Am I ready for Magic?

[Mr. GameBrain]

Digital version is one small price. A collection of Magic is a bottomless hole into which you are forever chucking money. Be warned.

That said, I have about 35,000 cards in my closet from when I used to play. It's a lot of fun, or it was until power creep rendered most of my cards noncompetitive.

The biggest hurdle you will face is the sheer number of cards available. Trying to remember/strategize/defeat/own them all is like having a part-time job memorizing phone books, except you pay for the privilege instead of being paid.

I had to stop playing when Wizards made the money-money-money decision to have expansions every two months. Too much money, too many cards, plus the aforementioned power creep.

Heh. I don't think I will get that far!
(Just looking to play casually, for fun. I play fighting games in a similar fashion. I'm capable of trying to be competative (I know most of the terminology, and the tech needed, and the techniques to develop), but I won't because I'd rather have fun in a more organic fashion)

Gaming is my #1 obsession and that isn't going to change.
(Seriously its an obsession, I have over 400 PC games alone! XD)

 

[madwarper]

Wrong.

As the proud owner of literally dozens of pre-6th rulebooks, including one Revised Edition rulebook, I can say, with absolute, 100% confidence, that you are wrong about that.

There were 'rulebooks', but they weren't Comprehensive.

WHAT?!?

I mean, I knew things were going irreversibly downhill, but they fucked it up THAT badly?

Yes.

They made a lot of awful changes. I could go into detail about them, but since it appears you only have a pre-6th understanding of the rules, I bet they'd be lost on you.

Sure. It'll be even more fun if you show up with a bunch of 4th Edition or Ice Age cards and try to fool everyone into thinking that you're an old-school player

Being disqualified from your first tournament? Doesn't seem like a very intelligent thing to do...

 

[DudeistBelieve]

This is another one of those things I would love to play but I don't have the dedication to invest time and money into it only for the game makers to make a new edition of it and render all the card I buy illeagle.

I played for a short time in middle school. Seems like fun, didn't know there was a digital version of this and YuGiOh... Be interested in playing a digital version of it where I only have to pay once for everything.

I remember playing Pokemon TCG on Gameboy, enjoyed the fuck out of that.

 

[Godhead]

If you do want to play physically, then beware, it's a big money sink and is really easy to fall into. That being said you could keep playing digitally with MTGO or if you want everything for free with a severe downgrade in a semi-polite and mostly intelligent community you can play cockatrice (i.e. people don't know all of the rules interactions). Also if you play on cockatrice be sure to know at least most of the intricacies of the phases, steps, priority, and the stack. And if for some reason you want to start playing more competitively Standard (The current core set and the two latest blocks) is much easier to get into but is more of a money sink in the long run then the eternal formats (Legacy and Vintage) due to you having to rebuild your deck every year instead of adding in one or two cards every set.

 

[Childe]

Yes you should get into the physical version.... duels is not as good or as complex as the physical or even the online client. My advice is have some friends to play with and pick up a starting deck. Then modify your deck and play with friends. Then go find a place that does FNM. But be prepared to lose. a lot.

And even tho it has already been mentioned Magic is a massive money sink that you have to keep investing in if you want to play standard.

 

[madwarper]

The difference being that this time around, they put the word "comprehensive" in the title.

No, it's like comparing your MatchBox car to an actual Porsche.

Why would you be disqualified, unless you're putting ante cards (which can be counted on one hand) or four copies of Necropotence in your deck?

Like I said, FNM is either Standard (ie. Type 2) or Limited.

Using a Vintage card (ie. Type 1) proves you're either cheating or too stupid to know the rules.
Neither option looks good.

 

[Jynthor]

I recently started playing myself and can totally recommend it to you. I went to the prerelease of Magic 2013 and the people there were very nice and helpful, I won only a single match but it was the most fun I had in weeks.

Watch your money though, I find myself spending way too much on these bloody cards. And apparantly the sets release only a few months from each other.

 

[Kengaskhan]

WHAT?!?

I mean, I knew things were going irreversibly downhill, but they fucked it up THAT badly?

Yes.

They made a lot of awful changes. I could go into detail about them, but since it appears you only have a pre-6th understanding of the rules, I bet they'd be lost on you.

