This FAQ is intended to compile the answers to a number of questions frequently raised in this forum, and to direct users with questions that can be answered in other forums to the correct forum.
What doesn't belong in this forum? Anything that is specifically covered by another forum. This includes, but is not limited to, deck critique, rules questions, storyline questions, general strategy and card combo questions, arranging trades, speculation on the contents of unreleased sets, and threads looking for other Magic players in your area. And of course, anything that isn't somehow related to Magic also doesn't belong here.
There are still many topics that this FAQ doesn't cover, so if you think there is something that needs to be covered or answered, please make a post. Don't post questions unless you are suggesting that they should be added to the FAQ. If you have some other comment, PM me if you think it is important. If you find something you wrote here, and you are not in the contributor list, PM me so I can fix it.
Table of Contents
Forum Questions (Questions about the forums themselves rather than Magic.)
Where does my question belong?
Is there a forum for ~?
How do I do ~ in my post?
What is the Code of Conduct and where can I read it?
What do the little badges by some users' names mean?
A listing of commonly-used Magic-related abbreviations, nicknames, and slang. If you are unfamiliar with a term someone's using, chances are it's found here.
Acknowledgements
This FAQ is a revised edition of aiutau's original Magic General FAQ; the document you're reading would not have existed without his continual toil and the combined efforts of a large portion of the community.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: Where does my question/comment belong? A: If your question or comment isn't related to Magic at all, but is an issue with the boards, it belongs in the TCG Boards Business forum, also known as the Metaboard. If it doesn't have anything to do with Magic or the boards (or any of the other games that have forums devoted to them), it belongs in the Rec Room.
If your question/comment is related to Magic, go here and read the descriptions of all the forums. If your question or comment is on a topic for which there exists a specific forum (such as a rules question or a comment about artists), it belongs there, not here. This forum is for Magic-related discussion that doesn't fit into one of the specific forums listed below.
Q: Is there a forum for ~? A: In all likelihood, yes; many of the topics people post in this forum actually have forums devoted to them elsewhere. Check the forum index as described above; most of the forums will tell you directly what belongs in them.
Q: How do I do ~ in my post? A: For a complete rundown of the forum bbcodes and how to use them, as well as in-depth information on the forum's Autocard tags, see the Magic Area FAQ and Index thread.
Q: What is the Code of Conduct and where can I read it? A: The Code of Conduct lays down the basic rules of the forum; you agreed to abide by it when you signed up, and violating it may result in punishment by the forum moderators. The Code of Conduct can be found here; there's a link to it near the bottom of every page you view on the forums.
Q: What do the little badges by some users' names mean? A: There are several different tags, and each of them means something different. It's important to note that having some sort of tag does not necessarily mean that a user is affiliated with Wizards of the Coast or in any way "official"--most of the tags denote users without ties of any kind to Wizards.
Scribes are the users who write and maintain the various FAQs and informational threads you'll find posted in most forums. They are volunteers who have no official connection to Wizards of the Coast or special status beyond being responsible for their FAQs.
VCLs (Volunteer Community Leads) are volunteers drawn from the community who work with Wizards of the Coast Community Management team to help make the boards a better place in any of various ways. This may include moving misplaced threads to more appropriate forums, directing discussion, organizing the creation or maintenance of various forum FAQs, distributing official statements or information, or collecting feedback from the community. They're here to help, so don't be afraid to contact one of them if you have any questions about the community.
Forum Guides are users specifically recognized as being helpful, friendly, and reliable. They act in some ways as unofficial assistants to the VCLs. Like the VCLs, they're here to help.
D&D Playtesters are users who are involved in beta testing on the D&D side of the forums.
UnCon Prizewinners are users who have won a prize of some sort during the boards' annual UnCon celebration. They have no connection to Wizards of the Coast whatsoever.
D&D Insiders are simply users who subscribe to WotC's D&D Insider service. They have no connection to Wizards of the Coast whatsoever.
Gamemasters (GMs) are users who are in charge of running certain forums that were created as places to run specific games. Each GM is in charge of organizing game-related activity in one or more specific forums. Note that GMs have no official connection to Wizards of the Coast and do not have the power nor the authority to enforce the Code of Conduct. Only Moderators have that.
Judges are users who are DCI-certified Judges of any level. They do not have any special authority on the boards.
ORCs (also known as WizOs; they're Wizards Community's moderators) are official representatives of Wizards of the Coast Customer Service who enforce the Code of Conduct on the forums. The ORCs are paid employees who have been contracted by Wizards of the Coast to perform these duties.
