Fan Nickname / Magic: The Gathering

A card game that spans decades with millions of dedicated fans is bound to have plenty of Fan Nicknames. And due to Magic: The Gathering's status as Trope Codifier for trading card games, a few of these nicknames (mostly the ones under game mechanics and decks & strategies) have even made their way to other card games, collectible or otherwise.

Game Mechanics and Nonspecific Cards

• The Power Nine — Collective name for Ancestral Recall, Time Walk, Timetwister, Black Lotus, and all five of the moxes, nine notoriously powerful cards from the very early days of the game.
• Blink, Bounce — Terms for effects that remove cards temporarily from the battlefield.
  • A Bounce effect returns the permanent to the owner's hand or to the top (or near the top) of the owner's library, requiring them to replay them (and potentially needing to redraw them, in the case of top-of-the-library effects). Bouncing is either a temporary removal play (if used against opponents), or to reuse useful effects or protect a permanent from other forms of removal (if used on your own cards).
  • A Blink effect temporarily exiles a permanent, either returning it to the battlefield immediately or at the end of the turn. Blink effects are usually things you do to your own permanents (for the same reasons you might want to bounce them). A Blink effect that returns a permanent to the battlefield immediately is useful to avoid targeted removal, while a Blink effect that lasts until the end of the turn might have potential offensive uses (similar to a bounce) and is more useful for avoiding Wrath effects (see below).
  • A Tuck effect is a variant that either puts a card from play on to the bottom of it's owner's library, or just shuffles it in to their deck. This is almost always a hard removal effect, as it is unlikely you will redraw the card during the course of a normal game.
• Milling — A term for putting cards from an opponent's library into their graveyard. This is a secondary win condition in Magic, because, in normal situations, if a player can't draw a card when they are required to, either by the draw phase or a card effect, they lose the game. Named for the card Millstone, which was the first card to actively make this tactic a viable (if slow) method of winning. Core Set 2021 introduced this term to official Magic vocabulary.◊
  • Self-Milling — using a mill effect on your own deck, to put cards from your library into your graveyard (usually used for decks built to exploit graveyard-centric mechanics and recursive threats).
  • Deck out, decking out — That situation where you must draw when you have no more cards in your library.
• Trollshroud — A variant of the "Shroud" mechanic (which makes a permanent untargetable by spells or abilities) that only prevents opponents from targeting the permanent with trollshroud. Named after Troll Ascetic. The 2012 Core Set gave trollshroud an official keyword, "hexproof".
• Hate — Cards in a player's sideboard to counter specific decks or strategies. Go ahead, play a Legacy tournament without any graveyard or combo hate.
  • Hoser — a hate card that shuts down or severely restricts a particular color, creature type, strategy etc. Examples include the Circles of Protection, Leyline of the Void and Tsabo's Web.
• Bear - the common term for any 2/2 creature that costs 2 mana, named after the iconic Green creature Grizzly Bears.
  • Hatebears — Bears that have a narrow restrictive ability like Leonin Arbiter and Ethersworn Canonist. The term has been loosened a little since the old days, now commonly used to refer to some cards, like Spirit of the Labyrinth, that don't necessarily adhere to the 2/2 for 2 mana ratio, but still hose specific interactions while having a relatively low cost and an aggressive statline that allows them to serve as efficient beaters in situations where their ability is not relevant.
• X on legs — A creature that has the effects of an established spell as an activated or triggered ability, example: Nekrataal is Terror-on-legs.
  • X on wings — same as above, but the creature has flying.
  • X on a stick — This can refer to two things: noncreature permanents (often artifacts and enchantments) that has the effects of an established spell as an activated or triggered ability: Seal of Fire is Shock-on-a-stick. Or a spell that has been copied by Isochron Scepter, that is, imprinting a Shock on the stick.
• Dual lands, lands that can be tapped to give either of two colors of mana, though this specific term (Dual Lands) sometimes are given only to the original set (such as Volcanic Island). Other dual lands are numerous, and they have been given all manners of nicknames depending on how they work:
  • Painlands — Comes untapped and can either give colorless mana for no extra cost, or either of two colors but deals 1 damage to you. Example: Sulfurous Springs
  • Bouncelands — Enters the battlefield tapped and requires you to return a land to hand, but taps for two mana of both colors. Example: Azorius Chancery
    • Alternatively, they are sometimes called Karoos after the eponymous card of the original cycle from Visions. The Ravnica cycle are occasionally called "Ravnikaroos/Ravnica 'Roos".
  • Slowlands — Can tap for colorless for no repercussion, or any of the two color with the catch that they don't untap during the next untap step. Example: Tranquil Garden
  • Fastlands — Comes into play untapped if you control two or fewer lands. Highly sought after, as having dual lands coming into play untapped is crucial to the early stages of the game. Example: Blackcleave Cliffs
  • Buddylands — Comes tapped unless you control either one of two land types. Example: Sunpetal Grove
  • Shocklands — Comes tapped unless you pay 2 life (referring to Shock, which deals 2 damage); notably, shocklands have both basic lands types of their colors, so they are highly sought-after. Example: Watery Grave
  • Fetchlands — lands which you tap and sacrifice to search your deck for other lands. The most useful fetchlands bring the land into play untapped. Example: Windswept Heath
  • Filterlands — lands which can provide multiple colors of mana, but cost mana to activate. Examples include Shimmering Grotto and Sunken Ruins
  • Scrylands — Comes tapped but allows you to look at the top card of your deck and choose to put it either at the top or bottom of the deck (this mechanic of looking at cards then placing it top-or-bottom is called Scry). Example: Temple of Epiphany
  • Man Lands or Creature Lands - A collective nickname for any land that can turn into a creature, such as Faerie Conclave or Creeping Tar Pit.
  • Taplands — Lands that come into play tapped. That's all. Example: Shivan Oasis
  • The "Battle" or "Tango" lands — Comes into play tapped unless you control 2 basic lands, but has both land types (meaning you can search for it with the fetchlands). The phrase "two to tango" immediately popped to many a mind, though official materials refer to them as "Battle" lands. Time will tell which name sticks.
  • Showlands or Handlands — Lands that require you to show another card in your hand in order to have it come into play untapped. Currently, two varieties exist: those that require you to show a specific type of creature and those that require you to show a specific type of land.
  • Bicycle lands — Lands that you could tap for two different colors of mana (and thus "bi") and had cycling (meaning you could pay its cycling cost and discard it from your hand to draw a card). Example: Fetid Pools
    • They would later make a cycle of lands with three land types (and thus could add three colors of mana) and could cycle (albeit for the high cost of 3 mana). Naturally, these were referred to as the Tricycle lands. Example: Ketria Triome.
• Tutor — Any card or ability that allows you to search your deck for a particular card or card type and improve your access to it (i.e. putting it into your hand or on top of your library). Named for Demonic Tutor, the first such card, and a number of cards which are similar in both name and effect, such as Worldly Tutor and Enlightened Tutor.
• Looting — Any ability that says "draw a card, then discard a card", usually on a creature who does this either as an activated ability or combat damage trigger. The most famous of such cards is Merfolk Looter.
  • Rummaging - A term that isn't as widely used, but refers to the red variant of looting, which has the player discard a card, then draw the card. Named after Rummaging Goblin.
• Fatty - Usually used to describe a creature who has high power and toughness, although in some cases the value or power/toughness ratio for this term to apply can be flexible.
  • Butt — A fatty's toughness.
  • There are cards such as Assault Formation, Doran the Seige Tower, Arcades, The Strategist, and Huatli, The Sun's Heart, that let creatures deal combat damage with their toughness rather than their power. This has led to the risque-sounding term of "butt-fighting".
• French Vanilla — A creature that has one single keyword ability, compared to true Vanilla, which means the creature has no ability. This means cards like Suntail Hawk and Lightning Elemental are French Vanilla, but something like Elvish Visionary is not because its one ability is not a keyword ability.
