaming conventions.[80]
After the meeting, Garfield remained in Oregon to contemplate Adkison's advice. While hiking nearMultnomah Falls, he was inspired to take hisFive Magics concept but apply it to collectible color-themed cards, so that each player could make a customizable deck, something each player could consider part of their identity.[64] Garfield arranged to meet with Adkison back in Seattle within the week,[81] and when Adkison heard the idea, he recognized the potential that this would be a game that could be expanded on indefinitely with new cards in contrast to most typical tabletop games; Adkison later wrote on the idea on aUSENET post "If executed properly, [the cards] would make us millions."[64] Adkison immediately agreed to produce it.[82]
Garfield returned to Pennsylvania and set out to design the game's core rules and initial cards, with about 150 completed in the few months after his return. The type of gameplay centered on each color remained consistent with howFive Magics had been and with howMagic: The Gathering would stay in the future, such as red representing aggressive attacks.[80] Other games also influenced the design at this point, with Garfield citing games likeCosmic Encounter andStrat-o-matic Baseball as games that differ each time they are played because of different sets of cards being in play.[83]
Initial "cards" were based on using available copyrighted art, and copied to paper to be tested by groups of volunteers at the university.[80] About six months after the meeting with Adkison, Garfield had refined the first complete version of his game.[80] Garfield also began to set the narrative of the game in "Dominia", amultiverse of infinite "planes" from which players, as wizards, can draw power, which would allow for the vast array of creatures and magics that he was planning for the cards.[83]
Garfield has stated that two major influences in his creation ofMagic: the Gathering were the gamesCosmic Encounter,[84] which first used the concept that normal rules could sometimes be overridden, andDungeons & Dragons. One of the "Magic Golden Rules" states that "Whenever a card's text directly contradicts these rules, the card takes precedence."[85] TheComprehensive Rules, a detailed rulebook, exists to clarify conflicts.[86]
Simultaneously, Adkison sought investment into Wizards of the Coast to prepare to publish the game. The company had already committed to completingThe Primal Order rulebook, aimed to be compatible with most other role-playing systems on the market, which most investment was drawn to. He had to bring in a number of localCornish artists to create the fantasy art for Garfield's cards, offering them shares in Wizards of the Coast in payment.[80] AfterThe Primal Order was published in 1992, Wizards of the Coast was sued byPalladium for copyright infringement, a case that was settled out of court and with the result that a second printing ofThe Primal Order removed the rules relevant to Palladium's system, but this case also financially harmed Wizards of the Coast.[80] Adkison decided to create a separate company, Garfield Games, for publishing the card game.[80]
While the game was simply calledMagic through most of playtesting, when the game had to be officially named a lawyer informed them that the nameMagic was too generic to be trademarked.Mana Clash was instead chosen to be the name used in the first solicitation of the game. However, everybody involved with the game continued to refer to it simply asMagic. After further legal consultation, it was decided to rename the gameMagic: The Gathering, thus enabling the name to be trademarked.[87]
By 1993, Garfield and Adkison had gotten everything ready to debutMagic: The Gathering at that year'sGen Con in Milwaukee that August, but did not have the funds for production to have cards shipped to game stores in time. Adkison took a single box of cards with a handful of complete decks to the Wizards booth atOrigins Game Fair hoping to secure the funds by demonstrating the game. Among those he demonstrated to were representatives of Wargames West, manufacturers of historical tactics games; the representatives eventually brought their CEO over, and after seeing the game, took Adkison to dinner and negotiated funding terms. Adkison returned withUS$40,000, enough to make the necessary orders.[80]
Magic: The Gathering underwent a general release on August 5, 1993.[88] After shipping the orders, Adkison and his wife drove towards Milwaukee while making stops at game stores to demonstrate the game and drum up support for Gen Con. Their initial stops were quiet, but word of mouth from previous stops spread, and as they traveled south and west, they found larger and larger crowds anxiously awaiting their arrival.[80] Garfield met up with Adkison at Gen Con, where their shipment of 2.5 million cards had been delayed a day. Despite this, by the end of the convention, they had completely sold out.[80]
Magic was an immediate success for Wizards of the Coast.[89] By October 1993, they had sold out their supply of 10 million cards.[90] Wizards was even reluctant to advertise the game because they were unable to keep pace with existing demand.[91] InitiallyMagic attracted manyDungeons & Dragons players,[91] but the following included all types of other people as well.[92]
The success of the initial edition prompted a reissue later in 1993, along with expansions to the game.Arabian Nights was released as the firstexpansion in December 1993. New expansions and revisions of the base game ("Core Sets") have since been released on a regular basis, amounting to four releases a year. By the end of 1994, the game had printed over a billion cards.[93] Until the release ofMirage in 1996, expansions were released on an irregular basis. Beginning in 2009 one revision of the core set and a set of three related expansions called a "block" were released every year.
This system was revised in 2015, with the Core Set being eliminated and blocks now consisting of two sets, released semiannually. A further revision occurred in 2018, reversing the elimination of the core sets and no longer constraining sets to blocks. While the essence of the game has always stayed the same, the rules ofMagic have undergone three major revisions with the release of theRevised Edition in 1994,Classic Edition in 1999, andMagic 2010 in July 2009.[94] With the release of theEighth Edition in 2003,Magic received a major visual redesign.