Staff Members are users employed by Wizards of the Coast in some official capacity. This includes the ORCs, but also the people who actually work at the Wizards of the Coast offices in Renton, Washington, or else are their official representatives in some capacity. Note that while Staff are employed directly by Wizards of the Coast, for most of them being here is not part of their job; they are in no way obligated to post, nor are their thoughts and opinions necessarily reflective of the attitude of Wizards of the Coast as a whole.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: How do I learn how to play? A: There is no one best way to start playing Magic; different people learn different ways and at different speeds. But for most players, it's recommended you start off slow, and if possible, coax a friend who already plays the game into helping you along--learning Magic, like learning any other game, is generally a lot easier when you have someone knowledgeable to answer any questions you may have.
The most basic product you can buy is an Intro Pack, which consists of a pre-constructed 60-card deck and a booster pack, as well as a small "How To Play" insert that should help you get most of the basics down. The 60-card deck is ready-to-play, but you can customize it by adding some of the cards you open in the booster pack. Intro Packs are released for every set of cards Wizards releases, so pick one that looks appealing to you and dive right in. (The ones from the Core Set are the most basic and probably best for a new player.)
If you've got the basics down and are interested in building your own deck from scratch, one of your better options is a Deckbuilder's Toolkit, which contains several booster packs from recent sets, a bunch of land of all colors, and about 200 semi-random 'nuts & bolts' cards that will help you build any of a variety of basic decks.
Note that a game of Magic generally requires an opponent, so if you don't already have other players around you might want to find somebody to rope into playing with you--learning to play Magic will be a lot more fun with a friend. If you do have an opponent, you could try one of the Duel Decks boxed sets, which contain two 60-card preconstructed decks designed to be played against one another, as well as the "How To Play" insert you would get from an Intro Pack. There's a variety to choose from, so pick any you like.
Q: Where can I go to learn to play? A: If there's a brick-and-mortar gaming store nearby, you can generally ask them if they host any Magic events. If so, you can find other players there to help you learn the game. If you live in Canada or the United States, there's a store locator here that you can use to find shops near you that sell Magic products. If you don't have any luck with that, you can try posting an ad in our Gamer Classifieds section to see if there's anyone around who might be interested in playing with you.
Q: What are the rules? A: The rules of Magic are a bit too complicated for me to explain here, but you can find the official Magic rules page here; there you'll find a link to the Basic Rulebook, the perfect starting point for new players, as well as a bunch of other rules-related resources you may find interesting. Also of interest will be our very own Rules Q&A FAQ, which is (if I may say so) the largest and most extensive Magic Rules FAQ you will ever find, anywhere. If you have a question, go there first, because it's probably answered there already--it was written for that very reason.
Q: Can you make money playing Magic? A: Yes. As you may have seen on the Pro Player cards, there are professional players who play in official Magic tournaments and make good money at it. There are even players who can and do live off of their income from playing and winning in Magic tournaments, and who have put themselves through college with the money they win. However, not everyone can become a good enough player to do this--most, in fact, will never even come close. Just like a job in professional sports, it's a nice goal to have, but you definitely shouldn't depend on it. Keep your day job.
Q: What is the best color? A: There's really no answer to this question, as no one color can really be singled out as the best at everything, or even at most things. Every color has both immense strengths and crippling weaknesses, so it's a never-ending struggle.
Q: Are there any girls who play Magic? A: While most Magic players are guys, yes, there are plenty of girls who play Magic. If you are a girl, you doubtless already know this, but rest assured you are most definitely not alone. If you are a guy, yes, yes, we all know the stereotype that Magic, like all other supposedly geeky activities, is supposedly only played by guys. It's not true and making jokes about it isn't really funny, so get over it.
Q: Is Magic evil? A: No. Magic is no more evil than Scrabble, Chess, or any other game. There is the occasional person who believes Magic is some sort of "gateway to the occult", (either because they want to denounce it or because they want to try to use it as such) but they're generally nutcases of some description who have difficulty separating "real life" from "pretend". Playing Magic will no more invoke the occult than reading Treasure Island will cause pirates to spring to life in your house or watching Godzilla movies will cause a giant radioactive monster to level Tokyo.
Q: What set is my card from? A: Each card has a symbol on it that denotes the expansion the card was printed in; a full list of expansions and their associated symbols can be found here.
