Magic the Gathering place.

I thought since no one else has started the thread that this might be a good time to start one.

This thread is a place to discussion things that are related to Magic the Gather- the card game. Whether it be the online one or the real card one. We can discussion stratagies, favorite cards, combos, ideas for combo's, or discussion the newest expansions that have come out. Maybe even personal experience with duels with other people (funny, serious or calling out a bullshit on someone)

Rule for this thread.

1.>No bitching that, "OMFG, you guys are dorks for playing that retard game". If you don't like the game, then too bad, we don't care.

2.> give credit where it is due. If you took the idea for a deck from someone else, please give credit or ask the person that posted the deck if it's cool if you use their idea. (i hate it when i come up with a good idea for a deck and someone else takes credit for coming up with it themselves.)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I am actually very curious on when people started playing Magic, and if anybody remembers the early editions. I quit playing years ago, just after Ice Age was introduced, so I have been out of the loop for a good few years.

I got started when unlimited ed. was being discontinued to introduce the revised ed. I remember Antiquities, Legends, Arabian Nights, and Dark Ages (did I get those right?) were available, and Fallen Empires was just being introduced. The Royal Assassin was the first amazing card I have ever encountered, the Black Lotus card (Alpha/Beta ed.) was valued at $250, and the rarest card I ever had was an Icy Manipulator (which was a game breaking card).

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Started playing when Urza's Saga came out. I remember losing a lot. I also remember learning from that.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I was the same way, i started a few expansions before Urza and quit at the end of Urza's because people said it was un-cool. Then i started up again sometime around when Scourge came out.

I agree with the whole icy Manipulator, I had a white stop attack deck and honestly, that was the key point around it. I'm just glad they brought it back in Miradon.

Robo, Did you ever get your cards from Crash?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I signed up for Magic Online a couple months ago. I really have no idea what possessed me to, since I haven't touched my actual Magic cards since I was a teenager... but there you go. I enjoy it, even if I suck horribly and have no idea what to buy, etc (even the limited card pool in the online version is very daunting to me). I'm not playing now since I've got no money, but maybe I'll start back up once I get a job.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I have some cards and play with my friends whenver there isnt much going on. Ive been playing casually for years, but ive never been too serious about it.

I buy a pack here and there, but theres just too much going on with the game now.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Furby

Robo, Did you ever get your cards from Crash?

Heh. Yeah, Crash sent them about half a year ago. He threw in some nice extras too. ^_______________________________^

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by *AkirA*

I have some cards and play with my friends whenver there isnt much going on. Ive been playing casually for years, but ive never been too serious about it.

I buy a pack here and there, but theres just too much going on with the game now.

I have never been too serious about it myself. I like to play but i don't follow too many of the damn banning ruling because honestly, I don't use none of those damn insane combos. Like I'll post my decks laters when I get a chance but just to warn my deck is a bit on the illegal side.. i have portal cards and I have 4 dark rituals in one of my decks.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I've played my share of Magic throughout the years, and I have since around the time when they were first starting to become a name. I remember when Crash of the Rhinos was the coolest ever. Haha.

Right now, I'm running a Mirrodin/Kamigawa deck, based around White/Blue/Artifacts with just a hint of Black for flavor. It centers around having lots of artifacts that cost one or less, then capitalizing on the Mirrodin block's white retriever cards to get them back, such as the Leonin Squire. It also enjoys defenders such as the 1/1 Myr that, at the beginning of each upkeep, if you've got them in your graveyard, bring them back out into play. What's it called. Basically, it stalls time with small returners, bouncers, and some limited card drawing until you get the heavy hitters of the deck: combos that allow you to throw down small artifacts like Aether and Sunbeam Spellbomb over and over again in every turn, quick card-drawing combos, and the black kicker - Neverending Torment. I've decked opponents who had 120+ size decks with this deck, and it's a 60 card standard. My friend, an authentic genius and brutal strategist, is afraid of this deck.

I'm afraid I haven't kept up with the game recently... at least not since 9th Edition. I haven't had time.

