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11.28.01 - A Helpful List
Well, I've been away for a
while doing things for my store here locally. I
would like to take a moment and say thank you to
everyone that attended our GP Trials and Pro Tour
Qualifier over the weekend. As usual Jim Shuman
and his wonderful wife ran a great event. I also
want to say thanks to both of my employees and many
times throughout the day players told me I had some of
the best employees for a game store. My favorite
moment of the day was some one telling me that the
owner should be glad to have some one like me working
for him and then got embarrassed when I said,
"Thanks, he's really glad to hear that!"
Anyway, I'm getting
sidetracked here. We have an event going on at
our store nearly every weekend. Needless to say,
that keeps me busy. I also try to keep up the
quality of each of our events at our store. Why
run more events if the quality isn't going to stay up
and stay fun? Well, honestly, I feel that way
about my writing as well. I didn't want to just
rush something to the site and give you junk to read.
People like my writing and like the quality of my
writing and hopefully it stays that way.
Now, after a set up like
that I bet you are all wondering what I have for in
the way if literary entertainment today. Well,
to prove that I am writing for the readers, I decided
to take a request a couple of weeks ago. Sorry I
lost the name and e-mail, it's been a few weeks, but
it was a request from a school teacher. This
teacher apparently got some students started into
collectible card games. They have been reading
reports and articles online and aren't understanding
some of the terminology of the game.
Well, I figured why not
help them out. I understand that there is a ton
of slang involved with the game. That's not
totally relevant and important. I wanted to try
and make sure that I covered some of the major terms.
I would like to thank all of the #mtgwacky regulars
(our IRC channel), especially Chris Pikula.
Well, without further ado,
here's the list of important Magic terminology that we
came up with.
BEATDOWN - This generally
refers to attacking with creatures. One of the
three major deck types. The other two being
CONTROL and COMBO. Can also be used to say,
'serving up the beats.'
BOARD - The play area
where your permanents are played.
BOARD CONTROL - When you
have the advantage on the board.
BOUNCE - A spell or effect
that returns a card to it's owners hand from play.
Most often refers to blue cards that do this.
BROKEN - Used to describe
a card or item that is too good for it's environment.
This term is overused.
BURN - term generally used
for any red spell that deal damage.
CANTRIP - A spell that
gives you an effect and then lets you draw a card.
CHUMP BLOCK - Throwing a
creature in the way of a larger creature knowing that
the blocking creature can't kill the attacker in
anyway.
COMBO - Refers to a type
of deck that wins by playing a series of cards strung
together in a long, continuous combination to win.
CONTROL - Type of deck
that generally plays a low number of creatures by
tries to win the game by seriously limiting the
activities the opponent.
DAMAGE ON THE STACK - term
used to let each player know they have reached the
step in the attack phase where creature damage is
going to be placed onto the stack of effects.
DECKED - Loosing be being
run out of cards.
DEFENSIVE DRAFT - Drafting
a card that might hurt your deck during the deck.
Also popularly referred to as D-Draft.
DOME - Refers to the
physical cranium of your opponent. ex. "
I'm sending a shock for two to your dome."
FATTIE - referring to a
creature with a high power and toughness and usually a
high casting cost. Generally fatties are the
finishers for decks. Even a WEENIE (see below)
deck might include one or two of these guys to help
them break through to finish a game.
GANG BLOCK - Blocking an
attacker with multiple blockers at once.
GOING OFF - Described what
combo decks do as they string their combination of
cards together before they play their win card.
GREY OGRE - Loosely used
to described a creature played as a 2/2 for 3 mana.
Refers to the plain and simple Grey Ogre from earlier
base sets.
GRIP - Popular term among
players used to describe their hand. Generally
used in terms of saying 'full grip' which refers to a
full hand of seven cards.
HATE - Cards that go
against a particular deck or deck type.
HOSE - Cards that go
against a particular deck or deck type.
HILL GIANT - Loosely used
to describe a creature played as a 3/3 for 4 mana.
