
Very little is known about the websites origins and who created the emulator. The most recent version of this emulator, V3 or XYZ, was released on November 1st, 2017. What is Untap? Untap.xyz is an independently run emulator for Magic the Gathering and other supported trading card games. MTGO has been running ever since and has continued to serve as the official, digital mainstay of MTG.
On June 24th, 2002, Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering Online hoping to capitalize on the digital market. In 1999, Hasbro bought Wizards of the Coast for 325 million dollars and to this day remains as a subsidiary of Hasbro. MTG was such a resounding success that Wizards was reluctant to run an ad campaign to promote MTG as they could hardly keep up with current demand. All the while they were releasing 3 sets each year to meet with the high demands for cards. The game’s creator, Richard Garfield, worked with a games company known as Wizards of the Coast to develop the game and eventually were granted a patent in 1997 for “a novel method of game play and game components that in one embodiment are in the form of trading cards.” Wizards started the MTG Pro Tour in 1996 for international competition and recognition. Magic: The Gathering is widely known as the first trading card game and the first to pioneer the market on trading card games. Magic: The Gathering is a trading card game that released its first set, Alpha, in the August of 1993.
