Wizards of the Coast, Magic, Magic: the Gathering,
Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, Fallen Empires, Ice
Age, and Chronicles, Homelands, Alliances, Mirage, Visions, Tempest,
Stronghold, Exodus, Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy, Urza's Destiny, Unglued,
Mercadian Masques and Nemesis are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
Posting Frequency: weekly
Maintained by: James Grimmett (james.grimmett@curiosity-shoppe.com)
Version: 1.15 Created: 7th April 1999 Last modified: 25th February 2000
Sections that have changed are marked with a "*" in the index.
Sections that are new are marked with a "+".
Index:
======
1. About this FAQ
1.0 Important information (including LICENSE DETAILS)
1.1 Why has this FAQ been written?
1.2 Who is this FAQ for?
1.3 Where can I get the most up to date version?
1.4 Contributors and contributions
2. Common deck names and descriptions (alphabetically)
2.0 What is this section about?
2.1 Deck Archetypes
2.1.1 Weenie rush decks
2.1.2 Mid- to late-game control decks
* 2.1.3 Combo decks
2.1.4 Rogue decks
2.2 Deck Descriptions
Academy
* Bargain
Counter-Pheonix
Counter-Sliver
Deadguy Red
Donais 5CU
Fire Elves
High Tide
Jar
LLL
Massive Speed Green (MSG)
Merfolk
Necro
Pandenaught
Rancor White
Rec/Sur
Sleight Knight
Sligh
Sliving Death
Stompy
Suicide Black
Turbo Stasis
White Weeny
3. Common card aliases (alphabetically)
3.0 What is this section about?
3.1 Alphabetic list of card aliases.
3.2 How did that card get it's name?
4. Common beginner questions and terminology
4.0 What is this section about?
4.1 What does "sac" or "sack" mean?
4.2 What is Suitcase?
4.3 What is Apprentice?
* 4.4 What is all this UL, WL, VI, EX stuff?
4.5 What is this U, W, R, G, B stuff?
4.6 What is The Dojo?
* 4.7 What are the symbols for the expansions?
4.8 I've been away from Magic for a while, what decks are good now?
4.9 What is a 187 creature (aka CIP)?
4.10 What is a sideboard (also known as SB)
4.11 What is beatdown?
4.12 What are Celerity and Haste?
4.13 What is bouncing?
4.14 What are Dual Lands?
4.15 What are Pain Lands?
4.16 What are Rainbow Lands?
4.17 What is burn?
4.18 What does the term broken mean?
4.19 What is a cantrip?
4.20 What is a depletion land?
4.21 What is milling?
4.22 What is chump blocking?
4.23 What is splashing?
4.24 What is topdecking?
4.25 What is a Super Lucky Guy (SLG)?
4.26 Are there really foil Urza's Saga cards?
4.27 What is going rogue (what is a rogue deck)?
4.28 What is a UBC or LSD deck?
5. For players who want more.
5.0 What is this section about?
5.1 Magic related newsgroups
5.2 Wizards of the Coast
5.3 Ruling archives
Section 1: About this FAQ
=========================
1.0 Important Information (including license)
---------------------------------------------
This document has been written by James Grimmett with contributions
from a number of people (listed in section 1.4). Although just
beginning I anticipate that, by the time this FAQ reaches anywhere
near maturity, a lot of hard work will have gone into it by a lot of
people (I also anticipate that, in the end, it won't be me who is
looking after this document). So, in order to protect the people who
will be working on this and it's HTML (and possibly MS Word) versions
of this it is, this document includes a license:
+ Magic: The Gathering Newcomer FAQ for rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy
+ Copyright (c) 1999 James Grimmett
+
+ This document is free; you may redistribute it under the terms of the
+ GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+ Foundation; either version 2 of the license or (at your option) any
+ later version.
+
+ To receive a copy of the GNU General Public License write to the Free
+ Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA
+ 02111-1307, USA.
I, James Grimmett, may be contacted by at the following email address:
james.grimmett@curiosity-shoppe.com
or by 'snail mail' at
Top Floor Flat,
1 Albion Terrace,
Bath, UK, BA1 3AF.
1.1 Why has this FAQ been written?
----------------------------------
It has become clear to me, over the last three years of reading
rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy, that many of the same
questions are asked again and again. Sometimes the same question is
asked only a matter of days after the last asking. This leads to a
feeling of antagonism towards newcomers to the groups by some of the
'more established' participants.
The aim of this FAQ, and perhaps a naive one at this early stage, is
to provide a single document that may answer many of the questions of
a newcomer to Magic: The Gathering in order to reduce the number of
repeated questions and bad feeling on the group.
It is NOT the aim of this FAQ to replace the larger, much more detailed
FAQ that is posted regularly on rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules.
1.2 Who is this FAQ for?
------------------------
This FAQ is aimed at newcomers to the collectable trading-card game of
Magic: The Gathering. If you know what a Sligh deck is, what the real
card name of a Tim is, and where you should ask rules and strategy
related questions on the 'net, this document is not for you.
If you didn't know at least one of those three, or were a little
unsure, this document should provide you with the information to get
going along the road to enlightenment.
