Magic the Gathering was the first collectible trading card game. It was originally released by publisher Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The cards feature fantasy role playing motifs, such as wizards and creatures, with different specifications. Collected in decks, these are played against other players who use their own decks, using cards to cast spells and attack with creatures. New cards are regularly released, and can provide additional gameplay to players, hence their collectible format. Cards of different rarity can have added value in the marketplace.

Richard Garfield designed the original gameplay in 1991, having pitched a game to publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC), who turned back to him and suggested he look to creating something portable to play during downtime at games conferences. Garfield conceived of a collectible deck that would have a connection to the player’s identity. WotC noted the monetary potential for infinitely expanding decks in contrast with the static design of tabletop games. Garfield developed the gameplay with Peter Adkison of WotC, who immediately drawn to producing it. They premiered the game at August 1993’s Gen Con (the biggest tabletop gaming event in North America), and by October had sold out of 10 million cards. By the end of 1994 a billion cards had been printed. The game system, based on trading cards, was patented in 1997 – the methodology for this has been criticized by other game designers. This led to legal action with Nintendo in 2003 over their system for the Pokémon Trading Card Game.

The game built a gigantic audience – Hasbro, owner of WotC since 1999, calculated in 2018 that there are around 35 million regular players globally and over 20 billion cards had been printed at this point. There is also an organised tournament system, the Wizards Play Network, that plays at an international level with a community of professional Magic players.