Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering, often abbreviated to Magic, MTG and Magic Cards, is a collectible card game designed in 1993 by Richard Garfield, a mathematics teacher, and marketed by Wizards of the Coast.. Magic is the first example of a modern collectible card game, with over six million players in fifty-two different countries. Magic can be played by two or more players, each of them using an individual deck. There are also several digital versions that can be played online, on video consoles or PC.

Each game of Magic represents a battle between powerful wizards (in-game known as planeswalkers), each of whom is one of the players in the game. Players can use spells (spells, artifacts, lands, fantastic creatures, etc.), individually represented on each card, to defeat their opponents. In this way, the original concept of the game is strongly inspired by the wizard duels typical of traditional role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. The game structure replaces the tools used in pencil and paper 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 have developed around the game, as well as a secondary market for cards. Magic cards are valued not only for their scarcity, but also for their value in the game, their age, being "cult" or for the aesthetic value of the illustrations.

How to play

Parties to a letter of Magic.

In Magic: The Gathering each player must defeat their enemy using their powers: magical creatures, artifacts, and enchantments, drawing power or mana from their 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 three players, it may be possible for two to ally to defeat the other., which constitutes an incorrect practice.

Each player starts with twenty life points and a deck (“library”) of at least sixty cards (in some special tournaments it is allowed to use decks of forty), of which about (for strategic considerations) one third are lands mana producing, the energy required to play the other cards. Non-lands can be collectively grouped as spells. They require a certain amount of mana to play, usually a combination of single colored and colorless mana. They are divided into cards that generate a permanent effect (creatures, enchantments, artifacts, and even lands are permanents existing in play) and those that go to the graveyard (as a general rule) after being used (instants and sorceries).

A player loses when they run out of life points, when they try to draw a card and their library is empty, if they get ten poison counters, or if a card's condition says so. The last player remaining 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 they get a certain number of creatures into play., there are also abilities for which a player cannot lose a game due to certain circumstances, such as: they cannot lose if they run out of life points or they cannot accumulate poison counters.

Although the game was designed for 2 or more players, there are rules created by players that allow solo play, either by playing a simile of solitaire, or by playing a Campaign where the player has to go through four scenarios until they reach seize the power of Eregorn's Jewel.

Basic Concepts

• Library. It's the deck that players steal during the game. The cards are face down and no player can see their content or manipulate them, except for the cards that allow it.

• Cemetery. It is the place where the letters that have been destroyed, countered, discarded or have already fulfilled their effects, such as conjures and instantaneous, will stop.

• Hand. It is made up of a maximum of 7 cards and cannot be seen the opposite except the letters that permit it. If at the end of the shift, the hand is superior to 7 cards, they must be discarded.

• Pila. The spells and skills exist in the stack. They wait there to resolve until both players choose not to play new spells or skills. Then the last spell or skill placed on the stack is solved, and players have a new chance to play spells and skills. This area is shared by both players.

• Exile or remove from the game: If a card, due to a spell or skill is removed or exiled from the game, does not go to the cemetery and cannot return, except for others that allow it.

Colors

In Magic there are five different colors: white, blue, black, red, and green, each with a different meaning and personality. Each color represents a style of magic.

• White (his symbol is a sun): it is the color of light, justice, and order (but not necessarily good). This color plays especially with spells to increase life, strength and resistance to itself. This color specializes in putting additional rules to the game, the use of weak creatures but in large number and/or enhanced to overwhelm the adversary; it is also common to see in their creatures have some kind of protection against some color, creature, enchanting, etc., as well as inflicting damage on attacking or blocking creatures. Vital bonding skills, surveillance, first damage, and a considerable amount of flying creatures are characteristic. The types of creatures that stand out in this color are: clerics, knights, soldiers, angels and taps. corresponding land: Plain.

• Blue (his symbol is a drop): it is the color of knowledge, control, and deception. This color specializes in the theft of additional cards, return permanent to the hand of its owner, countering spells, and "mile" (which means throwing letters from the top of the library into the cemetery, this name is derived from an artifact letter called ''Millstone'' that basically has that purpose and the term is accepted and used in other similar cards games), take control of permanents, copying spells or instantaneous. In this color are the largest number of flying and unlockable creatures. The creatures that stand out in this color are: sorcerers, illusions, leviatans, birds, fairies, tritons, sfinges and elementals. corresponding land: Island.

