Magic The Gathering

Zystral

めんどくさい、な~
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
Alright, looks like the old thread withered away somewhere. So I'm making another one cause I want to talk about it.

It's the longest standing trading card game in the world (20 years as of writing), and probably one of the biggest.

It's also one of the nerdiest things you can do. Anyone who doesn't know how to play but wants to learn, you're better off visiting your local card game store first. But I'm sure a bunch of us are happy to give advice and such.

Let's talk shit like set spoilers, the Pro Tour, EDH, etc.

Mainly, Commander 2013 has just been released, and I'll be picking up my decks shortly. Anyone else hopping on this wagon? I just want more Sol Rings. True-Name Nemesis is a joke in Legacy, doesn't do anything vs Storm or any sort of combo deck. Baleful Strix is cool.

Prossh has infinite combo written all over him, so that's what I'll be playing, and Oloro is just dumb table politics. The others are largely irrelevant.

Also, Modern season soon. Get excited.
 
Reserved a Grixis Commander deck at one LGS, I should get it soon. I actually wanted four only because of a playset of True Name Nemesis and Baleful Strix. Another playset of Sol Ring doesn't hurt either.

I love post-rotation Standard, when everything sort of works and everyone is trying weird shit. I hate it that Grey Merchant of Asphodel made Pauper MBC even more of a beast though :/

In other news Theros Limited is fun aisde from the ocasional bomb rare you can't do squat about because the removal sucks. My favorite archetype is WR Heroic, which I try to force every single time. Nothing makes me hapier than taking Anax and Cymede or Fabled Hero p1p1.
 

Zystral

めんどくさい、な~
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
There were 10 copies of True-Name in the Top 8 or Bazaar of Moxen last weekend. All of which Storm proceeded to ignore. Just saying.

SCGLA will be interesting, I'm liking the look of GB Midrange.
 
ugh I've been out of touch with mtg since return to ravnica. how many sets have we gotten since late ravnica, like 4-5? also, please for god's sake add the colon in the title '-'
 
There were 10 copies of True-Name in the Top 8 or Bazaar of Moxen last weekend. All of which Storm proceeded to ignore. Just saying.

SCGLA will be interesting, I'm liking the look of GB Midrange.
Combo mostly ignores the opponent's board anyway so your point? We all know Nemesis isn't Teeg or Thalia.
 
I only got into MtG over the summer, so yeah everything said in this thread makes no sense to me lol.

My bro played it years ago so we have a few hundred cards, and only two or so Mythic Rares, but it's still really enjoyable. Is there any sites you guys recommend to increase my understanding of the game? Like, no idea what modern play is, or any of that.
 
I only got into MtG over the summer, so yeah everything said in this thread makes no sense to me lol.

My bro played it years ago so we have a few hundred cards, and only two or so Mythic Rares, but it's still really enjoyable. Is there any sites you guys recommend to increase my understanding of the game? Like, no idea what modern play is, or any of that.
There is the mothership www.dailymtg.com where you can read articles on various things regarding the game. Of particular interest are Mark Rosewater's Making Magic, focused on the game's design, and several authors' Latest Developments, focused on the developing (fine tuning, polishing, making sure nothing is broken or unfun) of the cards and the game as a whole. They go live on Mondays and Fridays, respectively. Uncharted Realms offers pieces of creative writing and worldbuilding related to the game's lore if you are into that. Other sites to look into are www.channelfireball.com, www.starcitygames.com and www.mtgsalvation.com.

As for learning actual gameplay, just sit down with someone and play. Magic, like chess, is a game better learned through dirty work. An alternative is playing the Duel of the Planeswalkers videogames, I hear they are a great introduction for new players.

Now heed me on this, some of the cards you inherited from your brother may be valuable (I'm looking at you, Jace the Mind Sculptor) and people WILL try to scam you the instant they realize you are new. Ask someone that isn't a dealer and isn't a dickhead at your local game store if you are unsure of their value. Alternatively perform a search on www.coolstuffinc.com or on star city games' store.
 
the grixis commander deck was like $90 at my lgs. I laughed and proceeded to pick up the bant deck instead, which seemed to be decent value. Also interested in trading for a gohjira somehow - too bad the naya deck is mostly garbage.
 
There is the mothership www.dailymtg.com where you can read articles on various things regarding the game. Of particular interest are Mark Rosewater's Making Magic, focused on the game's design, and several authors' Latest Developments, focused on the developing (fine tuning, polishing, making sure nothing is broken or unfun) of the cards and the game as a whole. They go live on Mondays and Fridays, respectively. Uncharted Realms offers pieces of creative writing and worldbuilding related to the game's lore if you are into that. Other sites to look into are www.channelfireball.com, www.starcitygames.com and www.mtgsalvation.com.