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I used to think Magic was too complicated to get into, but I got into it since Scourge. My first card was Akroma, I didn't have a deck back then I just liked the card. What I love about MTG (compared to Yugioh or other card games) is that there are ton of playable decks that can be made, and not cookie cutter netdecks that dominate all (it used to be this way in Mirrodin, granted...). Making original decks out of a vast card pool is my idea of fun, and the thought that it can be competitive (with the right sideboard) is what keeps me playing. Right now there aren't too many abusive decks in type 2 which allows for a healthy variety of decks.

I tried to play extended for a bit but there are so many abusive decks (Astral Slide, Psychatog, Orim's chant) that semi casual and original decks have no place to shine.

Right now my T2 decks are Red/Green spirit (uses the soil shaper and glitterfang combo to make 3/3 lands attack each turn), Black/Blue control (like a offensive dimir deck, with Morroii, Hypnotic Specter, Nezumi Shortfang, Kira the glass spinner, lasts gasps for removal and will o the wisp for defense),T2 elf deck (my favourite, albeit less original. A crazy mix of elves with black splashed with elf of deep shadow for putrefys, last gasps and death denied. I'm thinking the unblockable, untargetable elf combined with moldervine cloak and might of oaks or elvish champion means gg for your opponent very soon. Elvish champion is just hot with everyone playing forests thanks to dual lands). My best deck is a white green spirit deck with taillowisps, promise of burei, faith's fetters (a searchable answer to jitte is what makes this strong), charge across the araba. This deck is the most versatile against matchups, a little bit of weenie, a lot of control and creature removal (horoki dust drinker, faith's fetters, pacifism,hour of reckoning), a lot of enchantment removal (for those pesky enduring ideal decks) and powerful win conditions (charge across the araba, burei coupled with long forgotten goheis, Horoki).

If anyone is from Montreal (fat chance), it'd be great.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I used to play back in 7th grade, but haven't touched it since then. Hmm.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I started playing around Mirage, but only casually for quite some time. It wasn't until around Odyssey that I started going to tournaments on a weekly basis, and did so up until Fifth Dawn. I haven't used my physical cards much recently, but I do a fair amount of playing on OCTGN. Speaking of, we should use it to all get together for a draft or at least play some sealed games against each other (Constructed can be kind of lame, though, when everyone has easy access to every card ever made).

I don't really have any personal favorite cards, but I must say that by far my favorite color is black. Jack of all trades, and master of none, I guess. Well, not all trades. And I guess it is the master of killing creatures and discard. I'm also partial to blue and red, but not particularly fond of white or green. My favorite block used to be Invasion, but Ravnica's shaping up to be even more fun (and obviously for the same multi-color awesomeness that Invasion was).

Anyone have any crazy good luck/bad luck stories? The first six boosters of Legions I bought contained three Phage the Untouchable, which, while admittedly isn't the greatest card, I had a lot of fun with.

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Lol Starman, I did a mono black T2 for a while, it has massive advantages but massive weaknesses too. Biggest weakness is lack of enchantment removal...the right deck can really screw you. It can't kill artifacts, but you can run jitte so it doesn't matter.

Although there are so many sick mono black cards these days, like wicked Akuba. 2 mana for a 2/2, and if it does damage you pay black to deal extra damage. If you have 5 swamps, it deals an extra 5 damage. I don't think there are a lot of 2 drops that can deal 5 damage on turn 3.

How ya doing, buddy?

I began playing during the span between Beta and Unlimited. The game was remarkably different then, raw but filled with loads of potential. And the best part was that nobody knew how certain rules contradictions resolved - the internet wasn't widely in use in 1994 - so we all had "house rules". A lot of them were wrong, such as allowing the +7/+7 bonus from Righteousness to be permanent because the Unlimited text didn't make it clear that the effect was only until the end of turn.

I stopped on and off, depending upon how the winds of the game blew. Certain sets were very uninteresting and I could've cared less about the environment at those points. Fallen Empires, Mercadian Masques, Odyssey and Kamigawa blocks were all uninspirational.

I play mostly Casual, since my experiences with organized tournaments are mixed. It largely depends upon the types of people who show up. Most are cool and don't get bent out if the match doesn't go as planned but there have been a certain few meta-game zealots who've made the pairings an absolute disaster due to their anal retentive rulesmongering and melodramatic outrage whenever a rogue deck appears. I had one throw a hissyfit because I dropped a Megatog into play; "Who the hell plays with Megatog? Is that deck even legal? JUDGE! Make sure his deck is legal!". Seems frivolous, and it is, but he actually called for the judge to count my cards as a way of disrupting my momentum. Nobody really liked that guy but he didn't do anything technically wrong so the store's owner couldn't justify ejecting him. Instead, a lot of the regulars, like me stopped coming around.