• Black (his symbol is a skull): it is the color of darkness, greed, power, corruption and death (but not necessarily evil). This color has varied and enhanced capabilities to those of other colors, but they have a higher cost or have a harmful effect for those who use them. One example is that there are black cards that allow you to steal extra cards, but you lose life for every stolen card. The specialties of this color are usually that players lose life, return cards from the cemetery to the game (not necessarily from the corresponding cemetery), destroy creatures without the possibility of regeneration as well as the same regeneration. In short, obtaining an enormous self-destructive power, which must be used carefully. The almost exclusive abilities of this color are the ability to inspire fear, threat and mortal touch (although this also appears quite in green). The creatures that stand out are: zombies, vampires, clerics, murderers and Demons. corresponding land: Banana.

• Red (his symbol is a flame): it is the color of war, chaos, disorder, fury, passion, violence and fire. This color specializes in causing constant damage through spells or skills and raising power status. His strategy is often to quickly attack the rival to try to win him before he can defend himself. The destruction of land and artifacts is also an important factor. Another important point of this color is the fact that there are letters that allow you to copy spells of conjure or instantaneous, temporarily take control of creatures, discard the hand then steal the same amount and give a second phase of combat. Common abilities in this color are hurry, the ability to damage twice and damage first. The creatures that stand out in this color are: dragons, trasgos, shamans, beasts, warriors, barbarians, ogres and elementals. corresponding land: Mountain.

• Green (his symbol is a tree): it is the color of life, harmony and nature. This color specializes in the creation of large-sized or large-scale creatures; also the strengthening of creatures, the destruction of enchantments and artifacts and the use of mana or additional lands. In this color there are very few flying creatures, in turn specializes in removing them. The common abilities of this color are: the ability to reach, roll, touch mortal and veil. The creatures that stand out are: elves, beasts, seers, wolves and druids. corresponding land: Forest.

Exceptions:

• Colorless or empty: These types of cards have no color and are mostly land, artifacts or Eldrazi creatures. Contrary to the rest of the colors, the colorless cards do not have an associated personality or a game style. Sometimes the colorless cards imitate the mechanics of a particular color in a less efficient way. With the launch of the Eldrazi Uprising expansion, large amounts of colorless letters that are neither land nor artifacts were first introduced. In 2015 in the Battle for Zendikar, this type of cards were printed again with the vacuum skill.

• Multicolored: These are cards of more than one color (paid with different lands). They usually have features and abilities of all their colors. They have a golden edge. From the Ravnica block, the cards were introduced to the game hybrids. They have "myth and half" mana costs (each mana "myth and half" can be paid with one of the two colors indicated). Despite not containing the golden edge (they have both edge colors), they are considered multicolored.

Deckbuilding

A player needs a deck before they can play a game of Magic. Beginners usually start with a preconstructed deck. In many game formats, players can modify their decks with whatever cards they own, based on an opponent's technique, playing style, or even anticipating an opponent's deck.

In general, decks must contain a minimum of sixty cards. Players may not use more than four copies of any card, with the exception of the so-called "basic lands", which act as a standard source of resources in Magic. These two rules are less flexible in the "limited" formats, where the minimum deck size is forty cards. Depending on the type of game, some more powerful cards are 'restricted', that is, only a single copy is allowed per deck; or "prohibited", that is, its use is not allowed.

Deciding which colors to use is an important part of the deck-building process. Spells in Magic come in five different colors, each with their own 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 lands needed to play the most important spells. Therefore, in practice, one or two color decks are most common, three, four or even five color decks can be successful if well designed.

Bench

As mentioned above, a deck is made up of a minimum of 60 cards, but additionally a player can create a "sideboard" or sideboard of cards that can be exchanged for cards from the main deck. During tournaments, by official rule, in order to win a round, it is required to win two out of three games (or the best of five in high-level competitions. For example: from the quarterfinals in the Pro Tour), this is when the use of the bench enters. The bench is made up mainly of cards whose effects are very circumstantial/specific and that would be very useful on some occasions while on others they would just get in the way. After the first game, already knowing what kind of deck the players are facing, they are allowed to modify their decks with the bench they bring (even if they know in advance what deck they will face, they cannot make modifications in the first game), a An example of this is that if a player faces a black deck, and in his bench he has cards with protection against black, after the first game he will be able to integrate those cards to his deck and remove others that are not useful against that deck. The bench, with the new rules, can have up to fifteen cards and it is not necessary to include the same number of cards that are drawn from the deck in the changes.

