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{{work}}
This page is for tropes that appear in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]''{{'}}s gameplay (as opposed to [[Magic: The Gathering/Flavor And Story Tropes|tropes that appear in its flavor and storyline]]).
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* [[Action Bomb]]: Blowing oneself up is a favorite tactic of red cards, particularly among goblins. Examples include but are not limited to [http://magiccards.info/evg/en/46.html Mudbutton Torchrunner], [http://magiccards.info/sh/en/91.html Mogg Bombers], [http://magiccards.info/rav/en/151.html War-Torch Goblin], [http://magiccards.info/evg/en/43.html Ib Halfheart]'s suicide troops, and whichever schmuck ends up carrying the [http://magiccards.info/fe/en/114.html Goblin Grenade].
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* [[Army of the Ages]]: The basic premise of the game, with you as the summoner.
* [[Art Evolution]]:
** Due to both a preference for more detailed, elaborate art, and much more meticulous guidance given to the artists. When the company commissioned the art for the card [http://magiccards.info/al/en/23.html Lord of the Pit], they reportedly gave the artist a one-word instruction: "balrog". (This was years before the [[The Lord of the Rings]] movies were made.) Under the circumstances, it came out pretty well, but today artists get multi-paragraph descriptions of what the image on the card should look like, generally designed taking into account both exactly what the card itself does and the flavor and description of the world of the current set. Nowadays comprehensive style guides and concept art are made for each set, or consecutive block of set that share the same setting: for example, the goblins of the current Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged block have a large round head with a sharp snout and long pointed ears.
** In addition, the cards' frames themselves have been updated. All frames have become less blocky and are no longer of an equal width all the way around, and the texturing used in each has been changed.
** Many cards have related illustrations: basic lands in the same set are usually cut from a wide panorama, and for example the most recent [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205226 Holy Strength] and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=205237 Unholy Strength] face each other vertically.
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* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: A key part of the game, every spell you cast or ability you activate has some sort of exchange going on. Even the most simple of cards require you to generate mana and fill precious deck slots with the given cards to work. Some more elaborate spells ask for more tangible costs such as [[Cast from Hit Points|life payments]], discarding cards, or sacrificing permanents. Most of the game's problems have come from cards doing far more in return for what you paid for them...
* [[Everything's Better with Chickens]]: ''Unglued'' had a lot of fun with chickens, which would be out of place in any normal expansion.
* [[Everything's Better with Penguins]]: ''Unhinged'' brings us the rather unusual [https://web.archive.org/web/20081002013213/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=73956 Curse of the Fire Penguin], which turns a creature into a penguin. And it's contagious.
* [[Everythings Nuttier With Squirrels]]: According to Mark Rosewater, the game has squirrels because [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr30 the designers thought they were cool].
* [[Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods]]:
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* [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]: the enchantment cards [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fear Fear], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lifelink Lifelink] and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Vigilance Vigilance] give the enchanted creature the abilities ''Fear'', ''Lifelink'', and ''Vigilance'' respectively.
* [[Expansion Pack]]: In a sense; each set is an expansion to the ever-widening game, though each block can be played independently as well.
* [[Fan Nickname]]: [[Lampshaded]]. [https://web.archive.org/web/20090511071338/http://ww2.wizards.com/
* [[Fan-Speak]]: Magic players have created an extensive vocabulary of slang terms and technical jargon. [[Magic: The Gathering/Useful Notes|This]] Useful Notes pages has some examples.
* [[Fastball Special]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=191094&type=card Stone Giant], among others, can be tapped to hurl a creature into the air to attack your opponent directly or block an enemy flyer. This is generally not a survivable experience for the creature.
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'''Player 1:''' Counterspell on Player 2's Counterspell. }}
:: And so on. If they do this by piling the cards onto each other (or playing online), then the trope is being played literally.
* [[Gambling Game]]:
** Originally, the official default way of playing the game was called Ante: At the start of the game players would put a random card from their deck on the table, and the winner of the game would keep the ante cards. There are a handful of cards that interact with the Ante mechanic, and must be removed from the deck prior to playing a non-Ante game. Ante proved wildly unpopular, resulting in non-Ante becoming the official default playstyle; WotC stopped printing Ante Cards, and Ante format Sanctioned Events are not allowed. Even so, official Ante rules do exist as of September 24, 2021: "each player puts one random card from their deck into the ante zone after determining which player goes first but before players draw any cards. Cards in the ante zone may be examined by any player at any time. At the end of the game, the winner becomes the owner of all the cards in the ante zone."
