What is Magic: The Gathering?
At a glance, Magic is a trading card game filled with strategic battles and unique card decks. But Magic has always been bigger than the box. Whether you’re having fun at the kitchen table, or battling in a high-stakes competition, there’s a place for you here.
How to play MTG?
When playing Magic: The Gathering, you take on the role of the Planeswalker — a powerful being who summons creatures and casts spells and enchantments in hopes of defeating the rival Planeswalker. Each player has 20 life and a deck built of 60 cards that usually consists of 24 land or mana cards and 36 cards made up of creatures, spells, enchantments and so on. The aim of the game is to get your rivals’ health down to zero.
History
Magic: The Gathering has been around since 1993. It was created by Dr. Richard Garfield, who had originally approached Wizards of the Coast (an American games publisher) with a different game entirely called RoboRally in 1985 that at the time was too expensive to be made by such a young company. Over the years that followed Dr. Garfield ended up instead creating a card game that was quick and simple enough to play for people waiting in line at conventions.
Thus Magic: The Gathering came to be. It was originally debuted at the Origins Game Fair in Dallas, Texas. It was such an immediate success that all the stock — supposedly an entire year’s worth of cards — was sold before the fair was over. The game was off to an unprecedented start so positive that the rate of card printing had to be increased substantially.
Evolution
MTG has evolved over the years to meet the needs and the demands of its fanbase, which now consists of over 12 million players worldwide. Part of this evolution involved entering the digital world in 2002 through the release of Magic Online. Magic Online encouraged players to register, collect digital cards, build decks, and duel other Magic Players all from the comfort from their own home (or wherever else they chose to play from). All that players needed was a PC and an internet connection.
Seven years later (2009) Duels of the Planeswalkers was released for consoles, and unlike Magic Online, Duels of the Planeswalkers pitted players predominantly against AI opponents with a challenging campaign mode. It also featured a puzzle mode and an online multiplayer mode, of course.