Types of cards

There are different types of cards that have different effects throughout the game:

• Lands. They are permanent (but not spells) that are put into play to produce manna. It can only be launched on the player's turn and one for each.
• Creatures. They are permanent spells that can attack or block. They all have a strength and resistance. Creatures can directly attack the enemy player, and in turn, can be blocked by the creatures of the other player. Sufren de dizziness of invocation, which means that nothing else being put into play cannot attack or use your skills.
• Charming. They are permanent stable spells whose effects last until they are sacrificed or destroyed.
• Conjures. They are spells that can only be used in the player's turn, once their effects are produced they go to the "cementerio".
• Instant. Similar to conjures, these can be used at any time, included in the other player's turn. They also go to the "cedentary" once their effects have been effected.
• Artefacts. They are permanent objects that produce their effects while remaining in the game. Some of them, called teams, can be annexed or discouraged to creatures, producing skills and/or strengthening them.
• Planeswalker. They are permanent with very powerful abilities. They can be attacked but not attacked. They enter with a series of loyalty points, which can be increased by playing certain skills but decrease by using others or being attacked. When their loyalty points reach 0, they go to the “cedent”.

Organized Play

Wizards of the Coast organizes all kinds of gatherings, 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.

ICD

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.

Types of Formats

A tournament Magic playing in Rostock, Germany

There are several types of formats depending on the cards that are allowed in the game. Depending on the type of tournament, there may be some restricted cards (that is, only one copy of them can be used in a deck) and other prohibited ones. Of the rest (except basic lands), up to four copies can be used in the same deck. mallet. Tournaments are grouped into three types:

• Eternal. In this type of tournaments you can use all existing cards (except restrictions). Within this category we have:
  • Type 1 or Vintage. It is allowed to play with all 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, you can play four.
• Built: It is allowed to play only with cards of certain enlargements (usually the most recent), which rotate periodically, with a list of prohibited cards. Within this category we have:
  • Modern. It is the largest built format, which includes from the Mirrodin edition to the last expansion of the last block (currently, March 2020, Theros, beyond death)
  • Type 2 or Standard. It is allowed to play only with the cards of the expansions launched in the last two years. Currently (March 2020): Rainbow Loyalty, Spark War, Basic Collection 2020, The Throne of Eldraine and Theros, Beyond Death.
  • Block. Only cards are allowed from the last block to the market.

A block consists of 2 or 3 expansions (editions or series) of cards that carry the same historical plot in the Magic universe and are usually released one block per year.

• Limited. In limited game, each player builds his or her deck at the time with a number of envelopes. In other words, your deck is built from a limited set of cards. Each stroke must have at least 40 cards. The only cards you can play with are the ones you opened on those envelopes, plus any amount of basic land. Here we are:
  • Mazo Closed. In this limited format, you build a deck with new envelopes. Each player opens six envelopes of 15 cards and builds a deck of at least 40 cards using the cards of their envelopes and any amount of basic land.
  • Booster Draft. In this limited format you choose the letters with which you will build your deck. Each player starts with three closed envelopes of 15 cards. Each player opens his first package, chooses a card and passes the rest to the left. Don't show anyone your choices or what's on the envelopes. Choose a letter from each envelope that you pass and pass the rest to the left until all the cards have been chosen. Repeat this process with the second envelope, but pass it to the right. For the last package, pass it back to the left. Use your chosen cards plus any amount of basic land to build a 40 card deck.

As a recommendation to new players, although the rule says that you can play more than 40 cards in limited formats, the ideal is to play the exact 40 cards and no more than 3 colors to have a more competitive deck.

A group of players competing in the "draft" mode in which, with new envelopes, improvise the decks before the game

There is also another classification of tournament types, according to the level of competitiveness:

• Regular level: there are from tournaments to find professional players, they are the "prelaunches" (Prereleaseand the “launches” (Release).

• Competitive level: are tournaments that anyone can play, but offer considerable rewards, in some cases cash and in other cases tickets and back to a place in the world. Here we find tournaments such as: "Grand Prix Trial", "Pro Tour Qualifiers" (PTQ, Pro Tour Qualifiers), and "National Champions". The above tournaments are made around the world, but there are also other mid-level tournaments that are only held in certain places (North America and Japan mainly) such as the Champs, the City Champs, among others.

