Magic: The Gathering
The most recommended of 15 card games
Recommended for its strategy, deck building, and replay value, and as a shared social game. Critics most often say it releases too many costly sets.
Recommended for its strategy, deck building, and replay value, and as a shared social game. Critics most often say it releases too many costly sets.
52 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 27
- criticize it
- 25
- approval share
- 52%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 31 years
Median of the 7 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 27 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Strategy and deck construction depth
“Getting deep into card advantage, deck construction, and hypergeometric theory has been an absolute blast”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: Any Interesting Niche Hobbies?” “I like the game because of the strategy”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “United Wizards of the Coast recognized by NLRB” Long-lasting replay value from packs
“We have had the decks well over a couple of decades after we bought them!”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I taught LLMs to play Magic: The Gathering against each other” “There's near endless opportunity for replay value in 3 packs per person!”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40” Social play at a shared table
“we could sit around the table, see and talk to each other instead of through the screen”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “The Forgotten Art of the LAN Party (2023)” “Magic is best played in a shared house.”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40” Skills that transfer to real life
“I have always felt lucky to have learned C and Magic: The Gathering at the same time”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Magic: The Gathering Took Me from N2 to Japanese Fluency” “Compared to chess, Magic: The Gathering ability transfers much better to real life.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Stockfish 19”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too many sets and products
“I don't like the sheer amount of product they're pumping out every year now”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “United Wizards of the Coast” “Wizards has done a poor job since the Hasbro acquisition of doing much else besides shitting out product after product too fast with poor balance”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I taught LLMs to play Magic: The Gathering against each other” “People get extremely angry when Magic The Gathering charges more money, for more exclusive products, in more frequently occurring releases.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros” - Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “United Wizards of the Coast recognized by NLRB”
Monetization pushes costly exclusive products
“Increasingly, it feels like Magic design and product is focused on extracting money from the whales at the price of hollowing out their playerbase.”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News “People get extremely angry when Magic The Gathering charges more money, for more exclusive products, in more frequently occurring releases.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Paramount launches hostile bid for Warner Bros” “have a straightforwardly more evil monetization strategy, since you need to do gambling there to even play the game”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Valve reveals it’s the architect behind a push to bring Windows games to Arm” Balance and power creep problems
“Wizards has done a poor job since the Hasbro acquisition of doing much else besides shitting out product after product too fast with poor balance”
Comment from 17 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: I taught LLMs to play Magic: The Gathering against each other” “planeswalkers were the beginning of the end for me, and its been a non-stop slide of power creep and paid promotions ever since”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40” “Back in the day, you could try out new things and play 10-20 turn games where both sides had winning chances.”
Comment from 21 Jun 2026 in “Beyond All Reason (Free Total Annihilation Inspired RTS)” Unrelated franchise crossovers
“when they introduced Dr. Who, Transformers, My Little Pony, and a whole bunch of other crap into a game about wizards fighting in a fantasy world”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “United Wizards of the Coast” “at least with old cards you don't have to contend with Sephiroth, the Ninja Turtles, and My Little Pony”
Comment from 21 May 2026 in “Magic the Gathering format: Fun 40”
Other card games people recommend
The four most recommended other card games, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic: The GatheringThis page | 27 | 25 | 52% | 10 | 31 yrs7 owners | — |
| Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino | 14 | 4 | 78% | 6 | — | Approved |
| Inscryption | 11 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Solitaire Alone Together | 11 | 1 | 92% | 1 | — | — |
| Everdeck | 9 | 6 | 60% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 54 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the hygiene issues at LGS and trolling issues with MTGO left me bereft”
“Compared to chess, Magic: The Gathering ability transfers much better to real life.”
“my preferred home printing method for prototyping is to use custom labels and cheap Magic the Gathering bulk commons”
“I like the game because of the strategy”
“The sets also increase the number of legal cards you have to purchase to keep up with the meta.”
“I think criticism should be focused on the actual design and mechanics of sets rather than the IP.”
“Back in the day, you could try out new things and play 10-20 turn games where both sides had winning chances.”
“we could sit around the table, see and talk to each other instead of through the screen”
“It was mostly unbalanced because Magic: The Gathering wasn't designed with movement, range, or position in mind.”
“planeswalkers were the beginning of the end for me, and its been a non-stop slide of power creep and paid promotions ever since”
“that's how the game balances itself”
“I'm 100% never going back. I've been playing on and off since 1993, so they're absolutely burning their brand.”
“Magic is best played in a shared house.”
“Draft is my favorite part.”
“I especially love the art and simplicity of revised and third editions.”
“There's near endless opportunity for replay value in 3 packs per person!”
“That's what I love about MTG - the flexibility.”
“at least with old cards you don't have to contend with Sephiroth, the Ninja Turtles, and My Little Pony”
“I don't like the sheer amount of product they're pumping out every year now”
“when they introduced Dr. Who, Transformers, My Little Pony, and a whole bunch of other crap into a game about wizards fighting in a fantasy world”
“if what you enjoy is MTG, then MTG is the best”
“It's definitely not so good these days”
“I have always felt lucky to have learned C and Magic: The Gathering at the same time”
“the game these days doesn't feel like the one I played back then”
“The M:TG competitions are giving him a framework to practice that conversation”
“it turned out to be quite helpful”
“A couple of the players also got me into MTG, so now I've got a pile of Turtles cards too.”
“Getting deep into card advantage, deck construction, and hypergeometric theory has been an absolute blast”
“The games are not inseparable from those mechanics, and are quite fun on their own.”
“it also felt like the same kind of feeling I get from games like MtG ('expensive cardboard')”
“Wizards has done a poor job since the Hasbro acquisition of doing much else besides shitting out product after product too fast with poor balance”
“We have had the decks well over a couple of decades after we bought them!”
“Wizards has shown repeatedly that they have no intention of making the game more accessible.”
“I understood how silly that question was when I felt the pleasure of actually owning a high quality product.”
“People get extremely angry when Magic The Gathering charges more money, for more exclusive products, in more frequently occurring releases.”
“have a straightforwardly more evil monetization strategy, since you need to do gambling there to even play the game”
“set a pretty good standard”
“I played MtG back in those days”
“I'm very deep into magic after 10 years, and I almost exclusively buy singles and do prereleases.”
“Increasingly, it feels like Magic design and product is focused on extracting money from the whales at the price of hollowing out their playerbase.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.