In 1996, Wizards of the Coast established the "Pro Tour",[70] a circuit of tournaments where players can compete for sizeable cash prizes over the course of a single weekend-long tournament. In 2009 the top prize at a single tournament wasUS$40,000.[66] Sanctioned through the DCI, the tournaments added an element of prestige to the game by virtue of the cash payouts and media coverage from within the community. For a brief period of time,ESPN2 televised the tournaments.[95]
By April 1997, 2 billion cards had been sold.[96] In 1999, Wizards of The Coast was acquired byHasbro for $325 million, makingMagic a Hasbro game.
Apatent was granted to Wizards of the Coast in 1997 for "a novel method of game play and game components that in one embodiment are in the form of trading cards" that includes claims covering games whose rules include many ofMagic's elements in combination, including concepts such as changing orientation of a game component to indicate use (referred to in the rules ofMagic and later of Garfield's games such asVampire: The Eternal Struggle as "tapping") and constructing a deck by selecting cards from a larger pool.[97] The patent has aroused criticism from some observers, who believe some of its claims to be invalid.[98] In 2003, the patent was an element of a larger legal dispute between Wizards of the Coast andNintendo, regarding trade secrets related to Nintendo'sPokémon Trading Card Game. The legal action was settled out of court, and its terms were not disclosed.[99]
While unofficial methods of online play existed previously,[note 1]Magic Online (often shortened to "MTGO" or "Modo", the latter name being used due to the game's original title of Magic Online with Digital Objects), an official online version of the game, was released in 2002. A new, updated version ofMagic Online was released in April 2008.[100]
In February 2018, Wizards noted that between the years of 2008 and 2016 they had printed over 20 billionMagic: the Gathering cards.[101] In 2022,CBR reported that "over 20,000 uniqueMTG cards have been created" since the game's release.[102]
Wizards of the Coast has continued to release expansions and sets through 2023, though the number of such expansions released per year began to increase, leading to concerns from investors and analysis that the accelerated release may create market fatigue.[5]
Magic: The Gathering cards are produced in much the same way as normalplaying cards. EachMagic card, approximately 63 × 88 mm in size (2.5 by 3.5 inches), has a face which displays the card's name and rules text as well as an illustration appropriate to the card's concept. 23,318 unique cards have been produced for the game as of September 2016[update],[103]many of them with variant editions, artwork, or layouts, and 600–1000 new ones are added each year. The firstMagic cards were printed exclusively in English, but current sets are also printed inSimplified Chinese,Traditional Chinese,French,German,Italian,Japanese,Korean,Portuguese,Russian, andSpanish.[104]
The overwhelming majority ofMagic cards are issued and marketed in the form of sets. For the majority of its history there were two types: the Core Set and the themed expansion sets. Under Wizards of the Coast's current production and marketing scheme, a new set is released quarterly.[needs update] The majority of cards are sold inbooster packs, which contain fifteen cards normally divided into four rarities, which can be differentiated by the color of the expansion symbol.[note 2] A fifteen-card booster pack will typically contain one rare (gold), three uncommons (silver), ten commons (black), and one basic land (colored black, as commons). Sets prior toShards of Alara contained eleven commons instead of a basic land.Shards of Alara also debuted mythic rares (red-orange), which replace one in eight rare cards on average. There are also premium versions of every card with holographic foil, randomly inserted into some boosters in place of a common, which replace about one in seventy cards.
As of 2018, the number of consecutive sets set on the same world varies.[107] For example, althoughDominaria takes place in one set, theGuilds of Ravnica block takes place over three sets. In addition, small sets have been removed due to developmental problems and all sets are now large. Prior to this change, sets were put into two-set blocks, starting with a large set and ending with a smaller one three months later.[108] Prior to 2016, expansion sets were released in a three-set block (again, beginning with a larger set followed by two smaller sets). These sets consist almost exclusively of newly designed cards. In contrast with the wide-ranging Core Set, each expansion focuses on a subset of mechanics and ties into a set storyline. Expansions also dedicate several cards to a handful of particular, often newly introduced, game mechanics.[107]
The Core Sets began to be released annually (previously biennially) in July 2009 coinciding with the name change from10th Edition toMagic 2010. This shift also introduced new, never before printed cards into the core set, something that previously had never been done.[109] However, core sets were discontinued following the release ofMagic Origins, on July 17, 2015, at the same time that two-set blocks were introduced.[108] Wizards of Coast announced on June 12, 2017, that they planned on revamping and reintroducing a revamped core set,[110] and Core Set 2019 was released on July 13, 2018.
In addition to the quarterly set releases,Magic cards are released in other products as well, such as thePlanechase andArchenemy spin-off games. These combine reprintedMagic cards with new, oversized cards with new functionality.Magic cards are also printed specifically for collectors, such as theFrom the Vault andPremium Deck Series sets, which contain exclusively premium foil cards.
