MTG Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is a style guide for the MTG Wiki and serves to standardize articles and other pages, with consistent and clear language, layout, and formatting, as much as practical, thereby improving article readability and, broadly, site quality.

In essence, the MTG Wiki follows Wikipedia's Manual of Style. However, this wiki has a few specialties which will be laid out in the next sections.

American English
American English is preferred, since Wizards is a US-based company.

Capitalization
Magic sometimes utilizes non-standard capitalization.

All subtypes are capitalized, except when utilized in lore focused articles:
 * Subtype example: The characteristic race for white is Human.
 * Lore example: Vampires prey on humans.

Note that a few types like Eldrazi are always capitalized. Also note that types and supertypes are not generally capitalized.

Formats like Standard, Sealed Deck, or simply Constructed are also capitalized.

In general, the Comprehensive Rules can give a good overview what terms to capitalize in which circumstances.

Magic products
Magic, Magic: The Gathering, and all related products are written in Italics. Innistrad refers to the set, but Innistrad refers to the plane of the same name.

Note that the Innistrad block would not be capitalized, since it is not a magic product.

Ability words
Ability words should always be italicized in running text (Gotcha is an exception). Keywords should never be italicized to avoid any confusion.

Epithets
Epithets should not be part of an article name or the character infobox, since characters can be represented by multiple cards with different epithets and it makes searching and linking more difficult.

Editor Tools
The Cheatsheet provides an overview how to display mana symbols, link card or decks and how to display foreign characters.

Card tags
Follow capitalization on the card. Also use the wiki card tag template for card names: Dark Ritual gives Dark Ritual.

Deck tags
Within deck tags, add the appropriate card types as sections and alphabetize cards within their section. The sideboard - if existent - should be the last section of the deck.

New sets
Use  to start a page of a new expansion.

ISBN
ISBN-13 is preferred. For older books, use the ISBN-13 Online Converter.

Criteria
Professional players should have an article written about them once one of the following criteria are met: If none of these criteria have been met, an article should generally not be created, unless the player is noteworthy in some arena beyond professional play.
 * They have won a Pro Tour or the World Championship.
 * They have been the Player of the Year or Rookie of the Year.
 * They have been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
 * They have reached 100 lifetime Pro Points.

Accomplishments
In the Accomplishments section, the following results should be included:
 * Top 8 of the individual World Championship (2011 and back), team Grand Prix, Pro Tours, Masters Series, and Continental Championships
 * Top 4 of the team World Championship (2011 and back), team Grand Prix, Pro Tours, and Masters Series
 * Top 4 of the World Championship (2012 and on) and the Magic Online Championship
 * Top 8 of the World Magic Cup
 * Top 2 of the Magic Pro Tour Team Series
 * Top 8 of Nationals with 12 rounds of Swiss or more.

Mentions of disqualifications and suspensions
These are touchy subjects, as they can be the cause of negative attention for the player. In general, it is recommended that the first disqualification obtained at Grand Prix level or below is not mentioned, but once the player has been disqualified twice or more, it is appropriate to include it in the article. At the Pro Tour level or above, the first disqualification should be mentioned. All DCI suspensions are fair game. In all of these cases, being brief, staying completely objective, and providing sources for every claim is critical.