History TabletopGame / MagicTheGathering

* It's "[[CollectibleCardGame collectible]]": Wizards of the Coast have, as of October 2020, released over 21,000 unique cards into the game, and add an average of 700 new ones every year. This gives you a chance to create a deck that no one else on earth has. (And of course, once you realize that your deck would benefit from one of the cards you ''don't'', you want to [[RevenueEnhancingDevices buy more cards]].)

* ''Duels of the Planeswalkers'': A more modern adaptation available on [[UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 The PlayStation Store]], Xbox Live Arcade and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, originally released in 2009. It received {{Numbered Sequel}}s in summer of each succeeding year, coinciding with new Core Set releases, and Wizards [[InvokedTrope explicitly]] positioned it as their GatewaySeries to new players.

* ''Magic: The Gathering -- Tactics'': A 2011 TurnBasedStrategy for PC and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 inspired by ''Magic''. The gameplay bears little to no resemblance to the original card game, but the flavor of it is retained.

* [[MagicTheGathering/Planes Planes]]

* [[Characters.MagicTheGathering Individual Character Tropes]]

* ''Magic: The Gathering – Tactics'': A 2011 TurnBasedStrategy for PC and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 inspired by ''Magic''. The gameplay bears little to no resemblance to the original card game, but the flavor of it is retained.

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: White[[note]]TheCape: TheNeedsOfTheMany, UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, RulesLawyer; LightEmUp[[/note]], Blue[[note]]TheSmartGuy: ScienceHero, ThePerfectionist, TheSociopath; MakingASplash, AnIcePerson[[/note]], Black[[note]]TerrorHero: TheAntiNihilist, ScrewDestiny, ItsAllAboutMe; DealWithTheDevil, {{Necromancy}}[[/note]], Red[[note]]BloodKnight: BeYourself, DontThinkFeel, DidntThinkThisThrough; PlayingWithFire[[/note]] and Green[[note]]NatureHero: InHarmonyWithNature, YouCantFightFate, EvilReactionary; GaiasVengeance, TheBeastmaster[[/note]]. Each color is convinced it has the only correct way of looking at the world, resulting in OpposingCombatPhilosophies; there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]; and players can use any number of them at the same time, but only by giving themselves problems with...

''Magic: The Gathering'' is a CollectibleCardGame, produced in 1993 by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast [[note]] Now the owners of that other great geek game, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'')[[/note]] and now a subsidiary of Creator/{{Hasbro}}, it was the first true {{Collectible Card Game}},[[note]]previous attempts mostly involved baseball cards[[/note]] the GenrePopularizer, and [[LongRunner even today]] it remains one of the most popular tabletop fantasy genre card games in the world.

* ''Magic: The Gathering'': A 1997 CardBattleGame by Creator/MicroProse. It contained both a free-dueling mode, allowing you to build decks and battle them against AI opponents, and a campaign mode, where you could travel across the land of Shandalar exploring, dueling enemies, collecting cards, and eventually battling a BigBad. Notable in that when the game was in DevelopmentHell, Creator/SidMeier was brought in to give it more focus.[[note]]It would also be the last game Meier ever worked on for Microprose, founding Firaxis afterward.[[/note]]

A film adaptation languished in DevelopmentHell at 20th Century Fox for years, and was eventually canceled when Disney purchased the studio in March 2019. By June of that year, Netflix had acquired the rights, and announced that Creator/TheRussoBrothers of Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse fame would create a [[https://ew.com/tv/2019/06/03/netflix-magic-the-gathering-series-joe-anthony-russo/ Netflix original series]] for them.

* The {{Mana}} system: To cast spells, players need the correct amount and color of mana. Mana is typically gained from Land cards... but you can only play one Land per turn. At a stroke, this brings the "AwesomeButImpractical"[[note]]good spells cost more mana[[note]], "YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum"[[note]]not getting enough land is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]][[/note]] and "LimitedMoveArsenal"[[note]]having spells of one color and lands of the other is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]][[/note]] tropes into the game. Finding a balance between the limits of your colors (pushing you to play more colors) and the likelihood of a mana mismatch (pushing you to play fewer colors) starts creating challenges because...

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: White[[note]]TheCape: TheNeedsOfTheMany, UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, RulesLawyer; LightEmUp[[/note]], Blue[[note]]TheSmartGuy: ScienceHero, ThePerfectionist, TheSociopath; MakingASplash, AnIcePerson[[/note]], Black[[note]]TerrorHero: TheAntiNihilist, ScrewDestiny, ItsAllAboutMe; DealWithTheDevil, {{Necromancy}}[[/note]], Red[[note]]BloodKnight: BeYourself, DontThinkFeel, DidntThinkThisThrough; PlayingWithFire[[/note]] and Green[[note]]NatureHero: InHarmonyWithNature, YouCantFightFate, EvilReactionary; GaeasVengeance, TheBeastmaster[[/note]]. Each color is convinced it has the only correct way of looking at the world, resulting in OpposingCombatPhilosophies; there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]; and players can use any number of them at the same time, but only by giving themselves problems with...

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: White[[note]]TheCape: TheNeedsOfTheMany, UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, RulesLawyer; LightEmUp[[note]], Blue[[note]]TheSmartGuy: ScienceHero, ThePerfectionist, TheSociopath; MakingASplash, AnIcePerson[[/note]], Black[[note]]TerrorHero: TheAntiNihilist, ScrewDestiny, ItsAllAboutMe; DealWithTheDevil, {{Necromancy}}[[/note]], Red[[note]]BloodKnight: BeYourself, DontThinkFeel, DidntThinkThisThrough; PlayingWithFire[[/note]] and Green[[note]]NatureHero: InHarmonyWithNature, YouCantFightFate, EvilReactionary; GaeasVengeance, TheBeastmaster[[/note]]. Each color is convinced it has the only correct way of looking at the world, resulting in OpposingCombatPhilosophies; there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]; and players can use any number of them at the same time, but only by giving themselves problems with...

