this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Lightning Bolt, Counterspell, Swords to Plowshares, Cultivate, Dark Ritual
Probably the card design categories as well, since if you know a lot of the categories you know what strategies to expect, or even build.
Things like
Removal - spells and abilities that get rid of permanents you don't like
Board wipes - cards that clear the board of all creatures (including your own), and sometimes other permanents too.
Ramp - cards that get your more mana than you're usually "supposed" to have at a stage in the game.
Card Draw - spells or abilities with the magic words "draw a card", or something similar
Looting - spells and abilities that discard a number of cards and draw a number of cards.
Wheels - spells that discard your entire hand and draw a number of number of cards.
Cantrips - a minor effect with the words "draw a card" tacked onto it.
Xerox spells - 1-2 mana Cantrips with the only effect being some library manipulation + "draw a card". Usually blue.
Counters - spells and abilities with the magic words "counter target spell", sometimes with a condition for the counter. Usually blue.
Beaters - big creatures
Mill cards - cards that put the top card(s) of someone's libraries into your graveyard.
Reanimators - cards that drag a creature from a graveyard to the battlefield
Clones - cards that enter as a copy of something
Tribal - cards that care about creature types, like goblins, angels, etc.
Burn - spells and abilities that directly damage your opponents. Usually red.
Stax - cards that interfere with the normal plans of both you and each of your opponents, hopefully your opponents a lot more
Tutors - spells and abilities that search for a specific card in your library
Fog effects - spells and abilities that prevent all damage for a turn, usually from creatures.
Any I'm missing?
So I asked for something like this a week ago on Reddit and just got downvoted and told it didn't exist (but I knew it must!) So thank you very much, if I could upvote you more than once I would!
No problem! There's a lot of card effects so it can be hard to keep track of, or even categorize sometimes. Don't worry about memorizing cards if it gets in the way of having fun - if playing physical paper MTG, most people are reasonable enough to explain what their cards do if you ask!
The best way learn things is to build the deck you want and have fun playing with other people, and to see cool stuff people are doing.
Other categories I can think of would be "Looting" and "Rummaging", which are cards with the effects "draw a card, then discard a card" or "discard a card, then draw a card" respectively, and "flicker/blink" which exiles a card and then brings it back either immediately or at the end of turn. Also possibly "eggs", cheap artifacts, often 1 mana, that you crack for an effect.