The primary consumers of Magic are males in their teens and twenties with experience in role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Magic was designed by Richard Garfield and is distributed by Wizards of the Coast, a name familiar to role-players. Each card has unique fantasy art work, a contributing factor to the game's popularity. Additional Magic sets have been produced since the original, including Antiquities, Legends, The Dark, and Jyhad, with more in the planning stages. The major feature of these additional sets is the opportunity for Magic consumers to partake of the latest fantasy art work on the cards.
Some players own thousands of cards, and some buy to collect, without even playing the game.
By-products of Magic include a quarterly magazine called The Duelist, and a limited edition poster displaying all of the original cards. It is too early to tell if Magic is just a trend, or a serious mainstay on the shelves and in the minds of gamers. The basic premise of the game is to win cards and, in turn, points instrumental in increasing a player's power. Some liken the game to a cross between collecting baseball cards and playing the card game War. Like baseball cards, each Magic deck contains a different assortment of cards.