Franchise file / Richard Garfield
Magic: The Gathering
The card game, gone digital
Richard Garfield's trading card game went digital in 1997. Since then, it has been an RPG, a real-time duel, the Duels of the Planeswalkers series and the free-to-play MTG Arena.
- 1997
- First game
- 2
- Series
- Richard Garfield
- Creator
One world. Many eras.
Choose your chapter
Early experiments. The first PC game, often called Shandalar, mixed paper Magic with RPG wandering. BattleMage went real-time, and Battlegrounds from Secret Level turned spellcasting into an action duel.
Start with Magic: The GatheringYour next late night
The essentials
Chapters
Series (2)
Magic: The GatheringVideo game versions of Wizards of the Coast's trading card game. They run from the first MicroProse release in 1997 to Magic: The Gathering Arena, the free online client that arrived in 2019.Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the PlaneswalkersYearly digital Magic: The Gathering duel games from Stainless Games, which started in 2009. Each one has a fixed set of decks, a campaign against AI planeswalkers and online play.
A legacy worth revisiting
Every format but the table.
Early adaptations tried to wrap the cards in something bigger, from a wandering RPG to real-time battles. Stainless Games' Duels of the Planeswalkers cut back to clean one-on-one play in 2009, and Arena became the main digital version in 2019.
- 1997 to 2003
- Early experiments
- 2009 to 2015
- The Duels years
- 2019 to present
- Arena
Scenes that stay with you
Inside the world
Select a frame to expand it.