• Professional level: Not anyone can participate in a professional tournament, only invited players are allowed. Invitation can be obtained in several ways, for example by winning a "Pro Tour Classification" or a "National School". You can also get an invitation to be among the best players in an area (e.g., the 2006 Paris World Championship was invited to the top 50 players in Latin America according to the DCI); for being one of the best players in a specific format (e.g. the Pro Tour Kobe 2006, the top 100 players were invited to "Limited" in the world); for excellent previous participations in Professional Tournaments (e.g. Professional tournaments deliver prizes of over $240 000, distributed among the first 75 in individual format.

Other formats

Players sometimes play casual formats based on different criteria. For example: playing only common cards to limit deck cost, playing single block cards of your choice, or adopting one of the sanctioned formats and modifying your banned list.

"Commander" (formerly known as EDH - Elder Dragon Highlander) is a casual format where players choose a legendary creature or planeswalker that is referred to as a "commander". The deck is then built with 99 non-repeatable cards (except basic lands or cards that contradict this rule) that must have the commander's color entity. For some years "Commander" It was approved by Wizards. The ban list is regulated by an unofficial entity. Wizards of the Coast releases prebuilt commander decks once a year.

Commander departure

Another very popular format for limited play is the "Cube". It is similar in structure to 'Booster Draft', only players use a collection of pre-selected cards instead of using sealed booster packs.

Secondary market

While Wizards of the Coast only sells cards in booster packs and decks, there is an active market for single cards among players and in many specialty stores. The prices of the cards depend, to a large extent, on their utility and their rarity (in the packs there are 11 Commons, 3 Uncommons, 1 Rare and, occasionally in the new editions, a Mythic or Mithyc Rare). Common cards usually cost €0.08, and sometimes over €0.30, while uncommon cards usually cost between €0.50 and €1. Rare cards, however, have much higher prices, from 1 or 2 euros onwards. Many rare cards and some particularly useful or old uncommons, and necessary in most competitive decks, cost more than €30.

There are more than a hundred cards that are sold individually for more than €100, from many belonging to the first editions (Alpha/Beta, Legends, Antiquities...) to some more recent ones due to the new type of rarity, &# 34;Mithyc Rare", which makes them appear occasionally in booster packs. Today, the artist-signed Alpha version of the Black Lotus card is considered the most expensive non-promotional Magic card ever printed, not counting misprinted cards.

There is a particularly expensive edition, the so-called Summer Magic, a specific run of the Revised Edition (Third Core Edition) that was withdrawn from the market before selling just over a few hundred boosters; This edition includes the most expensive legal cards in the history of the game, reaching more than €100 for a simple common card (which is normally worth euro cents) and more than €8000 if we talk about double lands, due to the extreme scarcity of these letters and the almost impossible difficulty to find them in the secondary market.

There are also three very rare cards created directly by Richard Garfield that, while not legally playable in tournaments, are valued at much higher prices. Two of these letters were issued 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 have a higher price, influenced by the strong speculation that exists in the market, where brokers operate exclusively dedicated to buying and selling cards. Due to the appearance both people and companies dedicated to this activity, many letters have suffered a huge increase in price without the need to be exclusive or first editions. An example of this is the Targmogoyf, where in 2007 its price was €10, and although it has been reissued on several occasions, its market price is €45.

There are several means where you can look up the "price" of Magic cards, but keep in mind that it can strongly depend 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 cards that do not abound in its "stock". In any case, the people who regularly play tournaments and trade cards know the real value of these, with the price dictated by some media being a simple guide.

As new editions are released, old cards are sometimes reissued. If a card is expensive because it's useful, a reissue will often drive the price of the original card up, because there are more tournament formats that can play it and therefore it will be in greater demand among players. However, if its price is due to the collectability it evokes, a reissue will lower the price of the original card, because it is no longer as rare.

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 cards they have declared no further releases; in total a few hundred cards, from Alpha/Beta to Urza's Fate, in order to protect the interests of the collector. Some of these cards are those belonging to the Power Pack (Black Lotus, the five Mox, Ancestral Recall, Timetwister and Time Walk), the original ten Double Lands, the Bazaar of Baghdad, and the Mishra's Workshop.