As for learning actual gameplay, just sit down with someone and play. Magic, like chess, is a game better learned through dirty work. An alternative is playing the Duel of the Planeswalkers videogames, I hear they are a great introduction for new players.

Now heed me on this, some of the cards you inherited from your brother may be valuable (I'm looking at you, Jace the Mind Sculptor) and people WILL try to scam you the instant they realize you are new. Ask someone that isn't a dealer and isn't a dickhead at your local game store if you are unsure of their value. Alternatively perform a search on www.coolstuffinc.com or on star city games' store.
Thanks man. Yeah, I play a few games a week with my brother but our matches never last longer than like 30 mins max. As for the value, I actually already checked the majority of our rare that I didn't want, and none were worth all that much. I'll check out dailymtg though. Seems pretty cool.

Really liking the latest deck I made, which is like everything in one. Shoved some evolve guys into a deck that was mostly Vigilance but also based around trying to use Rith, the Awakener and Treva, the Renewer. I might add black in too since I have the Destroyer dragon too somewhere in the house.
 

Zystral

めんどくさい、な~
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
If you are interested in playing competitively, even the non Premier articles on starcitygames.com are worth reading. Anything by Sam Black or Ari Lax is almost guaranteed to expand your knowledge slightly.

MTG's Daily Arcana is really cool for keeping up to date, but in general I find that the articles posted there are rather boring, or lacking in advanced things. ReConstructed and Perilous Research are cool though.

If you don't know too much about the game I'd recommend looking at more casual formats such as EDH (Commander) or Pauper before diving into anything like Standard or Modern.



Meanwhile, on the topic of EDH, I've finally decked out Prossh. Still missing a Blood Crypt fsr, but got my three fetches, my Badlands is slightly tattered, and the foil Stomping Ground makes up for it. Got my Ashnod's Altar, Phyrexian Altar, Nim Deathmantle, and pretty much every infinite combo you can get in those colours. I also really like Oloro as a general, suddenly, after a few testing games. Then again, Esper is combo colours, so that's not surprising, but the fact that he gives you such an awesome buffer against aggro. I really dislike the Naya one, it just feels like Ghave but rehashed in different colours. the pugilist , if you meant Gahiji, I'd be happy to sort you mine, if shipping is not an issue for you.

I picked up the Grixis one knowing full well I'd be selling my Strix and Nemesis, but what I wasn't expecting was an oversized, foil Thraximundar. Suddenly, I now have an excuse to build a fifth EDH deck.

I'm also extremely disappointed none of them came with a second set of Lightning Greaves or Darksteel Plates.
 
If you don't know too much about the game I'd recommend looking at more casual formats such as EDH (Commander) or Pauper before diving into anything like Standard or Modern.
I disagree with EDH being a good starting format, particularly with more than 2 players involved. The ammount of cards played during a given game, with then even being different from one another, and the many, many possible plays each turn are rather daunting to a beginner, let alone the fact he'll likely have to pickup and read almost every card. I refer to the problem they had in Lorwyn limited: board complexity (or something to that tune). I am positive 60-card decks are the way to go.

I agree, however, that Pauper is an excellent starting format. There are two reasons for that:
1) It is inexpensive: you can easily build a deck with 50 bucks or so whereas that doesn't even begin to buy your mana base in Standard.
2) It is non-rotating: this means that cards never become illegal in the format, save for bannings, of course. Your investment is going to last a while.
Bonus reason: it is fun.
 

Zystral

めんどくさい、な~
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
The non-rotating argument only applies to Legacy Pauper, which in my opinion is an unbalanced format. Modern and Extended Pauper are more enjoyable, and the rotation is less damaging. Even then, they're commons, so it's not that damaging when things rotate.

I find that EDH's casual-ness (when I'm not playing, at least) makes a really enjoyable experience for people. I don't think it's that bad to have them read every card as long as they get what's going on and are having fun.

