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Magic: The Gathering/Gameplay Tropes: Difference between revisions
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* [[Animate Dead]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Is a card]. And there are many others like it.
* [[Anti Air]]: A stock green ability is attacking, destroying, or disabling flying creatures [http://magiccards.info/10e/en/264.html Femeref Archers], [http://magiccards.info/arb/en/52.html Deadshot Minotaur], [http://magiccards.info/m11/en/190.html Plummet], and so on.
* [[Anti
* [[Army of the Ages]]: The basic premise of the game, with you as the summoner.
* [[Art Evolution]]:
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** ...[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202586 rather informal wording] which seems strange when contrasted with modern cards.
** ...cards based on [[Public Domain Characters]] and stories, with flavour text quoting things like [[The Bible (Literature)|The Bible]] or [[William Shakespeare]] plays, as opposed to creating an original story and basing the cards around that. Even the first expansion was based entirely off of characters and themes from ''[[Arabian Nights (Literature)|Arabian Nights]]''.
* [[Elemental Rock
* [[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...
* [[
* [[
* [[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].
* [[
** When the folks in charge got tired of Merfolk, they decided to try replacing them with the Cephalid squid-folk for a while in the ''Odyssey'' block. Squids are cool, right?
** [http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/60 Mark Rosewater's description] of the origin of [http://magiccards.info/zen/en/53.html Lorthos, the Tidemaker] (the legendary Octopus from ''Zendikar'') fits the trope quite well.
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* [[In Memoriam]]: The ''Planar Chaos'' card [http://magiccards.info/pc/en/140.html Timbermare] [http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/13483.html was designed in honor of the memory of Marilyn "Mare" Wakefield], wife of pro player Jamie Wakefield (who was well-known for playing green stompy decks that used cards like Timbermare). Marilyn loved horses.
* [[Instant Awesome Just Add Dragons]]: One of the unwritten rules of ''Magic'' expansions is that there ''must'' be dragons in every set. Even in ''Ravnica'', where dragons are extinct, there's dragons anyway. Why? Because dragons are awesome.
* [[Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja]]: Pretty much as soon it was decided that the ''Kamigawa'' block would be based on medieval Japan, ninjas inevitably snuck in (and went on to be one of the most popular aspects of the set in which they appeared). The longer version of the story is [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mr158 here].
* [[Instant Win Condition]]: While there's plenty of combos and such that can win in one good punch, there's a fair amount of individual cards that provide you with alternate win conditions:
** [http://magiccards.info/od/en/182.html Winning ten coin flips]
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** [http://magiccards.info/ia/en/283.html Flipping a coin to decide the winner of the game]
** [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/41.html Learning the alphabet]
* [[Intentionally Awkward Title]]: The name of the game itself. You can either call it "Magic" (and risk confusion) or "Magic: The Gathering" (which is harder to say). The reason it's called "The Gathering" is because this was the planning name for the old ''Alpha/Beta/Unlimited'' sets. Richard had planned sequels named "Magic: Ice Age" (which was eventually released as ''Ice Age'' block) and "Magic: Menagerie" (which was released as ''Mirage'' block). However, the game was so popular that the company demanded an expansion pack much earlier than expected, resulting in ''Arabian Nights'' and, eventually, the "sets" we know and love today; however, the requirement that every card have identical back sides means that we're still stuck with "Magic: The Gathering" as the full name. ([[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|Not to mention a million angry fans would descend upon Wizards' offices in hordes if they ever changed it.]])
* [[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.
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** Giant Spider was crowned the winner of the long-running "Core Set Survivor". As of ''Magic 2012'', it's [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/718 the one card that's been in every single core set] since ''Alpha''. Its flavor text for the printing that sealed the deal:
{{quote|''"The wild is always changing, but it does have a few constants."''|''Garruk Wildspeaker''}}
* [[Laser
** [http://magiccards.info/wwk/en/31.html Jace, the Mind Sculptor]'s ultimate ability wipes the target's mind clean by deleting their entire library and temporarily blocking access to their hand.