Controversial aspects

Game Cost

With three or four new expansions per year, many players criticize the fact that a significant investment is required to maintain a competitive or complete card collection. The main competitive format, Standard or Type 2, only uses cards from the last completed block (a block is a set of three consecutive expansions with common themes and mechanics. Ex: Kamigawa Block - Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa and Saviors of Kamigawa-), the block of the last expansion printed and the last Core Set (“main deck”, for example that of the ninth edition); In this way, players who play competitively are forced to have the last cards that are coming out. Other formats, such as Official Extended (Type 1.X), Legacy (Type 1.5), and Vintage (Type 1), buy the gold-edged tournament decks (which are also banned in official tournaments due to their relatively cheap price and the fact that contain many rare and expensive cards) or use one of the programs to play Magic online, such as Apprentice, Magic Workstation or OCTGN.

Price vs. Skill

Due to the aforementioned, it is criticized that in these types of games, on many occasions, the players, rather than face off in a duel of skills, face each other in a duel between the prices of the decks; since many of the cards necessary for a deck to be competitive are of great value (and also of great importance). Thus, access to competitive play is limited to people who, even if they play well, cannot access the most expensive cards, and in this way, the players who have more money are the ones who obtain the most advantage, and not those who have more skill. Even so, the fact of handling a higher priced deck does not ensure a victory, since the skill factor and the mischief of the player, although they seem less important, are great assets when it comes to playing tournament games.

Continuous updates

Game updates, with continuous expansions and sagas, which have new abilities, strategies and types of cards, which in turn, outdated other cards, abilities and strategies, make players leave the game for years, it is difficult for them to return to it. The changes that the game has undergone over the years make some players completely out of context and feel that they are facing a new game.

Luck and skill

Magic, like many other games, combines chance and luck with skill and talent. A common complaint, however, is that there is a lot of luck involved with the basic resource of the game: land. Too many or too few lands (“Mana Flood” or “Mana Screw” in game lingo respectively) in the early game mainly can ruin the player's chance of achieving victory without even making a mistake. A common response to this complaint is that the influence of luck in the game can be minimized by properly building a solid deck that has been extensively tested. An accurate amount of lands and good deck mixing techniques can reduce the chance of any mana issues. There are also cards that are widely used and are intended to reduce the player's mana dependency. The amount of lands in most competitive decks ranges from 18 to 26 (an average of 22 or 21 lands per deck), although the use of certain spells (like Seething Song), artifacts (talismans of Mirrodin or the Moxes of Alpha/Beta), creatures (such as Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves), or special lands (Watery Grave, Windswept Heath, or Underground River), and the relative cost of a deck's main spells can go up or down substantially. the amount of lands required (Ex: A deck with one-color, very low-cost spells needs fewer lands than a deck with many colors and more expensive spells).

The so-called "Mulligan rule" was later introduced into the game, first as an option for informal matches and later in the official rules of the game. The modern Mulligan rule allows players who are not satisfied with their starting hand to shuffle it into the deck and then draw another starting hand but with one less card. This can be repeated as many times as desired, but each time it is done, one less card must be drawn (first six, then five, then four and so on). Generally, a "good hand" is considered to be one in which you have three or four lands; and in very rare cases the Mulligan rule is used more than 2 or 3 times (since the second time it is used only 5 cards are drawn). A recent update to this rule indicates that both players have to mulligan simultaneously. This does not mean that both players must coincide in wanting to mulligan, but that they must decide whether or not to mulligan at the same time, starting with the player who is going to start the game. Previously, until the player who was going to start the game did not finish making his mulligans, the other player could not make his mulligans. With this previous system, a lot of time was lost in establishing the starting hand.

The old Mulligan rule, still occasionally used in certain casual gaming circles and in some online multiplayer games, allows seven cards to be drawn again (one time, then normally) if the starting hand contains zero, one, six or seven lands. An excellent source of information on the Mulligan can be found in Mark Rosewater's article: “Starting Over”.

Recently a new rule has been added to the Mulligan that consists of once the mulligan process is finished, if you have fewer cards than the initial ones you can make a scry of 1, that is, after making the mulligans that you consider necessary, you can see the top card of the library and return it to the top or put it on the bottom.