Considering the only real important change in Magic 2010 was the removal of combat damage from the stack, I don't exactly think riling cotss2012 up over the "dumbing down of the game" in M10 is something you should be doing. Unless he/she plays with post 6th ed. rules.

Under the old rules, the phrase "remove x from the game" actually removed it from the game.
Under the new rules, the phrase "remove x from the game" meant "remove x from play and put it into a game zone that functions exactly like the graveyard but is called something else."

Fuck that. If a card is in one of the game zones, then it's still in the game, and calling this game zone the "removed-from-game zone" doesn't make the new rule any less retarded.

Under the old rules, the ability to tap a permanent for one green mana was expressed the same way, regardless of what card the ability was on.
Under the new rules, the ability to tap a permanent for one green mana could be expressed as ": Add to your mana pool", or it could just be expressed as a giant-ass green mana symbol, or the ability might not be indicated anywhere on the card at all, or basically anything could happen depending on what WotC was smoking at the time.

The older rules are objectively better.

They call "play" the "battlefield" and the "RFG zone" the "exiled zone" for the same reason you have a library and graveyard, not a deck and a discard pile. That's the reason. Call it stupid if you will, but they didn't change them "for no reason at all".

Additionally, the exiled zone functions nothing at all like the graveyard. There are only two instances where the exiled zone can be interacted with by a player. You could use one of three incredibly weak spells (Pull from Eternity, Riftsweeper, Mirror of Fate), or, a card is "imprisoned" in the exiled zone, where it is almost completely untouchable (barring the previous three cards) until the effect that placed in the exiled zone ends.

Nothing has changed. If you cast a Demonic Consultation in Modern Magic, the odds of you using any of the cards removed from the game by that spell are practically nil, unless you're running some weird jank reanimation deck using Pull from Eternity and a Reanimate or something.

I'll admit I have no clue why they removed the text from the basic lands. They changed the rules so that "T: Add G to your mana pool." was an inherent ability of any land that's a Forest. Same for the other four basic lands. If they ever reprinted any of the Alpha/Beta/Unlimited lands today, they'd look something like this:

Spoiler

Taiga
Land ? Mountain Forest {R}
(T: Add R or G to your mana pool.)

Basically, the ability to tap for R or G mana is reminder text. Tapping for either colors of mana is an inherent ability of Taiga being both a Mountain and a Forest. I personally still think they should have the reminder text on the basic lands personally.

OT:

My advice has been the best so far. I gave price estimates and everything.

$150 to dip your feet into a card game? Sorry but that's terrible advice especially seeing as the OP may not agree with your preferences.

Also a deck building pack for 2013 edition is about £17 on ebay! XD

(It might be "crappier" but it definately is cheaper! XD)

I highly recommend the Deck Builder's Toolkit. It's an absolutely fantastic entry-product for new players. I'd also suggest getting a single Magic 2013 Intro Pack. The contents of both are as follows:

Spoiler: Deck Builder's Toolkit

100 basic lands (20 of each type)
45 unrandomized cards (every DBT will have these 45 cards. They're not amazing, but they truly aren't that bad either.)
40 "semi-randomized" cards: 4 sets of 10 cards. There are 11 different sets total, you get 4 different ones. (These are where most of the "good" cards are. Again, they're not amazing, but they're very solid foundations for their own individual decks.)
60 cards: 4 booster packs, 15 cards each. The card quality will vary greatly in the booster packs (some will be worse than the 45 unrandomized, some will be better than the 40 "semi-randomized".)

That's a total of 245 cards. You could split it with a friend, and each take two of the 10 card sets for yourselves and make decks from them. Also, the only rares you'll be getting are from the booster packs. Each booster pack contains 1 rare. Sometimes 2, if you get a foil card that also happens to be a rare.

Spoiler: M13 Intro Pack

A 60 card preconstructed deck, 2 of them being rare (the best rare in each of the 5 packs are intentionally visible, so be sure to check all 5 of them out).
2 booster packs (30 more cards).

That should come out to about $30 - $35. Not entirely sure how much the products cost in Europe, but I don't think it'll top your 40. The intro pack should be cheaper than the DBT.

Also, if you're joining the Magic community with some other friends, I'd recommend getting one DBT for each two players, and one intro pack for each player.

Hope you enjoy!

