Magic: The Gathering is a collectible and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and has approximately thirty-five million players as of December 2018, and over twenty billion Magic cards produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity.
The Multiverse is the shared fictional universe depicted on Magic: The Gathering cards, novels, comics, and other supplemental products. Though Magic is a strategy game, an intricate storyline underlies the cards released in each expansion. On the cards, elements of this multiverse are shown in the card art and through quotations and descriptions on the bottom of most cards. Novels and anthologies published by HarperPrism and Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), and the comic books published by Armada Comics expand upon the settings and characters hinted at on the cards. WOTC also publishes a weekly story in the Magic Fiction column, previously known as Official Magic Fiction and Uncharted Realms.
Unhinged is a humor and parody themed expansion set to the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. Unhinged was released on November 19, 2004. Its tone is less serious than traditional Magic expansions. It is a follow-on to Unglued, an earlier humor themed expansion set.
The Odyssey is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block. It consists of a trio of expansion sets: Odyssey, Torment and Judgment.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published seven expansion sets from 1993–1995, and one compilation set. These sets contained new cards that "expanded" on the base sets of Magic with their own mechanical theme and setting; these new cards could be played on their own, or mixed in with decks created from cards in the base sets. With Magic's runaway success, many of the printings of these early sets were too small to satisfy the rapidly growing fanbase. Cards from them became rare, hard to find, and expensive. It was not until Fallen Empires and Homelands that Wizards of the Coast was able to print enough cards to meet demand; additionally, Wizards of the Coast published Chronicles, a reprint set that helped fix many of the scarcity issues with the earliest sets.
Ice Age is a block of three expansion sets in Magic: The Gathering, consisting of the Ice Age, Alliances and Coldsnap sets. It is also the titular first set in the block. The Ice Age set is the eleventh set and the sixth expansion set, released in June 1995. Set in the years from 450 to 2934 AR, the set describes a world set in perpetual winter due to the events in Antiquities. Ice Age was followed up June 1996 with Alliances, the fourteenth Magic: The Gathering set and eighth expansion set.; and on July 21, 2006 with Coldsnap. The time period between Alliances and Coldsnap was the longest period of time between the beginning and the completion of a full block in Magic. Originally, the set Homelands, released in October 1995, was the second set in the Ice Age block, but following the release of Coldsnap, Homelands was removed from the block in favor of Coldsnap.
Onslaught is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block. It consists of the expansion sets Onslaught, Legions and Scourge. The block's main theme is creature types, and much of the game play concerns interactions between these "tribes". The story continues the saga of the Mirari from the previous block of expansion sets. Onslaught was the last block printed before the "modern" card face style was introduced.
The collectible card game Magic: The Gathering published nine core sets from 1993–2007, also referred to as basic sets and base sets. These sets consisted entirely of reprints, usually focusing on staple cards Wizards of the Coast felt should always be available. These cards were generally simpler than cards in expansion sets, omitting multicolored cards, and used only the original abilities and keywords of Magic such as Flying and Trample. As Magic grew, the base sets were considered descendants of the original Limited Edition, and shaped the default setting and feel of Magic. In contrast, Magic "expansion sets" usually chose a particular theme, such as artifacts for Antiquities. All cards were given a white border to mark them as reprints, with a few exceptions. From Fourth Edition in 1995 onward, a new base set would come out once per two years in the spring or early summer; for tournament play, that set would be legal for two years in the Standard format until the next core set replaced it.
Time Spiral is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block consisting of the expansion sets Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, and Future Sight. It is set on the plane of Dominaria, the first time that that plane had been visited since 8th Edition.
The Lorwyn block is a Magic: The Gathering expert-level block consisting of two sets: Lorwyn. and Morningtide. A third set, codenamed "Jelly", was originally planned as part of Lorwyn block, but partway into the design of Lorwyn, that block was changed to a two-set block. Jelly was revealed as Shadowmoor, the first set of a second two-set block. The two blocks were linked through synergy and rotated through the official tournament formats as a single, four-expansion unit. The primary theme of the Lorwyn block is tribalism.