With the M20 collection the Mulligan rule has changed again. This new mulligan was tested at the Mythic Championship II in London and on Magic Online (London Mulligan). Basically, each time you mulligan, you draw up to seven cards, then put a number of cards from your hand equal to the number of times you've mulliganed during that game on the bottom of your library in any order you want. Your starting hand will continue to be one card less for each time you mulligan, but you can always choose that starting hand from among seven cards.

Net Decking

The Internet has played an important role in competitive Magic. Strategy discussions and tournament reports often include a listing of exactly what a deck contains and a description of its performance against other decks. Using a process known as "Net Decking", some players surf the internet in search of this information and build a deck (perhaps never having played it before) containing the same, or very similar, cards, depending on, this deck. form, skill and experience of other players. While this technique is often a very good option, it's not certain that the deck (even if it's exactly the same) will repeat its past success. The player may be inexperienced, unfamiliar with how the deck works, or may simply be playing in a metagame in which the deck being built is ineffective and/or other decks are unprepared against. Nowadays building decks directly from the Internet is a very widespread technique (due to the proliferation of sites dedicated especially to publishing decks and tournament reports) and used by all kinds of players, although it is also true that most of them try the sledgehammer on the Internet before putting it together in reality.

Card Removal

Following the death of George Floyd, the company announces the withdrawal of a series of cards as racist, as well as the review of all cards in the game to take the same measures. This decision was highly criticized by the international gaming community, opposing any type of censorship. On the other hand, the censored cards increased in value in the secondary market, going from €4 to €100 in some cases in less than 24 hours and selling out quickly.

Plot

An intricate plot lies behind the cards released in each expansion and is shown in the art and "flavour text" of each of the letters, 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 changed to avoid confusion with Dominaria, and a multiverse consisting of an infinite number of planes. Items or characters in the plot appear as "Legendary" in the various expansions, cards of which only one can be on the battlefield at a time.

The expansion decks from Antiquities to Scourge (with the exception of Homelands) are decks set on the plane of Dominaria and form a roughly chronological timeline of that plane's history (with the sole exception of the Urza Saga Block). Frequent characters included Urza and his brother Mishra.

The decks from Weatherlight to Apocalypse follow in particular the story of the Weatherlight crew, Urza's allies against Yawgmoth, as well as the Dominaria's final fight with pyrexia. Magic began to venture outside of Dominaria and into various other planes, such as Mirrodin (a world made of metal created by the planeswalker golem Karn, in which his first plot centered on the overthrow of the madman). guardian mernach who filled the plane with organic beings from other worlds in search of becoming a god), Kamigawa (a world that is very reminiscent of feudal Japan, whose plot revolves around a war that arose between their gods and mortals, and that also chronologically it is located further back than the urza saga), and Ravnica (a plane where basically the natural landscape and civilization have completely merged forming a mega metropolis ruled by ten guilds, its first central plot focuses on the conflict of powers between them, which would lead to the breaking of a non-aggression pact of a millennium). The Magic plot returned to Dominaria with the Time Spiral block, and visited Lorwyn with the Lorwyn block, the Lorwyn block. i>Shadowmoor, is the deck set in the Shadowmoor plane, the dark inverse of Lorwyn. In the Alara block, the five different planes resulting from the fragmentation of the Alara plane and its restoration as the new Alara were explored, where the plot of the new planeswalkers began to be introduced. In the Zendikar block, an indomitable plane full of treasures and dangers is explored, which is also the prison of the Eldrazi, a species of creatures from another incomprehensible dimension and which is the most dangerous in the Magic universe. >. The Mirrodin Scar Cycle returns to the metal plane, where the evil civilization of Phyrexia reemerges and the return of Mirrodin's creator Karn. In Innistrad, a plane is explored where the worst nightmares of humans are more than real. In the Ravnica Return Loop, we return to the Metropolis plane, where the fighting between the guilds has intensified. In theros we enter a plane reminiscent of ancient Greek mythology where heroes and monsters fight mercilessly and the ancient Gods rule the world. In Tarkir we explore the two timelines of this world, one in which dragons were extinguished by five warrior clans, being the tomb of the planeswalker Ugin, and another in which dragons rule the world and the planeswalker Ugin awakens from a long slumber., whose intervention will be important in the future of other worlds.