• Super Trample — A rare ability seen in some cards like Lone Wolf and Predatory Focus, where a creature deals full combat damage to defending player regardless of whether or not it was blocked, contrasting it with regular trample where the attacking trampler must first have more power to overcome the blocker(s) toughness to deal damage to the opponent. This virtually means that super trample creatures are unblockable, except that if they are blocked and fail to kill the opponent, they are at risk of being killed without repercussion.
• Wraths — Any card that removes all or almost all of a certain card type from the battlefield (typically creatures). Named after Wrath of God, the original card with this effect.
• an Abyss — Based off the card of the same name, an Abyss is a big creature that lacks trample or any sort of evasion that your opponent can't afford to let through, so they are obliged to chump block with a creature each turn or else face the consequences.
• Lord — A creature who powers up other creatures that share a characteristic with it, often creature type, such as Goblin King. The term Lord used to be an official creature type itself, but due to several cards such as Dralnu, Lich Lord having the Lord type but not the empowering ability, the creature type Lord was eventually officially removed from the game.
• Edict — a spell that forces a player to sacrifice a permanent, typically a creature. From the spell Diabolic Edict.
• Firebreathing — An ability on a creature where its controller can pump in mana, often red, to temporarily boost the creature's power, for example Shivan Dragon. Named after the eponymous card, which is actually an aura that gives this exact ability to a creature.
• Frost Armor — Named after Frost Titan, a triggered ability that automatically counters enemy spells targeting that creature unless its controller pays a certain amount of mana. Later keyworded in Strixhaven as Ward, which also expanded upon the concept with Wards which instead require paying life or discarding cards if the thing with Ward is Black or Red.
• Impulse draw — A type of card advantage (almost always red) that involves exiling cards from the top of the player's library, allowing them to be played from exile until the end of the current turn or the following turn, like Light Up the Stage. Likely named after Reckless Impulse, and has nothing to do with the blue spell Impulse.
• Ramp — any card that allows one to increase available mana, typically by putting more lands into play, although other means of doing so (like mana-producing artifacts) can also be referred to as ramping. Possibly originates from Rampant Growth, as well as the idea of "ramping up".
• Mana rock — an artifact, usually with a relatively low mana cost, that taps to produce mana.
• Cycle — Not to be confused with Cycling ability, a cycle is a group of cards, usually five or ten with each member having distinct color/color combination, that have significantly similar design. How similar the cards in a cycle are to one another vary from cycle to cycle: Some cycles have obvious and strict patterns among them (such as the battlemages from Planeshift set; notice the similar pattern in their casting cost, shared name, similar rarity, similar power/toughness etc), while other cycles have members that are so distinct from one another that it may be contentious to call them a cycle (Healing Salve, Ancestral Recall, Dark Ritual, Lightning Bolt and Giant Growth are one-mana instants whose abilities include the number 3, but not only their names and effects are wildly different, Ancestral Recall is rare unlike the rest that are common)
• Bite — a type of removal (usually green, more rarely red) which allows the player's creature to deal damage equal to its power to another creature. This is distinct from the officially keyworded "fight" mechanic, which involves both creatures dealing damage to each other, "bite" effects being superior as they don't risk the controller's creature dying. Named after Rabid Bite.

Specific Cards

• Phage the Unplayable — Phage the Untouchable, due to her Awesome, but Impractical ability that causes you to lose the game if you don't play her from your hand. Goes double in Commander, where attempting to play her from the command zone is an instant game loss.
• Bushie — Goblin Bushwhacker. Can also refer to Reckless Bushwhacker.
• Dr. Teeth, Zippy — Psychatog, based on the grinning version of the creature seen in the card art from Odyssey. As one of the potentially strongest members of the atog family, it's also known simply as "The 'Tog".
• Douchebag Marauder — Fleshbag Marauder. Drop him with a Grave Pact in play to see why.
• Fairy Godmother - Arcbound Ravager. It was given the nickname by Pro Tour winner Osyp Lebedowicz because of how it would turn seemingly hopeless situations into wins:
  Arcbound Ravager is like a fairy godmother. It sits on your shoulder and says "You play badly, but I don't care. I still love you." - Osyp Lebedowicz
• Fat Pants — Hero's Resolve. It greatly boosts a monster's toughness, and monsters with high power and toughness are often known as "fatties", while creature enchantments in general are often known as "pants". (Plus the character depicted, Gerrard Capashen, looks fat in those pants.)
• Goyf or Goofy — Tarmogoyf, widely considered to be the best pure beatstick of all time.
• Hippie/Hyppie — Hypnotic Specter.
• Sex Monkey — Uktabi Orangutan, which is infamous for featuring, in addition to the orangutan, two monkeys that appear to be... copulating.
• The Stick — Isochron Scepter, which allows you to take a cheap spell and copy it every turn. See also "X on stick" in the previous folder for comparison.
  • Imprinting Shrapnel Blast on an Isochron Scepter makes it a Boomstick.
• Tim — Prodigal Sorcerer, named for the Monty Python and the Holy Grail character, which he vaguely resembles.
  • Tim on a stick, Tim's Rod — Rod of Ruin, because like Tim it can tap for 1 damage.
  • Old Man Tim, Tim's Grandpa — Zuran Spellcaster.
  • Tom — The extremely creative Prodigal Pyromancer, which is effectively Tim, but red instead of blue (which, arguably, the card should have been from the beginning). Also known as Comrade Tim or Communist Tim, building on the Pun of it being a red creature. Similarly, any old card reprinted in the "right" color, such as the newer red Enrage vs. the old black Howl From Beyond.
  • Al — Samite Healer, which prevents 1 damage by tapping, as opposed to Tim.
• Deep Anal — Crass abbreviation of Deep Analysis
• Stupid Elephant — Loxodon Hierarch, a very powerful card that saw a lot of play in Standard around the time Ravnica block was released.
  • A lot of French players also affectionately named him Babar.
  • Related: Congregation at Dawn became known as "Three Stupid Elephants", because players would use it to fetch three stupid elephants.
• Each winner of the annual Magic Invitational gets to design a card that will appear in a future Magic set. The cards thus produced generally have art featuring a likeness of that player, and are nicknamed after them, if they get popular enough to earn a nickname:
  • Bob (Bob Maher) for Dark Confidant
  • Finkel (Jon Finkel) for Shadowmage Infiltrator
  • Kai (Kai Budde) for Voidmage Prodigy.
  • Jens (full name Jens Thorens) for Solemn Simulacrum, but it is more commonly known as Sad Robot.
  • Dark Confidant was reprinted in Modern Masters, causing many people to refer to the new one as Skrillex.
• And, of course, there's Superman — Morphling to anyone who has yet to learn exactly how absurd the infamous Game-Breaker can be.
  • Pemmin's Aura, a card that gives a creature all the abilities of Morphling, is an intentional anagram of "I Am Superman."
  • Torchling am not sometimes known as "Bizarro," not due to it not being a slightly stronger version of Morphling of the same color.
• Urzatron (usually shortened to Tron) — Collective term for Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower, a trio of lands that give more mana if you have at least one of all three in play. The term is also jokingly used when a player ends up getting three nonland cards with the same name on the battlefield.
• Miss America — Lightning Angel, the first and, for a long time, only creature who was red, white, and blue (without being black or green as well).
• Moose and Squirrel - Ambassador Oak, coined by Mark Rosewater himself.
• Turd Ape — Kird Ape, a very mana efficient card with good stats. Usually called such by those who've been on the receiving end of a Kird ape beatdown.
  • Kird Kitty — Loam Lion, after Kird Ape, a card with a similar ability. Can also refer to Wild Nacatl, for the same reason.
  • Nerd Ape — Inventor's Apprentice, yet another efficient 1-drop similar to Kird Ape
• Pancake Rockstar — Rhox War Monk. One look at the card art should tell you why. (Those are supposed to be Bant sigils, but...)