I really dislike 60-card Kitchen Table casual as a whole mainly because it promotes ignorance about banlists and how formats work. There's so much mismatch that nothing can really happen. I could bring a deck that contains sets of ABUR Duals and wins via Cloudstone Curio + Kobolds + Tendrils of Agony vs someone who just bought two Intro Packs and mashed them together. For things like that to work, everyone needs to be on the same page regarding power level and deck construction, and for someone new to the game, that's a big concept to understand.
Example; when I first started playing, I played by getting an Event Deck and tweaking it slightly. My other friend had an Esper artifacts deck made from cards from 4th edition (he had three Counterspell), one copy of Ethersworn Adjudicator, and a bunch of other random cards. It was kinda shit, even though our decks were balanced in power, I didn't really get the game, so he was just playing cards and I would just be like "oh ok, cool whatever", whereas now, I've developed a skill of card evaluation and other things, as well as knowledge for formats and such. Granted these aren't really skills a new player needs, but I feel that instilling these principles would be better from early on. At least with EDH you don't even need to think about what cards to in relation to other shit because everything is dumb and broken and it's just one big clusterfuck of cards anyway.
 
I disagree with basicaly everything you said lol.
The non-rotating argument only applies to Legacy Pauper, which in my opinion is an unbalanced format. Modern and Extended Pauper are more enjoyable, and
the rotation is less damaging. Even then, they're commons, so it's not that damaging when things rotate.
>opinions

I find that EDH's casual-ness (when I'm not playing, at least) makes a really enjoyable experience for people. I don't think it's that bad to have them read
every card as long as they get what's going on and are having fun.
I refer again to Lorwyn limited, where virtually all permanent cards had relevant abilities that could interact in several different ways, upkeep triggers and all. MaRo explained in one of his articles how new players got frustrated over not being able to figure out what the best play was. The exponentially larger card pool of EDH only exarcerbates this problem. If one wants to try his hand at that, sure, I won't stop him, but it is not something I'd recommend.

I really dislike 60-card Kitchen Table casual as a whole mainly because it promotes ignorance about banlists and how formats work. There's so much mismatch that
nothing can really happen. I could bring a deck that contains sets of ABUR Duals and wins via Cloudstone Curio + Kobolds + Tendrils of Agony vs someone who just bought two Intro Packs and mashed them together.
Well if you play against a new player with his shoebox deck with your Legacy-level behemoth, you are just a jackass with an ego problem.

For things like that to work, everyone needs to be on the same page regarding power level and deck construction, and for someone new to the game, that's a big
concept to understand.
Example; when I first started playing, I played by getting an Event Deck and tweaking it slightly. My other friend had an Esper artifacts deck made from cards from 4th edition (he had three Counterspell), one copy of Ethersworn Adjudicator, and a bunch of other random cards. It was kinda shit, even though our decks were balanced in power, I didn't really get the game, so he was just playing cards and I would just be like "oh ok, cool whatever", whereas now, I've developed a skill of card evaluation and other things, as well as knowledge for formats and such. Granted these aren't really skills a new player needs, but I feel that instilling these principles would be better from early on. At least with EDH you don't even need to think about what cards to in relation to other shit because everything is dumb and broken and it's just one big clusterfuck of cards anyway
I think that forcing a hardcore mindset into a new player is bad simply because at the end of the day Magic is just a game and it is supposed to be fun. Sure, fun is subjective and people get enjoyment out of the game in different ways. Card and strategy evaluation are skills that come with time and experience and while I like evaluating cards and speculating on the metagame as much as you do today, back when I started playing all I cared about was using the cool cards I got in a booster pack and having mindless fun with my horrible deck against my friends' horrible decks.

I understand you were always very competitive but most novices just aren't and I can't decide for them when it is the time to look up banlists, articles and tournament results to step up their game. If they want to remain mediocre forever that is their problem. If they want to get better, only then are you and me allowed to interfere.
 
I wouldn't mind giving MTG a try one day, but I don't know...it just seems too...much to grasp. Whereas with Pokemon TCG, been playing it forever and it was always easy to learn.
 

Mr.E

unban me from Discord
is a Two-Time Past SPL Champion
As someone who quit Pokemon TCG a long time ago I would have a hard time confirming or denying that statement but I don't think Magic is that hard to learn. The basics can be grasped in a quick intro game or two. Priority and the stack are more advanced concepts but once you figure them out, and learn to take card text very literally, you know everything you need to answer any conventional rules question. It's not like YGO where you have a shitload of different timing rules even for identical card types and combat makes no damn sense.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bu-zombie-hunt/

Holy shit this is a thing and it's modern legal.
Not just Seismic Assault but also Lightning Storm and a few other gimmicks (Laboratory Maniac, for one).
 

Bad Ass

Custom Title
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someone help me get into this game. i was taught the basic rules by a friend who i will play with a good amount, so the rules aren't really a problem. however the only cards i know are the ones we play with, and i have 0 clue about deck building, etc. anyone know of any good outlets so i could become competent enough to enter a tourney?
 

