Unlike other miniatures wargames, Mage Knight eliminates the need for constant reference to rulebooks and tables by integrating a dial into each figure that contains the current combat statistics of each figure -- its movement rate, attack and defense values, combat damage, and special abilities. While this system lacks the versatility of other miniatures games, mainly because players cannot customize their figures, it makes up for this by facilitating rapid gameplay and by having a large number of distinctive figures. The system, called Clix, has proved to be highly popular and is used in Wizkids' other games, including Heroclix and MechWarrior.
All miniatures, called warriors, are pre-assigned point costs based upon their abilties. These costs range between 3 points (for a weak figure) to over 500 points (for a powerful dragon). To play a game, players will generally agree upon a point cost total, and then design their armies to maximize their strategic capabilities within the specified point cost total. Each player is allowed to take a number of actions per turn equal to the point cost total divided by 100. These actions include movement, combat, or the use of special abilities such as Regeneration and Necromancy. Game play is typically rapid, but often highly strategic.
Mage Knight figures are sold in Starter Sets (which historically have contained 8 or 9 figures) and Booster Sets (4 or 5 figures). Figures are sold in basic sets, as well as expansion sets. Figures are distributed with six rarity levels; the most rare figures were the "Uniques", of which only one could appear in a player's army. In addition, Wizkids gives away limited edition, Unique versions of the non-Unique figures in the sets as prizes for tournaments in comic and game shops. These figures are not available for retail sale, and have different statistics and point costs than the regular figures. This novel prize policy is in part responsible for Mage Knight's success.
On 5 November 2003, Wizkids released a new basic set (their third), colloquially referred to as "Mage Knight 2.0," that introduced new strategic possibilities to the game, including capabilities to customize Unique warriors.