If you find this FAQ a little long winded, or a little too big to
download frequently, you may want to try Doc Coyote's Magic Glossary.
Doc posts it on a bi-weekly basis to rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy
and it is also available from the following URLs:
http://www.curiosity-shoppe.com/magic/Glossary.html
http://www.sirius.com/~drcoyote/Glossary.html
Alternatively, if you find this FAQ to be too simple for you, try out
Weez's Magic: the Gathering Rules FAQ. It's posted every five days or
so to rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules and is also available at:
http://www.flash.net/~bdugan/magicfaq.html
1.3 Where can I get the most up to date version?
------------------------------------------------
This FAQ is posted on a bi-weekly basis to the
rec.games.trading-cards.magic.strategy newsgroup. It can also be found
at the following URLs:
http://www.curiosity-shoppe.com/magic/beginner_FAQ.txt
http://www.e-league.com/files/beginner_FAQ.txt
http://www.sirius.com/~drcoyote/beginner_FAQ.txt
and HTML versions are available at:
http://www.curiosity-shoppe.com/magic/beginner_FAQ.html
http://www.e-league.com/files/beginner_FAQ.html
http://www.sirius.com/~drcoyote/beginner_FAQ.html
1.4 Contributors and contributions
----------------------------------
This document is currently being written by James Grimmett with help,
suggestions and criticism from a number of other sources. I'd like to
say a big thanks to all of them. Their names are listed below:
Bob Flaminio
Dave Meeson
Doc Coyote
Eyal Reuveni
Henry Link
Lonewolf
Morgan Lewis
Paul Dale
Richard Young
XSpamarchy
Zack 'Vorro' Adgie
Cheers guys, it'd be a lot shorter and more incorrect without you.
Thanks also go to Chad Day at E-League for mirroring both the text and
HTML versions of this FAQ.
If anyone would like to contribute to this FAQ please email me at
james.grimmett@curiosity-shoppe.com and I'll get back to you.
2. Common Deck Names and Descriptions (alphabetically)
======================================================
2.0 What is this section about?
-------------------------------
One of the most common questions that appears on the newsgroup is
"What is Sligh" or "I've heard of deck called Tide... what is it?"
Generally this is then followed up by a series of abusive replies and
possibly one or two that actually describe the deck in question.
This section is a listing, in alphabetical order, of these common deck
names and a short description of some of the cards and how it might be
played. Never more should anyone have to ask what a Death deck, or a
BLT deck is ;)
Details of cards that are mentioned can be found in the Expansion
Spoilers on Wizards of the Coast's website (see Section 5 for more
details).
2.1 Deck Archetypes
-------------------
Below is a list of common deck archetypes. They are broken down into
four categories below. Those that are marked with ** have a
description outlined in section 2.2. One of the aims of this FAQ is to
end up with a description for each desk type. If you have a
description for one of the deck types that doesn't have one so far,
feel free to send it to me at james.grimmett@curiosity-shoppe.com.
2.1.1 Weenie-rush decks:
White Weenie **
- Jank
- Sleight Knight **
- Rancor White **
Sligh **
- Deadguy Red **
- Lackey Sligh
Merfolk (aka Fish) **
Suicide Black
Stompy **
- MSG **
2.1.2 Mid- to late-game control decks:
Draw-Go
- Big Blue
- Forbidian
Counter-Pheonix **
- Counter Hammer
- Counter Palinchron
Counter-Sliver **
- Sliving Death **
Counterburn **
Recur-Sur **
Godzilla
- DDT
Necro **
Pox
Trade-Awake
Turbo Stasis **
5CGreen
Donais 5CU **
Mono-brown
Wildfire
Road trip Red
2.1.3 Combo decks:
Academy **
- High Tide **
Bargain **
Cocoa Pebbles, "The Skull Catapult"
Jar **
Fruity Pebbles
Fire Elves **
Pandenaught **
Oath of Rogues
Trix
2.1.4 Rogue decks:
BLT
Secret Force
Stupid Green
LLL **
2.2 Deck Descriptions
---------------------
Below is a list, in alphabetical order, of deck descriptions for some
of the common deck archetypes listed above in section 2.1.
Academy
-------
The Academy deck was one that was based upon the Urza's Saga card
Tolarian Academy. In general it contained a number of low (or zero)
casting cost Artifacts and lots of blue spells to allow a player to
draw cards, the two most important of which were Stroke of Genius, and
Timespiral. The last important piece of the puzzle was Mind Over
Matter which allows its owner to untap a permanent by discarding a
card.
The games would then go along the following lines: An academy player
would start by casting a number of cheap artifacts. For each artifact
that player controlled the Tolarian Academy could be tapped to produce
one blue mana (so, with three artifacts out you can tap it to produce
three mana). Using this, and other lands and artifact-produced mana
the player could then either cast a Mind over Matter, or look through
their deck for one. Once this was in play, the player used it's effect
to untap the Academy for more mana, draw more cards, gain more mana,
etc until a large amount of mana (generally more than 100) had been
added to their mana pool. This could then be used to cast Stroke of
Genius on the opponent to force them to draw more cards than there
were in the opponent's library - thereby decking them.