• Flying Spaghetti Monster: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, new contender for the largest and dumbest creature summonable. Also applied to her less powerful version, Emrakul, The Promised End, in formats where her original card is not legal (such as Pioneer or Commander). Have you been touched by Her Noodly Appendage?
  • Of course, this is Magic we're talking about here; there are always ways to sneak things in.
• Mister Babycakes - Forgotten Ancient. The term comes from the playtest name.
• Cap'n Tickles — Giant Solifuge. Comes from Evan Erwin of starcitygames.
  • Miss Tickles — Falkenrath Aristocrat, a very similar card.
• Phid for Ophidian.
  • Green Phid for Ohran Viper.
• Kokopuffs (Cocoa Puffs) for Kokusho, the Evening Star.
  • CoCo is also used when referring to Collected Company, an absurdly strong card used in many green aggro decks and other creature-based combo decks to put a pair of low-cost creatures directly into play.
• Broken Hellkite for Bogardan Hellkite. (Primarily by Limited players, since only there is it truly broken.)
• Chimney Pimp or simply the Pimp for Chimney Imp. (Related to a Forced Meme declaring it to be the best card in the game.)
• Walletslayer Angel - Baneslayer Angel, one of the best creatures in the game during her release, formerly worth $40-50 each and still fairly expensive. Sometimes Bankslayer instead.
  • Lyra Baneslayer — Lyra Dawnbringer, a legendary creature who has stats that deliberately mimic those of Baneslayer Angel's as an homage.
  • Similarly, Jace the Wallet Sculptor for Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which was worth around $100 for a time up until it was banned from the Standard format. (Also known as Jace, the Mind-Raper; Jace, the Money Scalper; Jace, the Metagame Sculptor; or Jace, the Gamewinner.)
    • And as of Spring 2013, even though he's only legal in two formats, he went up to $150.
    • And when he was unbanned in the Modern format, he spiked to $150 again. Briefly, before it was found that he just wasn't as good in that format as expected... where he fell to "only" $125 and continues to hover around that price.
• Baby Jace for Jace Beleren, which isn't broken, and Jace, Vyrn's Prodigy which is. The first one is also known as "Party Jace," since its first ability affects all players — players in a multiplayer format are generally inclined to leave it alone for as long as its controller keeps providing them with symetrical draws. Finally, he was also known as the "Seal of Jace" because, in a meta dominated by Jace, the Mind Sculptor, people would run its cheaper, less powerful counterpart solely to stop the Game-Breaker Jace from hitting the field (due to how the legend rule worked back in the day, both Jaces would immediately be destroyed by Temporal Paradox upon the second Jace hitting the field). The second one is also known as Flip Jace, as the card is double-sided.
  • Bad Jace for Jace, the Living Guildpact, which is notable weaker than previous versions of Jace (and is pretty unplayable).
  • Mill Jace for Jace, Memory Adept, who is focused on the strategy of putting cards from an opponet's deck into their graveyard (known as milling in MTG parlance). This Jace is also called Anime Jace thanks to his rather pointy hairstyle.
• Yawgmoth's Win/Yawg Win — Yawgmoth's Will, a card which, used correctly, generally results in its player winning the game the turn it is played.
• Power Ten — This nickname has been used to refer to the aforementioned Yawgmoth's Will or, alternatively, to the Library of Alexandria. It's not difficult to see why.
  • More recently, the Tenth slot has been for Time Vault because of both its power and its price tag.
  • Sol Ring is also sometimes called Power Ten, making it the only uncommon to have that claim.
• Fat Clone — Quicksilver Gargantuan, which is a Clone the size of an elder dragon.
• Skittles — Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon.
• Jwar Jwar Sphinx — Sphinx of Jwar Isle
• Dracula-penis — Olivia Voldaren, due to a very unfortunate last-minute change in her art which makes her look... extremely well-endowed and entirely too happy to see you.
• The Powerpuff Girls has become a common fan nickname for the Red, Blue, and Green angels printed in Avacyn Restored, to the point that it was even acknowledged on the main website.
• Grizzlebees — Griselbrand, the bonkers-strong demon lord from the same set.
  • Also Griselbanned, due to him being so powerful, that he was banned in EDH/Commander, a format full ridiculously powerful cards.
• Lol-Troll — Nickname for Return to Ravnica's Lotleth Troll, a fitting name for a creature that grows stronger and never seems to go away.
• Lady Gaga - nickname for Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite. The character is also often known as Machine Momma (as she has taken Yawgmoth's place as the "Mother of Machines") and Dommy Mommy (given her general appearance and perceived inclinations).
• Gary — Gray Merchant of Asphodel, after a misreading of his name.
• Xenagod — Xenagos, God of Revels. (As opposed to his first card.)
• Mogis, God of Death Metal — Nickname for Mogis, God of Slaughter, whose appearance and battleaxe tend to evoke comparisons to a metal band member.
  • Iroas, God of Opera — Nickname for Iroas, God of Victory, as a play on the above (in-story, Iroas and Mogis are brothers) and because his appearance evokes a singer mid-aria.
• Trample Badger, a 1/1 Badger from Born of the Gods which has Trample - note that Trample allows a creature to deal damage to a player if they are blocked and their power is greater than a blocker's toughness, and that 0/1 is the smallest a creature can be without dying. Of course, it is Green, the color of buff spells.
• Chow Yun-fat — Nickname for Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, based on his card art's resemblance to the actor (not to mention the name).
• Cap'n Kirk — either Stromkirk Captain or the more widely-played Stromkirk Noble. The latter is also known as "Haters gonna hate" for his particularly arrogant-looking stride in the art.
• Sac Tribe Elder — Sakura-Tribe Elder, which can be sacrificed to put a land onto your battlefield. Also known as Sac Elder, Saccy Tribe Elder and variations, or simply as STE or Steve.
• Fabio Lion, Fabulous Lion — Fleecemane Lion, mostly because of the fabulous mane in the card art. Other nicknames involve various brands of shampoo.
• Bear Punch — Savage Punch, which depicts Surrak Dragonclaw, well, punching a bear. The art is goofy, but the card is very strong in limited, which meant it saw quite a lot of play.
  • Gets exaggerated in Dragons of Tarkir with Epic Confrontation, depicting Surrak walloping a dragon silly with a Dragon Punch.
  • Acknowledged by Wizards in the non-canon comedy set Unstable with the card Really Epic Punch, which cuts Surrak out of the picture entirely and has a bear punching a dragon.
  • Goes Beyond the Impossible in Thrones of Eldraine with "Bear Suplex," AKA Outmuscle, which features an elf finding The Wrestler in All of Us and, as advertised, suplexing a fricking grizzly bear. It is a delightfully goofy callback that has to be seen to be believed.
• Clever Girl — Deathmist Raptor, which resembles the velociraptors from Jurassic Park and has a lot of tricky interactions. Also applied to other, similar Dinosaurs, such as Rampaging Ferocidons and Ripjaw Raptor.
• Ghost Daddy — Either Ghost Council of Orzhova or Odzedat, Ghost Council, which represent the leaders of the Orzhov Syndicate from Ravnica. Comes from them being akin to The Godfather in the Syndicate and undead.
• "Victor," "Vic," "Traitorous Abs, or "Mmm, those Abs" — Enthralling Victor, either playing on the fact that Victor is both a descriptor or a personal name, or else just focusing on the beefcake in the card art.
• Ancient Crap — Ancient Carp, an underwhelming, unplayable creature with an easily mocked name. Also a name for the similarly useless Ancient Crab
• Koratos — Munda, Ambush Leader, because of his resemblance to the video game character and use of chain hooks.
• Durdle Turtle — Meandering Towershell, a creature so slow it can only attack once every other turn. In Magic parlance, to "durdle" is to take a long time or perform an action that doesn't really have relevance to the game state. Interestingly enough, the playtest name of the card was Turtle McDurdle.
