30 years ago this week, Swedish teenager Olle Råde became the third Pro Tour Champion. His deck has been described as the worst to ever win a Pro Tour. However, it was actually a clever meta choice; his Spiders and Insects were resistant to the Ice Age block's best removal spells. #FridayNightMagic

1996 Pro Tour Columbus

The third Pro Tour event in the 1996 season was held on July 16 and 17, 1996. The location was the annual Origins convention in Columbus Ohio. The format was Ice Age and Alliances constructed. It was…

mtg.wiki

Did you know: after artist Kitt Lapeña's fan artwork was plagiarized by a Magic artist in 2021, @magic.wizards.com suspended the artist who misused Lapeña's work—and then commissioned artwork from Lapeña? #MagicTheGathering mtg.wiki/page/Plagiar...

Over seven years after the launch of #MTGArena, it can be hard to remember just how many sets have been added to the game. Luckily, we have a page for that: mtg.wiki/page/Magic:_...

Magic: The Gathering Arena/Card availability

Magic: The Gathering Arena released in 2019 and contains only a selection of the total cards from Magic's history. Ixalan, every subsequent premier set, and some supplemental sets have been released o...

mtg.wiki

Updating a biography to the past tense always hurts. RIP Ron Spears. mtg.wiki/page/Ron_Spe...

Did you know: The Monkey subtype disappeared from the game for over a decade? From 2005 to 2016, the subtype Ape encompassed all monkey and ape species (except humans). Cards from this period which depict monkeys now have updated subtypes in Oracle—with one exception. mtg.wiki/page/Monkey

Monkey

Monkey is a creature type used for depictions of the animals commonly called monkeys[2][3] and of fantastical and artificial monkey-like creatures. Monkeys are distinguished from apes&...

mtg.wiki

We recently merged some articles about closely related topics, such as "Activated ability" and "Active", or "Ascend" and "City's blessing". This was motivated by a desire to avoid unnecessary repetition. mtg.wiki/page/Activat...

Activated ability

An activated ability is an ability in the format "[Cost]: [Effect]". It can be activated (used) by paying its activation cost. Activated abilities are most often found on permanents, but some can be a...

mtg.wiki

Following a Blogatog ask about a plane called "Hell", some of our editors looked into the lore sources and ended up substantially revising the article. TL;DR: Hell isn't one plane, but an invective invoked through the Multiverse. mtg.wiki/page/Hell

Hell

Hell is a colloquial term for various unpleasant locations in the Multiverse. The word is also invoked as a mild swear or intensifier. "Hell" appears as a part of several compound words describing dan...

mtg.wiki

#MTGxMarvel debuts in just over two hours! If you've never contributed to MTG Wiki before, preview season is a great time to get involved, as new information is released daily. mtg.wiki/page/Marvel_...

Marvel Super Heroes

Marvel Super Heroes (stylized Magic: The Gathering® | Marvel Super Heroes) is the 112th Magic: The Gathering expansion. It is part of the Universes Beyond series, and is scheduled for release on June ...

mtg.wiki

Scryfall team = best team 🫶

Logan @ Scryfall.com@logan.scryfall.com · 3mo ago

A new footer link has appeared on @scryfall.com! scryfall.com/team This page gives you a behind-the-curtain look at the awesome people that make Scryfall and @mtg.wiki work. Look, mom! I'm on the internet!

The second ever Pro Tour was held 30 years ago this week in Long Beach. It would be the first to use a limited format: Fourth Edition and Homelands Booster Draft! Shawn "Hammer" Regnier, a former professional arm-wrestler, took victory by reanimating his opponent's Shivan Dragon. #FridayNightMagic

1996 Pro Tour Los Angeles

The second Pro Tour event was held from May 3 to 5, 1996 in Los Angeles, California.[1][2][3] It was the first to use a Limited format: Fourth Edition and Homelands Booster draft. The winner was…

mtg.wiki

Vorthos alert! Tomorrow is release day for @seananmcguire.bsky.social's new novel, Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos! strixhaven-omens-of-chaos.com And for the real old-school types, a throwback to the very first novels in the 90s: the first edition hardcover has a promo card! mtg.wiki/page/Strixha...

Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos (Magic: The Gathering)

Peek inside Strixhaven: Omens of Chaos (Magic: The Gathering)

strixhaven-omens-of-chaos.com

MTG Wiki is permanently ad-free, thanks to support and hosting from @scryfall.com. We don't need to run site-wide fundraising banners, but we do get inquiries about financially supporting the wiki. You can support both projects by subscribing to Patreon! www.patreon.com/scryfall

Get more from Scryfall on Patreon

creating a Magic: The Gathering search engine

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The Northern Hemisphere celebrates the end of winter today, but every player can be grateful that we've left Combo Winter far behind us. At the end of 1998, Urza's Saga spawned oppressive, T1-win combo decks dominating every format. Many players quit the game entirely!

Combo Winter

Combo Winter refers to the (Northern Hemisphere) winter at the end of 1998, following the release of Urza's Saga in October of that year. Urza's Saga included several powerful cards that enabled…

mtg.wiki

Two weeks ago, we asked for your help finding a specific map of Aerona. Thanks to @ethanfleischer.bsky.social, we found it in TopDeck #7, secured a copy, debound it, and scanned it in... and found that it belongs to a little-discussed casual gameplay variant!