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: White[[note]]TheCape: TheNeedsOfTheMany, UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans, RulesLawyer; LightEmUp[[note]], Blue[[note]]TheSmartGuy: ScienceHero, ThePerfectionist, TheSociopath; MakingASplash, AnIcePerson[[/note]], Black[[/note]]TerrorHero: TheAntiNihilist, ScrewDestiny, ItsAllAboutMe; DealWithTheDevil, {{Necromancy}}[[/note]], Red[[note]]BloodKnight: BeYourself, DontThinkFeel, DidntThinkThisThrough; PlayingWithFire[[/note]] and Green[[note]]NatureHero: InHarmonyWithNature, YouCantFightFate, EvilReactionary; GaeasVengeance, TheBeastmaster[[/note]]. Each color is convinced it has the only correct way of looking at the world, resulting in OpposingCombatPhilosophies; there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]; and players can use any number of them at the same time, but only by giving themselves problems with...

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Whi]][[TheNeedsOfTheMany te]], [[ThePerfectionist Bl]][[NurtureOverNature ue]], [[AmbitionIsEvil Bla]][[ScrewDestiny ck]], [[TheUnfettered Re]][[DontThinkFeel d]], and [[InHarmonyWithNature Gre]][[YouCantFightFate en]]. Each represents a different ideology, resulting in OpposingCombatPhilosophies; there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]; and players can use any number of them at the same time.
* The {{Mana}} system: To cast spells, players need the correct amount and color of mana. Mana is typically gained from Land cards... but you can only play one Land per turn. At a stroke, this brings the "AwesomeButImpractical" (good spells cost more mana), "YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum" (not getting enough land is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) and "LimitedMoveArsenal" (having spells of one color and lands of the other is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) tropes into the game, forcing you to balance between the limits of your colors (pushing you to play more colors) and the increasing likelihood of a mana mismatch (pushing you to play fewer colors).

* ''Magic Spellslingers'', a further hybridization of ''Magic'' with ''Hearthstone'', was released on for mobile phones and Steam on 10 August 2022. If this is the first you've heard of it, that tells you something about the advertising budget allotted to the game (approximately $0). Formerly called ''Valor's Reach'', it had been in soft launch for several years. Only five creatures can be played at a time, Instants have been converted to "Trap" cards that activate according to specified criteria, and Planeswalkers define your deck by determining what cards you can play and your starting life total.

* ''Magic: Legends'', an MMORPG by Creator/CrypticStudios which, like ''Tactics'', is only using the lore of the ''[=MtG=]'' multiverse for its foundations. (Released into beta in March 2021, it was canceled less than six months later.)

''Magic: The Gathering'' is a CollectibleCardGame, produced in 1993 by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast [[note]] Now the owners of that other great geek game, ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'')[[/note]] it was the first true {{Collectible Card Game}},[[note]]previous attempts mostly involved baseball cards[[/note]] the GenrePopularizer, and [[LongRunner even today]] it is one of the most popular card games in the world.

* The {{Mana}} system: To cast spells, players need the correct amount and color of mana. Mana is typically gained from Land cards... but you can only play one Land per turn. At a stroke, this brings the "AwesomeButImpractical" (good spells cost more mana), "YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum" (not getting enough land is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) and "LimitedMoveArsenal" (having spells of one color and lands of the other is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) tropes into the game. A core part of the game is the pressure between your colors' available effects (pushing you to play more colors) and the ability to get the right mana to use those effects (pushing you to play fewer colors).

* ''Magic: Legends'', an MMORPG by Creator/CrypticStudios which, like ''Tactics'', is only using the lore of the ''[=MtG=]'' multiverse for its foundations.

* The {{Mana}} system: To cast spells, players need the correct amount and color of mana. Mana is typically gained from Land cards... but you can only play one Land per turn. At a stroke, this brings the "AwesomeButImpractical" (good spells cost more mana), "YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum" (not getting enough land is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) and "LimitedMoveArsenal" (having spells of one color and lands of the other is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) tropes into the game.

!!Due to [[TropeOverdosed length]], the trope list for this work has been split across several pages:

* The "[[FactionCalculus Color Pie]]": The game features ColorCodedWizardry in five different elements: [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans Whi]][[TheNeedsOfTheMany te]], [[ThePerfectionist Bl]][[NurtureOverNature ue]], [[AmbitionIsEvil Bla]][[ScrewDestiny ck]], [[TheUnfettered Re]][[DontThinkFeel d]], and [[InHarmonyWithNature Gre]][[YouCantFightFate en]]. Each represents a different ideology, from which it derives its LimitedLoadout, and there are [[TacticalRockPaperScissors complex interrelations between them]]. For more on the colors, see our MagicTheGathering/ColorTropes page.
* The {{Mana}} system: To cast spells, players need the correct amount and color of mana. Mana is gained from Land cards... [[note]] Usually, anyway. [[/note]] but you can only play one Land per turn. At a stroke, this brings the "AwesomeButImpractical" (good spells cost more mana), "YoureNothingWithoutYourPhlebotinum" (not getting enough land is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) and "LimitedMoveArsenal" (having spells of one color and lands of the other is [[RandomNumberGod frustratingly plausible]]) tropes into the game.
* It's "[[CollectibleCardGame collectible]]": Wizards of the Coast have, as of October 2020, released over 21,000 unique cards into the game, and add an average of 700 new ones every year. This gives you a chance to create a deck that no one else on earth has. (And of course, once you realize that one of the cards you ''don't'' own would fit perfectly into your deck, you want to [[RevenueEnhancingDevices buy more cards]].)