Everything from the Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! trading card games, to digital card games like Hearthstone have their roots in MTG’s innovative collectible booster packs and simple-but-deep duelling gameplay.Īnd that’s no wonder, because Magic: The Gathering is an excellent game. It’s also a cultural tour de force, the first collectible card game. An estimated 20 million people play MTG around the world, making it one of the most widely-played trading card games of all time. Since 1993, Magic: The Gathering has spawned literally thousands of cards and countless playing methods. In collectible card game Magic: The Gathering, you do epic fantasy battle with a host of creatures, gods and heroes. Of course, some of them aren't in games because they're prohibitively, ridiculously expensive. The sets allowed in other formats depend on the format itself. The sets permitted for tournament play in the Standard format periodically change to include only the four most recent sets released for the game, an action known as rotation.

Some of MTG’s most popular cards often see reprints in new sets, while other cards considered too powerful can be banned or restricted in certain formats to keep the game’s competitive scene fair. More than 20,000 different cards have been released for Magic: The Gathering since it first released more than 25 years ago, with over 20 billion cards printed between 20 alone. Players can customise their deck before each battle, choosing cards from their library and - depending on the format - the current legal pool of sets and expansions.

Widely considered the first trading card game, the game typically sees two players compete to defeat their opponent first by spending mana to play creatures, spells and other items and abilities. Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game - also known as a collectible card game - originally created by designer Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993.

Magic the gathering arena