In 2003, starting with theEighth Edition Core Set, the game went through its biggest visual change since its creation—a new card frame layout was developed to allow more rules text and larger art on the cards, while reducing the thick, colored border to a minimum.[111] The new frame design aimed to improve contrast and readability using black type instead of the previous white, a new font, and partitioned areas for the name, card type, and power and toughness. The card frame was changed once again inCore Set 2015, which maintained the same templating, but made the card sleeker and added a holo-foil stamp to every rare and mythic card to curtail counterfeiting.
For the first few years of its production,Magic: The Gathering featured a small number of cards with names or artwork withdemonic oroccultist themes, in 1995 the company elected to remove such references from the game. In 2002, believing that the depiction of demons was becoming less controversial and that the game had established itself sufficiently, Wizards of the Coast reversed this policy and resumed printing cards with "demon" in their names.[112]
In 2019, starting withThrone of Eldraine, booster packs have a chance of containing an alternate art "showcase card". This is to increase the reward of buying boosters and make opening packs more exciting.[113]
A new format, "Jumpstart", was introduced in July 2020 alongside the Core 2021 set. These are special themed 20-card booster packs, based on nearly 500 cards, several being reprints of cards from previous sets, with 121 possible packs available. Each is a curated set rather than random selection of cards, built around a theme, such as "Pirates" or "Unicorns". Each theme has a small number of possible card sets on that theme, distributed on a rarity basis, such that the specific booster that a player purchases will still be a random selection. Because many are reprints, not all Jumpstart cards are available to be used in the various Constructed formats but can be used in other modes of play.[114] Jumpstart was designed to make it much easier to get intoMagic by eliminating the deck-building but still providing some customization and randomness that comes with card acquisition and deck building. A special Jumpstart format was introduced for these boosters, where players select two desired themes, and are given a random booster from those themes and sufficient land cards to make a 60-card deck.[115]
With the release of theMurders At Karlov Manor set in February 2024, Wizards have introduced a new booster set called "Play boosters", which replace Draft and Set booster packs in the future. Play boosters contain 14 cards with a set distribution of common, uncommon, and rare/mythic cards, along with land and wildcards; however, within each of these, there is a chance for special "booster fun" variant. There is also a chance at a card from "The List", a limited number of cards fromMTG's history. These boosters are intended to be usable for draft gameplay modes as well as for normal library expansion, as in years since the Set booster introduction, Wizards had found that stores favors those sales over Draft boosters.[116]
In 2025, Wizards announced that 2026 would have 7 standard-legal sets releasing, the highest ever. They also clarified that 2027 would return to the norm of 6.[117]
Garfield had established thatMagic: The Gathering took place in a Multiverse with countless possible worlds (planes), the game's primary events taking place on the planes of Dominaria, Ravnica, Zendikar, and Innistrad. Only extremely rare beings called Planeswalkers are capable of traversing the Multiverse. This allows the game to frequently change worlds so as to renew its mechanical inspiration, while maintaining planeswalkers as recurrent, common elements across worlds. Players represent planeswalkers able to draw on the magics and entities of these planes to do battle with others. Story elements were told through the cards'flavor text, and a driving narrative.[118] The first expansionArabian Nights designed by Garfield was based onOne Thousand and One Nights folklore and include figures from that likeAladdin.[119]
Early expansions were designed separately, each with their own internal narrative to establish concepts, keywords, and flavoring.[118][119] WithWeatherlight, the team wanted to start a longer arc that would cover multiple expansions over five years that would also extend into comics, magazines, and other media.[120][121] However, with a change in oversight of theMagic: The Gathering team, player fatigue, and a disconnect between the novels and cards, this plan was scrapped. returning to the general approach of designing a narrative specific to one expansion.[118]
Wizards, which had regained the license fromHarper Prism and Armada (an imprint ofAcclaim Entertainment) to write novels forMagic: The Gathering, still worked to integrate the novel writing staff with the game designers so that there was some cohesion between the game and books, but did not seek to make this a key priority as theWeatherlight goal had been.[118][122] Novels soon gave way to eBooks and later to shorter stories posted on the Wizards' website which fared better in terms of popularity.[123]
In 2017, Wizards hired novelist and scriptwriterNic Kelman as their Head of Story and Entertainment. Kelman became responsible for crafting theMagic: The Gatheringstory bible from all established lore as reference for further expansions and for the external media.[124] This task helped Kelmen to prepare the novelWar of the Spark: Ravnica that was published just prior to the new setWar of the Spark, with cards retaining continuity with the novel and past events.[125]
Each card has an illustration to represent the flavor of the card, often reflecting the setting of the expansion for which it was designed. Much ofMagic's early artwork was commissioned with little specific direction or concern for visual cohesion.[126] One infamous example was the printing of the creature Whippoorwill without the "flying" ability even though its art showed a bird in flight.[127] The art direction team later decided to impose a few constraints so that the artistic vision more closely aligned with the design and development of the cards. Each block of cards now has its ownstyle guide with sketches and descriptions of the various races and places featured in the setting.[128]
A few early sets experimented with alternate art for cards. However, Wizards came to believe that this impeded easy recognition of a card and that having multiple versions caused confusion when identifying a card at a glance.[129] Consequently, alternate art is now only used sparingly and mostly for promotional cards.[note 4] When older cards are reprinted in new sets, however, Wizards of the Coast usually prints them with new art to make the older cards more collectible,[130] though they sometimes reuse well-received artwork if it makes sense thematically.
