THE CARDS
Assuming you have a collection, take out a few cards, and look at them.

The outer border will be black, white, silver or gold.
BLACK means the card is from an expansion set
WHITE means the card is from a core set, and has been reprinted several times
SILVER means the card is from an "un" set, and is not legal in formal play.
GOLD means the card is from a preconstructed pro-tour deck, and isn't legal in formal play unless you cannot see the back side.

The inner border will be White, blue, red, black, green, gold, grey or any combonation of those colours. This is just decorative.

The name of the card is in the upper-left, and is self-explanitory.

The mana cost is in the upper right, and will look like a bunch of round symbols filled with numbers or colours.
colourless (X) mana is in a grey circle with a number.
WHITE mana (W) is a white circle with a sun.
BLUE mana (U) is a blue circle with a water drop.
RED mana (R) is a red circle with a fireball.
BLACK mana (B) is a black circle with a skull.
GREEN mana (G) is a green circle with a tree.
The CONVERTED MANA COST is simply the numbers added together. ex: 6(R)(R)(R) = converted mana cost of 9.

The type of card is in the middle-left, below the illustration.

The expansion symbol will be across from the type, in the middle-right. a gold symbol means a rare card, a silver symbol means an uncommon card, and an uncoloured symbol means you have a common.

the text box is below the illustration, and it explains what the card does. It may also contain flavour text in italics, which has no purpose other then adding flavour to the game.

If you have a creature card, then there will be an extra box in the lower-right with two numbers seperated by a slash. (#/#) this designates the power and toughness of the creature.

in the very bottom middle lies the illustration credits and the number of the card related to the set.

back to What is magic?