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

I highly recommend the Deck Builder's Toolkit. It's an absolutely fantastic entry-product for new players. I'd also suggest getting a single Magic 2013 Intro Pack. The contents of both are as follows:

Spoiler: Deck Builder's Toolkit

100 basic lands (20 of each type)
45 unrandomized cards (every DBT will have these 45 cards. They're not amazing, but they truly aren't that bad either.)
40 "semi-randomized" cards: 4 sets of 10 cards. There are 11 different sets total, you get 4 different ones. (These are where most of the "good" cards are. Again, they're not amazing, but they're very solid foundations for their own individual decks.)
60 cards: 4 booster packs, 15 cards each. The card quality will vary greatly in the booster packs (some will be worse than the 45 unrandomized, some will be better than the 40 "semi-randomized".)

That's a total of 245 cards. You could split it with a friend, and each take two of the 10 card sets for yourselves and make decks from them. Also, the only rares you'll be getting are from the booster packs. Each booster pack contains 1 rare. Sometimes 2, if you get a foil card that also happens to be a rare.

Spoiler: M13 Intro Pack

A 60 card preconstructed deck, 2 of them being rare (the best rare in each of the 5 packs are intentionally visible, so be sure to check all 5 of them out).
2 booster packs (30 more cards).

That should come out to about $30 - $35. Not entirely sure how much the products cost in Europe, but I don't think it'll top your 40. The intro pack should be cheaper than the DBT.

Also, if you're joining the Magic community with some other friends, I'd recommend getting one DBT for each two players, and one intro pack for each player.

Hope you enjoy!

Its about £30 for that.

Hmmm... I did say I liked fire cards, and I found Mob Rule to be the hardest deck to play against so far in the game.

So maybe I should get Mob Rule.

Can you build around that deck? Or is it a specific playstyle?

(Maybe Wild Rush would be good, since green cards tend to be simpler to play. (Its all about the big monsters/armies in those, well... in the Planeswalker games at least)

 

[madwarper]

Considering the only real important change in Magic 2010 was the removal of combat damage from the stack,

That may have been the boulder thrown in the lake, but the ripples affected much else.

Such as the changes made to blocking (ie. the Conga-line of Death), the changes made to Deathtouch (to get around the Conga-line of Death), etc.

 

[Wintermoot]

funny thing is I was planning to get back into it
I personally didn't play the PC game but if the rules are the same you should be easy to adapt.
although you might run into cards you don,t recognize also get sleeves.

 

[Kengaskhan]

I highly recommend the Deck Builder's Toolkit. It's an absolutely fantastic entry-product for new players. I'd also suggest getting a single Magic 2013 Intro Pack. The contents of both are as follows:

Spoiler: Deck Builder's Toolkit

100 basic lands (20 of each type)
45 unrandomized cards (every DBT will have these 45 cards. They're not amazing, but they truly aren't that bad either.)
40 "semi-randomized" cards: 4 sets of 10 cards. There are 11 different sets total, you get 4 different ones. (These are where most of the "good" cards are. Again, they're not amazing, but they're very solid foundations for their own individual decks.)
60 cards: 4 booster packs, 15 cards each. The card quality will vary greatly in the booster packs (some will be worse than the 45 unrandomized, some will be better than the 40 "semi-randomized".)

That's a total of 245 cards. You could split it with a friend, and each take two of the 10 card sets for yourselves and make decks from them. Also, the only rares you'll be getting are from the booster packs. Each booster pack contains 1 rare. Sometimes 2, if you get a foil card that also happens to be a rare.

Spoiler: M13 Intro Pack

A 60 card preconstructed deck, 2 of them being rare (the best rare in each of the 5 packs are intentionally visible, so be sure to check all 5 of them out).
2 booster packs (30 more cards).

That should come out to about $30 - $35. Not entirely sure how much the products cost in Europe, but I don't think it'll top your 40. The intro pack should be cheaper than the DBT.

Also, if you're joining the Magic community with some other friends, I'd recommend getting one DBT for each two players, and one intro pack for each player.

Hope you enjoy!

Its about £30 for that.

Hmmm... I did say I liked fire cards, and I found Mob Rule to be the hardest deck to play against so far in the game.

So maybe I should get Mob Rule.

