# Magic: The Gathering Help **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** board-card-word-game\ **Created:** [March 21, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444 "2023-03-21T15:51:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/1 "2023-03-21T15:51:59Z")
My boyfriend has terrible anxiety and I’ve been trying to get him to meditate more, or do something to occuppy his racing mind. The other day I got the idea to ask him to name 25 Magic cards. Then I switched it up and said 25 humanoid cards. He seemed to like that exercise. Other than asking him to name 25 spells, 25 lands(?) and 25 animals, I am tapped out of my M:TG knowledge. So, what else can I keep in my pocket to throw out to him to think of? Nothing like “your top favorite…” as that would just cause more anxiety. Just an east list of things to iterate through. He’s familiar with every set from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/2 "2023-03-21T16:22:26Z")
I haven’t touched the game in years, but I think that you could have topics like: - MtG expansions, either in chronological order, or in order of his favorites - MtG deck types / deck strategies – I am way too out of date to name them, but he likely can - Major characters (not just specific cards) from Magic lore ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/3 "2023-03-21T16:35:52Z")
MtG cards banned from tournament play: > **[Banned & Restricted | Magic: The Gathering](https://magic.wizards.com/en/banned-restricted-list)** > > To help maintain the diversity and health of the Magic tournament environment, a system of banned and restricted lists has been developed. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/4 "2023-03-21T16:37:39Z")
Nice. He’ll be impressed when I’m like “Not just any banned cards, LEGACY banned cards” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/5 "2023-03-21T22:12:16Z")
Planeswalkers Creature types Red spells that deal X damage (not sure there are 25 of these, but there’s a bunch) Red spells that deal a fixed amount of damage Black spells that remove a target creature from play Spells that counter spells (mostly blue, but there are a few in other colors) Creatures with trample Creatures with flying Creatures with a Protection ability Creatures with a power of 7 or higher Legends from the original Legends expansion The Ravnica guilds and Alara shards (10 and 5 of those, respectively, so not a full 25, but it’s a set, definite list, and he could go through them in a systematic way, which might help). ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/6 "2023-03-21T22:21:47Z")
Artifacts. Artifact creatures. Multicolor cards in various combinations (white and blue, white and red, all five colors, etc.) I haven’t played in years, so at that point I run out of ideas… ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/magic-the-gathering-help/981444/7 "2023-03-22T19:45:35Z")
There are five colors so you can ask to list White, Black, Blue, Red or Green cards. If you want to mean specifically card that are just that color and no others you would say, “Mono white” or “Mono red” etc. Cards have costs. A creature card that costs a single mana of any type is called a 'one drop". So you can ask for lists of “one drops” or “five drops” etc. While cards go higher you probably wouldn’t want to ask about higher than seven this way.