As I said, I enjoy casual games the most. My decks are built on the slightly aggressive side for casual pairups but not so much so that it's an obvious imbalance. I fully expect others to come at me with their creative best. I honestly don't mind losing if it's done in style. With the people I usually play against, we know which decks are too good and they get retired quickly enough. Nobody wants to sit through the same Squirrel-Lock week in, week out.

Ravnica has been an interesting block, however. In my own opinion, it's probably the best block in the past eight years, beating out Urza's which was good but had its obvious flaws. This guild system is clever and very flavorful and I'm glad that no one, dominating deck has emerged yet.

I still don't get to play a lot between commitments to school and work but I've made a couple tournaments and had mixed results, everything from 3rd place to 23rd. I surprised a few players by using Razia's Purification in a "Boros Deck Wins" build and it was very, very effective the first time. But when I returned 2 weeks later, a lot of people had answers. The meta-game evolves that quickly in this area, I guess.

I am waiting for the Simic guild (Green/Blue). It's been one of my best color combos for a long time and I'm eager to see what is added. The Gruul cards were somewhat disappointing though. It's nice to have Savage Twister back but many of the others are unimpressive.

Originally Posted by Robo Jesus

Heh. Yeah, Crash sent them about half a year ago. He threw in some nice extras too.

Yes, and now I somewhat regret letting those Kokushos go. I didn't realize they'd become so useful.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Buffyholic

Lol Starman, I did a mono black T2 for a while, it has massive advantages but massive weaknesses too. Biggest weakness is lack of enchantment removal...the right deck can really screw you. It can't kill artifacts, but you can run jitte so it doesn't matter.

Although there are so many sick mono black cards these days, like wicked Akuba. 2 mana for a 2/2, and if it does damage you pay black to deal extra damage. If you have 5 swamps, it deals an extra 5 damage. I don't think there are a lot of 2 drops that can deal 5 damage on turn 3.

Aside from some in the Onslaught block, like Astral Slide or Mobilization, off the top of my head I can't think of too many killer enchantments that really screw you over in the past few years. Artifact destruction, yes, has been much more troublesome in recent years, but many of the best artifacts are creatures or creature dependent (in the case of equipment).

Anyways, I usually do at least splash for another color rather than play mono-black. However, back during Darksteel, I did run a mono-black that had more wins than losses against Ravager-Affinity. It was all about turn 3 Infest, turn 4 Barter in Blood, and a turn 5 or 6 Death Cloud, then eventually a Consume Spirit or Visara for the win. Even with Skullclamp they couldn't quite keep up.

Wicked Akuba's okay, but I'd much rather have a shade. Huzzah for Nantuko Shade + Cabal Coffers.

FELIPE NO

I started playing when I was like 10, quit when I was about 13. I JUST went through my expensive cards (in a binder) yesterday, and I have every dragon up until they started making shiney cards.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Christ, people are going to be playing this game until the world ends.

Once I saw people playing it on ESPN2, I knew something was wrong.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Legato

Christ, people are going to be playing this game until the world ends.

Once I saw people playing it on ESPN2, I knew something was wrong.

Damn, they were playing it on Espn2??? Dude, get me the video for that.

AS for the new black cards... Akuba is killer, I run 4 in my black shade/life drain deck. People don't take the time to read the effects on cards and think that a 2/2 won't do any harm to them... until I hit them for like 4 every turn- at the least.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'm running a Gamingforce Magic Standard (Type 2) tournament, please sign up in the thread I'm linking to.

On another note, I simply cannot wait for the Black-Red guild in the third set of this block. Death and Destruction at their prime.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Legato

Christ, people are going to be playing this game until the world ends.

Once I saw people playing it on ESPN2, I knew something was wrong.

I predicted that when I started playing when revised came out. And it's looking pretty true.

I thought all hell was going to break loose when portal was coming out. I just remember drafting our first box of it. Commons looked like uncommons, uncommons looked like rares, rares were just who knows what.

Oh well...

Rarest card: Time Twister
Favorite Card: MOM
Most copies of a card(excluding lands): Must have been one of the CoPs... Piece of crap cards with no better use than using as temporary proxies when trying to create a deck.
Cheapest deck: Tolarian Academy deck of course.
Best Deck: It was a Dream Halls deck, but based completely different from the popular one. This one used high cost big creatures like Leviathen in combination with Rush of Knowledge and stuff like Time Stretch(I think that was the name, it has been a while) to create infinite turns and huge hands for discarding for free spells.
Worst deck: My white winnie never worked, ever. Oh well... probably had to do with my lack of land tax.

How ya doing, buddy?

I started playing in the seventh grade. So that's... about 5 years ago I think. I don't play a lot anymore, maybe after I graduate it'll be fun again.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Wait, wouldn't this thread work better in the Media Centre, seeing as how it's a form of entertainment? Anyways, I've only played Magic on few occasions, primarily when my brother needed someone to practice against. Just through that small amount of gameplay, however, I've learned that artifacts are best thing in the game.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Here's a game I used to play far too much a long time ago. I started playing in the 11th grade, with Revised, just before Fallen Empires. Contrary to a lot of people, I loved Fallen Empires for the flavor that it introduced (Thrulls rule the world). It took me a lot of trading, but in my heyday I had 4 of the moxes (Ruby, Jet, Pearl and Emerald), 3 Juzams (one signed, which I was so happy to have), 2 Abysses, Tabernacle, Time Walk, Jihads, Alladin, Thunder Spirits, Berserks, all the Duallands, Mana Drains, Sinkholes, Icestorms, and tons of the harder to get utility cards. I also (for some insane reason) decided to collect Lords of the Pit. I ended up with around 80-90 ish of them (I still actually have them to this day).

I tapered off the game a lot after Urzas (if I'm remembering the order of the sets right, heh), and stopped completely a few sets after that. My main gripe with the game was that everything became geared towards Type II, which I hated, since I worked hard to collect the older stuff. I remember back in the Tempest age where people were saying that it made sense since it was cheaper. I called bullshit then, and I still call it. It's insanely more expensive to play Type II than Type I (I can't remember what they're called now...just going by the old names).

I also remember the starting of 3 new play mechanics every block, which I hated really only for one reason: They never really supported anything that any other block started, which is too bad really. I thought Ice Age was the single best set to come out, with Alliances a close second, and even up till now, they've never brought back anything to do with those sets as far as my knowledge goes.

One thing that peeved me to know end was the constant reprinting of older cards with an exaggerrated mana cost or other such sacrifice to it and printing it again as a "new" card. Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, Time Twister, Regrowth, and more all got reprinted in their own way, only they didn't bother to make them more interesting (barring Final Fortune, if I remember correctly), they just made them cost more.

I mainly played Black, as I thought it was the most interesting color. Kill your opponent before you kill yourself. It involved big risks, sacrifice and most of all: speed. Speed kills, and that was what I took with me into every serious game. I had quite a few different versions, running an evil speed black which evolved into a modified Hatred deck. I also ran Black/Red/Green quite often with Land Destruction. I did Hand Denial, Shallow Grave, Necropotence, you name it, I tried it out. Eventually the deck evolved into a mono-Black engine of death (barring a few artifacts thrown in for some board control) that basically revolved around Everything Denial. I would make you lose your hand, your land, your creatures, your life. It was very fast, and even when it stuttered off the draw, could pull off amazing comebacks with cards like Masticore, Thrashing Wumpus, Yawgmoth's Will, Nevinyrral's Disc, and a few others. I loved that deck...

I also had fun making my fun multi-player decks. Jokulhaups, which I ran either Red/Green with Whirling Dervishes and Orggs, coupled with Tinder Walls, Mana Crypts and Mana Vaults to run it, or a slower White/Red with Ruks/Pheonixes/Ivory Gargoyles, or Blue/Red with the Mighty Sandbar Crocodiles. I loved Jokulhaups.

My Chains of Mephistophales Deck was a lot of fun too, and when people saw the combo hit them for the first time, they were stunned. Same with my mighty Storm Cauldron/Anhk of Mishra/Mana Barbs/and a couple of other cards that only had 7 land in the deck (and it worked for some reason!). There was the fun to play Minotaur, Barbarians, and Thrulls decks when we got to races games.

