Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game. Players buy and trade cards, and build their own card decks. Decks must have at least 60 cards. Players can play in tournaments, and there are even professional "Magic" players. Most players of Magic: The Gathering simply call the game "Magic". The game is in a fantasy world involving magic. Richard Garfield made the game in 1993. It is said to be the first trading card game. The current Head Designer is Mark Rosewater, who also writes a weekly article about the game called "Making Magic."
2 or more people play the game. Players attack each other causing them to lose life points. Each player starts at 20 life points. There are many kinds of cards that can be used to reduce another player's life. Players can attack another player with a creature or deal direct damage with a spell. You win the game by reducing your opponent's life to 0, when your opponent runs out of cards to draw, or when a card says that you win the game.
Richard Garfield started to make the game at University of Pennsylvania. In 1993 he showed the game to the game company Wizards of the Coast. The company liked the game, and started to produce it.
The first cards were made in 1993. The cards are produced in groups of cards called "sets". The first sets were very successful, so more sets were made. About four sets are produced each year. Cards made before 2003 look different than newer cards, but are still compatible with the modern game in most cases.
Professional "Magic" began in 1996. Professionals play in tournaments around the world in the . A player can win as much as $40,000 in one tournament.
Magic: The Gathering Online (MTGO) was made in 2002. "Magic" players can now play their favorite game on the internet. A new MTGO was released in 2008. Also, a new online version called MTG Arena was released in 2019.
Generally more males play the game than females.
A game of "Magic" is played by two or more players. A player starts the game with twenty "life points". A player loses when he or she has zero or fewer life points. There are different ways to lose life points: players play "creature" cards and attack other players with them, or players play spells on other players. There are also other ways for players to lose: they have no cards in their deck, they have 10 "poison counters", or a card is played that says they lose.
Players begin the game by shuffling their decks (mixing up their cards) and then taking up seven cards. Each card has a different power. Players takes one new card at the start of each turn, but the first player does not take a card on their first turn. There are many steps in each turn. Certain cards can only be played in certain steps. A player can have no more than seven cards at the end of their turn. If they do, they must put cards into their "graveyard" (next to their deck) till they only have seven.
There are two basic kinds of cards: "spells" and "lands". Lands give its player "mana" (magical energy). Mana is used to "cast spells". A player may only play one land each turn. More powerful spells take more mana to play. There are also different kinds of spells. "Sorceries" and "instants" are played, and go directly to the "graveyard" after their effects take place. "Permanents" stay in play after they are played, and their effects stay as well. "Creatures" are a special kind of permanent that can attack and damage other players.
legendary creatures and planeswalkers are a totally different matter.
Most spells are one of five colors: white, blue, black, red, and green. To play a spell, at least one mana that is the same color as the spell is needed. Players normally get this mana from "basic lands": "plains" for white, "island" for blue, "swamp" for black, "mountain" for red, and "forest" for green. Each color has strengths and weaknesses, with white magic dealing in protection and defense, blue magic dealing with manipulation and thinking, black magic dealing in death and greed, red magic dealing in fire and emotion, and green magic dealing in strength and nature.
Each card has a picture that gives an idea of the power of the card. Card sets are usually made along with stories, and the pictures on cards generally show actions, events or characters in the stories.
Richard Garfield and Donato Giancola have also won personal awards for "Magic".
Giant salamander
The giant salamanders are a family of large aquatic amphibia, the Cryptobranchidae.
They are the largest living amphibians. The Japanese giant salamander ("Andrias japonicus"), reaches up to , feeds on fish and crustaceans, and has been known to live for more than 50 years in captivity. The Chinese giant salamander ("Andrias davidianus") can reach a length of .
They live in brooks and ponds in the eastern United States (the hellbender), and in China and Japan.
Cryptobranchids are large, fat salamanders, with folds of skin along their flanks. These help increase the animal's surface area, allowing them to absorb more oxygen from the water.
Their metamorphosis from the larval stage is incomplete, so that the adults retain gill slits (although they also have lungs), and lack eyelids.
Chinese giant salamanders have lived as long as 75 years in captivity. It eats aquatic insects, fish, frogs and also crabs and shrimps.
They hunt mainly at night, and as they have poor eyesight, use sensory nodes on their head and body to detect tiny changes in water pressure, allowing them to find their prey.
During mating season, these salamanders will travel upstream. After the fertilization of the eggs, the male will guard them for at least six months. At this point, the offspring will live off their noticeable stored fat until they are ready to hunt. Once ready they will hunt as a group rather than individually.
Scientists at Asa Zoo in Japan have recently discovered that the male salamander will spawn with more than one female in his den. Sometimes the male "den master" will also allow a second male into the den, but the reason for this is unclear.
Manfred von Richthofen
Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (2 May 1892 - 21 April 1918) was a German fighter aircraft pilot in World War I. His nickname was the "Red Baron". He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories. The "Red Baron" is one of the most famous aviators in history and the subject of numerous representations in music, film and other media. He already received numerous honors and award for his exploits.
Richthofen was born in Breslau, Germany.
In August 1914, Richthofen became a cavalry officer in World War I. In May 1915, he joined the air service and became an observer. He did that because the training course was shorter and would get him to fighting faster. In October, he began training as a pilot. In March 1916, he entered combat. He had his first victory in April. In 1917, he was in command of a squadron nicknamed the "flying circus". He painted his airplane red so his fellow Germans could see him. Richthofen’s sixteenth victory flying a plane made him the best pilot in Germany in 1917.
On April 21, 1918, Richthofen was fatally shot, whilst flying low above the Somme Valley, near Amiens while fighting in France. He was 25 years old. He was chasing an enemy plane when a bullet passed through his chest. He then made a smooth landing, in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of Vaux-sur-Somme. His Fokker Dr.I was not damaged by the landing. One witness, Gunner George Ridgway, said that Richthofen was still alive when he and other Australian soldiers reached the plane, but he died moments later. Another eyewitness, Sergeant Ted Smout, said that Richthofen's last word was "kaputt" ("finished"), immediately before he died.