At the back of each card, at the end of the word "Deckmaster", a pen stroke is visible. According to Wizards of the Coast, this is a printing error which was never corrected, as all card backs have to look the same.[131]
AsMagic has expanded across the globe, its artwork has had to change for its international audience. Artwork has been edited or given alternate art to comply with the governmental standards. For example, the portrayal of skeletons and most undead in artwork was prohibited by theChinese government until 2008.[132][133]
Wizards of the Coast has introduced special cards and sets that include cross-promotional elements with other brands typically as promotional cards, not legal for Standard play and may not be playable even in eternal formats. Four promotional cards were sold at HasCon 2017, featuring three other Hasbro brands,Transformers,Nerf, andDungeons & Dragons.[134] A special three-card set based on characters fromMy Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (another Hasbro brand) was sold as both physical product and digital items withinMTG Arena to support theExtra Life charity.[135] The "Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths" set released in April 2020 included 16kaiju monsters fromToho as promotional cards, such asGodzilla.[136][137]
The Secret Lair promotional series has also been used to introduce crossover cards from other brands (as well as special artists through Special Guest cards); these cards are generally legal for play and use existing cards with new art, names, and flavor to fit the theme. As part of the Secret Lair set in 2020, a number of cards were made that featured crossovers withAMC's television showThe Walking Dead, which the development team felt was a natural fit since zombies were already part of theMagic game.[138] A limited set of land cards in the Secret Lair featured paintings fromBob Ross, licensed through his estate.[139]
In June 2021, Wizards of the Coast announced a Secret Lair based onDungeons and Dragons cartoon.[140] Secret Lair drops in 2021 featured cards based onStranger Things,[141] whileFortnite andStreet Fighter were featured in 2022.[142][143] In 2022, cards illustrated bymangakaJunji Ito were released as Special Guest cards.[144]
The 2024 Secret Lair release featured cards based onMonty Python and the Holy Grail, including a Tim the Enchanter card based on the standard Prodigal Sorceror card which has been nicknamed Tim in honor of the film character by the Magic community.[145] There are also Secret Lair cards based on musicians, mainlyPost Malone (an avid fan of the card game),[146] and multiple drops featuringHatsune Miku and variousVocaloid characters.[147][148]
AMarvel Secret Lair release was released in November 2024.[149][150] In 2025, Secret Lair featuredSpongeBob SquarePants andSonic the Hedgehog.[151][152]
The Universes Beyond series has been used to bring more crossover properties intoMagic such asWarhammer 40,000 andThe Lord of the Rings.[153] Whereas Secret Lair sets may only consist of a few cards that may be unplayable under normal rules, Universes Beyond sets include dozens of cards, including Commander decks and booster packs, and their cards are play-legal and often usable in most Magic gameplay formats.[154] Universes Beyond sets forDoctor Who, andJurassic Park were released in 2024.[155] In 2025, in addition to sets based onFinal Fantasy andSpider-Man, all future Universes Beyond sets will be made legal to play in all formats.[156] Sets based on video gamesFallout andAssassin's Creed, were released as well.[157] Wizards has also partnered withMarvel Comics to bring several "tent-pole" sets featuring Marvel characters to the game, starting with aSpider-Man themed set, which was released in 2025, and continuing with a Marvel Super Heroes set, scheduled for June 2026.[158][117]
Wizards has continued to develop a strong connection between theMagic and theDungeons & Dragons(D&D)universes, also owned by Wizards of the Coast. Greg Tito, Wizards of the Coast Senior Communications Manager, said that "there is a huge crossover betweenMagic players andD&D players".[159] In July 2021, aD&D themed set expansion,Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, was released; it is based on theForgotten Realms campaign setting.[160][161] Separately, elements ofMagic have been brought into the role-playing game. The first such official crossover was aD&Dcampaign setting book for the plane ofRavnica, aMagic expansion introduced in 2005 and 2006 and later revisited in the 2018 expansionGuilds of Ravnica.[162][163]
Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica was also published in 2018 to correspond with the newerMagic expansion's release.[163] A second campaign setting book,Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020), introduced the plane ofTheros toD&D and corresponded with the 2020Theros Beyond Death expansion.[164]Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos (2021) introduces the2021Magic expansion as aD&D campaign setting;[165] it was released in December 2021.[166]
Greg Gorden reviewedMagic: The Gathering inWhite Wolf #38 (1993), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "Small game companies struggle along until they get their breakout product. West End Games hadStar Wars. White Wolf hadVampire. I feelMagic is Wizards of the Coast's breakout game... if their cards fall right."[167]
Scott Haring reviewedMagic: The Gathering inPyramid #4 (Nov./Dec., 1993), and stated that "Not only isMagic the best gaming bargain to come down the pike in memory; not only is it the most original idea in years; it's also a delightfully addictive game that you and your friends will find impossible to put down."[168] Marcelo A. Figueroa reviewed the game in a 1993 issue ofSpace Gamer/Fantasy Gamer, noting both positives and negatives, stating that, "despite all of its flaws, it's as endearing asStar Fleet Battles".[169] Overall, Figueroa rated the game a 7 out of 10.[169]