** Cards like [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=233041 Surgical Extraction] and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=215103 Memoricide]. The latter allows you to name a card and exile all of your opponent's copies of that card--out of their hand, graveyard, and library. The former allows you to do the same with a card already in that player's graveyard.
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** The Spanish version of the M11 card Disentomb mistranslated "Return target creature card from a graveyard to your hand" as "Return target creature card from your graveyard to ''play''". ''That'' would make the card significantly ''better''.
** The Portuguese version of Stoic Rebuttal does... well, ''nothing''. Stoic Rebuttal a simple counter spell that costs 1 less mana to cast if you have 3 or more Artifacts. Too bad when they translated it, they forgot the whole "counter a spell" part. Ooops.
* [[Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me]]:
** [http://magiccards.info/ds/en/139.html Shield of Kaldra] is the big daddy, an indestructible shield that makes the bearer indestructible as well. Lesser shields and shield-wielders include [http://magiccards.info/arb/en/11.html Shield of the Righteous], [http://magiccards.info/som/en/136.html Accorder's Shield], [http://magiccards.info/mt/en/4.html Burrenton Shield-Bearers], [http://magiccards.info/di/en/12.html Haazda Shield Mate], and [http://magiccards.info/roe/en/46.html Stalwart Shield-Bearers].
** Inverted with [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=83730 Pariah's Shield], which magically draws all attacks to its bearer.
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** 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 [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=25567 Mana Short], among others.
* [[Man
* [[Mega Manning]]:
** Several shapeshifters can copy the abilities of defeated foes; [http://magiccards.info/rav/en/202.html Dimir Doppelganger] and [http://magiccards.info/lw/en/105.html Cairn Wanderer], for example.
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* [[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.
* [[Non
** Artifacts, with a few exceptions, are colorless.
** Eldrazi. Again. Is there any trope they don't fall under?
* [[Not the Intended Use]]: Rampant. Unsummoning your own creatures, countering your own cards to reduce hand size, using a [http://magiccards.info/query?q=War+Barge&v=card&s=cname War Barge] on your opponents' creatures and then destroying the barge to kill the creatures, ripping up your [http://magiccards.info/query?q=Chaos+Orb&v=card&s=cname Chaos Orb] before you activate it...
* [[Not Using the Z Word|Not Using The D Word]]: References to demons were removed after a few [[Moral Guardian|Moral Guardians]] complained; this carried on for a while with cards being called "horror" or "beast," before demons started appearing again. This is why the ''Unglued'' card "Infernal Spawn of Evil" has the text "summon <s>demon</s> beast" and vice versa for the ''Unhinged'' card "Infernal Spawn of Infernal Spawn of Evil."
* [[Oddly
** The ''Portal'' expansion was followed by ''Portal Second Age'' and ''Portal: Three Kingdoms''.
** Head Designer Mark Rosewater has a little fun with it [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/106 here], with a fake announcement for ''Homelands 2: Grandmother's Return''. He also laments that his suggestion for ''Portal 2: Electric Boogaloo'' was rejected.
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* [[Tournament Play]]: Sponsored by the game's creators.
* [[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
{{quote| ''Goblin of the Goblins'' is going to be a goblin built around the Goblin goblins, all of which have no goblin and are goblin. For example, there are two Goblins at goblin, the goblin of which is 7/7. All of the Goblins have a new goblin called goblin. Goblins with goblin have a goblin; whenever a goblin with goblin goblins, the goblin goblin must goblin that many goblins. The Goblins are very goblin but there are goblins that can create 0/1 goblins called Goblin Goblin that can be goblin to goblin one goblin goblin to your goblin goblin and will help you be able to goblin the Goblins. In addition, the goblin has a new goblin called goblin goblin. You may spend goblin on goblin with goblin goblin to improve their goblins and goblins. This Limited goblin is much goblin than the one in ''Goblin''.}}
** This is what it actually says:
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[[Category:Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)]]
[[Category:Gameplay Tropes]]
[[Category:Magic The Gathering]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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