If your card has no expansion symbol, it's from Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Fourth, Fifth, Anthologies, or Battle Royale--check the guide here for a guide to see which it is.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: What is the DCI? A: The DCI is the governing body that regulates tournaments. The DCI regulates tournaments, provides judge sanctioning, and maintains comparative rankings of all players who have played in sanctioned events. Players who play in DCI-sanctioned events can sign up to receive free swag and other rewards just for playing.
Q: What does DCI stand for? A: DCI originally stood for Duelist Convocation International, but that title has mostly been dropped; the organization is known almost solely as the DCI now.
Q: How do I become a member of the DCI? A: You will be able to sign you up for DCI membership when you attend your first sanctioned event; the organizer will give you a signup card for you to fill out. Do so and hand them back the piece they need and presto! You're now a DCI member. Remember to keep the smaller part of the signup card for you; it has your DCI number on it, which you'll need to play in future events.
Q: What are Constructed and Limited? A: Constructed and Limited are the two basic types of tournament format. In a Constructed format, you play using a pre-made deck that you bring with you to the event. In a Limited format, you come and are provided a pool of cards from which you can make a deck to play in the event. There are many variations on each, with different rules about what you can have in your deck in Constructed and on what your card pool is for Limited, but all tournaments are some variation on one or the other of those two basic ideas.
Q: What are the tournament formats? A: There are several different basic tournament formats for Constructed play; while other formats exist, the ones listed on this page are the ones that are officially sanctioned by the DCI. Lists of the sets legal in each format, as well as any banned or restricted cards or other special rules, can be found on each format's individual page. In most Constructed formats, the minimum deck size is 60 cards and in all Constructed formats a deck can contain a maximum of 4 cards with any given English name except basic lands.
Q: What sets are legal in which formats? A: The Standard format consists of the cards from the two most recently printed blocks and the core set(s) that follow them. Currently, this consists of Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, Magic 2013, Return to Ravnica, and Gatecrash.
The Extended format consists of the cards from the four most recently printed blocks and the core sets that follow them. Currently, this means everything printed in Zendikar block or later.
The Modern format consists of all cards printed in a set released after Eighth Edition, which is the set where the modern card face was introduced. This means that most, though not all, cards that use the modern face are legal. Note that only being printed in an actual core set or expansion set qualifies a card for inclusion in Modern; promo cards or supplementary products such as From the Vaults, Duel Decks, or the like do not affect Modern legality, no matter what card face they have.
Q: When does [this set] rotate out of [this format]? A: The Standard format rotates once a year with the release of each large expansion in the fall; the oldest block in the format and the core set that follows it rotate out in their entirety at the same time the newly-printed large expansion becomes legal. Innistrad block and Magic 2013 will rotate out of Standard together in October 2013 (when that fall's large set is released).
Extended rotates along the same lines as Standard, with the release of the large expansion in the fall. Each fall, the oldest block in the format and the core set that immediately follows it will rotate out at the same time the fall expansion becomes legal. The Zendikar block and Magic 2011 will rotate out of Extended in October 2013.
Modern does not rotate; new sets are simply added to it upon their release.
Q: What is a mulligan? A: When you draw your initial hand of seven cards, if you don't like the cards it contains, you have the option of taking a mulligan to get a new hand that you'll hopefully like better. To take a mulligan, shuffle your hand into your library, then draw a new hand with one fewer card than you had before. You can do this any number of times, if you like. This is the default mulligan rule for Magic; it's also known as the Paris mulligan.
Certain formats may have special rules for mulliganing; casual players often play using specialized mulligan rules not found in tournament play.
Q: What is a sideboard? A: A deck's sideboard is a special set of cards that are not part of the deck itself, but which can be substituted into the deck during the second and third game of a match in order to improve the deck's performance in some way against its opponent. In Constructed play, sideboards must be either 15 or 0 cards in size; no more, no less. In Limited play, your sideboard is all of the cards in your card pool that you did not use to construct your main deck, plus an unlimited number of basic land cards of any kind you wish.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: What is card advantage? A: Card advantage refers to the general idea that the more cards you have available to use, the better off you probably are. A player who draws more cards than his or her opponent will see more of his or her deck, and will draw more of his or her most powerful and useful cards.
For a vivid illustration of this concept, imagine playing Magic with your entire deck in your hand against an opponent who was playing normally. No matter how strong your opponent's cards were, you would always be able to play exactly the right thing to stop him, because you'd have your entire deck to choose from while your opponent was limited to the cards he or she drew, which might not even be useful.
