# Magic the Gathering Magic: The Gathering is the collectible fantasy card game invented by mathematician Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast on August 5, 1993[1]. Built around planeswalkers casting spells and summoning creatures, it kicked off the entire trading card game category and became a decades-long staple of geek culture that spawned online adaptations, tournament scandals, and internet lore. ## Origin Magic: The Gathering was invented by Richard Garfield, a doctoral candidate in combinatorial mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, in the early 1990s[1]. In 1991, Wizards of the Coast CEO Peter Adkison saw the prototype and green-lit a commercial version, and the game shipped to the public on August 5, 1993, simply under the name Magic[1]. Wizards was a small role-playing game company at the time, but the launch put it at the front of the new collectible card game category almost overnight[3]. The company was acquired by Hasbro in 1999, by which point MTG tournaments were already being organized worldwide[3]. - **Platform:** Tabletop (Wizards of the Coast) - **Creator:** Richard Garfield - **Date:** 1993 ## Overview Magic: The Gathering, or MTG, is a fantasy card game where two or more players duel using decks of creatures, spells, artifacts, and enchantments, with each player starting at 20 life[2]. You can win by dropping an opponent's life to zero, decking them out so they can't draw, or forcing a concession, with older sets even including a defunct 10-poison-counter kill condition[2]. The rarest cards became genuinely valuable, which is a big reason the game hooked collectors as hard as it hooked players[3]. The game's flavor centers on 'planeswalkers', wizard characters who summon creatures and hurl spells at each other, giving it a Dungeons & Dragons-adjacent tone that carried into novels, video games, and a long-running competitive tournament scene[1]. Its cultural footprint online is huge too, with r/magicTCG hosting hundreds of thousands of members and the official channels racking up millions of followers[1]. ## How It Spread The game blew up in comic shops and schools through the 1990s, and by the 2000s Wizards was pushing MTG online[3]. On June 24, 2002, Magic: The Gathering Online launched as a digital adaptation letting players duel over the internet, and by February 2007 it had more than 300,000 registered users[1]. In February 2018, Wizards said more than 20 billion cards had been printed between 2008 and 2016[1]. Hollywood took notice too. On January 13, 2014, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that 20th Century Fox had acquired the screen rights from Hasbro, hiring X-Men producer Simon Kinberg to shepherd a planned franchise pitched in the same league as Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings[3]. Wizards of the Coast president Greg Leeds and Hasbro's Brian Goldner were attached as producers[3]. The game also generated its share of internet moments. On August 29, 2011, Gizmodo intern Alyssa Bereznak published 'My Brief OkCupid Affair With a World Champion Magic: The Gathering Player' about a date with pro player Jon Finkel, and the piece drew 892,775 views within days and a wave of backlash from the MTG community[4]. Years later, on February 23, 2019, Autumn Burchett became the first non-binary trans player to reach the Top 8 of a Mythic Championship, and clips of their reaction spread through Twitch, Reddit's r/magicTCG and Twitter, where their winning tweet pulled more than 5,400 likes in 24 hours[1]. ## How to Use A standard MTG game has each player draw from a personal deck (the 'library') and spend mana to cast creatures, spells, artifacts, and enchantments at their opponent[2]. Common ways to lose include hitting zero life, being unable to draw a card, or conceding when the board state is hopeless[2]. Newer formats retired old rules like the 10 poison counter kill, but the basic 20-life duel is still the shape most players recognize[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Magic the Gathering? Magic: The Gathering is a collectible fantasy card game where players duel as planeswalkers using decks of creatures and spells, with each player starting at 20 life[2]. ### Where did Magic the Gathering come from? It was created by mathematician Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast on August 5, 1993[1]. ### What does Magic the Gathering mean? The name refers to planeswalkers 'gathering' magic and creatures across fantasy planes to battle each other, a concept Garfield designed in the early 1990s[1]. ### How do you use Magic the Gathering? Players build decks and duel by casting spells and summoning creatures to reduce an opponent from 20 life to zero, deck them out, or force a concession[2]. ### Is Magic the Gathering still popular? Yes, Wizards reported more than 20 billion cards printed between 2008 and 2016, and the game has a large online community across a dedicated subreddit and official channels[1]. ## References 1. [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/fox-bring-magic-gathering-big-670529]() 2. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Magic%20The%20Gathering]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/magic-the-gathering]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZyXU1L3JXk]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/magic-the-gathering Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library