Since the expansion "Magic: Origins", the past of five planeswalkers in particular (Gideon Jura, Jace Beleren, Liliana Vess, Chandra Nalaar, and Nissa Revane), who They will have more prominence in future stories. In the blocks, "Battle for Zendikar" and "shadows over Innistrad" it returns to two known planes both on the verge of the apocalypse, in the first the titans Eldrazis Ulamog and Kozilek are about to destroy the plane but are stopped by a team of planeswalkers and the last survivors of that world; On the other side, Innistrad, a dark and sinister world that had found respite and a peace that seemed to last through the presence of its guardian Avacyn, sees a terrible setback when she and the other angels fall into madness and are determined to eradicate all life. of the plane, but behind his madness there is a worse evil, the arrival of the last Eldrazi titan, Emrakul, whose presence corrupts life from its bowels. In the Kaladesh block we see in greater depth and detail the planeswalker chandra's original blueprint, where science, technology, artifice, and a subtle tyranny have almost completely supplanted magic, and the tensions of a revolution flourish amidst an inventors' fair, because the planeswalker Tezzeret, subordinate to Nicol Bolas, is doing his dirty work on that plane, which will lead the guardians with a new member (Ajani Goldmane) to go on to their next mission. In the block of Amonkhet, following the trail of Tezzeret, the guardians enter the plane of the same name, which is a world that is very reminiscent of ancient Egypt, where five gods submit their living inhabitants to tests to find those who are worthy to serve. to the god Pharaoh who is none other than the dark dragon Nicol Bolas who corrupted that world, diverting the purpose of the gods and its inhabitants to form an army of undead enhanced with a special embalming, when the inhabitants realized the truth three monstrous gods, and Nicol Bolas began to destroy what was of no use to him from the plane, including the gods themselves. The survivors of the massacre (including the goddess Hazoret) entered the desert as their last hope of survival, this time the Gatewatch would suffer defeat at the hands of the dragon.

As well as over the course of the Alara Block thus far, books and comics have been released chronicling and plotting the new planeswalkers, though books released after the Lorwyn cycle focus more on the Planeswalkers themselves than a specific plane.

As for the novels on the plane of the block in turn, only one novel is released. Likewise, the comics mainly focus on planeswalkers.

Art

Each card has an illustration that represents the spirit (or flavor) of the card, often representing the environment of the expansion for which the card was designed. Much of Magic's early art was ordered with little specific direction or ideas for visual cohesion. However, after a few years of submissions showing beings with wings for creatures without ability of flight, or multiple characters in the art of what was intended to be a single creature, the art direction team decided to impose some rules so that the artistic vision would better align the design and development of the cards. Each block of cards has its own style with scenes and descriptions of the races and places that play a major role in the Magic game universe.

Some editions initially experimented with different art for the same card. However, Wizards of the Coast felt that this prevented immediate recognition of a card at a glance, and caused confusion. Consequently, alternate art is used sparingly today and mostly for promotional cards. Old cards are reprinted in new editions, Wizards has ensured that they will be printed with new art, to make them more valuable from a collection point of view. A good example is a card that has been appearing in different images from 1995 to 2011, the Ball of Fire.

Since 1995, copyright in all art has been transferred to Wizards of the Coast when the acquisition contract is signed. However, the artist is allowed to sell both the original piece and print copies of it, and for major Magic artists, this becomes a lucrative source of income.

As Magic expanded across the globe, its art had to adapt to its now international audience. Art has been edited or replaced to meet government standards. For example, the appearance of skeletons and almost all the undead in art is prohibited by the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Movie

In 2012, the independent film Tap: Max's Game was released non-commercially online. The independent film about Magic: The Gathering was filmed in the Czech Republic as a solo project, and was not sponsored by Wizards of the Coast or Hasbro.

Video games

Since 1997, several video games have been developed for practically all platforms, adopting different types of gameplay. Registration is currently open for the Magic Legends Private Beta, which is scheduled to launch in 2021. Here is the full list of Magic digital games:

• Magic: The Gathering
• Magic: The Gathering: BattleMage
• Magic: The Gathering: Armageddon
• Magic: The Gathering (Sega)
• Magic: The Gathering Interactive Encyclopedia
• Magic: The Gathering Online
• Magic: The Gathering – Battlegrounds
• Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers
• Magic: The Gathering - Tactics
• Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012
• Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013
• Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014
• Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015
• Magic Duels
• Magic: The Gathering Arena
• Magic: Legends (2021)

See also article in Spanish.