Paul Pettengale reviewedMagic: The Gathering 5th Edition forArcane magazine, rating it an 8 out of 10 overall, and stated that "Magic: The Gathering is an excellent and absorbing game, which has a huge following (you're never going to be short of people to play with). However, some of the rules structures are clumsy and make it overly complicated. The5th Edition is not as much fun to play as earlier core sets, though most people will be creating decks with cards from other expansions too, which makes it more exciting.Magic is still one of the very best CCGs, but5th Edition adds little to it, and takes too much away."[170]
A 2004 article inUSA Today suggested that playingMagic might help improve the social and mental skills of some of the players. The article interviewed players' parents who believe that the game, similar to sports, teaches children how to more gracefully win and lose.Magic also contains a great amount of strategy and vocabulary that children may not be exposed to on a regular basis. Parents also claimed that playingMagic helped keep their children out of trouble, such as usingillegal drugs or joiningcriminal gangs. On the other hand, the article also briefly mentions thatMagic can be highly addictive, leading to parents worried about their children'sMagic obsession.[171] In addition, until 2007, some of the better players had opportunities to compete for a small number of scholarships.[172]
Jordan Weisman, an American game designer and entrepreneur, commented
I love games that challenge and change our definition of adventure gaming, andMagic: The Gathering is definitely one of a very short list of titles that has accomplished that elusive goal. By combining the collecting and trading elements of baseball cards with the fantasy play dynamics of role-playing games,Magic created a whole new genre of product that changed our industry forever.[173]
In 2015,The Guardian reported that an estimated 20 million people playedMagic around the world and that the game had a thriving tournament scene, a professional league and a weekly organized game program calledFriday Night Magic.[61]
A July 2019 article inBloomberg reported that "Magic is part of the [Hasbro's] 'franchise brands,' a segment that accounted for $2.45 billion in net revenue for the company last year, bigger than its emerging, partner and gaming brand units combined. [Chris] Cocks saidMagic accounts for a 'meaningful portion' of that, with KeyBanc estimating the game's contribution is already more than $500 million—including both the physical cards and the nascent digital version. Of the franchise brands, onlyMagic and Monopoly logged revenue gains last year".[174]Magic: The Gathering Arena, in open beta testing since September 2018, is afree-to-playdigital collectible card game withmicrotransaction purchases based onMagic.[175][176]
Brett Andress, an analyst atKeyBanc Capital Markets, predictsMagic: The Gathering Arena adding as much as 98 cents a share in incremental earnings to results by 2021 (which is at least a 20% boost).[174] Joe Deaux, forBloomberg, wrote that "nearly 3 million active users will be playing Arena by the end of this year, KeyBanc estimates, and that could swell to nearly 11 million by 2021 according to its bull case scenario—especially if it expands from PCs to mobile. That's just active users, and registered users could be higher by the millions. Already, according to Hasbro, a billion games have been played online".[174]
In 2022,The Gamer andKotaku reported on the increased product release schedule forMagic: The Gathering[177][178] withThe Gamer opining that the increased number of preview seasons for the game was leading to exhaustion within the community and had "drained the well of enthusiasm dry".[179] Wizards released a commemorative product,Magic: The Gathering 30th Anniversary Edition, for $999; this product rereleased cards which were not sanctioned for tournament play.[180][181]CNET stated that "it's not a practical purchase, it's a piece of art".[181] BothWBUR andVice reported that many fans were unhappy with the price point of the product.[182][183]Vice commented that there is "a growing divide in theMagic: The Gathering community between the casual players and the collectors" as "some rich collectors have turned the cards into a kind of commodities market [...]. Wizards of the Coast has increasingly catered to this kind of consumer" leading to products that are too expensive for many casual players.[183]CNBC reported that "Bank of America downgraded the stock of Wizard of the Coast's owner, Hasbro"[182] in November 2022 with analyst Jason Haas stating that changes to theMagic: The Gathering "brand amount to Hasbro 'killing its golden goose'" and highlighting that the "primary concern" is the overproduction of "Magic cards which has propped up Hasbro's recent results but is destroying the long-term value of the brand".[184][177]
Despite commercial success, Universes Beyond and Secret Lairs has had mixed reception among fans.[185][186][187] The integration ofIP into all formats and the higher cost of crossover cards were characterized as "ongoing complaints" byMagic's head designerMark Rosewater, although according to Rosewater "that sentiment continually shrinks over time."[188][186]
In Polygon's look atMagic's 2026 set schedule, Plante argues theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtle set "widens the definition of what might 'fit' inMagic" and compared the universes to DC'sCrisis on Infinite Earths.[187] The creative changes have been compared to Fortnite's gradual inclusion of pop culture.[189] Curtis Silver inForbes argued there were many potential creative opportunities in adding TMNT to Magic, such as ooze effects and food tokens.[190] The Gamer writer Eric Switzer framed theDwight Schrute Secret Lair drop as "IP slop" and "cringe," questioning the connection between the character and his cards.[191]
In addition, several individuals includingRichard Garfield andDonato Giancola won personal awards for their contributions toMagic.[192]
