Three weeks into the release of Amonkhet, the latest Magic expansion, competitive play is tormented by an overpowered combo that players hate for making games feel less strategic and more like spinning a roulette wheel. 2017 has seen more cards banned from Magic’s Standard format than in the past ten years combined,…
Magic: The Gathering is a very good card game that I am very picky about playing. I’m a casual player, more likely to challenge a friend at a bar than attend a local tournament. I’m not about to pore over apps and blogs to assemble some impenetrable, holy deck; I’d rather play Magic: The Gathering like I’d play Rummy…
The release of a new Magic: the Gathering expansion is usually a joyous event for players, and this spring’s ancient Egypt-themed Amonkhet set should have been an easy hit. Instead, players are reeling from a competitive scene that has lately been dominated by a couple of overpowered cards, and hoping that Amonkhet …
Magic: The Gathering has issued a rare emergency card ban effective today. One card in a popular but dramatically overpowered two-card combo is now illegal in Standard play. Publisher Wizards of the Coast announced Felidar Guardian’s emergency ban two days after they put out their April “Banned and Restricted” cards…
While cleaning out her son’s room, a mom in Japan apparently came across some old cards. Her son had moved away, and she thought she was getting rid of clutter. She put the cards up for auction online, seeming to have no idea what they were worth.
“Magic is secretly, not really … it’s not one game,” head Magic: The Gathering designer Mark Rosewater told me. “It is actually a bunch of different games that all have a shared rule system. Every time I make a card set, I’m making the game for everybody, but for each person, it’s a different game to them.”
Nioh has some difficult bosses. They’ll shish-kebab you in the blink of an eye. What if I told you one magic spell that turns them into total pushovers?
Hasbro is starting its own fan convention next year. The toy and game company behind everything from Dungeons & Dragons to My Little Pony will hold the first Hascon in Providence, Rhode Island September 8-10. It sounds like heaven. Find out more here.
In 2006, the World Series of Poker set a card game record by having 8773 players taking part, all in the one place. That record is under threat next month when Magic’s Grand Prix Las Vegas goes down.
Crazy computerized effects? Back in Back To The Future's day, they didn't have those. Only pluck and spirit (and time travel). That means that with a few lights and some clever camera work, you can make a toy car look like its blasting through the barriers of space-time at 88 mph.
Wizards of the Coast enlisted the creative minds behind Minecraft, Plants vs. Zombies, World of Warcraft and more groundbreaking games to create cards for the upcoming Magic 2015 set. See all 14 of the cards below:
Magic: The Gathering has, over the years, lured some of the best fantasy artists on the planet to draw some of the coolest fantasy characters on the planet. So this line of action figures based on some of the best are a no-brainer.
Did you know Gearbox Software founder, president and CEO Randy Pitchford started out as a professional magician in Hollywood? He unleashed his magical powers at the Gearbox panel at PAX East earlier today, and the world trembled beneath his might.
Penn Jillette, from Penn & Teller, wants to make a "smart" horror movie with buddy Adam Rifkin. So he set up a crowdfunding campaign. A campaign that just got quite the boost from Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford.
Wizards, mages, sorcerers, mystics — call them what you will, when the weapons are brandished and blows start getting traded in orderly fashion, they're only going to slow you down, as evidenced by this documentary footage captured by the folks at Cinevore Studios.
What's remarkable about these Game of Thrones characters re-imagined at JermTube as Magic: The Gathering cards isn't so much how convincing they look, it's how much thought was put into making them read like functional Magic cards.
The cloud — that's a powerful term these days. If you release a product that doesn't do something with the cloud, then you probably shouldn't even bother putting it out. Snack foods, floor cleaners, maid services and even consumer electronics like the newly-announced Xbox One use the cloud to do great and magical…
Trading card games are big in Japan—from Yu-Gi-Oh! to Pokémon to Magic: The Gathering. And given the popularity of video games also, it's really not surprising that videogame makers figured out how to combine the two. Today, outside of fighting games and medal games, these card/video games are the most popular thing…
In today's magically delicious episode of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Chris P. Bacon claims that while not one video game has portrayed magic perfectly, several have come close. He should know. He is a wizard.
Okay, yes, fine. This post is at least partly an excuse for me to finally tag something "Downton Abbey" here at Kotaku. But in this case, the tag is warranted—over at Kill Screen, writer Sarah Elmaleh (who some of you may remember as the voice of Aeris in that column I wrote about silent protagonists) and illustrator…