This deck lasted for a short while until Tolarian Academy was
banned. It mutated into a number of other forms of deck such as High
Tide and Blue Spiral.
Bargain
-------
All the versions of Bargain are based around two cards: Yawgmoth's
Bargain and Soul Feast. The decks arrange to cast a Bargain and then
draw enough cards to allow a player to cast Soul Feast on their
opponent five times using at least one Soul Feast Twice thanks to
Yawgmoth's Will. The decks typically consist of a large number of ways
to get the Bargain into play, followed by a Skirge Familiar. The
Familiar allows a player to discard a card to generate one black
mana. Whilst the rest of the deck is designed to generate a lot of
mana.
There have been several versions of Bargain in cluding a pure black
version using Reprocess. The most well known versions are Zvi Bargain
(aka Exhume Bargain) created by Zvi Mowshowitz and Sabre Bargain.
Both decks have lots of commonality: Dark Rituals and Grim Monoliths
to speed the mana production up, Vampiric Tutors and Academy Rectors
to help get the Yawgmoth's Bargains, and some method of sacrificing
the Academy rector. They differ in the way they allow a player to gain
life without casting Soul Feast.
Zvi Bargain includes Exhumes and Radiant's Dragoons to give the player
a way of gaining life without casting Soul Feast. This gives the
player more life to use to draw their way through their deck. It also
includes Claws of Gix to allow a player to sacrifice permanents they
no longer need (tapped land and Grim Monoliths along with any Dragoons
in play) before casting Yawgmoth's Will, so they may be used again.
Sabre Bargain uses Renounces to sacrifice permaments to gain two life
per permanent to give the player more life to search through their
deck.
Bargain is a very fast deck, often 'going off' on turns three and four.
Counter Phoenix
---------------
This deck started as a foil to the 5 colour green decks that sprung up all
over the place with the advent of Tradewind riders and Wall of Blossoms. The
idea behind the deck is to stall out the opponents threats using burn,
legacies allure and counterspells. Once above the critical six land, the c-p
player abuses Whispers of the Muse to gain huge card advantage. With the
opponent locked down the c-p player drops the Shard Phoenix (or Hammer of
Bogarden) and pounds away recursing it from their graveyard as necessary.
There are a number of variations of this deck mainly based on the card
drawing engine - intuition, impulse, whispers - and of course the kill card,
Shard Phoenix, Hammer of Bogarden and more recently Palinchron.
All of these have one thing in common - the reusability of the kill card and
their vulnerability to Lobotomy!
Counter-Sliver
--------------
The Rath Cycle brought about Slivers, and a couple different strategies
developed that utilized these unique creatures. Counter-Sliver is a utility
deck that uses only the strongest Slivers - Muscle, Crystalline, Winged, and
occasionally Victual - and builds a control deck around the Blue and Green
base. Recent versions have taken to combining the untargettable Slivers
with countering ability and Worship, to protect against creature-based
strategies.
Deadguy Red
-----------
Deadguy Red (not to be confused with Sligh or Geeba) took the original
concepts of sligh (mana curve and board control mainly) and threw them
out the windows. Deadguy red was a mono-red sligh variant with one
singleminded concept: Deal 20 points of damage as fast as
possible. Deadguy red would use massive amounts of burn coupled with
cheap creatures like Jackal Pup and Ironclaw orcs, ignoring the
drawbacks and playing them because of the power to cost ratio. Deadguy
Red's prime passed with the Mirage cycle leaving the standard
environment, but is still a force to be reckoned with in standard, and
especially in extended, where it has access to both lightning bolt and
fireblast.
Donais 5CU
----------
Donais 5CU (also less frequently called "stallball") was created around
the time of Tempest. The deck revolved around instants, interrupts, and
sorceries, usually having no nonland permanents. This alone created a
large advantage for 5CU, meaning that almost all of the opponents
disruption spells were likely useless. It employed very heavy
countermagic as well as a vast field of removal spells, as well as cards
like Whispers of the Muse and Capsize, and most importantly, Gaea's
Blessing to reuse spells. After absolute control was established, the
deck would then use a Fireball for the kill card.
Fire Elves
----------
Fire Elves came to existence when Urza's Saga brought Priest of Titania.
The deck uses cheap mana producing elves, Priest of Titania, and Gaea's
Cradle to generate a lot of mana, which is concentrated to one large
Fireball to kill the opponent.
High Tide
---------
Created shortly before Tolarian Academy's banning, High Tide eventually
evolved into a deck that was arguably more powerful than Academy.
Instead of relying on a legendary land for the mana engine, the islands
themselves became the mana engine once a High Tide or two was cast. Like
Academy, this deck relied very heavily on Time Spiral and other cheap
drawers, such as Impulse, Frantic Search, Meditate, and (of course)
Stroke of Genius. Early versions of the deck relied on Mind over Matter,
but the deck evolved into one that didn't require MoMa at all, instead
using Turnabouts and Thawing Glaciers to get large amounts of islands
into play.