The success ofMagic: The Gathering led to the creation of similar games by other companies as well as Wizards of the Coast themselves. Companion Games produced theGalactic Empires CCG (the first science fiction trading card game), which allowed players to pay for and design their own promotional cards, whileTSR created theSpellfire game, which eventually included five editions in six languages, plus twelve expansion sets. Wizards of the Coast producedJyhad (now calledVampire: The Eternal Struggle), a game about modern-day vampires. Other similar games included trading card games based onStar Trek andStar Wars.[92]Magic is often cited as an example of a 1990s collecting fad, though the game's makers were able to overcome the bubble traditionally associated with collecting fads.[202] Its popularity often was associated with addictive behavior similar togambling through the allure of gaining new cards in booster packs and expansions, and due to this,Magic: The Gathering has been sometimes called "cardboard crack" by both fans and critics.[203][204]
There was a brief resurgence of asatanic panic overMagic: The Gathering in the mid-1990s, following asimilar panic overDungeons and Dragons, though it did not persist for long.[205][206]
There is an active secondary market in individual cards among players and game shops. This market arose from two different facets: players seeking specific cards to help complete or enhance their existing decks and thus were less concerned on the value of the cards themselves, and from collectors seeking the rarer cards for their monetary value to complete collections.[207] Many physical and online stores sellsingle cards or "playsets" of four of a card. Common cards rarely sell for more than a few cents and are usually sold in bulk. Uncommon cards and weak rare cards typically sell from 10¢ up to US$1.[208]
A few of the oldest cards, due to smaller printings and limited distribution, are highly valued and rare. This is partly due to the Reserved List, a list of cards from the setsAlpha toUrza's Destiny (1994–1999) that Wizards haspromised never to reprint.[209] Legacy-only cards on the Reserved List are in short supply due to smaller print runs of the game in its oldest days, and may be worth $200 to $1,000 or higher. And certain Vintage cards—the oldest cards in Magic, with most on the Reserved List, such as the so-called "Power Nine"—can easily cost more than $1,000 apiece.[210]
Themost expensive card that was in regular print, versus a promotional or special printing, is theBlack Lotus, which are currently worth thousands of dollars. In 2019, an anonymous buyer purchased an unsigned "Pristine 9.5 grade" Beckett Grading Services-graded Alpha Black Lotus for a record $166,100.[210] APSA "Gem Mint 10" graded AlphaBlack Lotus, framed in a case signed by its artist Christopher Rush, sold at auction for $511,100 in January 2021,[211] while a similarBlack Lotus of the same quality sold for $540,000 in March 2023.[212] In July 2023, the singleton "One Ring" card printed as part ofThe Lord of the Rings crossover set was found by a retail worker inToronto, who later sold it to rapperPost Malone for$2 million.[213][214] A mint-condition Alpha Black Lotus sold for $3 million in April 2024.[215]
The secondary market started with comic book stores, and hobby shops displaying and selling cards, with the cards' values determined somewhat arbitrarily by the employees of the store. Hobbyist magazines, already tracking prices of sportstrading cards, engaged with theMagic secondary market by surveying the stores to inquire on current prices to cards, which they then published.[207] With the expansion of the Internet, prices of cards were determined by the number of tournament deck lists a given card would appear in. If a card was played in a tournament more frequently, the cost of the card would be higher, in addition to the market availability of the card.[216][207]
When eBay, Amazon, and other large online markets started to gain popularity, theMagic secondary market evolved substantially, with the site TCGPlayer.com launched in 2008 being the first that not only compiled the pricing data but allowed for players to buy and sell cards forMagic and other CCGs directly via the site. TCGPlayer developed a metric called the TCG Market Price for each card that was based on the most recent sales, allowing for near real-time valuation of a card in the same manner as astock market.[207] Buying and sellingMagic cards online became a source of income for people who learned how to manipulate the market.[217]
Today,[when?] the secondary market is so large and complex, it has become an area of study for consumer research calledMagic: The Gathering finance,[218] and the most expensive Magic: The Gathering cards are among themost expensive CCG cards. Some people make a career out ofmarket manipulation, creating mathematical models to analyze the growth of cards' worth, and predict the market value of both individual cards, and entire sets of cards.[219][220]Magic's economy has also been tied to the introduction ofBitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, asMagic cards represent a physical asset that can be converted back and forth into the virtual currency.[207] Nearly all ofMagic's trading market is unregulated, and issues related toinsider trading based on planned changes to the game have occurred. ActiveMagic financial traders have gained a sour reputation with more casualMagic players due to the lack of regulations, and that the market manipulations makes it costly for casual players to buy single cards simply for purposes for improving decks.[207]
As of late 2013, Wizards of the Coast has expressed concern over the increasing number ofcounterfeit cards in the secondary market.[221] Wizards of the Coast has since made an effort to counteract the rise of counterfeits by introducing a new holo-foil stamp on all rare and mythic rare cards as ofMagic 2015.[222]
Proxy cards (or proxies) are cards typically created by players as stand ins for rare cards they either already own and don't want to ruin or cards they don't yet own. These are primarily for casual play, as they aren't allowed in competitive play.[223] Proxies are usually presented as either cards printed by a dedicated proxy printing company (or printed at home usingDIY methods) or as land cards with the name and ability written on the card.