• Hypnotoad — The Gitrog Monster, because of its story. The Gitrog Monster has garnered a few other nicknames, the second most common one being the "Gitgud Toad".
• Elder Deep-Fried, Elder Deep-Friend, Deep-Fried Calamari — Elder Deep-Fiend.
• Big Pig — Decimator of the Provinces. The nickname comes from a short song in The Lion King 1994 and the fact that The Decimator is the largest Boar in Magic. Also used for the cheaper but very similar End-Raze Forerunners (the major difference is that the Decimator can be cheated into play easier thanks to the Emerge mechanic, while the End-Raze Forerunners grant Vigilance in addition to the bonus and Trample keyword).
• Looter Scooter — Smuggler's Copter, an absurdly efficient beater. It's called such because it's a vehicle that can draw a card then discard a card (called "looting" in MTG parlance). Also sometimes called Roflcopter after the meme.
  • "Get to da choppa!" — informal term shouted when crewing the Copter.
• "[X] on a plane!" — Sometimes said when a creature is used to crew a flying vehicle.
• Mogg Fantastic — the highly versatile Mogg Fanatic, although the end of damage using the stack has reduced its utility.
• Hazoret The Pervert, Doggo Mom — Hazoret The Fervent. The first comes from Hazoret's Masterpiece version, which has a hard-to-read font that...well, just look. "Doggo Mom" comes from how motherly she is to her subjects.
• Gay Kings — Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, which depicts, well, two kings who are lovers.
• Snek — Any card depicting a snake, thanks to the meme. Most often applied to Rhonas The Indomitable or Winding Constrictor.
• Scumble To Temptation — Succumb To Temptation, thanks to frequent mispronunciation by YouTuber SaffronOlive.
• Bonded Courier — Bomat Courier. Another SaffronOlive malapropism.
• Wisconsin Crab — Wishcoin Crab, a creature with amusing flavor text and easy-to-malaprop name, but is otherwise Limited filler.
• Mom — Mother of Runes, a cheap, powerful protective creature who can grant any of your creatures the ability to avoid single-target removal, get around blockers, or survive combat.
  • Stepmom — Giver of Runes, a slightly weaker version that trades being able to target itself and a relevant creature type for an extra point of toughness and the ability to protect from colorless things.
• Ren and Stimpy — Wrenn and Six, due to how they fit into oppressive play styles.
  • Also used for Rin and Seri, Inseparable, for pun and because the character depicted are a dog and a cat.
• T3feri, 3feri, Tef3ri — Teferi, Time Raveler, which has a casting cost of three compared to the five mana cost of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, which shared part of the same Standard season with it. The two are often used in the same deck, with the cheaper Teferi being used as a tempo play and a method of stopping instant-speed interaction from the opponent while the more expensive Teferi functions as a card advantage engine and eventual win condition. Teferi, Time Raveler tends to receive more discussion than Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, due to many players considering the low cost and the static ability limiting opponents to sorcery-speed plays as oppressive.
• Lab Man, LabMan — Laboratory Maniac, a frequent win condition in combo-oriented strategies.
• Mike & Trike — The combination of Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Triskelion, which creates an infinite damage loop that will win the game if not interrupted.^note Mikaeus gives non-Humans Undying, meaning they come back into play if they left play with no +1/+1 counters. Triskelion can remove its counters to do 1 damage to any target. Triskelion thus can do 1 damage to targets until it has 1 counter left, then do 1 damage to itself. It then comes back on the battlefield with 4 +1/+1 counters, ready to do the loop again.
• Swagtusk — Thragtusk, which was a decently expensive card during its standard season.
• Sword of the Anime — Sword of the Animist, Pun.
• Om Nom — Any of the various incarnations of the elemental legend Omnath, Locus of Mana/Rage/The Roil/Creation/All.
  • Angry Omnath, The Angry Jellybean — Omnath, Locus of Rage specifically.
• Porn Horn — Astral Cornucopia, which is currently the only spell in the game with a mana cost of XXX.
• Liliana of the Yale — Professor Onyx, a version of Liliana as she goes undercover as a professor at the magical school of Stixhaven. A play on Liliana of the Veil, one of her more infamous cards.
• Swords to Monkeyshares — Pongify, a play on the card's functional resemblance to Swords to Plowshares, an extremely efficient removal spell with a drawback that is easy to deal with in practice.
  • Path to Frogzile — Rapid Hybridization, a functionally identical card to Pongify, playing on Path to Exile, which is similar to the above-mentioned Swords To Plowshares.
• Darcy — Dragon's Rage Channeler, a nickname derived from the card's acronym "DRC".
• Larry's Disk, Larry Niven's Disk — Nevinyrral's Disk, which was a Sdrawkcab Name for Sci-Fi author Larry Niven.
  • Similarly, Nevinyrral himself is often called Larry.
• Baba Lasagna, Baby Lasagna — Baba Lysaga, Night Witch.
• Prime Time — Primeval Titan.
• Mentos, the Freshmaker — Lorthos, the Tidemaker, in reference to the commercials for Mentos candies.
• Shelly — any incarnation of Sheoldred, most commonly the Apocalypse.
• Monkey — Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Often accompanied by a variety of derogatory adjectives like "stupid monkey" as a result of Ragavan being a Game-Breaker that can quickly swing games if left unchecked.
• Amelia Bedelia — Amalia Benavides Aguirre, courtesy of Seth, Probably Better Known As SaffronOlive once again.
• Snorse that Bobs Wrong — Caustic Bronco, a Snake Horse (snorse) that has the same life-pay ability as Dark Confidant (Bob, see above) but can make your opponents lose life instead if it's saddled (does it wrong). Courtesy of LoadingReadyRun.

Decks or Strategies

• Many decks are named for their strategies.
  • Aggro or Weenie decks are decks designed with a low mana curve and a lot of creatures, aiming to finish the game within the first 4-6 turns. Tempo decks and Aggro-Control decks are a controlling variant that seeks to punish slower decks with disruption that doesn't necessarily stop the threats but does buy the Tempo Deck time to gain a commanding lead.
  • Control decks seek to dominate the board by crushing early creature swarms, keeping threats against them to a minimum, and disrupting problematic spells with discard abilities or countermagic. They aim to land a few late-game threats once they have established control over the game.
  • Midrange decks seek to deploy large creatures and planeswalkers, slowing down the board long enough with removal and blockers to develop the resources necessary to cast creatures that can then win the game in short order. Ramp decks are an off-shoot of Midrange decks that attempt to power out their expensive creatures very quickly using mana-producing creatures.
  • Combo decks are decks that seek to create and protect a very powerful combination of cards that create a quick win. There are various flavors of Combo — Infinite Combo (creating a self-perpetuating loop to generate some sort of overwhelming advantage), Reanimation (dropping extremely large creatures into the graveyard and then bringing them into play with much cheaper spells), Storm (casting a large number of spells in one turn, then using a card with the Storm ability to quickly capitalize on the large number of spells played that turn), and so on.
  • Other decks get names like Suicide Black, Señor Stompy, Red Deck Wins, Big Red, White Weenie and so on, which denote a narrow (but not single-card specific) focus.
• Other decks are named for their color combinations.
  • A Mono [Color] or [Color] Devotion deck is a deck consisting primarily of cards from a single color, possibly with a small number (or "splash") of cards from a secondary color. The latter is in reference to the Devotion mechanic, where some cards become stronger the more cards of their color you have out.
  • The two-color guilds from Ravnica (Azorius, Dimir, Rakdos, Gruul, Selesnya, Orzhov, Izzet, Golgari, Boros, Simic) are often used as stand-ins for two-color decks. (W/U, U/B, B/R, R/G, G/W, W/B, U/R, B/G, R/W, G/U, respectively).
  • The five shards of Alara (Bant, Esper, Grixis, Jund, Naya) are used for three-color decks in the allied color trios (G/W/U, W/U/B, U/B/R, B/R/G, R/G/W, respectively).
