Magic: The Gathering was featured in the Season Eighteen episode "Cock Magic". The card game was invented by Richard Garfield and was first released in 1993.
Background[]
Kenny McCormick becomes a Magic the Gathering player at a local hobby store. He plays and wins against the champion known as "Slaughterhouse". Cartman excitedly talks about the previous nights match in the hallway at school and is overheard by a custodian named Mitchell. He invites the boys to an underground tournament where roosters a.k.a. "cocks", battle using MtG cards. The boys eat at a McDonald's like restaurant where Kenny expresses his dismay of using roosters to play a game he enjoys. The boys decide to pick out a rooster of their own for cock magic battles at a local farm. They pick one and name him McNuggets, after the breaded chicken menu item at McDonald's. During the first match, McNuggets wins against Rueben at the City Wok. A promoter encourages the boys to try and play at the Panda Express where the competition is fiercer. Kenny plays in place of McNuggets, and almost wins against Gadnuk: Breaker of Worlds until the Park County Police Force break up the event.
Meanwhile, detective Harrison Yates confuses Randy's penis magic act with underground cock fighting MtG.
Rules[]
The rules are very basic but the strategy can become complicated due to the many thousands of cards in existence. Two or more players use a personalized deck of 60 cards and take turns casting spells and creatures using "land" cards also known as "mana". The mana is used as a "casting cost" of the attacking creature cards. Spell cards known as "Instants" can change the rules of the game and cause effects to either player, directly or indirectly. Each player starts with 20 points and the goal is to decrease the opponents points down to zero. First player who reaches zero loses the match. Usually the best out of three matches wins the round.
Throughout the episode, the rules are frequently ignored in favor of dramatic action (For example, when going against Gadnuk, Kenny uses a sorcery card during the middle of Gadnuk's turn, which isn't normally possible).
Featured Cards[]
Many of the cards mentioned in the episode are currently real cards. These are listed below.
- Undead Minotaur-Set name: Magic core 2015 (Mispronounced as Uprooted Minotaur)
- Shapeshifter-Set name: 4th edition, 5th edition, Antiquities and Masters edition 4
- Polymorphist's Jest-Set Name: Magic core 2015 (Mentioned at school in the school hallway by Cartman.)
- Serendib Sorcerer-Set Name: Planar Chaos
- Fugitive wizard-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Mass Calcify-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Kalonian Twingrove-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Crippling Blight-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Into the Void-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Silklash Spider-Set Name: Commander 2014
- Geistflame-Set Name: Innistrad, Duel Decks: Sorin vs Tibalt
- Punishing Fire-Set Name: Zendikar, Commander, Duel Decks: Knights vs Dragons
- Paragon of Fierce Defiance-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Psychogenic Probe-Set Name: Mirrodin
- Mercurial Pretender-Set Name: Magic core 2015 (Mispronounced as Merciful Pretender)
- Living Totem-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Frenzied Goblin-Set Name: Ravnica
- Coral Barrier-Set name: Magic core 2015 (Seen in the top down of the table)
- Elvish Mystic-Set Name: Magic core 2015 and Commander 2014
- Charging Rhino-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Life's Legacy-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Crackling Doom-Set Name: Khans of Tarkir
- Abzan Battle Priest-Set Name: Khans of Tarkir
- Terra Stomper-Set Name: Magic core 2015
- Pearl Lake Ancient-Set Name: Khans of Tarkir
- Overseer(Overseer of the Damned)-Set Name: Commander 2014 (Just guessing)(Mentioned over the phone)
- Sliver Overlord-Set name: Scourge, Sliver premium set. (Seen in the top down of the table)
- Glacial Crasher-Set name: Magic core 2015 (Mentioned over the phone)
- Dawntreader Elk-Set name: Dark Ascension (Mispronounced as Downtreader Elk)
- Planeswalker: Not a specific card, but the general name for a type of card that represents a character from the fictional backstory for the game, which grants certain abilities and can be targeted for attack or damage by an opponent in place of the planeswalker's controller. (Mentioned as the target of damage from Slaughterhouse's "Spark Ghast")
Deleted Cards[]
The concept art for these can be seen on the South Park Twitter page.
- Peel from Reality-Set Name: Ravnica: City of Guilds, Avacyn Restored, Magic core 2015
- Dryad Arbor-Set Name: Future Sight, From the Vault: Realms
Fictional Cards[]
- Spark Ghast
- Elderbeast
- Elven blade