These are not to be confused with counterfeits, as proxy cards usually have some indication that they are not official products, and some have art that is vastly different from the original, either created by a different artist than the original or byartificial intelligence software.[224] This has also led to a secondary market of proxy cards and preconstructed proxy decks on sites likeEtsy, where artists andMidjourney users sell custom printed cards for casual play. Some of these cards are based onanime and other media similar to Universes Beyond, while others are moreso artistic reinterpretations of existing cards.
There are several examples of academic, peer-reviewed research concerning different aspects ofMagic: The Gathering. One study examined how players use their imaginations when playing. This research studied hobby players and showed how players sought to create and participate in an epic fantasy narrative.[225] Another example used online auctions forMagic cards to test revenue outcomes for various auction types.[226] A third example uses probability to examineMagic card-collecting strategies.[227]
Using a specific set of cards in a specialized manner has shownMagic: The Gathering to beTuring complete.[228][further explanation needed] By proving this, the researchers assert thatMagic: The Gathering is so complex as to be Turing complete and capable of being "programmed" to perform any task, that in terms of playing an actual game ofMagic, "the winning strategy is non-computable", making it an improbable challenge to devise computer opponents that can playMagic in a mathematically optimal manner.[229]
Magic: The Gathering video games, comics, and books have been produced under licensing or directly byWizards of the Coast.
In 2015 Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro publishedMagic: The Gathering – Arena of the Planeswalkers. Arena of the Planeswalkers is a tactical board game where the players maneuver miniatures over a customizable board game, and the ruleset and terrain is based onHeroscape, but with an addition of spell cards and summoning. The original master set includes miniatures that represent the five Planeswalkers Gideon, Jace, Liliana, Chandra, and Nissa as well as select creatures from the Magic: The Gathering universe.[230] They later released an expansionBattle for Zendikar featuring multi-color Planeswalkers Kiora and Ob Nixilis and a colorless Eldrazi Ruiner, and a second master set Shadows Over Innistrad which has 4 new Planeswalkers and also includes the addition of cryptoliths.
There are currently two official video game adaptions ofMagic: The Gathering for online play.Magic: The Gathering Online, first introduced in 2002, allows for players to buy cards and boosters and play against others including in officially-sanctioned tournaments for prize money.Magic: The Gathering Arena, introduced in 2019, is fashioned after thefree-to-playHearthstone, with players able to acquire new cards for free or through spending real-world funds.Arena is currently limited to online events with in-game prizes, but is currently being positioned by Wizards of the Coast to also serve as a means for official tournament play, particularly after theCOVID-19 pandemic. BothOnline andArena are regularly updated with new Core and Expansion cards as well as all rule changes made by Wizards.[231]
In addition, Wizards of the Coast has worked with other developers for various iterations ofMagic: The Gathering as a card game in a single-player game format.Microprose developed 1997Magic: The Gathering and its expansions, which had the player travel the world of Shandalar to challenge computer opponents, earn cards to customize their decks, improve their own Planeswalker attributes and ultimately defeat a powerful Planeswalker.Stainless Games developed a series of titles starting with 2009'sMagic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers and culminating with 2015'sMagic Duels, afree-to-play title. TheDuels series did not feature full sets ofMagic cards but selected subsets, and were initially designed to couple a challenging single-player experience with an advanced artificial-intelligence computer opponent. Later games in the series added in more deck-building options and multiplayer support.[231][232]
Additional games have tried other variations of theMagic: The Gathering gameplay in other genres.Acclaim developed areal-time strategy gameMagic: The Gathering: BattleMage in 2003, in which the player's abilities were inspired by the various cards.[231][233] Acclaim also had made a 1997arcade gameMagic: The Gathering – Armageddon, aBreakout-styletrackball-based game, but only as many as six cabinets were known to have been made.[231] Hiberium and D3 Publisher developedMagic: The Gathering – Puzzle Quest, combining deck building with match-3-style casual gaming. This was released in December 2015 as afreemium game and continues to be updated with new card sets from the physical game.[234]Cryptic Studios andPerfect World Entertainment have started beta tests forMagic: Legends, amassively multiplayer onlineaction role-playing game for personal computers and consoles.[235] The title was cancelled ahead of its full release in 2021; executive producer Stephen Ricossa explained that the game's creative vision had "missed the mark".[236]
In addition to official programs, a number of unofficial programs were developed to help users track theirMagic: The Gathering collection and allow for rudimentary play between online players. Examples of such programs includedApprentice,Magic Workstation,Deck Daemon,CardMaster,[237]XMage, andCockatrice. These programs are not endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.[231]