  • The five clans of Tarkir (Abzan, Jeskai, Sultai, Mardu, Temur) are used for three-color decks in the enemy wedge trios (W/B/G, U/R/W, B/G/U, R/W/B, G/U/R, respectively).
    • Prior to the Kahns of Tarkir block, W/B/G was known as Junk (for unclear reasons), U/R/W was referred to as American (because it is Red, White, and Blue), B/G/U and G/U/R were known as BUG and RUG, and R/W/B didn't have much of a nickname (previous naming attempts never caught on).
  • A five-color deck is known as 5color, Rainbow, or WUBRG (pronounced [WooBurg]). This last is because colors on the cards are printed in reverse alphabetical order, from White, blUe, Black, Red, and Green (Blue is U because B is Black and L is Land in design files).
    • A variation of a five-color deck is known as "Five-Color Good Stuff", where the deck doesn't follow much of any particular strategy and is just stuffed to the gills of cards from all colors that are just powerful on their own.
• Many other decks get known for the most prominent card. Examples:
  • Delver, which is a tempo deck revolving around the card Delver of Secrets and a large number of instants and sorceries. The general plan is to play a Delver of secrets early, flip it into an efficient flying beater, and then continually attack the opponent while using counters and burn to back it up and disrupt the opponent's plays.
  • The Aristocrats, relying on the cards Cartel Aristocrat and Falkenrath Aristocrat, as well as a large number of expendable creatures (either with recursion or though token generation) to keep them alive through removal and to evade blockers. Versions of this deck using the same general "sacrifice creatures for valuable effects" plan also get known as Aristocrats. The name is both a play on the two sacrifice outlets of the deck and the fact that the named cards do horrible things for entertainment and usually ends the game with a blasphemous act.
  • Valakut or Scapeshift decks rely on getting Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle and a large number of lands into play quickly and simultaneously using ramp spells (most notably Scapeshift or Primeval Titan) in order to produce a lethal amount of damage. Decks with Primeval Titan aiming of Valakut are also known as Titanshift decks, even if they don't contain Scapeshift.
  • Splinter Twin decks rely on enchanting a creature that can untap itself or others to produce an arbitrarily large number of creatures all at once to swarm over an opponent's defenses.
  • Pyromancer Ascension relies on getting cards with the same name into the graveyard in order to create powerful burn and draw effects to finish off an opponent.
  • "Faeries" is a tempo deck designed around using and abusing the Enter The Battlefield abilities of Faeries from the Lorwyn block, many of which could enter play as instants. The deck also used Bitterblossom to generate large numbers of faeries, both which could attack your opponent and which allowed Spellstutter Sprite to counter increasingly larger effects.
  • [creature]geddon decks were early Midrange decks focused around quickly playing a large threat (Erhnam Djinn, Autumn Willow, and Maro being the creatures of choice at the time) then following up with an Armageddon to deprive the opponent of lands (and thus the ability to react to the large threat). This deck fell out of favor after Armageddon stopped being reprinted.
  • "Jurassic Den" is a largely green deck that focuses on recurring Deathmist Raptor with Den Protector, getting back both the Raptor and a free card from the graveyard.
  • "Miracle Grow" or 'Miracle-Gro" decks used numerous low-cost library manipulation spells to pump a Quirion Dryad to lethal levels, along with other low-cost creatures as backup. Various versions of the deck with the same general gameplan have cropped up in the years since, and the name "Miracle Grow" has even been attached to a deck in a completely different CCG with a similar strategy.
  • "Suicide Necro" was a Necropotence deck with no way to get rid of its own Necropotence card, aiming to defeat the opponent fast before the lack of free card draw would become a problem. This concept later evolved into the general "Suicide Black" archetype.
  • Many combo decks are named after a single, prominent card that is key to the combo:Scapeshift, Ad Nauseam, Goryo's Vengeance, Living End, Jeskai Ascendancy...the list goes on.
  • And sometimes combo decks have compound names, like Kiki-Chord (Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Chord of Calling), Amulet Bloom (Amulet of Vigor and Summer Bloom), and so on that refer to the engine that powers the combo.
    • Some other decks of this type are: Grishoalbrand (Decks that use Goryo's Vengeance to cheat out a Griselbrand and Nourishing Shoal to gain enough life to continually abuse Griselbrand's card draw), Melira-Pod (using Birthing Pod to fetch out a Milira, Sylvok Outcast and then repeatedly sacrifice a Murderous Redcap for infinite damage), CopyCat or Crazy Cat Lady (combination of Saheeli Rai and Felidar Guardian to produce infinte creatures, much the same as Splinter Twin) and Prosperous Bloom (or ProsBloom for short) (using a combination of Cadaverous Bloom and an X-cost card drawer like Prosperity to either empty the opponent's library or fuel a single giant X-cost direct damage blast).
  • As mentioned above, "Tron" (or "Urzatron") is the collective name used for the three Urza lands (Tower, Mine and Power Plant), it's also the name of the deck archetype that focuses on getting these three lands into play as quickly as possible with land fetch cards and start playing huge colorless threats, commonly things like Karn Liberated or Ugin the Spirit Dragon. "Eldrazitron", as you may expect, refers to the variation that specializes in playing powerful Eldrazi using the huge mana boost.
  • "Cat Oven" is a Rakdos deck (in the broader Aristocrats archetype) thus named because the core of the deck is the combination of Cauldron Familiar (the titular cat) and Witch's Oven, obviously enough the cards have fantastic synergy as sacrificing the cat to the oven generates a food token, which can be used to bring the cat back, etc., while draining the opponent out - potentially several times a turn with multiple ovens.
• Other decks are named for the most prominent mechanic featured in the deck.
  • "Affinity," also called "Robots," is an aggressive artifact deck revolving around producing a lot of artifacts to pump up Arcbound Ravager or hitting an opponent with a creature equipped with a large Cranial Plating. named after the "Affinity for Artifacts" mechanic from the Mirrodin block, though most Affinity decks these days only feature a single card with the mechanic (if that).
  • "Dredge" uses graveyard-filling techniques, the Dredge mechanic, and other recursion techniques to fill up your own graveyard and then effectively tutor any card you need for a specific situation or simply reanimate huge monsters with powerful effects. Named for the Dredge mechanic from the Ravnica block.
  • "Fish" decks are aggressive blue decks. Many versions sport various forms of Merfolk.
  • "Skies" decks are (generally) Limited or Casual decks filled with mostly flying creatures as their main attack force. These decks are generally a mix of blue, white, and black (the three colors with the best flying creatures).
  • "Zoo" decks are competitive aggressive decks, usually containing white, green, and red, which use quick creatures, burn, and cheap removal to clear the way and attack in. It gets its name from the combination of creatures it plays, which are typically things you'd find in a zoo—apes (Kird Ape), large cats (Steppe Lynx, Wild Nacatl, Fleecemane Lion, Savannah Lions, Brimaz, King of Oreskos, and various flavors of the planeswalker Ajani), wolves (Watchwolf), and even dogs (Jackal Pup, Isamaru, Hound of Konda).
    • "Suicide Zoo" is a form of this deck that plays cards that intentionally lower their own life total to get the most out of Death's Shadow. The deck otherwise plays most of the same spells as Zoo.
  • "Burn" decks are decks that rely primarily or exclusively to dealing damage to the opponent via cheap, efficient red spells (Lightning Bolt, Rift Bolt, Lava Spike, Skullcrack, Lightning Helix, Boros Charm, etc.) rather than attempting to win with creature attacks. Burn is relatively cheap to build, so most decks in formats where a lot of powerful damage spells are legal have to prepare to face it.