Q: What is tempo? A: Tempo is the counterpart to card advantage, the idea that using your resources, such as mana, effectively and efficiently is good, and that if you have more resources than your opponent, or you are able to make more effective use of your resources, you have an advantage. Two of the most potent resources available are time and mana; life is another such powerful resource, though it's most potent only in large amounts.
For an illustration, imagine that you start the game with five basic lands of your choice already on the battlefield. You have more resources to draw upon, so you will be able to play more things much faster than your opponent will be, and you will be able to use those powerful things to destroy him before he can manage to even the odds.
Q: What is a mana curve? A: A deck's mana curve is found by looking at the mana costs of all its non-land cards; a low mana curve is one where most of the cards cost very little mana, and a high mana curve is the opposite, where most of the cards cost a lot of mana.
The idea of mana curves goes hand in hand with the concept of tempo; by altering your deck's mana curve, you can make your deck more effective by maximizing the chances that it will be able to make full use of its available resources at any given time. For example, imagine that all of the cards in your deck cost an even amount of mana. On turns when you had an odd amount of mana available, such as on the first turn and the third turn, you wouldn't be able to use all of your mana, so you would effectively be "wasting" that valuable mana doing nothing. In general, a deck that has some way to make use of all of its mana will be more effective than one that does not.
A deck's mana curve will also generally determine how many lands the deck requires--a deck with a relatively low mana curve requires fewer lands than one with a relatively high mana curve.
Q: What do 'aggro', 'control', and 'combo' mean? A: Aggro, Control, and Combo are the three most basic types of deck played in Magic. An Aggro (short for "aggressive") deck is one that attempts to essentially ignore what the opponent is doing in favor of killing them as fast as possible--a dead opponent is not a threat. A Control deck is the opposite, seeking to prevent its opponent from being able to accomplish anything--if the opponent can't do anything, then the control deck is free to win at its leisure. A Combo deck is one that attempts to quickly assemble a specific assortment of cards which will ensure it wins the game immediately. All of these are valid, classic strategies that can be played out in any number of ways.
Q: What is "the metagame"? A: The metagame can be broadly defined as "what everyone else is playing". A metagame is the general field of decks against which one expects to be playing; a player who takes this expected field into account when building his or her deck is 'metagaming'. Often, a particular deck might not be very powerful in the abstract, but will be very potent against some other type of deck--if everyone else is going to be playing that other type of deck, a player who plays that less-powerful deck will be able to win despite having an objectively less powerful deck.
For example, imagine that you know that everyone else will be playing straight red burn decks--decks filled with lots of Lightning Bolt variants and not a lot else. In such a situation, if you play a white deck with Circle of Protection: Red , Martyr of Sands , and protection from red creatures like Paladin en-Vec , you will have a very good chance of beating all of those other players, no matter how good their burn decks are, because while your cards and strategy may not be very powerful in the abstract, they trump your opponents' cards and strategy.
Q: What is netdecking? A: Netdecking is used to describe the general practice of using deck ideas and deck lists found online, often by looking at tournament reports to see what decks have won elsewhere, and copying those decks for one's own use. Netdecking, while a widely used and perfectly legal metagaming strategy, is sometimes condemned by casual players as being unethical and unimaginative; such players favor using only deck ideas one has come up with on one's own. Most competitive tournament players dismiss this complaint as meaningless and needlessly self-limiting.
Q: Who are Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Melvin, and Vorthos? A: Timmy, Johnny, and Spike are the three basic player psychographic profiles; they're labels used to denote why a player plays the game, what drives them to play. Melvin and Vorthos are labels used to denote what a player appreciates about the game, what they find enjoyable about the game.
Timmy, Johnny, and Spike were introduced to the players by Mark Rosewater; you can read more about them (and learn which you are) here. You can read more about Melvin and Vorthos here.
Q: What does "broken" mean? A: A card that is "broken" is overpowered in some way, meaning it is more powerful it should be. This is usually because the card provides too strong of an effect for too little cost (Black Lotus and Ancestral Recall are classic examples of this), but can also be because the effect the card provides is too strong to safely print at any cost (Yawgmoth's Will is sometimes cited as an example of this).
Cards that are truly broken commonly severely warp tournament formats around their very presence, forcing the DCI to ban or restrict them or else have the game degenerate into a matter of who manages to find and abuse their broken cards first. Many players would argue that Vintage is perpetually on the edge of degenerating in this manner due to its policy of never outright banning cards for power reasons, instead using only restrictions.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: Is this trade/purchase/sale any good? A: Maybe, maybe not. We have an entire stickied thread made specifically for people looking to ask this kind of question; you can find it here.
