Magic: The Gathering/Gameplay Tropes: Difference between revisions

* [[Animate Inanimate Object]]: March of the Machines as well as the cards [http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Anoncreature+o%3Aartifact+o%3Abecomes+o%3Aan+o%3Aartifact+o%3Acreature&v=card&s=cname here] and [http://magiccards.info/query?q=tezzeret+t%3A%22planeswalker%22&v=card&s=cname here]

* [[Animate Dead]]: [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=159249 Is a card]. And there are many others like it.

* [[Anti-Magic]]: Protection, various forms of untargetability, and counterspell and anti-counterspell effects often work this way.

* [[Army of the Ages]]: The basic premise of the game, with you as the summoner.

** [http://magiccards.info/ex/en/75.html Spike Cannibal], which eats all the other Spikes when it enters the battlefield.

* [[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 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:

** The [http://magiccards.info/query?q=o%3Acascade+e%3Aarb&v=card&s=cname Cascade] ability from the ''Alara Reborn'' expansion allows you to cast a random spell from your deck for free. There are [http://tinyurl.com/4xzj6eh a variety of spells with similar randomizing effects.]

** [http://magiccards.info/ug/en/45.html Strategy, Schmategy] has you roll a six-sided die to determine which of five totally unrelated abilities you'll get when you cast it. To up the ante, one of the options is "Roll the die two more times."

* [[Recursive Acronym]]: K.O.T.H. for "Koth of the Hammer."

* [[Redshirt Army]]:

* [[Set Bonus]]: The "Urzatron", the Kaldra equipment cycle, and quite a few others.

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely]]: [http://steveargyle.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2xtmfi Chandra] manages to be quite lovely when she's not covered in a 3-inch layer of ash.

** The Time Spiral set consisted entirely of cards that referenced other cards printed earlier. For an comprehensive list to [[Reference Overdosed|(most of?) the call-backs]] check: [http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Time_Spiral/Trivia Here], [http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Planar_Chaos/Trivia here] and [http://wiki.mtgsalvation.com/article/Future_Sight/Trivia here].

** Nevinyrral's Disk is a direct reference to the "Warlock's Wheel" from [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[The Magic Goes Away (Literature)|The Magic Goes Away]]'' series.

** The Eye of Ugin acts as this for the Eldrazi.

** A variety of minor artifacts like [http://magiccards.info/5dn/en/157.html Summoner's Egg] and [http://magiccards.info/ul/en/130.html Quicksilver Amulet] fill this role.

** The "Ninjutsu" mechanic, which lets you swap one attacker for another, mid-combat.

** [http://magiccards.info/gp/en/22.html AEtherplasm] does this whenever it blocks.

** The guy who tore up his Chaos Orb, inspiring the ''Unglued'' card "Chaos Confetti."

* [[Uriah Gambit]]: Abyssal Persecutor prevents its controller from winning the game as long as it's in play, so you'd better have one of these planned.

** [http://magiccards.info/lg/en/118.html Shelkin Brownie]'s special ability is to remove the "Bands with other" ability from creatures. In the history of ''Magic'', there are ''two'' cards with the "Bands from other" ability: the 1/1 tokens created by [http://magiccards.info/lg/en/108.html Master of the Hunt], and the ''Unhinged'' card [http://magiccards.info/uh/en/106.html Old Fogey], which is illegal in every format and only has the ability as a joke (the only creatures he can band with, aside from creatures that have the regular Banding ability, are other copies of himself). Oh, plus a cycle of lands that are serious contenders for "Worst card in the game" and probably shouldn't count. Good old Shelkin Brownie, keeping the world safe from four-mana 1/1s and legendary lands that don't produce mana!

** The infamously bad card [http://magiccards.info/lg/en/186.html Great Wall] is an enchantment that stops creatures with the Plainswalk ability. At the time of its printing, this included exactly two cards, both of them craptastic: [http://magiccards.info/lg/en/203.html Righteous Avengers], a 3/1 for 5 mana with no other abilities; and [http://magiccards.info/ch/en/5.html Giant Slug], which could only gain Plainswalk by paying 5 mana a turn. Good thing we built that wall, right?

** [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=194256 Ichorclaw Myr]: Take the attack and gain a [[Nonstandard Game Over|poison counter]] (possibly more if it gets buffed), sacrifice a low-toughness creature to absorb the attack, or have a big beastie suffer a sizable, permanent power/toughness loss.

** [http://magiccards.info/query?q=!Phyrexian+Obliterator Phyrexian Obliterator cruelly employs this trope]. While its earlier counterpart, Phyrexian Negator, actually encouraged the opponent to deal damage to it so that the controller would have to sacrifice something, Obliterator turns that around and makes it so that whoever's responsible for the damage has to sacrifice permanents. It can be a pain for your opponent to get rid of without causing its ability to go off. Oh--it's also an undercosted trampler, so they'll have to block it and/or destroy it, or it'll destroy them in 4 turns flat.

* [[Your Mind Makes It Real]]: The entire point of the Illusion tribe of creatures. They can kill other creatures and deal damage to players and planeswalkers just like any other creature, but if they are targeted by ''[[Weaksauce Weakness|anything]]'', [[Puff of Logic|they die.]]

* [[Zerg Rush]]: