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8 things to know about Magic: The Gathering
After nearly 24 years, Magic's still going strong. We dive into the series' history to bring you what you need to know about the long-running trading card game.
Forget Hearthstone or Gwent, or even the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the granddaddy of all TCGs turns 24 next month. That’s right, Magic: The Gathering, the card game published by Wizards of the Coast, has been around for over two decades, and it’s amassed a player base of over 20 million people casting spells and building decks over the years.
Despite its venerable age, you might not know a whole lot about it, but the game’s stronger than ever, and still sees numerous expansions launched each year to build upon the base game. Join us as we run through everything you need to know about Magic: The Gathering.
Magic was nearly a board game, not a card game
Created by Richard Garfield, Magic: The Gathering might not have actually been made if Garfield got what he originally wanted. Garfield first contacted publisher Wizards of the Coast about an idea for a board game, called Robo Rally, but that would have been too expensive to produce and was deemed a financial risk. Instead, Wizards asked Garfield to come up with an idea for something simpler and cheaper that could be played in-between sessions of other games, and he came back with an idea for a card game. What was originally called Magic, and then Mana Clash, before settling on Magic: The Gathering, Wizards of the Coast and Garfield initially released the game on August 5, 1993, and it’s been a hit for the company ever since.
Magic cards can command huge sums
Got around $27,000 burning a hole in your pocket? You might be able to grab yourself Black Lotus, the most expensive card in the whole history of Magic: The Gathering, and one of the most powerful. As such, it’s been banned in most formats of official play, but that’s not the only reason for its hefty price-tag: it’s incredibly rare.
The card itself originates from the original Alpha and Beta sets of the game, both of which were limited runs. Only around 1,100 copies of the Alpha run were released, while around 3,300 were released for the Beta run. Even then, Black Lotus is incredibly rare, as it’s part of what’s called the Power Nine, a set of early-run cards that were only printed for a few months between 1993 and 1994, and those cards are considered to be the most feared in the game, with Black Lotus being the most powerful of the bunch. Back in 2014, one such card sold for $27,302 on eBay, meaning if you happen to have one hiding up in your attic, you might want to check ASAP.
There have been professional MTG players for decades
Three years after the game was released to the world, The Magic: The Gathering Pro Tour kicked off, becoming the highest form of competitive Magic play, and was even broadcast on ESPN. The Pro Tour itself consists of a series of tournaments held around the world, each requiring an invitation to compete. Each Pro Tour awards a hefty $250,000 in cash prizes, with up to $50,000 going to the overall winner – not too dissimilar to many pro card game eSports like Hearthstone. The Pro Tour has been broadcast on YouTube in recent years, but has finally settled onto Twitch.
Magic has seen some tasty spin-off ideas
According to head designer Mark Rosewater, the Wizards team thought about putting bubble gum into booster packs for the game, but that didn’t quite work out. Putting something edible into booster packs raised all sorts of stricter rules, and turned out to not be a feasible idea – you’d wonder where that would have led to had the idea worked out. Chocolate in your base sets?
You get a card, you get a card, you get a card
Reportedly, when people used to visit the Wizards HQ during the game’s heydey, they were given free cards: a whole starter deck and a couple packs of booster cards. According to Rosewater, it didn’t matter who you were, or why you were in the building, if you were to walk through the Wizards of the Coast building in Washington, you’d get some free cards to add to your collection – even if you collected or not.
Good luck catching them all
Since the game first launched in 1993, there have been over 70 expansions added to the game, totalling up the number of cards in the game to over 16,000 unique cards. All of those have been printed with individual, detailed artwork, individual rules and add to the game’s expanding storyline. After reaching 10,000 unique cards, the Magic team wanted to celebrate it, but couldn’t quite work out which card was exactly the 10,000th one. Clearly, Hearthstone and Gwent sure have some catching up to do.
The first TCG to go digital
While there had been unofficial ways of playing the game online before, Wizards of the Coast created an official way to do just that in 2002, with Magic Online. While you lose the tactile feel of the actual cards, the digital version makes things slightly easier, and even has its own online World Championship that was originally held in conjunction with the real life version. The digital version of the game goes through updates and changes much like the real-life version, but it’s only available on PC, rather than on mobiles and tablets.
It draws eSports-size crowds
While we’ve seen plenty of pro video games draw thousands of viewers, Magic knows how to draw a huge amount of actual players. Back in 2015 during the Grand Prix Las Vegas, 7,551 players descended upon the weekend to compete and be in for a chance at walking away with Pro Points and $10,000, making it the largest trading card game tournament to date.
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