Jar
---
The Jar deck was a very short-lived but powerful deck that allowed
quite a few people to pretty much steal the extended PT
invitations. Using cards like demonic consultation, tinker, and
vampiric tutor, the deck would strive to get out a megrim, a jar, and
one more of either, and expliot the jars end-of-turn discard ability
to make the opponent take 14 points of damage for each jar. With the
right draw, a player could do this on the first or second turn in the
extended format. Thankfully, Jar was banned very promptly, but not
before many competent players were screwed out of a PT invitation by a
jar player.
LLL (Legion Land Loss)
----------------------
LLL was created by The Legion (hence the name) durning the extended
PTQ season in 1999 as an answer to the mana-intensive combo decks. By
playing an elf on the first turn, LLL could play any of the 12+
landkill spells in its deck on the second turn, and quickly follow up
with cheap green fatties (such as ernham djinn) and cursed scrolls for
the kill.
Massive Speed Green (MSG)
-------------------------
Massive Speed Green is a new breed of Green weenie deck that has really come
into power with the addition of Rancor. It uses cheap creatures from Rath
Cycle, and puts the faster Echo creatures from Urza's Saga to deadly use.
It often times will run no disruption, or Cursed Scrolls as their only
disruption.
Merfolk (aka Fish)
------------------
Merfolk decks are based around the Sligh mana useage principal. It is
an efficient deck that uses 1-3 casting cost Merfolk and Lord of
Atlantis to swarm the opponent, whilst using a small number of
counterspells to slow the opponent down and stop key threats.
Other variants of Fish include: Frozen Fish, Curious Fish, Cursed Fish
and BBQed Fish.
Necro
-----
Necro decks fall into a couple of different categories but are all
based around the same black enchantment - Necropotence.
The deck wins by gaining huge card advantage from Necropotence. It is
essentially a control deck that uses cheap hand disruption (duress,
stupor, hymn to tourach etc) and creature control (terror, diabolic
edict) to gain board control and then apply damage either by its own
creatures (black knight, hypnotic spectre, skittering skirge) or by
sucking the life from the opponent (drain life, corrupt) which also
provides extra life to power the necropotence.
Necro came to prominence in the black summer (1996) when it dominated
play in a way not seen until the combo decks of last winter. Many of
the key cards for Necro were either banned (hypnotic spectre, strip
mine) or rotated out and left out of the card pool (hymn to tourach).
It more recently became viable again with the banning of the combo
related cards and the introduction of cards like Yawgmoth's Will,
Duress and Corrupt.
Pandenaught
-----------
Pandenaught is a combo deck that abuses the interaction of Pandemonium with
the 1cc 12/12 Phyrexian Dreadnaught. The deck was predominantly Red, with
Black splashed in to return the Dreadnaught from the graveyard. The deck
left Type 2 with the Mirage block rotating out; however, and extended
version might use some quick 0cc artifacts and Goblin Tinkerer to find the
Dreadnaught.
This deck type ceased to work when Phyrexian Dreadnaught was errated
on August 1st 1999 so that, unless creatures were sacrificed, the
dreadnaught never came into play at all.
Rancor White
------------
A variant of White Weenie, this deck also uses cheap, efficient
creatures to swarm the opponent. The only difference between WW and
Rancor White is the inclusion of some of green's most efficient
creatures: Pouncing Jaguar and Acridian, and it's most efficient
creature pumpers: Rancor, Might of Oaks, and Giant Growth.
Rec/Sur
-------
A deck that uses Recurring Nightmare and Survival of the Fittest. The
latter is used to fetch creatures from a player's library as they are
needed. The former can swap a creature in play for a creature in the
graveyard. The two together extend the resources a Rec/Sur player has
by a great amount. The Survival also allowed a player to put one of a
lot of different creatures as it can get them whenever they are needed
and the Recurring Nightmare can get them back if they are killed.
This deck often filled it's graveyard with creatures and then cast
Living Death which brough them all back, and removed the opponent's
creatures at the same time.
A brief variant used the "free creatures" from Urza's Saga (Great
Whale, Peregrine Drake, Priest of Gix) to amass a large amount of mana
and then Fireball or Stroke of Genius the opponent to death.
Recurring Nightmare was banned on April 1st 1999, and the "free
creatures" were errated on 1st March 1999 so they could no longer be
used in this way.
Sleight Knight
--------------
Traditionally a white deck splashing for blue to play Sleight of
Mind. This gives the player the weeny rush aspect of White Weeny, but
adds the ability to change the creatures with protection from a colour
to protection from the opponent's colour every game. The sleights also
make the deck more resistant to Gloom, white's weeny's nemesis.
Sleight of Mind has migrated more to the sideboard of White decks
these days, as many of the white creatures have shadow and don't need
the added evasion.
Sligh
-----
The Sligh deck, is traditionally a red deck that attempts to use all
of it's available mana, every turn. The original versions of the deck
used many cheap 'utility' creatures that had useful abilities (such as
the ability to destroy an artifact), backed up with a little red
burn. This has evolved over time in several ways: towards the
so-called Stupid Red Burn deck with much more burn than was originally
used; and Cursed Sligh, using burn, utility creatures and Cursed Scrolls
to keep your opponent's creatures off the board while your creatures nip
in each turn to hurt your opponent.
