Mechanics can't be copyrighted (unless it's MTG tap mechanic, it seems), but what is weird is apparently the projects it went against were in different languages that Wordle doesn't cover (which I think matters considering Wordle is about guessing words) and using a different name.
The MTG tap mechanic was patented, not copyrighted.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5662332A/en , claims 4, 5, and 6 - expired in 2014. The actual symbol is also a copyright and trademark, I believe, but right now other games can us the 90 degree rotation.
(Disney's Lorcana, for example, uses 90 degree rotation and calls it 'exerting' a card.)
Lots of other games have the same mechanic as MTG’s tapping. But to avoid legal threats from WotC/Hasbro, most of them call it exhausting or refreshing or other similar words.
I’m skeptical that there’s any valid legal claim there, but if it is more legitimate than well-funded big-corp lawyer bullying, it’s either a trademark claim or a claim that any game with a card-refresh mechanic called “tapping” must be a derivative work of MTG for copyright purposes.
I agree that the claim to “tapping” is likely legal bullshit that’s only practically effective because nobody who would want to fight Hasbro over it can afford to do so.
But trademark claims over individual words in specific covered contexts are a reasonable consumer protection measure, even if the “tapping” thing isn’t legitimately in that scope. It’s completely reasonable that, in most countries worldwide, I can’t legally produce a new laptop today and commercially market it as an Apple computer without permission from Apple Inc.
If you work in a field that’s built around intellectual property law, as any creative field including software is, it behooves you to be sufficiently familiar with it to understand that MTG’s tap mechanic was patented not covered by copyright.
