Portal:Cards

Cards are the heart and soul of Magic: the Gathering Puzzle Quest.

In Magic: the Gathering Puzzle Quest, players form Decks out of 10 cards they own to take into a game. Games are won or lost based on the cards played. Cards are played by filling them with Mana, which is gained by matching Gems on the Gem board.

Cards are acquired from Card packs. New sets of cards are continuously released, opening up new strategies, synergies, and game mechanics for players who acquire them in Card packs or as Event rewards. New cards are released in Card sets at a rate of approximately five or six per year.

Card types

Cards come in three types: Creature, Spell, and Support.

Creature	Creature cards enter play in one of your three available creature slots. Creatures have Power (attack strength) and Toughness (health). Creatures automatically attack each turn after they come into play. Playing the same creature card again Reinforces an existing creature (adds to its Power and Toughness).
Spell	Spell cards perform a one-off effect, such as drawing more cards, healing, doing damage, or interfering with the opponent's hand of cards.
Support	Support cards enter play as a support Gem on the Gem board, and have an ongoing effect on the game. Supports in play have a shield value which decreases by one each time the support gem is matched. If the shield value reaches zero, the support is destroyed.

Cards may have a Color, sometimes more than one, or they may be colorless. Each Planeswalker has affinity for one or more colors, and may only use a deck comprising cards of those colors, or colorless cards.

Cards often have Abilities which appear on multiple cards. Cards may also have unique effects, described in the card text.

During the game

During play, cards are drawn from your library, which is formed from unlimited copies of the 10 cards in your deck. One card is automatically drawn each turn, and some cards have abilities which allow extra cards to be drawn.

Mana generated by matching gems is added to the cards in your hand, starting from the top. Cards have a casting cost, which is an amount of mana required to play the card. After you make a match, any cards whose casting cost is fully paid may be played.

Card Sets

Sets are almost always accompanied by the release of new Planeswalkers and often by new Events. They usually feature new card mechanics, known as Abilities.

The likely contents of Booster packs of sets will not only differ by their particular cards, but in the case of Elite packs, by the probability of a given rarity appearing.

Although the in-game card list shows only the set icons, the written name of the set can be deduced from the close-up view of an individual card. This "Card Finder" has a search button on the bottom that shows where the card can be obtained, and thus what set it comes from, written out in full.

Standard sets

Cards in Standard card sets may be used in Standard Format or Legacy Format Events.

Legacy sets

Cards in Legacy card sets may only be used in Legacy Format Events.

Packs and releases

See Packs and sets

Hibernum expansions

As of October 2022, there were 37 sets released, but there are only 34 Booster packs available. Eldritch Moon cards were moved into Shadows over Innistrad packs, Oath of the Gatewatch to Battle for Zendikar, and Aether Revolt was rolled into Kaladesh. Hibernum made them expansion sets; they are not available to purchase on their own, although they have been offered as prizes on occasion. Hour of Devastation was the first set to not be added to the pool of cards of the previous, odd-numbered release.