Card games of all kinds are ubiquitous around the world. Many games such as poker, go fish, or solitaire use the traditional four-suit ace through king deck, but thousands of others utilize carefully crafted custom designs. While trading card games (TCGs), collectible card games (CCGs), deckbuilders, and other packaged games all use their own designs, many of them use similar layouts. This week I want to take a look at the card design of one of the the most famous TCGs, Magic the Gathering, and see why these cards are designed the way they are.
Take it from the top
Magic the Gathering has been around since 1993, and in that time Wizards of the Coast has printed close to 30,000 different Magic cards. There are thousands of different effects printed across a half dozen different card types, yet an overwhelming number of the cards use a very similar layout. Even after revamping the standard card layout in 2003 and again in 2014, the card’s name and mana cost have always stayed at the top of the card.
So why position the name and mana cost this way? The first reason is the visual hierarchy of the card; in part this means that things at the top of the card will be seen/read first, and things at the bottom of the card will be seen/read last. The name gives players a way to quickly identify the card and distinguish it from its (almost) 29,999 brethren. The mana cost of the card shows how many of the game’s resources players must use to play the card, and informs a large portion of each turns’ decision making. Having this information up top reduces the amount of time players will need to spend figuring out which cards they have, and gives them more time to make the interesting decisions that make Magic fun.
Another reason to put these pieces of information at the top of the card is due to how players hold the cards. In games of Magic, players will frequently be holding anywhere from 3-7 cards in their hands. To hold this many cards, players will frequently ‘fan’ them out, leaving most of the card obscured. When fanning the cards this way, the majority of the cards only have their top two corners visible, meaning whatever is in those two corners needs to be able to identify the card. Placing the cards’ name and mana cost in these corners allows players to do exactly that.
The meat of the card
Below the name and mana cost we find 3-4 more components: the card’s artwork, type(s), set/rarity, and effects. On top of this information stack is the artwork, given plenty of room to show off all the hard work the artist put into it. The artwork serves the very important purpose of being a secondary way to identify the card; since each card’s art is unique, players frequently recognize cards by this visually appealing aid. Putting this very close to the top of the card, and giving it the most real estate of any of the card components, leaves it high in the visual hierarchy where it should be.
Following the artwork are the card’s type(s), rarity, and set. The type lets players know general details about the card, including when they are allowed to play it and what happens to the card after it is played. The rarity/set symbol shows which set the card is a part of, and (roughly) how likely the card is to appear in the randomized booster packs that Magic is sold in. While this information does matter to players, it doesn’t matter as often as the card’s other elements. The information about the card’s type is important during the game, but can be determined through other components- creatures will also have a power/health, artifacts have a distinctive background, planeswalkers have a unique effect box design, and several other little designs that help present this information. It’s these touches in other areas that allow the card’s type to take up so little real estate, while still providing players important information. On the other hand, the rarity and set take up so little room because during gameplay, this information is largely irrelevant to players. They provide information that is useful enough to warrant inclusion, but not gameplay-impacting information.
Finally, we have a large box containing the card’s effects. This information is crucial to gameplay, as this is where a lot of the intricacy of the gameplay comes from. Card’s effects frequently break one of the core rules of Magic, and must be carefully read to understand how they do so. For example, creatures die when they run out of health, but many creatures have effects that ignore this rule. This effect box is given a significant amount of space on the card because during gameplay, it is absolutely one of the most important parts of the card. However, it is kept lower on the card because this box can get WORDY. It’s very important to not overwhelm players with a wall of text when they first look at a card, so these effects are kept below the artwork. Good artwork gives a much better first impression than “this seems incredibly complicated”.
Last but not least
Finally down at the bottom of the card, we have a cluster of information presented in tiny text. The artist who drew the card’s artwork is credited here; while this is a very nice touch (and undoubtedly very appreciated by the artist), it has no effect on the gameplay. Similarly, Wizards of the Coast’s copyright notice is displayed here, along with some additional information about the set that the card was printed as a part of. For modern cards, there is also a holographic stamp placed at the bottom as an anti-counterfeiting measure. All of these are things that Wizards clearly wants (or needs) to include on the card, but recognises the miniscule impact they have on the larger playerbase, hence the decision to sequester them to the lowest place in the visual hierarchy.
In conclusion
The designers at Wizards of the Coast have pretty clearly given a lot of thought to the design of one of Wizards’ most popular franchises. Many, many other card games have taken lessons from this card design, and iterated upon it to suit their own needs. For the foreseeable future, this is a trend that is unlikely to change, because the core of this design works so well.
In the meantime, I hope you’re dealt a good rest of your week and I’ll see you next time!
-Mark