Flavor
Flavor is the concept of evoking a specific feeling and the intent of creating a universe and telling a story with the game of Magic.[1][2] This provides a unique and distinguishable quality to the game and each individual card or product. Flavor is accomplished via non-functional parts of cards, such as the Illustration or flavor text, the card face, and other visual clues, but also outside information such as marketing, web-presence, books, etc.[3][4]
Magic flavor should have both breadth (the broad scope of Magic, the sheer number of flavor elements) and depth (intensity of focus, growing investment in its core iconic elements).[5][6]
On most Magic cards, the mechanics mesh incredibly well with the flavor. This is not always the case, though. Even the most evocative cards face flavor issues from time to time.[7] A draft format that remedies this is flavor draft. It is drafted and played as normal, except for the fact that in-game flavor trumps the written text of the cards.[8][9]