The deck gets it's name from Paul Sligh, the player people first
really noticed playing it, although the concept of the deck is
attributed to Jay Schneider.
There are many different versions of Sligh, and players often hotly
contest the definition of which decks are and aren't Sligh.
Sliving Death
-------------
Sliving Death runs on mostly a Black and Green base, and relies on putting
Slivers into the graveyard, and bringing them all back with a Living Death.
It used all the saccable Slivers like Victual and Acidic, along with the
standard Muscle, Crystalline, and Winged. It often included an uncastable
Sliver Queen and ways to get it into the graveyard, and also might include
an uncastable Heart Sliver as well to allow for an immediate attack.
Stompy
------
Stompy was a mono-green weenie deck that was developed as a foil to
Necro during the Black Summer. The large, fast creatures were able to
outrace Necro, and creature pumpers like Bounty of the Hunt and Heart of
Yavimaya pushed the speed factor even further. Stompy often packed Winter
Orbs to cut off Necro's mana supply.
Stompy became more popular during the Mirage block with creatures such
as River Boa, Jolrael's Centaur, Rogue Elephant and Harvest Wurm
providing faster, and fatter creatures than before.
Early in the Rath Cycle, Stompy went through a "Cursed" stage, replacing the
Orbs with the ever-present Cursed Scrolls. Tempest added Overruns to the
already strong arsenal, and Muscle Slivers became a popular 2cc addition.
Suicide Black
-------------
Black weenie decks need to use speed to get around Black's classic inability
to deal with artifacts and enchantments. Suicide Black (or Hatred Black) is
an all-out speed deck that sacrificed everything, including card advantage
and the player's own life, to kill the opponent as quickly as possible. It
used self-damaging creatures like Sarcomancy and Carnophage, and creature
pumpers like Unholy Strength. Further speed was provided with Dark Rituals.
The deck often uses shadow creatures, and finishes off the opponent with a
timely Hatred.
Turbo-Stasis
------------
Turbo-Stasis was created during the infamous 'Black Summer' of 1996 in
responce to the almost unstoppable power of the Necrodeck. Howling
mines would give the player faster access to counterspells, and at the
same time eliminate the card advantage the necro player gained through
hyms and other such spells. The object of the deck is to deck the
opponent by locking them down with kismet/stasis along with multiple
howling mines.
Turbo-Stasis is still a viable deck in the present standard
environment, and is a serious threat to any deck that doesnt carry the
necessary disruption.
White Weeny
-----------
Also known as WW, this deck uses low cost and efficient creatures,
(weenies), creature pumpers, like Emperyial Armor and Crusade, and
sometimes Armageddon/Cataclysm. Its general strategy is to swarm the
opponent then Armageddon, beating the opponent to death before they
can recover.
3. Common card aliases (alphabetically)
=======================================
3.0 What is this section about?
-------------------------------
Many of the cards used frequently by players gain nicknames, either
because their real name is cumbersome to use (or type) such as
Nevinyrral's Disk. One of the sets of questions used most often is
"I've heard people talking about a , what is it?" and
so this section will try to list as many common nicknames as can be
remembered. In the second part of this section will be a growing list
of why cards have the nicknames that they have.
3.1 Alphabetic list of card aliases
-----------------------------------
Alias Real Card Name Latest Expansion
----- -------------- ----------------
Al Samite Healer 6E
Black Hammer Necrosavant 6E
Blinky Blinking Spirit 5E
Bolt Lightning Bolt 4E
BOP Birds of Paradise 6E
Book, the Jayemdae Tome 6E
Cap Jester's Cap 5E
Cattlegrid Opal Catyatid US
COP Circle of Protection 6E
Darwin Avalanche Riders UZ
Disk Nevinyrral's Disk 5E
Dude Ranch Kjeldoran Outpost AL
Ernie Erhnam Djinn CH
Fat Moti Mahomoti Djinn 4E
Force Force of Will AL
or Verdant Force TP
Geddon Armageddon 6E
Glob gnomes Bottle Gnomes TP
Hammer Hammer of Bogarden 6E
Hippy Hypnotic Spectre 4E
Jewellery Moxen U
Lawnmower (Elf) Llanowar Elf 6E
LED Lion's Eye Diamond MR
Man of Steel Steel Golem WL
Mana Birds Birds of Paradise 6E
Mana Chicken Birds of Paradise 6E
MOMA Mind Over Matter EX
Mox Monkey Gorilla Shaman AL
Necro Necropotence 5E
Nev's Disk Nevinyrral's Disk 5E
Rit Dark Ritual US
Sengir Sengir Vampire 4E
Serra or Sarah Serra Angel 4E
Sex Monkey Uktabi Orangutan 6E
Spike Force Spike 5E
StP Swords to Plowshares 4E
Super Tim Suq'Ata Firewalker MR
Swim Tim Rootwater Hunter TP
Thaws Thawing Glacier AL
Tim Prodigal Sorcerer 5E
Tim on a stick Rod of Ruin 5E
Wall of Draw Wall of Blossoms SH
Will Force of Will AL
or Yawgmoth's Will UZ
WoG Wrath of God 6E
Wrath Wrath of God 6E
3.2 How did that card get it's name?
------------------------------------
Sex Monkey (Uktabi Orangutan):
The monkey got it's name because of the picture that was used on the
card in it's Visions(tm) printing. It depicted a large Orangutan in
the foreground with two smaller apes in the background. If you look
carefully the two smaller apes are getting very friendly!
