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Magic: The Gathering Discussion
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Post by
Monday
HSR makes an excellent point. If you're playing competitive, there will be times when you don't even have control over what cards you have (Sealed, for example). You have to get creative, including using some enemy colors.
Also, I find keeping track of competitive Magic is like watching a calculus lecture.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
My only interest is in competitive Magic. Even during the spurts when I'm not really playing Magic, I can't just do it casually. The Magic metagame is where I find the most enjoyment. That said, I'm always the first person to run underdog decks, but those are just as carefully crafted as the Tier 1 decks.
Post by
Nathanyal
Yeah, I saw sealed types and that seems like a fun format to play. Trying to work things out with cards you never played with. Again, I don't know what the people at my hobby shop run, but when I'm up there Thursday I'll ask. Not sure how competitive the people in my area are, but everyone there seems willing to help people learn.
I have been doing a lot of reading and I read several articles about the 5 different colors and how they act. They were
articles from 2002-2003
(the linked one is the last one in the series but has the other 4 if interested in reading it).
For now I'm stuck with this deck, but how do you suggest going about building a better deck? Would you suggest buying booster packs and trading the cards I don't want/need for ones I do, or get a deck building kit and go from there? I know they also sell individual cards there, but I probably don't have the money for some of them. And I don't think I can shovel out several dollars for just a single card.
Wow, that turned into a rambling freakin' lecture. Whoops.
All's good, I don't mind reading long posts if it interests me.
Post by
Monday
HSR, when I said it was like a calculus lecture, it wasn't supposed to be derogatory. It was mostly me commenting on how you need to know a lot of obscure rules and effects to really do well.
And I normally buy individual cards, since I can tailor fit them to my deck. Though you can be like my friend and pull a holo Jace the Mind Sculptor, a Lilliana of the Dark Realms and a Chandra Ablaze from three packs that he bought at the same time from WalMart.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
Booster packs are the least efficient way to build a deck. The ratio of unplayable to value is quite high.
My advice to you is the following:
Buy a cheap competitive deck via singles from your LGS (local game store). There are always a couple cheap decks that are playable each block.
This link
, under #4, has three decks that are under $20 on average. I've played variations of all three of them, and they are a good starting point for you.
Take that deck to FNM (Friday Night Magic) and any other payed Standard competitions your local stores put on.
Ideally, after a couple weeks, you'll start getting better and winning prize boosters. Those boosters you can crack to start building your collection.
At this point you can begin planning the more expensive decks you want to build.
Do some reasearch on the value of the various cards in your collection and the value of the cards you want, then when you go to play MTG at places, you can start trading for the cards you need.
Post by
Nathanyal
Sounds great HSR, thanks for that. I should be able to spend about 20 for a deck. Seeing as I spent 15 for a pre-made, I don't think it'll be a problem. And maybe I can get some more cards from people that don't need them, I got several cards from my friend and someone I met that my LGS because they had extra and didn't need them.
There was
this
article talking about the new planeswalker Chandra, and a burn deck. And it seems interesting to me, especially with her ultimate, you could get a spell and use it three times free of charge. I guess I'll like to be calculating like a Blue deck, but I also like the burn deck like Red offers. Just so many options, my brain is starting to hurt thinking of all the possibilities.
After reading the Daily MTG, I saw a two formats that seems interesting to play. Theres
Backdraft
, where you draft a deck for the other player, and
Wizard's Tower
where the players all play from one library/graveyard. Of course there might be some trouble of who owns what, but if one person owns all the card then that shouldn't be a problem.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
The M14 Chandra is going for ~$12 a copy right now. You'll rarely see Standard-legal Planeswalkers for cheaper than $10.
As far as those formats are concerned, those are definitely casual formats. You'll rarely see any organized events using those types of formats. Your best bet is to just find other people who are interested and throw some games together.
Post by
Nathanyal
Ahh, I heard of Planeswalkers but didn't really look at any pricing for them. It might be some time before I get one of my own then.
And I figured as much, those articles were written by people in the R&D at Magic. I doubt you could get something like that together unless you find someone willing to buy tons of cards just to play a special variant. It would be fun to play them though.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
Since there seems to be some level of interest in MTG, I'll leave an open offer on the table here. If anyone is interested in getting their feet wet with the official MTGO client, I have a slew of low-budget Pauper decks that I'm willing to loan out if anyone wants to play with me.
Post by
Squishalot
I've been tempted for a while, and would take you up on your offer, if it weren't so ridiculous to find a suitable time to play.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
I'm always up for doing stuff weekend mornings if you ever have free Sunday or Monday evening. Otherwise yeah, all the sleeping and working gets in the way :P
Post by
Squishalot
Your free Sunday and Monday evenings are my busy Monday and Tuesday workdays, remember :P
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
Your free Sunday and Monday evenings are my busy Monday and Tuesday workdays, remember :P
You should re-read my post ;)
Post by
Squishalot
Oh bah, sorry about that. This is the problem with running on 4 hours sleep for the entire week. No idea how I'm going to get through the rest of this week.
I didn't think my Sunday evening was your weekend morning though, not at a reasonable hour anyway. Last time I checked, 11pm on my Saturday night is around between 6am and 9am for you, depending on where you are.
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
Yeah, I'm Central, so 15 hour difference I believe.
Whelp... no pressure, but I'm sure some day the stars will align and we can have some fun playing children's card games.
Also, the offer is there for any other regulars as well. Can't spend all of my time playing against just randoms.
Post by
Squishalot
Heh, hopefully. Depending on what time you wake in the mornings on a weekend, I can stay up a bit later and we can have a go. My mind needs a bit of a non work-related workout anyway.
Post by
Nathanyal
At some point I might get it through steam, and then I'll see if I can play it at home. With this internet idk how well it will work.
After using the random button on the Gatherer, I see lots of interesting cards such as
Ashnod's Coupon
, people mention comboing it with
Cheatyface
. I think I shall spend the rest of the night looking at these cards lol.
Unglued and Unhinged seem like a really fun period for the game lol
Post by
Hyperspacerebel
At some point I might get it through steam, and then I'll see if I can play it at home. With this internet idk how well it will work.
Magic the Gathering Onine and Duels of the Planeswalkers are two different games (and only the latter is available through Steam). MTGO is a sanctioned platform for playing Magic exactly like you play it in person. Cards are bought and collected the same way, it has a lot of the formats you'd normally play, and it has almost every card ever made.
DotP is a slightly watered-down version of the game that does not have comprehensive deck building, and it has only its own tiny card pool. It's good fun and great for getting your feet wet, but it's by no means the most fully-featured way of playing Magic online.
After using the random button on the Gatherer, I see lots of interesting cards such as
Ashnod's Coupon
, people mention comboing it with
Cheatyface
. I think I shall spend the rest of the night looking at these cards lol.
Those are both "un-cards", part of two joke sets, that are not actually playable cards.
Post by
Nathanyal
Yeah I figured they were joke sets, but they still seem like fun sets to joke around with.
Ah, well then idk about play Magic in two different ways. I might just stick to playing in person for now. Until then I'll stick to goldfishing.
Post by
Squishalot
Where can we download the MTGO client? (Is there one?)
A conversation at dinner tonight with a friend who plays pretty regularly IRL has prompted me to do a bit more research into it. He and his mates have a group who play together regularly, and they've imposed a $10/wk cap on investing in cards to stop people from pouring a truckload into the game.
I've got no intention of spending half a grand a year on MTG, but it's piqued my curiosity at least.
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