Refers to the plan and simple Hill Giant from early
base sets.
IN RESPONSE - This phrase
is used when players want to signify that they want to
add enother effect to the STACK before letting the
effect or spell just cast resolve.
MANA FLOOD - Getting too
mana mana sources during the course of a game.
MANA SCREW - Getting stuck
on a low amount of land. Usually used when
getting denied a second or third color of a deck in
critical positions.
MANA WEAVE - Place your
lands throughout your deck every two to four cards
before shuffling. This is supposedly done to
help distribute your mana whenever you are shuffling.
PERMISSION - Refers to
cards that counter particular spells or effect.
This termed was derived from the idea that players are
asking, "May I cast this spell?" or
"Does this spell resolve?"
PILE SHUFFLE - A method of
shuffling where you lay cards out in front of you face
down, generally in piles of six or eight.
PING - one damage.
This is a term developed from older players. Was
originally used to represent the pinging sound of
one point hitting you.
Was originally popularized
in the early days when Prodigal Sorcerer was heavily
played.
PLAYTEST - Playing decks
against each other to see which is better.
Sometimes this process is
used just to see which cards may work better in a
particular deck.
QUALIFIER - This generally
refers to Pro Tour Qualifiers. These are events
that get you an invite to a pro tour.
RARE DRAFT - Take every
possible rare that passes you during a draft.
RED ZONE - The are where
creatures fight it out. Just like football, the
red zone (are inside the 20 yard line) is the
toughness part of the field.
Term was derived from
Wizards having a red line on the tables at a Pro Tour
and the players using that stripe to represent
creatures attacking. ex. "Moving my Serra
Angel into the red zone."
REMOVAL - A card that
takes another card out of play to the graveyard.
It's most often used to describe a particular type,
like creature removal or enchantment removal.
RESET - Refers to
resetting the BOARD ( see above). Nivenyrral's
Disk would be considered a reset button.
RIP - Drawing a card from
the top of your deck. ex. "I need to get a
good rip here to win!"
RIFFLE SHUFFLE - The
shuffle method in which cards are held in either hand
and layed one over another rather quickly. This
is the popular way to shuffle among casual card
players.
SAC - Short for sacrifice.
SEARCH - Cards that let
you go through your library to get a card.
SERVICE - Another term
used to describe attacking.
SCOOP - Conceding the
game. Refers to the act of "scooping"
up your cards.
STALL - Taking an
excessive amount of time to play out your turn to try
and stretch out the game to hit the time limit and get
a win or draw.
STICK - This has a dual
meaning. The first being a random player that's
usually easy to beat. ex. "I played against some
stick." The second refers to creatures that
do a good job. ex."That Meddling MAge is such a
stick." or "Mystic Snake is counterspell on
a stick."
STOMPY - Term used to
describe green deck that play small fast creatures
with creature enhancements spells.
SWING - This is a term
developed recently to mean 'attack'. Popular use
would be, "Then I'll swing for 10."
TOPDECK - Drawing an
important card off the top of the deck. This
card is generally a game winning card or one of the
few cards in your deck that you might be able to draw
to stay in the game.
TRIALS - This term
generally refers to Grand Prix Trials. These
events help you win byes in the early rounds of Grand
Prix events.
TOP ROPE - The top of the
deck. Term carried over from exciting things
happened in wrestling from the top rope.
WEENIE - referring to
creatures with a low casting cost and a low power and
toughness. Generally weenies are 2/2 or1/1.
Sometimes weenie decks can refer to deck composed
primarily of fast small creatures, but may include
creatures as big as 3/3.
WHEEL - The person seating
in the seat in a Rochester draft that will be getting
the 8th and 9th pick consecutively during that pack in
the draft.
Used to described the turn
coming back the opposite direction from that seat.
This is by no means all of
the Magic terms you will hear. These are some of
the most popular most used terms. This should
help you navigate through some of the articles you
read a lot easier.
I hope this helps.
Until next time,
DeQuan Watson
a.k.a. PowrDragn
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