Tim (Prodigal Sorcerer):
Tim is named after the sorcerer in Monty Python's Holy Grail. The
picture for Prodigal Sorcerer bears a storng resemblance to the
sorcerer who states: "Some call me... Tim."
Al (Samite Healer):
Al is named after the character Al in Home Imporvement who keeps
telling Tim (the leading character) what he can and can't do. This
bears relevance to magic because the Samite Healer can prevent the
point of damage that a Tim (Prodigal sorcerer) can do.
Darwin (Avalanche Riders):
Darwin is named after the creator of Avalanche Riders, Darwin
Kastle. Darwin won a Duelist invitational event, that entitled him to
design a card and Avalanche Riders is it. If you look closely at the
picture on the card, and a picture of Darwin Kastle himself you might
spot more than a passing resemblance...
4. Common beginner questions and terminology
============================================
4.0 What is this section about?
-------------------------------
There are a lot of questions asked again and again that every Magic
player should know after playing for a while. Most of them require a
simple, one-sentence answer. Some require more detailed information.
This section aims to give answers to the former type of question. The
more complicated answers will be answered elsewhere, probably in some
of the reference materials listed in Section 5.
4.1 What does "sac" or "sack" mean?
-----------------------------------
Generally an abbreviation for "Sacrifice", a cost that some Magic
cards require to be paid to activate abilities or to cast spells.
4.2 What is Suitcase?
---------------------
Suitcase or Magic Suitcase is a program written by Gary Karnik that
allows a user to keep track of their inventory of magic cards and to
build and playtest decks. Gary has now discontinued work on Suitcase
for several reasons.
Suitcase is now distributed by DragonStar, and you can download the
latest copy of the software from their web site at:
http://www.dragonstudios.com/
4.3 What is Apprentice?
-----------------------
Apprentice is a program that allows Magic players to play against each
other across the 'net. It is freeware and can be downloaded (as with
Suitcase) from DragonStar's web site (address above).
4.4 What is all this UL, WL, VI, EX stuff?
------------------------------------------
These abbreviations are used to represent different Magic card sets
and expansions, eg WL is for Weatherlight. A list is included below:
4E Fourth Edition 5E Fifth Edition
6E Classic(tm) or Sixth Edition
A Alpha AL Alliances(tm)
AN Arabian Nights(tm) AQ Antiquities(tm)
B Beta CH Chronicles(tm)
DK The Dark(tm) EX Exodus(tm)
FE Fallen Empires(tm) HL Homelands(tm)
IA Ice Age(tm) LG Legends(tm) (aka LE)
MM Mercadian Masques(tm) MR Mirage(tm) (aka MI)
NM Nemesis(tm) PO Portal(tm)
PO2 Portal: Second Age(tm) (aka P2) RV Revised(tm) (aka 3E)
SH Stronghold(tm) (aka ST) TP Tempest(tm) (aka TE)
UG Unglued(tm) UL Unlimited(tm) (aka UN)
UD Urza's Destiny US Urza's Saga(tm) (aka UZ)
UZ Urza's Legacy(tm) (aka UL,UY) VI Visions(tm)
WL Weatherlight(tm)
4.5 What is this U, W, R, G, B stuff?
-------------------------------------
Because newsgroups are largely textual in nature, the five images to
depict the five colours of mana can not be used. Instead, most people
use the abbreviations B for Black, W for White, R for Red, G for Green
and U for Blue. So, the casting cost of a Goblin raider is 1R, you can
cast capsize with buyback for 4UU and a dark ritual adds BBB to your
mana pool.
4.6 What is The Dojo?
---------------------
The Dojo is a website that has become a centre for deck development on
the 'net. Most professional players and people keep an eye on The Dojo
to see what sorts of decks are being played at tournaments (in the
Decks to Beat sections). This in turn has led to the terms 'Dojo Deck'
to describe a Magic deck that has been copied from The Dojo, and the
'Dojo Effect' which describes how a deck that is successful gets onto
The Dojo and then propagates to the rest of the world.
