How to Create Your Own Magic the Gathering Card

Choose an online card generating program. There are several available, such as Construct a Card.com, Magic Set Editor or The FalseBlue Magic: The Gathering Card Generator.

Determine the name of your card. The name should reflect the type of creature, land, artifact or effect that your card represents. Type this into the name field in your generator.

Select the color of your card. Typically, cards are one of five basic colors in the Magic the Gathering system: white, blue, black, red, and green. White represents goodness, justice, purity and the plains. Blue represents magic, change, wisdom and water. Black represents evil, ambition, death and swamps. Red represents fire, chaos, destruction and mountains. Green represents growth, nature, animals and the forest. The colors of real Magic the Gathering cards are carefully chosen to match the ideals of the subject of the card with that of the color, so you should think carefully about the color of your card. Some card types do not have one of the five basic colors; artifact cards, for instance, have their own color.

Choose your card type, such as land, artifact, enchantment, creature or sorcery. Choosing the type for a creature is particularly important, as the cards often have subtypes of creatures. For instance, a warrior might read "creature: soldier."

Determine the abilities of the card and type them into the generator. The abilities of your card are entirely up to you, and should reflect what the card represents and its color. If the card is a creature card, determine its power and toughness values. Creature cards can have a wide range of power and toughness values, but the toughness value must always be more than zero. You can also add flavor text, which is text that has no relevance to the ability of the card but is entertaining for the player to read. This text is often humorous or dramatic or otherwise describes whatever the card is designed to represent.

Decide the mana value of your card. Mana is the basic currency in Magic the Gathering. Cards that have exceptional abilities or very strong creatures have higher mana values than cards with weak creatures or common abilities. Consider the abilities of the card or compare the abilities of the card to other, similar cards to determine a good mana value. You can also use the mana value for a humorous effect by making it very high or low or difficult to achieve.

Load an image of the land, creature, artifact or effect that your card represents. Some generators may have more options, but once the image is loaded, all of the information that is required for a basic card is in the generator and ready for creating a card.