Conquer Dominaria

Conquer Dominaria is a casual Magic variant published in TopDeck magazine. It was designed by David Noonan, with additional credits to Daneen McDermott and Chris Toepker.[1] Despite the title,…

mtg.wiki

If playing with a Cube seems interesting, but the scope of creating one is intimidating, consider grabbing a list online! As with more traditional formats, you can netdeck a budget build, like the very popular Pauper Cube: 450 commons, at about $0.50 USD per card! #mtgcube

The Pauper Cube

The Pauper Cube is a 450 card Cube originally designed by Adam Styborski, but now maintained by a players' committee[1]. It is singleton and adherers to (common-only) Pauper format legality.

mtg.wiki

Mike Loconto, who'd been enjoying liquid refreshments at the reception of PT New York, went up to Richard Garfield and told him that he'd be handing him the trophy on Sunday. True to his promise, on February 18, 1996 - 30 years ago today - Loconto became Magic's first ever Pro Tour champion.

Michael Loconto

Michael "Mike" Loconto is a former Magic: The Gathering player. As a social worker from Grafton, Massachussets, he won the first ever Pro Tour (New York 1996).[1]

mtg.wiki

恭喜發財 ! Welcome to the Year of the Horse. Celebrate the Lunar New Year with your favorite Magic horse, from Nightmare in Alpha to Calamity in OTJ and everything in between! #MagicTheGathering

30 years ago today, the first "Black Lotus Pro Tour" kicked off. 239 of the best #MTG players had passed the rigorous qualifying process: they'd successfully managed to get through the overloaded #WoTC Customer Service phone lines. Consequently, New York 1996 was known as "Pro Tour Speed Dial".

1996 Pro Tour New York

The inaugural Pro Tour event was held from February 16 to 18, 1996 in New York City.[1][2][3]

mtg.wiki

Hungary has held #MTG National Championships annually for the last 30 years, not letting silly little issues like #WoTC cancelling Nationals - twice - stop them. Even better, they kept records of every Top 8! If you don't speak Hungarian, don't worry: we've got all the details. #FridayNightMagic

Hungarian National Championships

National Championship tournaments were held annually in Hungary from 1996 through to 2011, then again in 2017 and 2018.[1][2] The winner of these events was named Hungarian Champion and headed the…

mtg.wiki

On this day in 2022, @theasianavenger.bsky.social became a denizen of Kamigawa. Read about Crim's debut in Kamigawa: A Visual Novel, on the MTG Wiki. mtg.wiki/page/Kamigaw... #MagicTheGathering #NEO #Kamigawa

We have a winner!

Ethan Fleischer@ethanfleischer.bsky.social · 6mo ago

It’s from TopDeck #7!

For those not familiar, this is similar map included with the 12-month Magic: The Gathering calendar from 1997. It doesn't have the regions outlined nor the WUBRG color shading.

Readers, we have a challenge! We want to source this map of Aerona and get a better photo/scan. We know it is • Different from the 1997 calendar • Printed 2000 or before • Maybe from a magazine? Not Duelist; possibly TopDeck 6, 7, 9, or 11 Can you help us track this down? mtg.wiki/page/File:Ma...

Cole Swannack was 12 years old when he became New Zealand National Champion. He was 13 years old when he faced Raphaël Lévy in a Round 17 "win-and-in" at the 2002 Magic World Championships. After three close games Lévy took the match. Cole finished in 17th place. #FridayNightMagic #WaitangiDay #NZ

Cole Swannack

Cole Swannack is a former professional player who became New Zealand National Champion at the age of 12.[1] He went on to finish a respectable 17th at the 2002 World Championships, being chosen for…

mtg.wiki

Curious about what casual #MTG looked like in the early days? The decks from the 1997 "Shandalar" video game can provide some insight. The Warlock, for instance, includes the classic Dark Ritual and Hypnotic Specter combo, while the Enchantress can clear the way by placing Lure on a Cockatrice.

Magic: The Gathering (MicroProse) Preconstructed Decks

The 1997 Magic: The Gathering game produced by MicroProse (which also referred to as Shandalar) included a number of preconstructed decks played by its enemy characters. Additionally, in the game's…

mtg.wiki

This month's Events Guide is thin while we wait for news from @magic.wizards.com. The #MTGxTMNT publishing failure cut off spoiler season, so expect the rest of the cards... someday. And UB = no story; sorry Vorthos. We're also expecting a Commander Format Panel update "by the end of February". 🤷‍♂️

One year ago today, we forked MTG Wiki from its previous hosting. We've had a busy year, averaging more than 200 edits per day!

This weekend, the Pro Tour will return to Richmond, Virginia, for the second time. The first event that the city hosted, Pro Tour Dominaria in 2018, saw seven players reach the Top 8 by playing aggressive red decks. Will we see history repeating at Pro Tour Lorwyn Eclipsed? #FridayNightMagic

Pro Tour Dominaria

Pro Tour Dominaria was the third Pro Tour of the 2017–18 season. It took place on 1–3 June 2018 in Richmond, Virginia, United States. The event was dominated by red-based aggressive decks featuring…

mtg.wiki

Looking for inspiration for a new deck? Then consider these musical numbers from a collaboration #MTGArena did with Post Malone in 2022! Brawl players could have a lot of fun in the casual queue with the stock decklists, but they could also be the basis of a fantastic new paper Commander deck too.

Post Malone’s Arena Concert

A special phantom preconstructed Historic Brawl event was held on Magic: The Gathering Arena from October 20 to 24, 2022 in association with the Musician Post Malone.[1] While billed as a "concert,"…

mtg.wiki

Cubes don't have to be a collection of the most powerful cards from Magic's history, they can be anything their designers can imagine. Completely novel drafting experiences can be created around some of the most unlikely cards imaginable: such as the classic zero-mana flier Ornithopter. #mtgcube

100 Ornithopters

100 Ornithopters is a 360 card Cube designed by Andy Mangold, one of the hosts of the Cube focused Lucky Paper Radio podcast. As its name suggests, it consists of 100 copies of the artifact creature…

mtg.wiki