What is MTG?

MTG is the common abbreviation for Magic: The Gathering, the first and largest trading card game in the world. Designed by mathematician Richard Garfield and released by Wizards of the Coast in 1993, it casts players as spell slinging planeswalkers who build decks from thousands of unique cards and battle to reduce an opponent life total from twenty to zero. The game is played casually at kitchen tables, competitively in tournaments with formats like Standard, Modern, and Pauper, and socially in the four player Commander format, plus digitally on MTG Arena. Cards are also collectibles with a real secondary market. Elsewhere, mtg can abbreviate meeting or mortgage, but ask any game store and MTG means Magic.

More Magic questions are answered on our answers page. For the game itself, start with our strategy articles and the classic mana tables.