Can you build around that deck? Or is it a specific playstyle?

(Maybe Wild Rush would be good, since green cards tend to be simpler to play. (Its all about the big monsters/armies in those, well... in the Planeswalker games at least)

Well, it is a deck. It's geared towards a more swarming playstyle, I believe. You pick off a few threatening blockers, then try to get in with as many creatures as possible for maximum damage. The two booster packs will probably give you a few tools to augment the deck with, but you're not likely to get enough cards to change the entire focus of the deck (quite simply, a lot of the cards in the booster packs won't be the colors you need for that specific deck). The Deck Builder's Toolkit will definitely help with that, though.

Wild Rush is kind of similar. Instead, you've got bigger creatures, but you'll have fewer of them out. You probably won't always be on the offensive, but it's got some tools to deal with your opponent's threats.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

So since Yu-Gi-Oh is pretty much dead now, (Well online it is anyway at least..)

What? That's a lie. Have you been to Dueling Network? There's always a bunch of people online.

 

[Kengaskhan]

But, I don't want to play someone then get embarassingly humiliated. (I'd feel like such a n00b! XD)

Then you need to know this: Each and every pre-made starter deck of any kind ever created is ten times inferior to a deck created by any competent Magic player. I would suggest, though it breaks my heart, to "net deck" your first deck (basically means copying a well-tried theme and strat) for your first intro to the game.

When you walk away from your first "serious" 20 matches or so, see if you have an above 50% win ratio, and use your newfangled knowledge of mana curve, combos, commison efficiency and mana economy to make your own killer deck.

Oh, and if you keep netdecking from now on to eternity, you're pretty much useless and will have zero respect anywhere from anyone.

You need to know though, that M:TG is a game of formats. The game is split into gaming formats, which basically controls what editions are allowed. Standard is (unfortunately) the most common, allowing the most recent 2 blocks of sets (a block consists of 2-3 editions, look for the symbol on cards and names of boosters) and the most recent core set. Standard has a very very limited card pool, and most people net deck in this format basically making it a (money + optimize) equation that even brain dead eunuchs can participate in. If this is your game of choice, ignore all my advice.

Extended is what you should be shooting for if strategy is your desire from M:TG, or even Classic, though Classic requires expert level knowledge and a deep wallet/ trading game.

There's certainly a lot you can learn from seeing a very well-constructed deck in action, but I think it's better to start with the basics. I highly suggest you start with building your own decks. The Intro Packs are bad, yes, but they're designed to help newer players properly build decks. There are a lot of suboptimal cards in them that they intend for you to replace with the cards you'll be getting from the two booster packs included. There's absolutely no reason you have to jump right into competitive play. Some of my friends I've been playing for 7 or 8 years could still probably learn from purchasing an Intro Pack and building a deck from there.

And trust me, you won't get humiliated, unless your opponent is a complete jerk (or you just get easily embarrassed). They might not be helpful either, but they're not going to be mean about it or anything. But the helpful ones are really, really helpful. They'll give you a few tips on how to play, what cards might be better in your deck. Heck, they might even give you some of the cards they suggest to you (provided it's not a really expensive one).

And if you've got a sizable group of friends who play (4+), it probably doesn't even matter how competitive your decks are if you keep playing with them. Well, at least at first.

 

[Zen Toombs]

XD

Yeah, you are probably right.

I AM overthinking things!

Might be due to your massively oversized brain.

Anyways, you should totally play Magic if you enjoy it. I'd recommend playing Standard (aka Type 2) as it is one of the easier formats to play "competitively".

If you aren't planning on starting within the next month or so, I'd recommend waiting until Return to Ravnica starts (release date ~October, if I recall correctly) and mostly buy stuff from that set. That way you'll have cards that will last you longer. If you do start playing within the next month, don't buy anything from M12 or the Mirrodin block unless it only costs a quarter or less, as it will be dropping when Return to Ravnica comes out.

Feel free to send me a message if you want to bounce off ideas for decks! ^_^

 

[gideonkain]

Ya, anyone can learn to play Magic, it's just a matter of knowing the steps in a turn and being able to read between the lines of the card to find strategies.