Mia Wallace

Banned deucer.
I wouldn't mind giving MTG a try one day, but I don't know...it just seems too...much to grasp. Whereas with Pokemon TCG, been playing it forever and it was always easy to learn.
Believe it or not, the pokemon TCG is probably just as much to grasp as MTG. While MTG has a massive array of mechanics and rules, Only a few of them are ever relevant at one time. The biggest thing a new MTG player needs to worry about is priority and stacking. There's generally a lot that can happen in one turn, especially in EDH and Legacy. You can ask any of us here for MTG lessons, or just look into a lot of the great intro guides online. You can also feel free to stop by the TCG room on PS!. We have a number of MTG Tutors/Mentors including myself who will be more than willing to help you out.

Also, I'm super super stoked for M15. I feel like they specifically made this set to make Godsend more OP.
 

Mia Wallace

Banned deucer.
Believe it or not, the pokemon TCG is probably just as much to grasp as MTG. While MTG has a massive array of mechanics and rules, Only a few of them are ever relevant at one time. The biggest thing a new MTG player needs to worry about is priority and stacking. There's generally a lot that can happen in one turn, especially in EDH and Legacy. You can ask any of us here for MTG lessons, or just look into a lot of the great intro guides online. You can also feel free to stop by the TCG room on PS!. We have a number of MTG Tutors/Mentors including myself who will be more than willing to help you out.

Also, I'm super super stoked for M15. I feel like they specifically made this set to make Godsend more OP.
ugh I've been out of touch with mtg since return to ravnica. how many sets have we gotten since late ravnica, like 4-5? also, please for god's sake add the colon in the title '-'
Didn't see a reply, so. You essentially missed the entire Theros block which has a lot of outstanding cards in it. You missed The last to sets of Return to Ravnica. And you missed Conspiracy. This month we've got M15 coming out.
 

internet

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I have a box of conspiracy at home (though i am not home now) that i haven't drafted because i couldn't find the time. Any tips to increase my enjoyment of drafting this set? I'm fairly new to drafting, too, so general tips are also appreciated.
 
some of those construct creatures that modify the draft are somewhat confusing, make sure everyone understands them beforehand. same for conspiracies and hidden agendas.

have a couple other boosters handy in case someone decides to add an extra booster to the draft.

make sure everyone knows the matches are multiplayer.

draft monoblack, it is strong as hell.
 
so guise, fate reforged is around the corner. this is what we know so far:

there will be ugin boosters in the pre release with reprints from KTK with alternate art to represent the differences betweent the dragon-less tarkir of today and the dragon-laden tarkir of yore. ghostfire blade, smite the monstrous, briber's purse. no idea why the non-rares have the holo-mark but bear with me, they are legit. see here and here.

the basic lands slot can have a refuge dual instead with the fate reforged expansion symbol and different art. bloodfell caves, scoured barrens. interesting to note is that the fate reforged reprints have settlements when the KTK ones do not. also instead of a refuge you can have a KTK fetchland but will be rare to happen. some languages will have even fewer of those. this is almost identical to the guildgates/shocklands reprints of dragon's maze.

spoilers: www.mtgsalvation.com/spoilers/146-fate-reforged

ugin is nuts, crux of fate is the wrath we deserve, yasova is cool only for the hybrid mana in her textbox which got me thinking, valorous stance is very good, sandsteppe mastodon is terrible but bolster can be a good mechanic.

in other news this standard is easily one of the best we've had in recent memory. so good that it got me to play it (sidisi whip here yo).

edit: also holy shit they announced modern masters 2 fuck yeah! emrakul and etched champion are confirmed. here hopes for damnation, more thoughtseizes, bobs, goyfs, fetches and even shocks.

also also liliana of the veil and griselbrand will be GP promos next year. prices of both have already gone down (liliana still too strong but griselbrand is now affordable by lowly squires such as myself)

edit 2: there's really a lot of stuff that NEEDS a reprint, from staples such as bob and goyf (though another printing at mythic won't make their prices budge), to cards have had small print runs and are ridiculously expensive (karn, ulamog, kozilek, all is dust, serum visions, gitaxian probe, sleight of hand, filterlands), to others that are inexplicably expensive for no reason (goblin guide, smash to smithereens), to others that are pretty affordable right now but no one other than dealers would mind another reprint (shocklands, onslaught fetches). too bad stoneforge mystic and jace the mind sculptor won't be reprinted as they are banned :/
 
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