Magic: Out Of One, Many
As is at this point no secret, I am a rather large fan of Magic: The Gathering. Part of that is how its design helps to prevent power creep, as I mentioned earlier in this blog. More of my love for the game, however, comes from its versatility.
Mechanically, Magic is a unified game. The basic functioning of the cards remains the same regardless of what mode of the game one plays. (I'm not going to get into the exact details of how they work, since that would likely bore most of my readers, but suffice to say that what one can do in the game is based on what cards one plays in one's deck.) However, within this framework exist a rather large number of game formats (not entirely unlike the truly colossal variety of poker variants).
The most frequently played variety is called, appropriately enough, Standard. Standard is the most limited in card choice of all of Magic's major formats. Only those cards released in the previous eight sets (usually about the most recent two years) can be played. (Note for those not familiar with the game: A new set is released about every three or four months, usually containing around 200-300 new cards). This format happens to be one of my favorites, since the limitation to newer cards helps newer players such as myself play the format with our limited and recent collections of cards.
The next most open format is Modern (which, as the name suggests, lets players play any card from the game's "Modern" era, which stretches from around 2004 until the present. This allows veteran players of the game to use the majority of their collections while also keeping the poorly-designed cards of Magic's early years from being played (since these cards can sometimes be game-breaking).
There are also less restrictive formats for those who do wish to use game-breaking cards. Formats such as Legacy and Vintage permit players to use nearly any (or in the case of Legacy, any) card from Magic's history. These formats are rarely played, largely due to a lack of active players with cards from the 1990s who still play the game, but they remain nonetheless to retain older players.
While Vintage sees little play, it has spawned a format that does see frequent use: Commander. While I won't get too heavily into the details, Commander has a limit of one card of any given name per deck and a higher life total, which leads to players focusing less on speed and consistency (like in other formats) and more on fun combos and interesting mechanical ideas. This leads to Commander being one of the most innovative formats of the game, with bizarre endgames common (one game I played ended with an infinite number of weak damage spells being cast for an infinitely large amount of damage, for example).
While I have my personal preferences (the accessibility of Standard and the strangeness of Commander), the beauty of this multi-format system is that there is something for nearly any player to enjoy. This fact has help keep the game running throughout its decades-long existence, as players old and new can always find a format for them.
Mechanically, Magic is a unified game. The basic functioning of the cards remains the same regardless of what mode of the game one plays. (I'm not going to get into the exact details of how they work, since that would likely bore most of my readers, but suffice to say that what one can do in the game is based on what cards one plays in one's deck.) However, within this framework exist a rather large number of game formats (not entirely unlike the truly colossal variety of poker variants).
The most frequently played variety is called, appropriately enough, Standard. Standard is the most limited in card choice of all of Magic's major formats. Only those cards released in the previous eight sets (usually about the most recent two years) can be played. (Note for those not familiar with the game: A new set is released about every three or four months, usually containing around 200-300 new cards). This format happens to be one of my favorites, since the limitation to newer cards helps newer players such as myself play the format with our limited and recent collections of cards.
The next most open format is Modern (which, as the name suggests, lets players play any card from the game's "Modern" era, which stretches from around 2004 until the present. This allows veteran players of the game to use the majority of their collections while also keeping the poorly-designed cards of Magic's early years from being played (since these cards can sometimes be game-breaking).
There are also less restrictive formats for those who do wish to use game-breaking cards. Formats such as Legacy and Vintage permit players to use nearly any (or in the case of Legacy, any) card from Magic's history. These formats are rarely played, largely due to a lack of active players with cards from the 1990s who still play the game, but they remain nonetheless to retain older players.
While Vintage sees little play, it has spawned a format that does see frequent use: Commander. While I won't get too heavily into the details, Commander has a limit of one card of any given name per deck and a higher life total, which leads to players focusing less on speed and consistency (like in other formats) and more on fun combos and interesting mechanical ideas. This leads to Commander being one of the most innovative formats of the game, with bizarre endgames common (one game I played ended with an infinite number of weak damage spells being cast for an infinitely large amount of damage, for example).
While I have my personal preferences (the accessibility of Standard and the strangeness of Commander), the beauty of this multi-format system is that there is something for nearly any player to enjoy. This fact has help keep the game running throughout its decades-long existence, as players old and new can always find a format for them.
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