Q: What is the best site to buy cards from? A: Unfortunately, we can't really tell you. Advertising or promoting commercial websites here is forbidden by the Code of Conduct. However, if it makes it any better, there's no real consensus on any one site being absolutely better than any other--no matter what set of criteria you're judging sites by, almost without exception some people will consider certain sites better for that than all the others, while other people will disagree. The best and most reliable way of finding which site will be best for you is careful research before actually making a purchase. Investigate each site to find its strengths and weaknesses, and that will allow you to make an informed decision.
Q: What is the best set to buy from? A: That depends on what kind of player you are and exactly what you want and enjoy. There is no one "best set" for everyone; different sets vary wildly in the kind of cards they contain and the kind of players they will most appeal to. Do some research to find out what the various sets are like, or what sets are most similar to the things you're looking for, and you'll be able to make an informed decision.
Q: Should I sell my Magic collection? A: Many players sell their collections when they decide to leave the game, and almost as many end up regretting it when and if they get back into the game. People make jokes about "cardboard crack" for a reason--many people who think they're leaving the game forever in reality end up coming back, whether it be months, years, or even a decade later. (I would have said "decades" there, but Magic needs to stick around for another few years for that to be possible.)
First and most importantly, before deciding, you should examine why you want to sell your collection. If you are leaving the game because circumstances dictate you can no longer play, for example--say, there are no other players in your area any more--then selling your collection is probably a bad idea. Circumstances change, and when they do you just might find yourself getting into the game again and if that happens you just might regret losing your collection. If you are leaving the game because you don't enjoy the current environment or R&D is doing something you don't agree with, the same thing holds true. The game changes over time, and if you don't enjoy the current environment, you can come back later and it will probably have changed.
If, however, your reasons have more to do with a need for money, it's probably a good idea to sell at least some of your collection. Magic, much as we love it, is a luxury item, and as such should be, like other luxuries, one of the first things you give up in times of financial hardship.
Q: Are misprinted or autographed cards worth than normal cards? A: It depends entirely on who you're selling or trading to and on the nature of the misprint or signature. Collectors may give high value for certain rare misprints or autographed cards, while people more interested in playing rather than collecting may actually value such cards lower than normal, if the misprint/modification is one that damages its playability. Generally, small misprints like poor centering or slight color deviations do not significantly alter a card's cost. The more extreme a misprint, the more likely a collector will be willing to pay highly for it. Context is everything, so ask around.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: What is Magic Online? A: Magic Online is Wizards' official online program for playing Magic over the internet. There are no subscription fees, and casual play is free, but cards must be purchased in a similar manner to that for purchasing "real" (also known as paper) Magic cards. Magic Online features full card images, automatic rules enforcement at every level, the ability to draft and play other Limited formats online, support for multiplayer play, and most impressively, the ability to play Magic at any time, from any place you can hook up your computer to the internet, with any of thousands of players, and to do it in your underwear if you should so desire without your opponent giving you strange looks. There's an entire section on these forums dedicated to Magic Online, which can be found here. If you'd like to learn more about Magic Online, you can check out the FAQ for the program here.
Q: What else is there? A: The other main option for playing Magic online is Duels of the Planeswalkers, available for purchase from the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. Duels of the Planeswalkers allows you to play with a wide array of prebuilt decks against other players or against an AI opponent; while full deckbuilding capabilities are not available, each prebuilt deck can be modified to a degree by adding any of an array of cards from a preselected card pool. Expansions are available that unlock additional cards for existing decks and make entirely new decks available, as well. The rules are subtly different from the real game to accommodate the needs of the medium, but it's mostly the same.
Q: Is there any way to play Magic on the internet for free? A: We're not allowed to discuss the third-party programs that do that kind of thing here; since this is Wizards' official boards, they don't want us talking about them here.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Q: What are the rarest cards? A: They're called 1996 World Champion, Shichifukujin Dragon, Proposal, Splendid Genesis, and Fraternal Exaltation. None of them are tournament legal, though, and don't count on getting your hands on any of them. 1996 World Champion is one-of-a-kind and embedded in the center of the trophy that was awarded to the (guess) 1996 Magic World Champion. Shichifukujin Dragon is also one-of-a-kind, and was created to commemorate the opening of Tokyo's DCI Tournament Center (now closed). Currently it resides at the Hobby Japan Head Office.
