List of Magic slang/Dated

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 Entries may be missing or out of date.

Magic: The Gathering players have 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. Some of these have fallen out of favor or only existed for a certain timeframe and meta. An (incomplete) list of these slang terms, abbreviations, and nicknames is listed here.

0-9

187

A creature with a "comes into play" ability that damages or destroys another permanent, like Flametongue Kavu or Nekrataal. The term "187" comes from the California penal code for a murder (Flametongue Kavu and Nekrataal, both tournament staples in their time, killed a lot of creatures.).

Mostly deprecated, with most people using CIP (Comes Into Play) or ETB (Enters The Battlefield) instead.

A

ABU/ABUR

Short for " Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised", it refers to the first sets in Magic's history, Alpha, Beta, Unlimited Edition, and Revised Edition.

Arc

A three-color grouping of each color and its two allies, which form an arc (or an obtuse triangle) within the color wheel. These tricolor combinations are now known as Shards.

B

Bad beat story

Complaining about losing a game, especially if the teller of the story is trying to shift the blame for their loss away from their own play mistakes to external factors like mana screw.

Barn

A player who follows around much better, more famous players, hoping to benefit from their experience and success (short for "barnacle'). Usually negative. Its history comes from its association with the term "Hull". This, however, is the more popular of the two words, but both are less used with the proliferation of the internet, letting players engage with others to a more symbiotic level.

Basilisk

The Basilisk-ability refers to variations on deathtouch, especially mechanics which have a similar effect but work differently. First seen on the Alpha set's Cockatrice and Thicket Basilisk, it also includes variations like Sylvan Basilisk and Cruel Deceiver.

The introduction of Deathtouch as a keyword has rendered this term obsolete.

Bah-roken

The superlative form of 'broken'.

Beatdown

One of the most popular terms in early tournaments Magic, refers to a variety of things:

• Verb: To attack with most or all creatures every turn, with no regard for card advantage, until the opponent is in range for an endgame hammer (such as Kaervek's Torch, Fireblast, or another direct damage spell). Often split in verb form: e.g. to "beat down for 5." This is frequently the action plan for an aggro deck.
• Noun: Used as a description of a card or event. "Fireblast was such a beatdown; he was mana-screwed and I wrecked him, so the game was a beatdown."
• Noun: The player under more pressure than their opponent to end the game quickly and who therefore must attack as much as possible is "on the beatdown." Failure to recognize "Who's the Beatdown?" is a common, fatal mistake for new players. The pressure comes from the opponent's likelihood of winning the game if they can stop the beatdown and stabilize. This is a relative determination, but the deck closer to the "aggro" end of the aggro/control spectrum is more likely to be on the beatdown.
• Adjective: Ties in with the beatdown principles above: "beatdown deck," beatdown creature," etc.

Can still be used but has been typically replaced with more technical terms.

Beater

A creature that will deliver beats. Also usually implies that the creature has a decently large body but few relevant abilities.

Beating

A very good play, usually either a blowout or a threat to which the opponent has no answer. Often implies that it was an unexpected or surprising play. Also shortened to "Ting". Now much more common throughout gaming parlance.

Beats

Repeated attacks by creatures or the damage done by those attacks.

Beatstick

A creature that is effective to attack with. These are usually (but not necessarily) large creatures. Sometimes shortened to simply "stick".

Blinking

Exiling a permanent, then returning it to the battlefield, as with Venser, the Sojourner. The term originally referred to Blinking Spirit's ability to return itself to the hand, and its usage declined along with the popularity of its namesake. It was reintroduced into the lexicon with Time Spiral's Momentary Blink.

Used interchangeably with flickering.

Block Monster

A Standard deck made up of cards all from the same Magic "year," usually connected to a single mechanic.

Brick

• Failing to draw a desired card during the draw step, or drawing an unwanted card. Usually used in situations where a specific card or card type is needed. E.g. "I bricked a land on turns two and three after keeping a one-land opener." One of several poker-derived terms, from when a drawn community card is unfavorable in Texas Hold 'Em.

Brown

A deck comprised of or mainly of artifacts. Refers to the brown color of the artifact frame in older sets of Magic.

C

C (lingo)

R&D lingo for a mana symbol of a specific, arbitrary color, before Oath of the Gatewatch colorless mana symbol introduction.

