Magic: The Gathering/Gameplay Tropes: Difference between revisions

** Gerrard is the hero of the ''Weatherlight'' saga, which spanned across years of the storyline. When he was eventually printed as a card, it was laughably underpowered.

** Karona, who emerges in Onslaught block as a [[Physical God|physical manifestation of Dominaria's mana]] formed from the [[Fusion Dance|fusion]] of the powerful and iconic legends Phage the Untouchable and Akroma, Angel of Wrath, is far less useful than she has any right to be as well--so much so that head designer Mark Rosewater [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr232 publicly apologized] for how lame she was:

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:

** You know those useless snow-covered lands from ''Ice Age''? Not so useless as of ''Coldsnap'' -- 11 years later!

** From the ''Fifth Dawn'' set comes the four Stations (Blasting Station, Grinding Station, Salvaging Station, and Welding Station), which can deal infinite damage when you have them all in play. According to Magic's R&D, it was the first "I win" combo they ever made intentionally.

* [[Gambit Pileup]]: Due to the nature of the stack, players can find themselves fighting a mini battle in which they're undoing each other's move, for example:

'''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.

** A less "meta" example is the Orzhov guild from ''Ravnica'' block, whose primary strategy is to gradually "bleed" the opponent by combining lifegain effects with repeatable incremental damage.

* [[Griefer]]: The ''New Phyrexia'' expansion was [[Intentional Trope|intentionally designed with Griefing in mind]], and contains many cards that are intended to make your opponent feel bad. For example, [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/23.html Shattered Angel] takes something they normally feel happy about (getting more mana) and makes them feel bad about it (by making you gain life every time they play a land); there's a similar dynamic with cards like [http://magiccards.info/mbs/en/21.html Consecrated Sphinx], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/25.html Suture Priest], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/87.html Invader Parasite], and so on.<br /><br />And while most sets have spells that kill or disable your opponent's stuff, in ''New Phyrexia'' they have added effects that rub your victory in their face, as with [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/40.html Numbing Dose], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/99.html Victorious Destruction], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/43.html Psychic Barrier], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/110.html Glissa's Scorn], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/58.html Enslave], [http://magiccards.info/nph/en/41.html Phyrexian Ingester], etc.<br /><br />Or, as development team member Tom LaPille [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/140 puts it]:

* [[History Repeats]]: Literal example in the ''Time Spiral'' block, which brought back lots of old cards and themes as part of its "time" gimmick.

* [[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.

** Also sometimes used to justify breaking the rules of card design. [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Form%20of%20the%20Dragon Form of the Dragon] does a lot of things that, in terms of game mechanics, red spells don't normally do. It's okay, though, because the card TURNS YOU INTO A DRAGON!

** [http://www.wizards.com/magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/jm38 This quote] regarding [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=143024 Dragon Roost] sums things up:

"Who cares? You're making DRAGONS!" }}

* [[Sadistic Choice]]:

* [[Transformation Is a Free Action]]: The Morph capacity. Free in term of timing as it don't use the stack so one can't do anything to respond its use.

* [[The Un-Reveal]]: Mark Rosewater loves to do this. For example, he once replaced most of the words in a spoiler laden paragraph with [[SMURFING|the word "goblin"]].

** This is what it actually says:

* [[Urban Legend of Zelda]]:

** Throat Wolf, a creature that supposedly had "firstest strike". This was before cardlists were available...