** The tourney-exclusive format Grandmaster plays a starter deck trimmed from 60 cards down to 40 cards. Grandmaster tourneys were run with an 8-player bracket: the winner of a match obtains their opponent's deck - which can be used to improve or rebuild their own during the rest of the tournament - and after the first match, the remaining players would have a 60 card minimum. The winner of the tourney gets to keep all the cards they won.
** Mini Masters was initially a variant of Grandmaster, and carried over the same card-claiming rules in its earliest incarnations.
* [[Game Breaker]]: <!-- NOTE TO EDITORS: Yes, there is a separate page for GameBreaker/MagicTheGathering, but please DON'T link to it here, as the examples on it are subjective. You can find it linked on the YMMV subpage. The section on this page is for IN-UNIVERSE and PLAYED WITH examples only. -->
** [[Lampshaded]] on [http://magiccards.info/tr/en/36.html Deep Analysis], whose art depicts the famously powerful (in its heyday) [http://magiccards.info/ud/en/134.html Masticore] with the flavor text "The specimen seems to be broken."
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* [[Hit Points]]: 20 for each player to start, though it can get very low, very high, and some cards even let the player [[Determinator|keep going]] [[Only Mostly Dead|with 0 or less]]. Creatures also have these (in the form of toughness), but theirs reset each turn as long as they take less-than-fatal damage. Planeswalkers have Loyalty points which work a lot like the player's hit points.
* [[Hive Mind]]:
** The sliver race. Slivers don't just have Haste, their abilities generally read like "All Slivers have Haste"; there is at least one sliver for every ability with a name and even some slivers with no ability, they just exploit others'. Naturally there was also the [[Hive Queen|Sliver]] [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5233 Queen], to which succeeded the [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=45166 Sliver Overlord], to which succeeded the [[Hive Mind]] itself, [https://web.archive.org/web/20090519073631/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=136146 with its newfound consciousness].
** The Selesnya Conclave apparently also has a weak Hive Mind of some sorts. Hinted at by the Convoke mechanic.
* [[Homage]]:
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* [[Interface Screw]]: The preview of the [http://wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/396 Rise of the Eldrazi] set did this to your browser!
* [[Joke Character]]: Variation: each block typically contains at least one entirely awful card, deliberately put there just for the people who love to try and make it work. The game is such that they usually can.
* [[Junk Rare]]: There are a lot of these, usually [[They Plotted a Perfectly Good Waste|on purpose]]. Mark Rosewater, the head designer, wrote a lengthy [[Justified Trope|justification]] of the practice titled [https://web.archive.org/web/20090602111149/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom
* [[A Kind of One]]: It was common in the game's early days for creatures to have unique creature types based on their names, leading to types like "Aladdin" or "Uncle Istvan". Most of them are now defunct, but a couple of these odd one-of types had the honor of later being upgraded into their own races: notably, Atog and Lhurgoyf. Some just stayed as one-ofs, like the solitary Brushwagg.
* [[Kingmaker Scenario]]: Frequently crops up in multiplayer games when [[Alice and Bob|Bob]]'s position is too weak to win the game, but strong enough to pick a side and swing the game in favor of either [[Alice and Bob|Alice]] or [[Alice and Bob|Carl]] at his whim.
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** It's possible to attack your opponent's lands, denying them their mana.
** The "Mana burn" mechanic that left the game with the Magic 2010 rules changes is, ironically, not an example.
* [[Mana Drain]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1491 Mana Drain], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3903 Drain Power], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20071103211232/http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=25567 Mana Short], among others.
* [[Man-Eating Plant]]: [http://magiccards.info/dk/en/38.html Carnivorous Plant]
* [[Mega Manning]]:
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* [[Metagame]]: Probably the best-known instance; decks that dominate one tournament can get curbstomped in the next due to metagame changes.
* [[Mook Maker]]: A staple effect. Examples included but are ''definitely'' not limited to: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Breeding%20Pit Breeding Pit], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Kjeldoran%20Outpost Kjeldoran Outpost], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Thallid Thallid], [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The%20Hive The Hive], [http://magiccards.info/on/en/309.html Riptide Replicator], ''[http://magiccards.info/ts/en/263.html Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII]'', [http://magiccards.info/mbs/en/117.html Myr Turbine], and many, many more.
* [[Multiple Demographic Appeal]]: The minds behind Magic R&D have actually created three psychographic profiles -- "Johnny", "Timmy", and "Spike" -- representing three different demographics for the game. See [https://web.archive.org/web/20080925103817/http://www.wizards.com/
* [[My Defense Need Not Protect Me Forever]]: It's common for slower strategies to establish defenses in the early game just to buy time to reach the later stages.
* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: If you are playing in a multiplayer game and you die, all the cards you own disappear from the game. This is primarily so that you don't have to stick around until the end of the game just to get back the enchantment you put on somebody else's creature.
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* [[Power Creep]]: Of a sort. Creatures started rather poorly and rose in power and usefulness over time (compare Alpha's [http://magiccards.info/al/en/103.html Force of Nature] to Zendikar's [http://magiccards.info/zen/en/187.html Terra Stomper], both 8/8 green creatures), while some early spells were considered too powerful and weaker versions were released to replace them ([http://magiccards.info/al/en/55.html Counterspell] vs. [http://magiccards.info/m12/en/47.html Cancel]). Cards that experience either are often considered "[https://web.archive.org/web/20140216103446/http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Strictly_better strictly better/worse]".
* [[Powers as Programs]]: Creature enchantments are this. As are equipment; yes, it's possible for a bird to carry three swords, a shield, and armor clearly designed with humans in mind. Could they be [[Morph Weapon|Morph Weapons]]? It sounds like something [[A Wizard Did It|a Planeswalker could do]], but we might never know.
* [[Power Equals Rarity]]: An interesting case. Although many rares are more powerful than their common or uncommon counterparts, powerful cards are not exclusively rare. Additionally, rarity is used to balance Limited formats (in which players build decks out of a random or semi-random pool of cards). And this is only scratching the surface--whole essays can ([https://web.archive.org/web/20090602111149/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom
* [[Practical Taunt]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=39890 Taunting Elf] causes all of the defending opponent's creatures to block it when it attacks.
* [[Quad Damage]]:
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* [[Serious Business]]: [[Tournament Play]]. This makes sense, because Wizards of the Coast provides some ''serious'' prize support. A single tournament can net the winner upwards of $40,000, and they've given away over $25 million in total cash prizes since they started running major tournaments. Several players have lifetime winnings in excess of $100,000, and that doesn't count minor tournaments or free plane trips to exotic foreign locales (though admittedly, you're there to play Magic, so perhaps "dreary foreign convention centre floors" would be more accurate). Of course, this trope often appears in full force even when there isn't a pile of cash at stake.
* [[Serial Escalation]]:
** Early expansions made a game of one-upping each other, with every other expansion introducing a new "largest creature in the game." First there was the 8/8 [http://magiccards.info/al/en/103.html Force of Nature] in ''Alpha'', then the 9/9 [http://magiccards.info/aq/en/11.html Colossus of Sardia] in ''Antiquities'', then the 10/10 [http://magiccards.info/dk/en/29.html Leviathan] in ''The Dark'', then ''Ice Age''{{'}}s 11/11 [http://magiccards.info/ia/en/89.html Polar Kraken], and finally the 12/12 [http://magiccards.info/mr/en/280.html Phyrexian Dreadnought] in ''Mirage''. The process was spoofed in ''Unglued''{{'}}s [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/28.html B.F.M. (Big Furry Monster)], a 99/99 creature so big that he takes up two cards and wears "[[Continuity Nod|krakens and dreadnoughts for jewelry]]", and it was nostalgically revisited in ''Coldsnap'', which introduced [http://magiccards.info/cs/en/37.html Jokulmorder], a 12/12, as a nod to the set's gimmick of supposedly predating ''Mirage
*** It didn't stop there. In ''Legions'' there was the 13/13 [http://magiccards.info/le/en/130.html Krosan Cloudscraper], followed by the 9/14 [http://magiccards.info/rav/en/191.html Autochthon Wurm] in ''Ravnica'', and finally the 15/15 [http://magiccards.info/roe/en/4.html Emrakul, The Aeons Torn] in ''Rise of the Eldrazi''.
** ''Unglued'' had cards with both [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/53.html the longest] and [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/36.html the shortest] names in the game at that time. Not to be outdone, ''Unhinged'' introduced [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/107.html a card whose name is so long it wraps completely around all four sides of the card] and [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/23.html a card with no name at all].
** ''Unglued'' also contained the card(s) with the largest mana cost, the aforementioned [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/28.html B.F.M.], whose 15 black mana symbols stretched across the entire top line of the card. Once again, ''Unhinged'' decided to top it with [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/121.html Gleemax], a card which costs 1,000,000 mana. Yes, that's one million mana. I hope you brought your [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/124.html Mox Lotus].
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