Proposal, Splendid Genesis, and Fraternal Exaltation, on the other hand, were created for Richard Garfield to commemorate special events in his life--he used Proposal to propose to his (now) wife Lily, and Splendid Genesis and Fraternal Exaltation were made to announce the birth of each of their two children. There are only 9 Proposal cards in existence; one was given to Quinton Hoover, who illustrated the card--it was later stolen at a convention and has never reappeared--; one was given to Dave Howell, then production manager at Wizards and technical creator of the card; the others were handed out to members of the Garfield family and are kept in privacy, as Richard does not want images of the card to appear in public. Splendid Genesis and Fraternal Exaltation were included in the birth announcements sent out to Richard and Lily's friends and distributed to certain Wizards employees; it's estimated that there exist only approximately 110 copies of the former and 220 copies of the latter.
As for the rarest "normal" cards, it's uncertain exactly which cards are rarest, but one of the highest contenders is a misprinted Hurricane with blue borders that was part of an aborted Revised print run codenamed "Edgar" and now commonly known as "Summer Magic". Most of the print run was destroyed due to an abundance of printing errors, but a small number of booster boxes survived.
Q: How many separate Magic cards are there? A: We don't know, exactly. No-one does--not even Wizards knows for certain. The exact number varies significantly depending on how you count--do you count multiple printings in different editions as the same card? How about printings in different languages? How about cards with multiple printed arts in a single set with different collector numbers? With the same collector number? What about promotional cards, or special foil versions of regular cards?
It's known that there are currently well over 10,000 functionally different cards. If you count every single version of any given card separately, not counting misprints, that number soars to well over 130,000 different cards. And if you include misprints...well, let's just say it's pretty damn high and leave it at that.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
{name}.dec (n):A name for a deck, usually popular and/or good. Can also be used as the name of a fictional deck built around the card used to name it.
'tings (n): Beatings. A term popularized by misetings.
1337 (adj): Elite. Part of a pseudo-language used on the internet comprised mainly of characters and/or symbols to emulate letters. Used mostly these days by people trying to pretend to be cool or by those making fun of the practice.
187 (n): Any card which, when it enters the battlefield, targets another permanent for removal. Named after the California Penal Code for murder.
A
Academy (n): An infamous deck which won on the first turn. The win condition was a Stroke of Genius fueled by massive amounts of mana created by Tolarian Academy . Also used to refer to Tolarian Academy itself.
Black Summer (n): The summer of 1996, so called because of the abundance of Necropotence Decks that overwhelmed the tournament scene shortly after the banning of Black Vise (See also Vice Age).
Board sweeper (n): A card that clears the field of either all or a majority of creatures.
Bomb (n): Any card which has a large effect on the game.
Bounce (v): To return a card to it's owners hand from the battlefield.
Break (v): To abuse a certain card or mechanic to a degenerative degree.
Burn (n): Direct damage spells.
Bury (v): An obsolete term which means, 'Destroy {permanent}. It cannot be regenerated.'
C
C (n): Shorthand for one mana of a specific, undetermined color.
CC (n): Casting Cost, an outdated term for mana cost (See also MC).
CMC (n): Converted Mana Cost, the total amount of mana of any color in that card's mana cost.
Cantrip (n): A card which has "Draw a card" as a secondary effect.
Chase Rare (n): A term used to describe a highly desirable (and generally expensive) rare card.
Catalyst (n): A card which makes a something happen faster. Many catalysts are used to make combos 'go off'.
Chump Block (v): Blocking an opponent's creature with a smaller creature that has no hope of defeating it in combat solely so that you do not take damage from the attacker.
CIP (n): An ability which triggers when a permanent enters the battlefield. Short for 'comes into play', based on the outdated term for the battlefield. (See also ETB).
Clamp (v):To equip Skullclamp to a creature, usually killing it, in order to draw cards from Skullclamp 's ability.
Combo Winter (n): When the October 1998 release of Urza's Saga produced several over-powered combo decks, leading to multiple bannings across a wide array of formats.
Counter Bait (n): A card played in order to make an opponent use a counterspell, enabling you to cast some other, more important spell.
D
D&D (n): Dungeons and Dragons.
Dead Draw (n): A card that, when drawn, is useless in the current situation.
Deck (v): Forcing an opponent to draw a card from their library when they have no cards in their library. This causes them to lose the game.
Defensive Draft (v): (See Hate Draft).
Dissynergy (adj): When two or more cards, within a deck, have abilities which are counterproductive to one another.
