List of Magic slang/R&D slang

List of Magic slang

 

Dated

 

R&D slang

 

Card nicknames

 

This non-comprehensive list documents concepts that are subjective and continuously evolving. Entries may be missing or out of date.

R&D of Magic: The Gathering has invented many new terms over the years the game has existed, covering a wide variety of aspects of the game, from deckbuilding to card mechanics. An (incomplete) list of these slang terms, abbreviations, and nicknames is listed here.

List

A

A

Design shorthand for Artifact.

Agency

A player's feeling that they have some control over what's happening in their game.

As-fan

How a booster pack looks like "as fanned", i.e. spread out across the table in a fan-like shape. Typically used to describe the relative frequency of different types of cards or effects in a given set.

B

B

• Design shorthand for Black.

Bad cards

Also known as discriminator cards. Weak cards are a fundamental part of the game. Richard Garfield has described Magic as a 'game of exploration.' Much of the fun of the game comes from players examining each new set to see what they can discover. Many players take great enjoyment in finding use of cards that others dismiss. R&D cannot make bad cards that are secretly good without also making bad cards that are truly bad.

Batching

• Combining multiple game components into one group for a mechanic. For instance, cards that care about historic cards support artifacts, Saga enchantments, and legendary cards.
• Typal coupling, when a card cares about multiple creature types. For example, some cards in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty like Silver-Fur Master care about both the Rogue and Ninja creature types.

Both effects are usually used for the same purpose as seeding: to create more synergy between other cards and reduce the chance that a mechanic is parasitic.

Bottle effect

Exile the top card of your library. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, you may play that card. Named after Elkin Bottle.

Bottom-up

An approach to the design of cards, where the mechanics come first and the flavor comes later. The term comes from division of a Magic card, where the bottom half is more mechanics than flavor. Sets based around color pairs or Factions are frequently bottom-up designs. The opposite is top-down design.

Buff

A creature designation first designed for Kaldheim. A creature is "buff" if its power is greater than it's base power.

Build-around

A card that encourages a player to build a deck around it.

C

C

Design shorthand for colorless.

Cameo mechanic

A non-deciduous and non-evergreen mechanic that occurs on few cards in a set, often put in as a mechanical call-back to previous blocks, but without the density to be relevant in wider play. Occasionally, the mechanic is spelled out in rules text as an Easter egg and to save learning space for newer players. The name is derived from the film and television practice of known characters or actors making short appearances.

D

Deciduous

Mechanics that are not evergreen, but may show up from time to time in a set that needs it. It's a tool in R&D's toolbox that they're allowed to use, but it's not something they expect to use in every set. Deciduous mechanics are protection, hybrid mana, split cards, Treasures, and double-faced cards. Colored artifacts, Curses, Vehicles, and Sagas are also considered to be deciduous.

Design space

The number of novel cards that can be made with a given mechanic. Mechanics need to hit a minimum quota of space in order to be worth keywording, and while there are numerically large permutations for new cards, having enough that are interesting to play with are much fewer. Key factors in design space are repetitiveness, resonance, power scaling, and mana cost or card type restrictions. Some mechanics can only be brought back a limited number of times, or even not at all, due to their small design space.

Devil's Deal

Permanents that start out helping a player, but that may end up hurting them in the end. Primary in black, as it is the color of "power at any cost."

Downside

Not to be confused with Drawback.

A penalty on a card that you have to deal with. For example, a creature you control that damages you every upkeep.

E

E

Design shorthand for Energy.

G

G

Design shorthand for Green.

Glue

Cards or mechanics that allow the player to have cards that work in different typals or lets the player play typals together. It keeps the typals from being siloed. A glue example is changelings in Kaldheim.

H

H

• Design shorthand for unnamed Hybrid, prior to the release of Bloomburrow.
• Design shorthand for unnamed Phyrexian mana, after the release of Bloomburrow. It is only used on one card, Rage Extractor.

Heft

R&D nickname for a word representing combined power and toughness of a creature.

K

Knobbiness, knobby

The versatility of a mechanic. A knob is a variable that Play Design can adjust to balance a card. The more variables, the knobbier the mechanic is and the greater chance play design can balance it.

L

L

Design shorthand for Land. Also indicates a cost of one mana produced by a Legendary source.

Lenticular

Cards that appear on their surface to be very simple, but once you understand more about how to use them, they become more complex. The term comes from a technique, sometimes used on trading cards, where multiple images are stuck on a card with a system that allows you to see different pictures as you tilt the card. Force of Will, Brainstorm, and even fetch lands can all fall into this category.

M

M

R&D lingo for a mana symbol of a specific, arbitrary color. Additionally, N and O are used for a second and third color in multicolored card costs. Commonly used for discussing cycles. See also WUBRG. Usage:

• "In Mirage, all five colors have a rare Dragon that costs 4MM."
• "Blue is the only color that hasn't gotten a common Vanilla 2/2 for 1M yet."
• "The five Obelisks of Shards of Alara each tap to add M, N, or O."