Harper Prism originally had an exclusive license to produce novels forMagic: The Gathering, and published ten books between 1994 and 1996. Around 1997, the license reverted to Wizards, and the company published its own novels to better tie these works to the expansion sets from 1998 to about 2011. A tie-in young adult novel, published byPenguin Random House, was announced for February 2026.[117]
In 1994, Wizards of the Coast gave an exclusive license to Armada Comics, an imprint ofAcclaim Entertainment, to publish comic books. The comics were not developed in concert with the game and were created with divergent ideas to the game.[118][238] However, "much of the lore established" by Armada Comics was "the foundation from which the rest of continuity was built. [...] Some of the details changed (or were 'retconned', in popular fan speak), but for the most part the core of these stories stayed the same".[238] The comics came to a sudden end in 1996 when Acclaim started to run into financial trouble.[239] In 1998, a new four-issue limited comic series was published byDark Horse.[239][240]
In September 2011,Hasbro andIDW Publishing accorded to make a four-issue mini-series aboutMagic: The Gathering[241] with a new story but heavily based on MTG elements and with a new Planeswalker calledDack Fayden, the story of which mainly developed in the planes of Ravnica and Innistrad. The series started in February 2012.[242] In 2018, a four-issue mini-series on the Planeswalker Chandra Nalaar was released.[243] A sequel mini-series was announced in 2019,[244] however, it was cancelled before publication.[245]
In January 2021,Boom! Studios acquired the comic license ofMagic: The Gathering and announced for a newMagic series for April 2021.[246][247]
In January 2014,20th Century Fox acquired the rights to produce aMagic: The Gathering film withSimon Kinberg as producer andTSG Entertainment (its co-financing partner), andAllspark Pictures as co-financers, afterUniversal Pictures allegedly dropped the film from their schedule (both Universal and Hasbro had been developing the originalMagic: The Gathering film since 2009).[248] In June 2014, Fox hired screenwriterBryan Cogman to write the script for the film.[249] In 2019 followingDisney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox's assets, the film along with numerous other properties in development at Fox were cancelled.[250]
In April 2016,Enter the Battlefield, a documentary about life on the Magic Pro Tour was released. The film was written by Greg Collins, Nathan Holt, and Shawn Kornhauser.[251]
The production team behindThe Toys That Made Us will produce a documentaryIgniting the Spark, The Story of Magic: The Gathering.[252]
Hasbro andLegendary Entertainment announced a partnership in February 2025 for a live action film and television franchise based on MTG, starting with a feature film.[253] In April 2025,Matt Johnson was reported to be the top choice to direct, although a deal hasn't been confirmed yet.[254] Two months later, Noah Gardner and Aidan Fitzgerald were hired as the writers of the film.[255]
In June 2019, Variety reported thatJoe and Anthony Russo,Wizards of the Coast, andEntertainment One (then-owned by Hasbro) had teamed withNetflix for an animatedMagic: The Gathering television series.[256][257] In July 2019 atSan Diego Comic-Con, the Russos revealed the logo of the animated series and spoke about doing a live-action series.[258][259] During the Magic Showcase virtual event in August 2021, they revealed thatBrandon Routh would be the voice of Gideon Jura, and that the series was slated to premiere sometime in 2023.[260] The Russo brothers, along withHenry Gilroy andJose Molina, have since separated from the project, and production has been entrusted toJeff Kline.[261] In October 2023, the series was briefly mentioned in a Hasbro investors meeting.[262] In December 2023,Entertainment One was sold off toLionsgate.[263][264] In September 2024,Netflix announced the series has restarted development withTerry Matalas as showrunner andHasbro Entertainment as production studio.[265] The series was previewed atAnnecy International Animation Film Festival in June 2025.[266]
In 1998, PGI Limited createdHavic: The Bothering, which was a parody ofMagic: The Gathering. Wizards of the Coast, which owned the rights toMagic: The Gathering, took active steps to hinder the distribution of the game and successfully shut out PGI Limited from attending GenCon in July 1998.[267] In an attempt to avoid breachingcopyright andRichard Garfield's patent, eachstarter deck ofHavic had printed on the back side, "This is a Parody", and on the bottom of the rule card was printed, "Do not have each player: construct their own library of predetermined number of game components by examining and selecting [the] game components from [a] reservoir of game components or you may infringe on U.S. Patent No. 5,662,332 to Garfield."[268]
Five official parody expansions ofMagic exist:Unglued,Unhinged,Unstable,Unsanctioned,[269] andUnfinity.[270] Most of the cards in these sets feature silver borders and humorous themes. The silver-bordered cards are not legal for play in WPN-sanctioned tournaments. InUnfinity, the silver border was replaced by a holo-foil acorn stamp (in place of the standard rare holo-foil stamp) to denote the same unplayable restriction. Unlike the previous parody sets, however, someUnfinity cards were not printed with an acorn stamp, and are thus legal for 'eternal' formats such as Commander and Legacy.[271]
The original card game has 20 million players worldwide.
In the 'old days', art descriptions were vague suggestions of images... Neither continuity nor the idea of worldbuilding (creating distinctive and unique worlds and settings) would become issues until some time later.
While we don't like to completely rule anything out, there currently are not any plans to repeat the alternate art within a set model. The main reason is that most players recognize cards through the artwork.
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