The Dojo can be found at http://www.thedojo.com/
4.7 What are the symbols for the expansions?
--------------------------------------------
Most expansions have a symbol to denote them. These symbols appear on
Magic cards just below the bottom-right corner of the picture. A list
of these, and the expansion they relate to is below:
Roman 'VI' 6th Edition or Classic(tm)
Flying flag Alliances(tm)
Scimitar Arabian Nights(tm)
Anvil Antiquities(tm)
Crescent moon The Dark(tm)
Styalised 'M' DCI/Arena promotional cards
Little Dragon Dragon*Con card (Nalathni Dragon)
Bridge Exodus(tm)
Crown Fallen Empires(tm)
Pen HarperPrism Book promotional cards
World map Homelands(tm)
Snowflake Ice Age(tm)
Column Legends(tm)
Mask Mercadian Masques(tm)
Palm tree Mirage(tm)
Axe Nenesis(tm)
Circle Portal(tm)
Pentagon Portal: Second Age(tm)
Chinese '3' Portal: Three Kingdoms(tm)
Star Starter
Gate Stronghold(tm)
Storm cloud Tempest(tm)
Cracked Egg Unglued(tm)
Beaker Urza's Destiny(tm)
Cog Urza's Saga(tm)
Hammer Urza's Legacy(tm)
Stylised 'V' Visions(tm) (supposedly the Triangle of War)
Open book Weatherlight(tm) (supposedly the Thran Tome)
All of the above (except 6th) are black-bordered. White bordered cards
from Arabian Nights(tm), The Dark(tm), Legends(tm) and Antiquities(tm)
are reprints from the Chronicles/Renaissance expansion. Renaissance was
printed with black borders. There is also an expansion known as
Anthologies which was printed with white borders.
4.8 I've been away from Magic for a while, what decks are good now?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The answer to this is lots. Lots and lots. Almost all of the deck
archetypes will still be around in some form or another. For an example
of current good decks have a look on The Dojo in their Decks to beat
section.
The Dojo can be found at: http://www.thedojo.com/
4.9 What is a 187 creature (aka CIP)?
-------------------------------------
A 187 creature is one that has a coming into play effect that,
generally, blows up a permanent. Some examples of this might be a
Nekrataal, Uktabi Orangutan or a Knight of the Mists. These are so
called because 187 is supposedly a police code for homicide. CIP
is an ancronym for Coming Into Play, hence a 187 creature is also a
creature with a CIP effect.
4.10 What is a sideboard? What is Sideboarding?
-----------------------------------------------
Before the second and third games in a match of Magic, a player may
change their decks by swapping cards out of their deck for cards in
their sideboard. This sideboard should consist of exactly 15 cards.
This is called sideboarding. The fifteen card sideboard generally
consists of a group of cards that will strengthen a player's deck
against another deck type.
For each card sideboarded in, a card must be taken out of the deck so
that the sideboard remains at 15 cards and the deck stays the same
size. Before the start of each match decks must be unsideboarded back to
their original decklistings.
More information can be found on sideboards on Wizards of the Coast's
website in the Leagues and Tournamants section, under Magic: the
Gathering, in the DCI Standard Floor Rules.
4.11 What is beatdown?
----------------------
Beatdown is to reduce an opponent's life total by attacking with
creatures every turn. Hence the following example: "I suffered Tim
beatdown" means "My opponent beat me by attacking with a prodigal
Sorcerer, turn after turn" (a very embarassing state of affairs).
4.12 What are Celerity and Haste?
---------------------------------
A creature with Celerity or Haste is one that comes into play and
doesn't suffer summoning sickness (so it can attack and use it's
abilities the turn it was cast). Examples of such creatures are Ball
Lightning, Avalanche Riders and Raging Goblin. The term Celerity
origniated from the Jyhad(tm) Trading Game. The term Haste was
introduced along with the Sixth Edition rules.
4.13 What is bouncing?
----------------------
To bounce something is to return it to a player's hand. So Unsummon
bounces a creature, boomerang bounces a permanent. Man-o-war bounces a
creatures when it comes into play.
4.14 What are Dual Lands?
-------------------------
A Dual Land is any of the following: Badlands, Bayou, Plateau,
Savannah, Scrubland, Taiga, Tropial Island, Tundra, Underground Sea or
Volcanic Island. These were lands that produced two types of mana
with no drawback, and counted as two types of basic land. they were
printed in Alpha, Beta, Unlimited and Revised.
4.15 What are Pain Lands?
-------------------------
Pain lands are lands that do a player a point of damage when tapped
for mana. Generally they can produce more than one colour of mana and
were created to be 'more balanced' versions of the Dual
Lands. Examples include: City of Brass, Adakar Wastes and Salt Flats.
4.16 What are Rainbow Lands?
----------------------------
Rainbow lands are lands that produce all five colours of
mana. Examples include Gemstone Mine, City of Brass and Thran Quarry.
4.17 What is burn?
------------------
Burn is the term used to describe red direct damage spells such as
shock, lightning bolt, fireball and incinerate. The term (obviously)
comes from the fact that fire burns, and most of the red damage spells
are based around fire (or lightning) in some way.
4.18 What does the term broken mean?
------------------------------------
Broken is a term used to describe a card, combination of cards, or
even a whole deck archetype that gives it's player a vast advantage
that is not accounted for by it's cost. A 9/9 creature with trample
for 12 mana might be accountable, having the same creature for two
mana might be considered broken. Decks are generally considered broken
if they can consistently kill their opponent in the first three turns.
4.19 What is a cantrip?
-----------------------
A cantrip is a card with the secondary effect of causing it's caster
to draw a card. Most cantrips have a minor effect for their casting
cost. Examples include: Carrier Pigeon, Wall of Blossoms, Gaea's
Blessing.