Masters Edition is a series of Magic: The Gathering expansions that have been released exclusively for Magic: The Gathering Online. Each set consists of reprints from early Magic sets that had yet to be released to Magic Online. To date, four incarnations of Master's Edition, as well as a spinoff have been released:
Ravnica is a Magic: The Gathering block that consists of three expert-level expansion sets: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpact, and Dissension. Following in the tradition of other Magic blocks, Ravnica takes place in a plane of the multiverse that was previously unexplored in the game's backstory. The world of Ravnica is an ecumenopolis, a vast city that covers the entire surface of its planet, and is home to a diverse assortment of sentient races. Much power in Ravnica is held by the ten "guilds", political factions that each represent a combination of two of Magic's five colors. The mythology of Ravnica is loosely derived from Slavic folklore, and the character names reflect this. This plane was revisited in the Return to Ravnica block, and the Guilds of Ravnica,Ravnica Allegiance and War of the Spark sets.
Scars of Mirrodin is a Magic: The Gathering block, consisting of the expansion sets Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged and New Phyrexia. This block marked the return to the plane of Mirrodin. This plane was last visited in the Mirrodin block that concluded in 2004. The interim tagline for the set was "The Corrosion Begins October 1, 2010." The plans for this set were first made public by mananation.com when it was discovered that "Scars of Mirrodin", as well as "Mirrodin Pure" and "New Phyrexia" had been registered as trademarks with the US Patent and Trademark Office by Wizards of the Coast. As with the original Mirrodin block, artifacts make up the overarching theme of Scars of Mirrodin; Nearly half of all cards in the set are artifacts. In his May 24 column, Mark Rosewater confirmed that the "Infect" game mechanic in Scars of Mirrodin would bring poison counters back to Magic. All cards in the Scars of Mirrodin block carried a watermark, either Mirran or Phyrexian.
The Rath Cycle is a cycle of three Magic: The Gathering expansions that continues the events of the Weatherlight Saga. Whereas there had previously been no official term for a trilogy of thematically or story-linked expansions, starter decks and booster packs from all three of these sets had the phrase "The Rath cycle" printed on them, firmly establishing "cycle" as the official word of choice and "The Rath Cycle" as the name of this particular cycle. It consists of Tempest, Stronghold and Exodus. These are the 20th, 21st and 22nd expansion sets, respectively.
The Artifacts Cycle is a tetralogy of Magic: The Gathering expansion sets centered on the exploits of Urza Planeswalker. It consists of the expansions Antiquities, Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny. The latter three sets are sometimes referred to as an "Urza block" for tournament purposes, since there have been formats and time periods in which cards from the later three sets were legal but cards from Antiquities were not. However, the books "The Brothers' War", "Planeswalker", "Timestreams", and "Bloodlines" unambiguously confirm that, from a story and thematic point of view, "Artifacts cycle" is correct and it begins with the events depicted in Antiquities.
The Masquerade Cycle,, sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "Masques block", is a Magic: The Gathering cycle that is set on the planes of Mercadia, Rath, and plane of Dominaria. It consists of the expansion sets Mercadian Masques, Nemesis, and Prophecy. Mercadian Masques was the first set that is not subject to the Wizards of the Coast Reprint Policy, meaning that none of its cards appear on its Reserved List.
Theros is a Magic: The Gathering block, consisting of the expansion sets Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx. The block is a "top-down" design inspired by Greek mythology.
Seven Magic: The Gathering core sets have been released since 2009: Magic 2010, Magic 2011, Magic 2012, Magic 2013, Magic 2014, Magic 2015, and Magic Origins. Unlike 10th Edition and previous core sets, roughly half of each core set was entirely new cards. Beginning with Magic 2010, Wizards decided to introduce new cards into the Core Set so that they could be relevant for both new players as well as veterans. Starting with Magic 2011, core sets have included "returning mechanics", or non-evergreen keywords with cards printed in just one core set. All of these core sets were released in the summer of the year prior to the year in the title - for example, Magic 2010 was released in 2009.
Ixalan is a Magic: The Gathering expansion block consisting of the sets Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan. The first set of the block was released on September 29, 2017 and Rivals of Ixalan was released on January 19, 2018.