How to play your turn:

1) Draw a card.
2) Lay a mana
3) Look at your cards to see which ones you can afford
4) Play a card
5) Attack or don't

The trick in Magic isn't always to just attack, attack, attack - your usually better off taking the first few damage dealt to you rather than sacrificing your monsters repeatedly to keep you at 20 health.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Made the plunge. Grabbed me some goblins and a deck builder.

Ooh dear. What have I got myself into! XD

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Ya, anyone can learn to play Magic, it's just a matter of knowing the steps in a turn and being able to read between the lines of the card to find strategies.

How to play your turn:

1) Draw a card.
2) Lay a mana
3) Look at your cards to see which ones you can afford
4) Play a card
5) Attack or don't

The trick in Magic isn't always to just attack, attack, attack - your usually better off taking the first few damage dealt to you rather than sacrificing your monsters repeatedly to keep you at 20 health.

Oh yeah. I've done that already.

Infact in one game, (against the goblin horde), I deliberately held back, waiting for him to build up his little army, then BAM! One magic card wipes them all out. (and at this point I had magic cards that killed anything he could summon to defend with)

Then I put down my monster cards, and used my damaging spells.
It was close, (I only had 2 health left! XD), but it was a pretty epic comeback.
(And I was pretty lucky on the draw I guess! XD)

EDIT: On the flipside, if I had the Goblin deck, I would be looking for cards that could counter that.
(So an anti-spell monster ability, or card (do fire cards have those?))

I'd also want to put in some cards from the other fire deck, ones that damage the monster and the player (so I can continue to chip away at them in the long-run).

I also wonder, if the fire cards had ones like the Green ones do. (I'd love to be able to build up fire mana quickly because then I could wreak all kinds of havok! >)

 

[Baralak]

As someone who is from Europe: WTF is Yu-Gi oh. I'm pretty sure this game you are talking about is an absolute non-factor. Magic is the mother of TCGs, I'm sure even in the US you will never find any town where more people play this YGO instead of M:TG.

Spoiler: YGO intro

That's Yu-Gi-Oh!, the TV tie in for the TCG of the same name, and pretty much the biggest TCG to come out of Japan. Great game, I prefer it over Magic, but no one locally to play it with, since most of my friends prefer Magic. I'm also getting into Cardfight!! Vanguard, another great game.


OT: If you liked DotP, go grab a starter deck and head on out to a Friday Night Magic. They're great events!

 

[gideonkain]

Ya, anyone can learn to play Magic, it's just a matter of knowing the steps in a turn and being able to read between the lines of the card to find strategies.

How to play your turn:

1) Draw a card.
2) Lay a mana
3) Look at your cards to see which ones you can afford
4) Play a card
5) Attack or don't

The trick in Magic isn't always to just attack, attack, attack - your usually better off taking the first few damage dealt to you rather than sacrificing your monsters repeatedly to keep you at 20 health.

Oh yeah. I've done that already.

Infact in one game, (against the goblin horde), I deliberately held back, waiting for him to build up his little army, then BAM! One magic card wipes them all out. (and at this point I had magic cards that killed anything he could summon to defend with)

Then I put down my monster cards, and used my damaging spells.
It was close, (I only had 2 health left! XD), but it was a pretty epic comeback.
(And I was pretty lucky on the draw I guess! XD)

EDIT: On the flipside, if I had the Goblin deck, I would be looking for cards that could counter that.
(So an anti-spell monster ability, or card (do fire cards have those?))

I'd also want to put in some cards from the other fire deck, ones that damage the monster and the player (so I can continue to chip away at them in the long-run).

I also wonder, if the fire cards had ones like the Green ones do. (I'd love to be able to build up fire mana quickly because then I could wreak all kinds of havok! >)

There ya go!
The best advice I ever got about deck building (cause trust me your first couple are gonna SUCK.), is that every card in your deck should have at least one other card in the deck to complement it, so for example a "Take control of target creature" is nice and all but coupled with a "Sacrifice a creature you control to..." makes it awesome (especially when you attack your opponent with their own monster and then in the Ending Phase of your turn use that Sacrifice Instant on it.)

I always try to adhere strictly to a 60 card deck, every additional card is basically eroding your core mechanics IMHO

I tend to be build them 1/3rd mana, it's a little high but you'de be amazed how often you can pick cards for 10 turns and not get a mana.