  • "Red Deck Wins" or "Deadguy Red" decks differ from burn in that they are more concerned with playing creature spells that can attack early (Jackal Pup, Ash Zealot, Zurgo Bellstriker, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Boros Reckoner, Hellrider, and so on) and using damage spells to remove potential blockers, getting an opponent low enough in life that 1-2 burn spells can finish the job. A good way to tell the difference between Burn and Red Deck Wins is: if the early spells are hitting you, it's Burn. If they're hitting your creatures, it's Red Deck Wins.
  • "Pants," "Voltron," or "Bogles" decks focus on getting out a few hard-to-remove creatures and then suiting them up with enchantments and equipment in order to make them huge.
  • [blank].dec is a common snowclone for various decks, describing the basic strategy in an offhand way. Burn.dec, Goodstuff.dec, Curveout.dec, Permission.deck, Red.dec, 43Land.dec, Long.dec, etc. The .dec designation comes from a simple file format for an app used to quickly build deck cardlists.
  • "Turbofog" decks are decks that rely on a number of cards that prevent combat damage (such as Fog) or kill numerous creatures at once (such as Wrath of God) along with card-drawing effect to stall the game long enough to set up some sort of mana-intensive win condition, usually a combo (or by stalling the game long enough that the opponent decks themselves).
  • Decks which focus on summoning various different Planeswalkers into play are called "Super Friends decks".
  • "Soul Sisters" decks are focused on using various creatures that gain life when other creatures enter the battlefield (most notably Soul Warden, Soul's Attendant, Auriok Champion, and Suture Priest) to stall out aggressive decks long enough to play a potentially giant creature like Serra Ascendant or Ajani's Pridemate to close out the game.
  • "Tribal" decks are named after the Tribal supertype introduced in the Lorwyn block, which gave creature types to noncreature cards. They're usually called "X Tribal", X being the creature type the deck is built around, like "Goblin Tribal" or "Wizard Tribal". Less strictly, in some cases X can be more than just a creature type; for instance, "Siege Rhino Tribal" uses 4 copies of Siege Rhino and numerous ways to clone it, "[planeswalker name] tribal" refers to decks that run a bunch of planeswalker cards representing the same character, and "wrath tribal" can refer to a deck that runs a ton of board wipe effects. Even sillier, there are things like "Chair Tribal" (which runs nonland cards that depict chairs of any sort), or "[artist] tribal" (which runs nonland cards with art done by a given artist).
  • "(Number)(Cardname)" decks, such as Twelvepost, Eightwhack, Eightrack, etc. are named such because they contain numerous cards with an effect that is important to the strategy, and are usually named after the most famous card that produces that effect. Twelvepost, for instance, features Cloudpost, Glimmerpost, and Vesuva and relies on getting numerous Cloudposts to generate large amounts of mana quickly; 8-Whack is an aggressive deck featuring Goblin Bushwhacker and Reckless Bushwhacker to power huge attacks out of nowhere; 8-Rack features numerous discard spells and cards which punish players for having few to no cards in hand, such as The Rack (the actual number of Rack-like cards varies, as there are actually numerous cards which can produce a similar effect, but you only need to play 8-10 of them to achieve the necessary amount of threat). The number will always be a multiple of 4 because, under normal circumstances, you are only allowed up to four copies of a card (other than basic lands) in your deck/sideboard combined.
• Other decks get known for the player who won an important tournament with it, or who is credited for building it.
  • Sligh was known for Paul Sligh, who created the first modern Red Aggro deck. This deck would later go on to accumulate other names (Deadguy Red, Red Deck Wins), but is still known as Sligh in many circles.
  • Mike Long played Long.dec, an infamous vintage combo deck that could win on the first turn by using Burning Wish, a ton of cheap (or free!) mana accelerators (such as the Moxes, Black Lotus, Lion's Eye Diamond, and so on) and Yawgmoth's will to dump a hand full of cards into the graveyard, then cast enough spells for a lethal burn from Storm cards.
• A couple of decks, mostly combo decks, somehow are named after breakfast cereals or other food.
  • "Fruity Pebbles" is a deck running the combo of Enduring Renewal, Goblin Bombardment, and a free creature like Shield Sphere to deal infinite damage. According to urban legend, someone said "You have to be Fruity Pebbles to play this deck" and the name stuck, though more likely it refers to the colors of the cards and the fact that Bombardment only deals one point of damage at a time ("firing pebbles", as it were).
  • "Wheaties" is Fruity Pebbles, with added Recurring Nightmare and Survival of the Fittest.
  • "Cocoa Pebbles" is Fruity Pebbles using Necropotence to draw cards.
  • "Trix" is Illusions of Grandeur / Donate.
  • "Full English Breakfast", which parodies the above names, uses Volrath's Shapeshifter and Survival of the Fittest to get a Phyrexian Dreadnought into play without sacrificing anything. It often uses Flowstone Hellion and timing trickery to boost the Shapesifted Dreadnought into a 23/1 trampling beatstick of doom.
  • "Second Breakfast", or "Eggs Sunny Side Up" ("Eggs" for short), named for the key card Second Sunrise and revolved around using lands and artifacts that could be sacrificed (or in MTG parlance, "cracked") for effects that helped draw cards, recover cards — like the Sunrise — from the graveyard, generate mana, and all sorts of other bonuses. The deck won by setting things up so that a single play of Sunrise could return a Sunrise to the hand, return an artifact to play that sacrificed itself to deal damage and net the mana to pay for both. That, or just using the massive number of spells cast that turn to Grapeshot someone for massive damage. Eggs has since become a more generic name for decks with the same "sacrifice small artifacts that draw you cards for value" gameplan.
  • "Cheerios" attempts to cast and recast a large number of artifacts with 0 casting cost in order to gain a large amount of life with Aetherflux Reservoir, in order to get to a high enough life total to win the game on the spot with a single activation. A different deck, also called Cheerios, attempts to get value out of having a large number of zero-cost kobolds. The Cheerios name comes from the 0 mana symbol.
    • A different build of Cheerios uses Puresteel Paladin, Sram, Senior Edificer, and a boatload of 0-cost artifacts to generate a ton of Storm count for a lethal Grapeshot, or to equip a single creature for massive damage if that fails.
  • "Cephalid Breakfast", named for Cephalid Illusionist, revolved around using the Illusionist's milling triggered ability combined with a 0-cost targeted ability (such as Nomads en-Kor) to dump your whole deck into your graveyard, including Narcomoeba, Dread Return, and a win condition like Sutured Ghoul to win quickly.
• A brief, strange fad involved naming decks after a completely unrelated bad card. "Solidarity" is the best known of those, being a typically mono-Blue High Tide/Reset-fuelled combo deck that had nothing to do with its namesake card Solidarity.
• "Weenie Madness": a particular deckbuilding style, wherein a player will load his deck down with inconsequential, very weak creatures, and mana-regenerators. Lots of them. The power of a 'Weenie Madness' deck lies in the sheer number of expendable creatures: while more powerful creatures take a larger amount of mana to summon, and thus are less common, Weenie Madness-appropriate creatures are weak enough that they are plentiful in any M:tG deck. Thus, while the other player expends Mana on a few select 'power creatures', the Weenie Madness deck can just keep going, overwhelming its opponent by sheer force of numbers.
• Sonic Boom: Using Guile's special ability (which allows you to play yourself a spell you counter) to throw a direct damage spell back at your opponent. Named after the signature move of Guile from Street Fighter.
• "Nic Fit" is a ramp deck for the Legacy format (mostly known for fast combo and low-to-the-ground aggro decks) that is looking to fetch out lands with Veteran Explorer, control the board with Pernicious Deed, then win with large, hard-to-deal-with threats (creatures vary based on taste)
• "Rock" decks (also known as "The Rock") are an archetypal Midrange deck, usually black and green with the occasional splash of a third color. The goal of the deck is to play a lot of disruption alongside solid removal. Other features include Regrowth effects, sweepers, and card draw. Once the game is under control, the deck would play a big fat finisher to close the game quickly. The nickname originates from the catchphrase "The Rock and his Millions," as the original version of the deck used Phyrexian Plaguelord in conjunction with Deranged Hermit as finishers — the Plaguelord is a huge beater that can sacrifice creatures to clear out any blockers, and Deranged Hermit provides a huge amount of disposable token creatures relatively cheaply.