4.20 What is a depletion land?
------------------------------
A land which, when tapped for colour mana, gains a 'depletion counter'
preventing it from being used the following turn. Examples include:
Lava Tubes, River Delta.
4.21 What is milling?
---------------------
A spell or effect which removes cards from the top of a player's
library is known as a 'milling' spell or effect. This name comes from
the card Millstone which, for two mana puts the top two cards of a
players library in their graveyard.
4.22 What is chump blocking?
----------------------------
To block an attacker with a creature that will not survive, nor kill
the attacker.
4.23 What is splashing?
-----------------------
Splashing is generally the practice of adding a small number of cards
of one colour to a deck composed of mainly another colour (or
colours). For example: A mainly blue deck that had a few white mana
producing land and included three disenchants would be described as a
blue deck that splashed white.
4.24 What is topdecking?
------------------------
Topdecking is the process of drawing the card you need just when you
need it. For example: My opponent is on three life. I have no
creatures left and unless I kill my opponent my turn I will loose. If
I then draw an incinerate and kill my opponent, I could say that I
topdecked the incinerate. Realistically I've just been lucky.
4.25 What is a Super Lucky Guy (SLG)?
-------------------------------------
An SLG is a person who always seems to get the right match-ups, or
draws the right cards when they need them. This term can also refer to
Jamie Wakefield.
4.26 Are there really foil Urza's Saga cards?
---------------------------------------------
Yes. The story from Wizards is that they were printed to be used to
give to judges as part of their payment for judging events. Some of
the foil cards printed are: Lightning Bolt, Serra Angel, Gaea's
Cradle, Stroke of genius and Thran Quarry.
4.27 What is going rogue (what is a rogue deck)?
------------------------------------------------
A rogue deck is a deck that doesn't fit any particular archetype, or
sometimes a deck from a more obscure archetype (that the rest of the
field usually isn't prepared for). A person who is "going rogue" is
playing a rogue deck at the tourney.
4.28 What is a UBC or LSD deck?
-------------------------------
UBC stands for Urza's block constructed and a UBC deck is a deck built
out of cards from only Urza's Saga, Urza's Legacy and Urza's Destiny
cards. LSD is a term for UBC that was created (it is believed) by
Jamie Wakefield, and stands for Legacy-Saga-Destiny.
5. For players who want more.
=============================
5.0 What is this section about?
-------------------------------
Once you've read this FAQ once, you probably won't need to read it
again. I'm hoping that you'll want to learn a lot more, and so you'll
need to know where to look.
This section aims to provide a list of resources that contain the
answers to questions outside the scope of this FAQ.
5.1 Magic related newsgroups
----------------------------
There are many Magic related newsgroups. Some are related to specific
countries only, some exist but have no posts. The main groups on the
'net are listed below along with a short description:
rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules
Dedicated to answering Magic: The Gathering related questions about
the rules of the game. If you want to know if a combo you've thought
up works, or what the latest ruling on an obscure card might be, this
is the place to post your questions. There are a number of very
accurate participants, and it has it's own Wizards of the Coast
'NetRep' who passes questions along to Wizards on a weekly basis.
rec.games.trading-cards.marketplace.magic.auctions
rec.games.trading-cards.marketplace.magic.sales
rec.games.trading-cards.marketplace.magic.trades
These three newsgroups are for trading and selling your cards. If you
don't want to play anymore these are the place to try to sell you
collection. If you're looking for cards to make up the latest deck,
this is the place to try and trade for them.
rec.games.trading-cards.magic.misc
A place for all magic-related questions and discussions that don't
belong on any of the newsgroups above. If you're not sure where to
post a question, this might be the place to start. Usually someone
will redirect you to the correct newsgroup.
NOTE: Off-topic posts (ie posts to a newsgroup about something it is
not for) generally annoy the 'netizens' that inhabit it. You can
generally expect several 'flames' if you do this. A simple guide is to
avoid the following:
- Ask rules questions on the strategy newsgroup.
- Post your latest, hottest deck to the rules newsgroup.
- Try to trade, buy or sell cards on the strategy, rules or
misc newsgroups.
5.2 Wizards of the Coast
------------------------
Wizards of the Coast is the producer of the Magic: The Gathering
collectable trading-card game. They come up with three or four new
card sets a year and they fund the DCI (the organization that
organises Magic tournaments).
Their website is at http://www.wizards.com/
5.3 Ruling archives
-------------------
The current rulings are kept up to date by Stephen D'Angelo and can be
downloaded from his website at http://www.crystalkeep.com/
These rules are the COMPLETE set of rules for all the Magic: The
Gathering cards that have been printed, and come in a series of VERY
long and complicated documents. I wouldn't recommend them unless you
really need to know something, or you think you're becomming quite
'Magic Savvy'.
Fin
---
That's all folks. This FAQ is under constant revision and changes on a
weekly basis. If you have any critisisms, suggestions or contributions
please feel free to email me, James grimmett, at
james.grimmett@curiosity-shoppe.com
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