Dojo Effect (n): Now more commonly known as netdecking, the phrase was popularized after decks from the now-defunct Magic Dojo, a strategy site, became used heavily in tournaments.
Drain (v): To deal damage, and gain life equal to the amount of damage dealt to a creature and/or player.
Draw-Go (b): A deck comprised mostly of instants which relies on countering all of its opponent's relevant spells before using a single difficult-to-deal-with creature, such as Morphling , to kill the opponent.
Drop (n): Any card with a mana cost of 0.
Drop (v): To play a card.
E
Edgar (n): A print run of Magic cards made during the summer of 1994 that ran too dark and included a large number of misprints, which forced Wizards to stop the print run. Some cards were shipped to England and Texas before Wizards stopped the print run. One famous misprint is a Hurricane that was printed on a blue background, this card was also nicknamed "Edgar" and "Summer".
Enabler (n): Card that allows you to use or abuse abilities of other cards. Example: any card that makes you discard for a cost is a Madness enabler.
EOT (n): The end step of a turn.
ETB (n): Enter the Battlefield; slang for an ability that triggers when the card it's on enters the battlefield.
F
Fat (adj): A large creature, or group of large creatures, which usually have a high casting cost. (See also Fattie).
Fattie (n): A large creature, usually with a high casting cost.
Firebreathing (n):The common red creature ability ": {This} gets +1/+0 until end of turn." Term coined from the card Firebreathing .
Flame (v): To insult or degrade a person or group of people.
Flame war (n): The act of multiple people flaming one another (See also Flame).
Float (v): To add mana to your mana pool, to be used later.
FNM (n): Friday Night Magic.
G
G (n): Green mana.
German Juggernaut (n): Kai Budde, considered by many to be the best Magic player ever.
Going off (v): Said when a combo, usually one to end the game, is played and/or activated.
Grey Ogre (n): Any 2/2 with a converted mana cost of 3. Term coined from the creature Grey Ogre (See also Bear, Hill Giant ).
H
Hard lock (n): A situation where one person has complete control over the board and what is or is not played.
Hate Draft (v): During a draft event, taking a card you won't or can't use to avoid having to face it later on (See also Rare Draft).
Hill Giant (n): Any 3/3 creature with a converted mana cost of 4. Term coined from the creature, Hill Giant (See also Bear, Grey Ogre ).
Hose (v): The use of a specialized card which is designed to neuter a certain threat.
I
J
Janky (adj): Junky.
K
Keeper (n): A deck designed as an update to 'The Deck,' which focuses on survival and dominates the board.
M
Mana Flooded (adj): Term used to describe a situation in which a player draws too many lands and/or mana producing permanents and therefore has few or no spells to cast.
Mana Screwed (adj): A term used to describe a situation in which a player does not have enough lands and/or mana producing permanents to cast the cards in his or her hand.
MaRo (n): Mark Rosewater, Magic's lead designer. Maro is also a card named after him, as a joke. The name MaRo was used as a place holder before another card name could be created, but the Creative Text team decided to keep it as Maro. Also, Mark Rosewater created both the card text and the flavor text for the card.
MBC (n):A deck similar to Sui-Black, but more aimed towards control; not generally as aggressive as Sui-Black (See also Sui-Black). (2) Masques Block Constructed.
MC (n): Mana Cost; the specific amount of mana required to cast a spell, listed in the upper right corner of the card.
MD (n): Main deck (See also SB).
Milling (v): Putting cards into the graveyard from the library. Term coined after the card Millstone .
Mize (abbrev): Might as well.
Mise (v): To pull off an exceptional play, or to have an amazing streak of luck. Made popular by the humor site Misetings.com.
Necro-Edge (n): The first Necro deck. 4 copies of Land's Edge , and Necropotence combined with 52 lands to create this deck.
Newbie (n): Someone who is new. May or may not be derogatory, depending on the context in which it is used, but generally not.
Noob (n): Derogatory term for a new player. (See newbie).
O
{something} on legs (n): A creature which has an ability similar to a popular non-creature spell.
One Drop (n): Any card, but especially a permanent, that has a converted mana cost of 1.
P
Paris (n): A type of mulligan in which the player draws 1 less card than he previously had.
Parfait (n): A deck built on survival which uses several silver bullets (See also Silver bullet).
Permission (n): Spells that counter the opponent's spells so they don't do anything. So named because playing against an opponent with many such cards invokes the feeling that you need to ask for permission to cast your own spells.
Ping (v): To use an activated ability which requires a creature to tap to deal damage to a creature or player.