• "Group Hug" decks are usually only seen in multiplayer games. Often Group Hug decks do not have a way to win on their own. Instead, the goal of the player piloting is to extend the game as long as possible by supporting whatever player is currently behind, and moderating the effects each player can play and resolve.
  • "Group Slug" decks are multiplayer decks designed with the intention of interfering with and damaging all the players (or just all the opponents) at once through discard, effects that punish players for doing common game actions (such as tapping lands or drawing cards), remove permanents, prevent certain game actions (playing cards that stop players from searching libraries, for instance, or that force all creatures to attack every turn even if attacking is unfavorable). Often, the goal of the deck is not to win but to cause as much player misery as possible.
• "Pillowfort" decks are another multiplayer strategy. The strategy is political in nature, attempting to make being attacked by an opponent undesirable or futile, thus making the rest of the opponents attack each other. This is achieved through cards that prevent damage or punishing players for attacking, so called Pillows. This also allows players enough time to assemble a combo or series of plays which let them win the game.
• "Stax" decks are a multiplayer strategy that relies on resource denial, taxing effects, disruption, and sacrifice enablers the potentially lock down opponents and make it difficult to cast spells, play creatures, attack, or have any sort of reliable board state. The goal is to build to set up effects which you are more easily prepared to deal with than your opponents, then set up your win conditions unopposed. Name comes from the card Smokestack, one of the key cards in early decks of this type.
• "Death and Taxes" is a more aggressive variant of Stax strategy, using cheap creatures with disruptive abilities - primarily white, sometimes with black or green splash - and supporting them with equipments to quickly whittle down opponents before they gather enough resources to respond. This style is more common in 1v1 formats, especially Modern and Legacy.
• "Voltron" decks (not to be confused with "Tron" decks, which are usually Urzatron decks as mentioned in the Specific Cards section) have the goal of casting one creature, then using other cards such as Auras and Equipment to enhance that creature and making it a true threat to the opponent. Voltron decks can be found in any format, but are usually the most effective in the Commander format, due to several rules (you always have access to at least one creature in the form of your commander, and if your commander deals enough damage to a player they lose, regardless of how much life they may have). Cards which give a creature evasion — such as providing flying or trample — are key, as well as cards that boost power and toughness and/or protection from removal.
• Toolbox decks try to prepare for as many situations as possible by running a wide array of single copies of various utility creatures and hatebears, alongside ways to search the deck for a specific creature when the situation requires it, like Chord of Calling.
  • "Pod" decks are a specific type of toolbox deck that put creatures from the deck to the hand/directly in to play by sacrificing weaker creatures. Named for the card Birthing Pod.
• "Spellslinger" decks are decks focused around extensive use of Instants and Sorceries, typically with ways to copy the spell effects or chain multiple effects in a single turn.
• "Clone" decks are decks containing numerous creatures (and other permanents) that create or become copies of permanents already on the battlefield. Comes from, naturally, the card Clone.
• "Chaos" decks use spell effects that create chaotic games through randomized effects. Chaos decks are typically multiplayer-specific decks built more to Troll than to actually win.
• The nicknames of various lists are parodied by LoadingReadyRun here and here.
• As mentioned above, "Aristocrats" decks are built around generating numerous creatures which you then sacrifice yourself for value, often using recursion to return those creatures to play to use again. The deck was originally named after two key cards, Cartel Aristocrat and Falkenrath Aristocrat (both of which get buffs from sacrificing creatures), but given the flavor of the cards and inclusions of cards like Blasphemous Act, the connections to the infamous joke were obvious. Since then, the term has come to refer to any deck with the same general sacrifice creatures for value gameplan, a large number of which do seem to feature various aristocratic beings in the artwork.
• "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride" is a meme-tastic Legacy Deck that can attempt a quick win by dropping a Fluctuator (which reduces the cost of the Cycling ability, which allows you to discard the card to draw a new one) and a deck full of cards with Cycling costs that the Fluctuator can reduce to 0, allowing you to essentially draw and discard to your heart's content, allowing you to quickly get through your deck to pieces that can actually win the game.
• "Scam" is a Modern Rakdos deck that focuses on getting the powerful Elemental Incarnations Grief and Fury on the battlefield early by evoking them and using a card like Undying Malice to return them to the battlefield for a single mana while also making them stronger and letting their enter-the-battlefield effect happen twice (once when evoked and again upon returning from the graveyard). This lets Grief exile two problematic cards from the opponent's hand while Fury tears opposing creatures to shreds, making it hard to answer the deck from any angle. The deck also tends to feature the incredibly powerful one-drop Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. Instead of being named after a card or a mechanic, the deck seems to bear this name simply because when it goes off, it feels like you're scamming the opponent out of playing the game.

Others and Meta

• MaRo — Mark Rosewater, Head Designer. Came from the card Maro, which was accidentally named when a file was sent to the Creative department with the abbreviation of his name listed as the creator of the card; Creative figured that it was a made-up fantasy name, and used it.
• SPBKASO — "Seth, probably better known as SaffronOlive," is the catchphrase of a popular MTG YouTuber who creates many interesting budget and off-the-wall rogue decks. He is also responsible for a good number of MTG nicknames thanks to his penchant for malapropism and mispronunciation (some of which is most definitely deliberate).
• Ironic Masters — Iconic Masters, a reprint set which contained few cards many Magic Players considered iconic of the game. The set was supposedly focused on the Iconic Creature Types of each color (Angels for White, Dragons for red, Demons for Black, Sphinxes for Blue, and Hydras for Green), but, ironically enough, failed to actually contain more than a handful of each of those as well. Often considered to be one of the worst (if not the worst) of the Masters sets.
• Jank — A card perceived to be bad, or at least inefficient. Also appears in adjective form as Janky.
• Bomb — Opposite to Jank, that is to say, powerful, game-changing cards. Both terms can be context specific: for example, a card may be called a limited bomb but constructed jank; this means that card is very powerful in limited environment, but generally useless in constructed formats.
• Battlecruiser Magic — A play pattern that revolves around players using big Bombs, usually powerful creatures of five or more mana, and continuously sending them in combat against your opponent's own big Bombs. Battlecruiser Magic is often correlated with casual play (since competitive play usually focuses more on synergy and efficiency rather than just big beefy creatures) but that's not a rule.
• Mana Screw/Mana Flood — Either drawing too few lands to cast spells, or drawing too many lands and too few other cards. Both states lead to game losses. Mana Flood is also known as "flooding out."
  • Color Screw - Not getting enough mana of a necessary color. As the number of colors you are playing in a single deck goes up, the odds of not getting the necessary color to play your spells also increases.
  • Mana Fixing — An effect that helps get you either the number of lands you need to cast your spells, or the right colors. Dual Lands are a common example.
  • Mana Weaving - Physically arranging your deck so that there is a land for every few cards in the deck, "weaving" a land in-between cards. Although most tournament rules require that you give your opponent an option to shuffle your deck before the game actually begins thus potentially undoing the setup, some people still express disdain to mana weaving practice.
• Magical Christmas Land — A extremely rare situation where a deck or combo goes as hoped or extremely well. Used derogatorily in reference to decks that are inconsistent or very weak to disruption.
• Nonbo — A combination of cards that seems to work together synergystically at a glance, but when analyzed and actually executed fails because some parts of the combo violates rules or doesn't actually do things the way it's envisioned. Related, but rarer, is "bombo", a combination of card plays that actually hurts you.
• Broken — A card that's too good, to the point of warping the metagame so that virtually all decks either use the card or are specifically built to answer it. The line between a card being merely very good and being outright broken is a point of much discussion among players. Bah-roken is the more extreme version, reserved for the likes of Tolarian Academy and Yawgmoth's Will.