Capping

Searching an opponent's library for specific cards and exiling them, preventing the opponent from using those cards later in the game. Originated from Jester's Cap, the first card with such an effect. This strategy is effective against combo decks which usually rely on one or two specific cards to win, and certain control decks which have a lot of control elements but very few win conditions. It is significantly less useful against most aggro decks, which usually don't rely on any specific card to win. No longer commonly used as R&D favors lobotomy, with Sadistic Sacrament being the last regular Cap effect.

CC

Short for Casting Cost, the pre-Sixth Edition term for the overall number of mana required to cast a spell, regardless of color. This term was changed to "converted mana cost" (CMC), and later mana value.

Cheerios

0-cost spells, or a deck that plays a large number of these spells. The many 0's are reminiscent of the American brand of cereal, which consists of pulverized oats in the shape of a torus. Puresteel Paladin combo in Modern is one of the remaining uses of it but it is not a major player.

Cheese

• An early term used to describe any direct damage spell, or a deck that relied on direct damage spells to win. Early Red Goblin/Lightning Bolt/Fireball decks were called "Cheese and Weenies".

CIP

Short for "comes into play", the phrase for "enters the battlefield" before M10 rules changes. CIP was correspondingly replaced by ETB.

CIPT

Short for "comes into play tapped", the term for "enters the battlefield tapped" before M10 rules change.

CMC

Short for Converted Mana Cost, the term used between Sixth Edition and Kaldheim for the overall number of mana required to cast a spell, regardless of color. This replaced "Casting Cost" (CC), and was eventually replaced by mana value.

COP, CoP or Cop

Circle of Protection, one of a series of enchantments with an activated ability that prevents damage from particular sources (usually of a given color, such as Circle of Protection: Red, but also Circle of Protection: Artifacts). Also used as a verb: "cop your Bog Wraith" would mean prevent the damage from your Bog Wraith by using my Circle of Protection: Black. Pronounced either "cop" or "cee oh pee".

The last printing of a Circle of Protection was in 2005, so this term is rarely seen today.

Dog

Short for “underdog.” A deck (or player) that is not favored to win a certain matchup. Spread to a generalized gaming term.

Duel

In the early days of Magic, each game was called a duel (cf. Duel Decks).

E

EOTFOFYL

"End of turn, Fact or Fiction, you lose." Fact or Fiction has such versatility and ability that it can win the game solely by forcing your opponent to give you at least one card that you need from the top five cards in your library. Michelle Bush coined this phrase after playing the card at its debut tournament.

F

Flunge

To alpha strike without doing combat math. Coined by LoadingReadyRun.

G

Global enchantment

An enchantment that does not attach to something but rather affects the entire game, i.e. that is not an Aura. Since the introduction of the Aura subtype in Ninth Edition, they are referred to simply as "non-Aura enchantments" or just "enchantments".

Gravy train

Within the world of professional Magic, "being on the gravy train" used to mean being qualified for all the Pro Tours. This typically meant being a Gold- or Platinum-level pro in the Pro Players Club or was a Hall of Famer. A special designation was also there for those who were Platinum Hall of Famers. Obsolete with the lack of consistent invites in the new system: only the Top 8 of Worlds get the next years' worth of invites.

Gro

Refers to a class of decks featuring Quirion Dryad. The original gro deck was Miracle Grow, first piloted successfully by Alan Comer, earning 9th place in the 2001 Grand Prix Vegas, though others followed (such as Super Gro).

Mostly obsolete, as Quirion Dryad left Extended in 2008. Future decks in the style of them may be referred to as Gro as a callback, but the weakening of countermagic and card draw made such decks worse.

H

Hull

A player who attracts many players, often less skilled. Associated with the word "Barn": The Barns (barnacles) are constantly following the Hull around to leech off of them or simply to attain another level of play or social status. As with Barn, less popular with the internet growing.

I

Instantment

An enchantment with flash. Mirage and Visions both contained spells of this sort, as did Mercadian Masques, Theros Beyond Death, and Prophecy. Less used with the keywording of flash, and how the word isn't very pronounceable.

J

Jacetice League

Derogatory term for the period of time where the main story of the game revolved around a group of planeswalkers led by Jace Beleren and Gideon Jura, formally known as the Gatewatch. Previously used due to a perceived overuse of Jace and the rest of The Gatewatch in the storyline from Magic Origins til Hour of Devastation, being also in a cultural time period where superhero adaptations (and subsequent crossover team-ups) were prevalent. The term lessened in usage when the Gatewatch was soundly defeated in Hour of Devastation, and the group's importance in the story diminished greatly after War of the Spark. Derived from "Justice League".

L

Long.dec

An explosive combo deck in the Vintage format that abused Burning Wish to fetch Yawgmoth's Will, eventually building up a high enough Storm count to win with Tendrils of Agony. Long.dec boasted the impressive ability to win more than half the time on the first turn, prompting the restriction of Burning Wish and Lion's Eye Diamond in Vintage in 2003. Later versions of the deck included "Grim Long" and "Death Long", featuring Grim Tutor and Death Wish as ways to replace the restricted Burning Wish.

M

Magical Christmasland

A theoretical situation where a deck or combo goes as hoped, such as a situation where your deck has no disruption or a perfect opening hand. Usually a derogatory statement to refer to a highly unlikely event, such as someone being able to win the game on turn one with a specific hand. Less relevant nowadays with the proliferation of casual Commander, where dreaming big is more encouraged than in the competitive Constructed era the term came from.

Mana threshold

The minimum amount of mana needed to be able to cast most of the spells in a deck. Rarely used, with the populace now having a greater understanding of deckbuilding.

Ménage-à-Tron

The event of having Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine, and Urza's Power-Plant (the Urzatron) in one's opening hand. From "ménage à trois".

Mise

A very lucky happening, most commonly used to refer to a needed card being drawn at the right moment ("Drawing that Black Lotus was an excellent mise,") or the act of doing so ("I mised that Lotus just in time"). MiseTings (so named for the expression) defined a mise as "something unusually great or unexpected" or the act of obtaining such. The expression "mise" is derived from the phrase "might as well" - as in 'mise well draw that wrath'. Its meaning has since changed to the usage described above, however. The joke set Unhinged had a card called Mise, which played on this by giving the player a great card advantage, but only if that player is lucky enough to know the top card of their library.

N

The Nut

A very good, potentially the best, draw or play.

Nut Draw

The ideal opening hand. Borrowed from the poker term.

P

Pants

An Aura or (less commonly) equipment that buffs a creature. Most often used in reference to Bogles decks wherein the goal is to play a cheap creature resistant to removal, such as the namesake Slippery Bogle, and then attach many cheap but powerful "pants" to it to make an unstoppable cheap threat. Coverage has leant towards calling such decks "Bogle decks".

Prosperous Bloom, ProsBloom

An old Mirage-era combo deck based around Prosperity, Cadaverous Bloom, and Squandered Resources.

Punt

An extremely bad play, or the act of making such a play. "I punted pretty hard when I cast an Obliterate against an opponent with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre in play."

R

Rainbow

Five-color. Used to describe a deck, card, or activation cost. Similar to WUBRG (for White blUe Black Red Green), or Chromatic (since cards like Chromatic Lantern or Chromatic Orrery provide 5 color fixing).

Raffinity

Ravager Affinity, the deck using cards with affinity for artifacts and an Arcbound Ravager - Disciple of the Vault combo that dominated Mirrodin block and standard. Raffinity is despised by most players (who did not play the deck) for its simple yet dominating and flexible gameplay. Raffinity is designed to take out one player as fast as possible, and it caused a huge series of bans in Standard and Mirrodin blocks.

Red Zone

A previously imaginary area where creature combat occurs. "Sending them into the red zone" was slang for attacking with creatures. Some official play surfaces had have a red area where attacking and defending creatures were moved to make it easier to see which creatures are in combat.

RFG

Removed from the game, the term used before M10 for what is now called exiled.

Rip

To draw one or more cards. Usually implied that the cards were good, or were drawn exactly when needed. See Topdeck.

The Rock

Short for "The Rock and His Millions," a term referencing WWE wrestler The Rock, who always spoke of his millions of fans. Described most Black/Green midrange decks. The original version of the deck abused the combo of Phyrexian Plaguelord and Deranged Hermit.

S

Still Had All These/Deez

Named after a song created by group of Magic players "The Gatherin'" (amongst whom were Patrick Chapin), a form of poor sportsmanship by a winning player in which they reveal part of their hand after the game, showing "all these" other spells they had yet to cast. Despite the grammatical inconsistency, the term is used like a verb (i.e. "Don't 'had all these' your opponent").

Super Shroud

Hexproof. Before it was keyworded in M12, it was written explicitly on cards as "[Object] can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents' control", and known as super shroud because it's better than shroud. Also (formerly) known as trollshroud.

Super trample

See Unstoppable.

T

Trix

A combo deck based around the interaction of Illusions of Grandeur and Donate.

Trollshroud

Hexproof. Before it was keyworded in M12, it was written explicitly on cards as "[Object] can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control", and known as trollshroud due to its use on Troll Ascetic. Also (formerly) known as super shroud.