Pitch (v): To discard a card as part of an alternate casting cost for a spell.
Pitch Spell (n): A spell that can be cast without paying mana by discarding or exiling other cards from your hand.
Prison (n): A form of a control deck that taps an opponent's lands and keeps them tapped with Winter Orb and unlocks their own lands with Icy Manipulator .
Pro: {quality} (n): Protection from {quality}.
Proxy (n): A card used to represent another card, either one that the user does not possess or does not want to damage, or one where the original card is too damaged through normal play wear or other means to be considered unmarked.
Pump (v): To increase a creature's power and/or toughness.
R
R (n): Red mana.
R&D (n): Wizards of the Coast employees working in Research and Development. These are the guys who make the game.
Rare Draft (v): Taking a rare in a draft not because it fits in your deck but because it is rare (See also Hate Draft).
Reset Button (n): A card which removes most permanents, often all permanents, from the battlefield.
Resp (abbrev): In response.
RFG (v): To exile a card.
RFG'd (adj): To have been exiled. (Based on the old term for exiling, removed from the game.)
Savage Mise (v): Savage is added for emphasis (See also Mize).
SB (n): Sideboard (Also used as a verb) (See also MD).
SBAs (n): State-Based Actions. These are the game's automatic 'cleanup' effects, and do just that, sending creatures with zero toughness or lethal damage to the graveyard, making players with 0 or less life lose the game, that sort of thing. A general rule regarding state-based actions is that you can never ever do anything before they are checked and applied.
Scoop (v): To concede a game.
Secret tech (n): Tech that otherwise is not commonly used, and/or to use tech which is unexpected (See also Tech).
Sick Beats (n): Very quick beatdown by creatures. Popularized by the misetings humor site.
Silver bullet (n): A specialized card which is usually maindecked to hose another deck type.
Sligh (n): A popular aggressive deck type which uses cheap burn to deal with an opponent's blocker. Named after Paul Sligh, though the inventor is Jay Schneider (See also Burn).
Soft Lock (n): A situation in which a player has near, but not complete, complete control over the board and what is or is not played.
Spam (n): Off topic and generally useless topics and/or posts.
Spamming (v): To produce spam (see also: Spam).
Spirit Link (n):Another word for the lifelink ability; term coined after the card Spirit Link .
Splash (v): Slightly altering your deck's colors in order to include one or two cards of another color.
Stompy (n): A mono-green deck which uses little land on account of the low casting cost of it's cards. It's a very aggressive deck, and use extensivly because it's rather cheap to make in relation to other decks with it's power level.
Sui-Black (n): A popular deck type which deals 20 damage as quickly as possible, while at the same time trying to control your opponent. It uses life as a resource, not caring about your own life total.
Summoning Sickness (n): Quick reference to comprehensive rule 214.7c. (214.7c A creature's activated ability with the tap symbol in its activation cost can't be played unless the creature has been under its controller's control since the start of his or her most recent turn. A creature can't attack unless it has been under its controller's control since the start of his or her most recent turn. Ignore this rule for creatures with haste (see rule 502.5).) Used to be an official term.
Summer Magic (n): See Edgar.
Swing (v): To attack. Used in the context of 'I swing for x,' where x is the amount of damage all creatures attacking would deal to the opponent if not blocked.
Synergy (n): The idea of cards within a deck interacting in a way that benefits their controller.
T
Tap Out (v): To tap all of one's mana producers.
Tech (adj): A card which is important strategically. Usually used in reference to hosing a particular deck and/or playing style (See also Hose).
Threat (n): Any card which threatens an opponent's chances of winning.
Tog (n): A popular deck which used Psychatog kill the opponent.
Topdeck (v): To draw the card needed in a certain situation at the 'perfect' time.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
Fetch Lands (n): A land that allows you to sacrifice it to search for another land from your library and put it onto the battlefield, especially the ones from the Onslaught and Zendikar sets.
Filter Lands (n): A cycle of lands, printed in Odyssey, which allowed you to pay one mana and tap it to create two different colored mana. Also the similar (better) cycle of lands printed in the Shadowmoor block.
Growing Enchantments (n): A series of Enchantments and one Artifact which 'grew' during each upkeep. Each gained a counter each upkeep, and you then sacrificed it for an effect relating to the number of counters upon it.
And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?" You know, anyone who's read a children's book knows that love makes things real. If you love a word, use it! That makes it real. Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction; it doesn't make the word any more real than any other word. If you love a word, it becomes real. --Erin McKean, Redefining the Dictionary
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