• Gas — Something that's extremely good. Comes from a hand full of good cards being referred to as a "hand full of gas" (as in, the gas to fuel the deck), but has since mutated to simple card advantage. "Not enough gas", for instance, usually refers to a deck that cannot maintain hand advantage to continue playing the cards it wants to play.
• Dece/Deece, Pretty Dece — An abbreviation for "decent". In practice, it really means better than decent, and is closer to meaning something that's not groundbreaking, but is very good. "Dece plus" is a variation.
• Value — Getting a lot of mileage out of a single card or action. Has been extended to become an adjective ("that card is straight value").
• Tech — Short for technology. A card with a specific use that makes it contextually powerful in certain match-ups and metagames. It can be used both for narrow hosers and for cards that are all-round good but have added utility in a certain context. The correct usage is to specify that a card is tech against something in particular ("tech against Affinity", "tech against mill" etc). However, Memetic Mutation has meant the term has drifted so the phrase "card X is tech" also gets used in a similar way to bomb, value, dece and so on.
• Flunge — Committing most, if not all, of your creatures on hand into a large Alpha Strike. Also known as "swinging in with the team".
• Topdeck, Mise and/or Rip: drawing the exact card you need at exactly the right time; usually setting up a win, answering a major threat or otherwise turning around the game. Having no cards in hand is sometimes called "Topdeck mode". Mise is a corruption of "might as well (draw X/do X/win)" and was popular enough slang to earn an Unhinged card, with the flavor text giving a (mostly) accurate definition.
• Netdecking — A deck list copied from the internet, usually implying one that has won or at least placed highly at a Magic tournament. Often used as a pejorative by players who feel using premade decklists to win games cheapens the experience (usually out of jealousy because they can't afford all the cards in said decklist).
• Hate draft — A form of card denial during draft where a player deliberately picks a card that doesn't synergize with the rest of their pool under the belief that someone else down the drafting queue will benefit from that card.
• Combo Winter: Winter 1998, after the release of the Urza's Saga set, during which the Metagame was dominated by a large number of high-powered combo decks that were often capable of winning on the first or second turn.
  • Eldrazi Winter — February to April 2016, when absurdly powerful decks featuring Eldrazi from the then-new Oath of the Gatewatch set combined with Eldrazi-specific mana celebrants (primarily Eldrazi Temple and Eye of Ugin) from the previous Zendikar block combined to create an unholy union of fast, powerful Eldrazi-based decks that crushed the Modern metagame until Eye of Ugin was banned.
  • Black Summer — The first "terrible metagame season", Black Summer was the summer of 1996, in which Magic tournaments were dominated entirely by decks either abusing the powerful card Necropotence, or specifically built to beat Necropotence decks.
  • Elktoberfest — October/November 2019, when the planeswalker Oko, Thief of Crowns came to dominate the Standard metagame to an absurd degree after the "not really an emergency banning because we moved the date up to make it official" banning of the card Field of the Dead, which had already created an oppressive metagame (oops). As it turns out, a card ability that can either turn your own cards into decent threats or neuter the abilities and size of an opponent's best threats and/or value engines is really, really good, especially when it increases a planeswalker's loyalty instead of decreasing it (as many similar utility abilities usually do).
• Chromanticore Challenge — A Self-Imposed Challenge during Theros block drafts, involving picking up the Awesome, but Impractical Chromanticore on sight and then building your deck around it. While functional during the Born of the Gods drafts where one can pick it first and then let it decide the plan, it becomes significantly harder with a full block draft, as taking on the Chromanticore Challenge there means discarding all drafting plans you had made during the first pack's picks.
• The current planeswalkers are collectively known as "Neowalkers", "Bradywalkers" or "The Brady Bunch", after Brady Dommermuth. (They have a lot of other nicknames, but "Neowalkers" and "Bradywalkers" are the most printable.)
• Yawgmoth is also called Yawgie or Ol' Yawgie in forums.
• The current factions of Phyrexia are known as [Colour]rexians depending on the colour of mana they require. "Whiterexia" seems to be the most popular.
  • A derogatory term used by fans of older Phyrexia who dislike the newer incarnation is Faux-rexia.
• The Jacetice League, The Jacetus League — Derisive nickname for The Gatewatch, the group of Planeswalkers consisting (currently) of Jace Beleren, Gideon Jura, Chandra Nalaar, Nissa Revane, Liliana Vess, and Ajani Goldmane on whom much of the current storyline is focused. The main bone of contention seems to be with the focus on these characters over other, arguably more interesting planeswalkers, as well as the Hatedom around Jace Beleren in particular. Maro making it clear he doesn't like the name helped make the name popular among Gatewatch detractors. The term fell into disuse when the Gatewatch's story effectively ended with War of the Spark.
• ChannelFireball - The Shipping of Nissa Revane (an elf who can channel mana) and Chandra Nalaar (a pyromancer), who have been given lots of UST in the official lore. ChannelFireball is the name of one of the earliest degenerate combos in Magic's history, using fast mana like Black Lotus and the Moxes with Channel to generate enough mana to make turn 1 lethal fireball.
  • Gruulfriends is also used sometimes, since the red-green guild in Ravnica is the Gruul Clans.
• Chad - Gideon Jura, one of the Gatewatch Planeswalkers, who tends to be depicted as the Jock of the group.
  • For a while "Beefcake" was popular too, corrupted from Liliana's own in-universe nickname for him, "Beefslab".
• Timmy/Tammy, Johnny/Jenny, Spike - The three main types of player. Based on the psychographic profiles developed by Wizards to explore why players play the game. Note that players tend to be a mix of these, but most pull strongly towards one of these three profiles
  • Timmy/Tammy - A player interested in the game as an experience. Timmy/Tammy is characterized as liking large creatures, splashy plays, and social interaction. Often dismissively thought of as newbies or casuals by Spikes and Johnnies/Jennies. Timmies/Tammies see Johnnies/Jannies as too focused on certain combos and Spikes as too bent on winning.
  • Johnny/Jenny - A player interested in the game as an expression. Johnny/Jenny is characterized as liking to win in strange ways with weird cards, and like winning games by approaching the meta from a unique, personalized angle, of with powerful but inefficient combos and rogue brews. Often dismissively thought of (usually by Spikes) as Scrubs who dislike "Netdeckers" because they are always getting beat by them. Johnnies/Jennies see Timmies/Tammies as simplistic and Spikes as uptight and unoriginal.
  • Spike - A player interested in the game as a challenge. Spike (the term is gender-neutral) is characterized as being competitive-focused and playing to win, entering tournaments to prove themselves and aggressively searching for the best cards and best decks. Often dismissively thought of (usually by Johnnies/Jennies) as arrogant and unoriginal "Stop Having Fun" Guys who squeeze the joy out of the game with their excessive Netdecking and competitiveness. Spikes see Timmies/Tammies as rookies and Johnnies/Jennies as eccentric and annoying.
• Vorthos and Mel - A different axis altogether, Vorthos and Mel describe players who find beauty in certain aspects of the game. It is possible to be both Vorthos and Mel, or neither.
  • Vorthos is the flavor player, who is interested in artwork, lore, and appreciates cards based on creative consistency and flavor.
  • Mel (Melvin/Melanie) is the mechanics player, focused on how a card works, how well the mechanics fit together, and appreciates cards based on how well they work as part of the game.
• Goldfishing - To test your deck by playing a game against an imaginary opponent who does nothing. The term refers to a theoretical scenario where you "play" against a pet goldfish.
• Pubstomping, Pubstomper — A specific brand of unsportsmanlike conduct, where a person wishing to join a group of casual players deliberately misidentifies the power level of their deck to lull other players into a false sense of security and then proceeds to crush them for a relatively easy victory. A term imported from Dota fandom for a similar behavior between a coordinated team facing an uncoordinated one.