Before Oath of the Gatewatch, the letter "C" was used, in the context of "CDE". Now "C" is used for , colorless mana.

Memory

A design term for what a player must remember to play correctly. Visual aids for the game state such as counters or the tapped motion reduce memory requirements. A card or mechanic that is confusing to play with correctly because of this factor is said to have memory issues.

MIP

Magic: The Gathering IP (as opposed to Universes Beyond.

N

N

Design shorthand for an unnamed number.

Narrative equity

The concept in card design that people give weight to choices based upon the ability to later tell a story about it.

New World Order

R&D lingo for the practice of strictly limiting the complexity of commons. Introduced to the community by Mark Rosewater in one of his columns. Abbreviated NWO.

O

O

Previously design shorthand for gold cards (multicolored). Now shorthand for a specific, arbitrary color. See M.

P

P

• Design shorthand for unnamed Phyrexian mana, prior to the release of Bloomburrow.
• Design shorthand for the modal budget resource Pawprints, after the release of Bloomburrow.

Parasitic

A term that refers to a mechanic or card that can only synergize with other specific card qualities, and thus requires cards specifically from a particular release window when said cards were being printed. For example, Evermind is a parasitic card because it can't be cast normally on its own and must be spliced onto an Arcane spell, nearly all of which were released in the 2004-2005 release cycle of Kamigawa block.

Pip

A colored mana symbol in a card's mana cost (or other cost), when counting them. Not to be confused with mana value. For example, Yawgmoth's Will has 1 black pip and a mana value of 3.

Player types

The characterization of a Magic player by psychographic or aesthetic profiles. Cards are usually designed with one or more of these profiles in mind. References to them in casual Magic play are usually in jest, but most players do nonetheless tend to subscribe to one of the styles or a combination of them.

• Timmy/Tammy. Playing for the experience (swinging big creatures, making big plays and spells).
• Johnny/Jenny. Playing for the mental challenge, building complex and creative decks (such as making unique archetypes, and trying to make a deck that goes against the meta).
• Spike. The tournament player, is aggressive and competitive. Spike gets their greatest joy from proving something by winning.
• Mel/Melvin. Someone who enjoys the delicate and interesting interactions between the mechanical components and mechanics. They like to try and create combos and try to pull them off in a game.
• Vorthos. The "flavor player", is someone who enjoys the flavor of Magic separated from the game itself. A Vorthos evaluates the components like the name, the illustration, and the card concept both in isolation and in conjunction. Vorthos players might prefer decks that share some theme, such as zombies, or of one of Magic's various factions.

Q

Q

Design shorthand for Untap.

R

R

Design shorthand for Red.

Repetitive, repetition

The tendency of a play pattern to devolve into the same actions every time. Most often happens with mechanics that are activated ability or ones that use excess lands as a resource. More excusable for proactive outcomes than defensive plays, as they will at least end the game. Development and Play Design try to avoid creating mechanics that result in this sort of pattern, and the larger category of tutors also fall into this pattern. Mechanics that are notoriously repetitive are Spellshapers, Retrace and Forecast.

Rules baggage

Design term for when the mechanics of a keyword, subtype, or other aspect of a card requires remembering additional rules that aren't very clear just from the text.

S

S

Design shorthand for Snow.

$.25 word

R&D slang for big words in names most players don’t know.

Seeding

An element in a standard set that is meant to synergize with an element in a future one, "seeding" synergy between the two sets. For example, Outlaws' Merriment (Throne of Eldraine) is meant to synergize with the Party mechanic in Zendikar Rising, as it makes Warrior, Cleric, and Rogue creature tokens, which are three of the four creature types needed for a "Full Party".

Signpost

An uncommon gold card, usually two colors, that points you in the direction of what a color pair should be doing in a certain set i.e. what the draft archetypes are.

Stalking

A design term for the creature ability "Can't be blocked by more than one creature." A reference to Stalking Tiger.

T

T

Design shorthand for Tap.

Titan ability

R&D slang for "when this enters the battlefield or attacks…" Also called "titan trigger".

Threat of activation

A strategic concept regarding activated abilities. When faced against an activated ability, the defender has to play as though the ability has already resolved, as countering abilities is a rare occurrence. Hence, the controller of the ability gets the strategic benefit of the ability without ever paying the cost or ever having to commit. Depending on the cost of activation, it may range from either impossible to catch off guard to being an acceptable swing of tempo for cards.

Top-down

An approach to design that builds a card, set or block around a flavorful concept, molding mechanics to fit that concept. For example, Theros block is a top-down design based on Greek mythology, and many of its cards are top-down designed with specific myths in mind.The term comes from division of a Magic card, where the top half of a Magic card is more flavor than mechanics. The opposite is bottom-up design.

U

• Short set code for Unlimited Edition.
• Design shorthand for Blue.

W

W

Design shorthand for White.

X

X

Design shorthand for a variable on a card.

Z

Z

Design shorthand for Multicolor.