There was the Underworld Dreams from Hell deck (back when it was still restricted), with Carnivorous Blooms, Howling Mines, Wheel of Fortune, all the fun. I ran a Highlander 5 color deck as well that was so great to play. My Richard Kane-Ferguson Deck, where I only used cards drawn by him (barring land of course). There was the Forsaken Wastes/Copper Tablet/Pox Fuck-you deck, that was designed to piss as many people off at once and see how long I could last.

Ah, good times.

I hardly play at all anymore (I think I've looked at my cards once in the past year...or two). I mainly play the Star Wars CCG, which I found superior to Magic in nearly every way, and still do actually. My game just isn't officially supported anymore, heh.

I wouldn't mind getting back into the game again, but I think if I did, it would be exclusively for tourney/Pro Tour play. I think that's why I don't...I really dislike the crappy attitudes that players get at these things. I had a guy cry because he lost to me once. It was terrible...I find people just seem to forget that this is a game, and take it way too seriously. They forget to have fun. The younger ones (sorry to be a bit judgemental here, but I'm going off my experiences) were probably the worst. They only would want to trade for the "powerful" cards, which were the cards that were valued the highest in Inquest at the time. I hated it. They never played for fun, and when their almighty dueling deck got trounced in a multiplayer game (which was what they traded to get cards for...and yet multiplayer is what we as an area would generally play), they always whined that people were picking on them, not realizing, despite what we were trying to always tell them, Dueling decks should never be played in multiplayer formats. They do not work. It was their general attitude that finally broke my final straw with the game. That and getting rid of Dark Ritual. That really sucked...

Fun ideas that we did:
A Conquest of Dominaria ongoing tournie, where we would pick a couple of races, start with a couple of "countries" and have to conquer the rest via games with our races. You could only use cards that were associated with that race, and I think you were allowed a token amount of non-race cards, something like 8 I think. Your decks would have to be drafted ahead of time, and all cards that were "questionable" as per race affiliation were judged on by the whole group. "Humans" was also not a race, but "Knights" were, as well as "Soldiers", Goblins had to say Goblin their name (not just in their summon text, as there were far too many goblins to choose from compared with any of the other races). I remember the Thrulls getting whumped badly in this, but if I remember correctly, the Minotaurs did really well. I know I didn't win, but I came close...

Emperor and Two-Headed Giant were both classic multiplayers we liked to play (I had a Land Equilibrium deck that I designed to play around my buddies Counter deck that was fun). We also played a ton of Sealed deck games (I won me my Mox Emerald with one of those!). Highlander, and 5 color tournies. Monochrome as well. We liked to mix it up a ton, to keep everything fresh. I think this helped keep interest in the game far beyond the "what's the necessary one card from this new set that I need to include in my tourney deck" mentality that was prevalent much later, after many of the core group moved away, and others came to take their place. It let people use cards that would otherwise sit and collect dust (I can say that I have used 4 Personal Incarnations in a deck, as well as things like the almighty Elder Land Wurm and Lord of the Pit. How about an all "Hero" deck or an all "Giant" deck...hard to pull of successfully, but definately fun to try).

If you want a deck to try that is a blast to play, make yourself a "Cantrip" deck. Use only cards that allow you to draw other cards. I've made a fun one that is around 80-90 cards big. The challenge is to kill the opponent, if you can, or survive long enough to deck yourself. Man, I've killed myself so many times with that deck, but it is definately a blast to play, and always draw cards, no matter what you do...having Underworld Dreams played on you kind of sucks though (especially if they knew before hand I was going to play that deck...it wasn't as if I was trying to win.

EDIT: Holy crap that was longer than I expected...

FELIPE NO

question please... actually i really want to play this game, but dont know how to begin. any quick guide for beginner?

and also... which one is more enjoyable? Magic or Yu-gi-oh TGC?

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by eriol

question please... actually i really want to play this game, but dont know how to begin. any quick guide for beginner?

The games have websites with online rulebooks if you want to play online. If you plan on playing with actually cards, the best way is to ask the store owner, or another player, to show you how the game works.

Originally Posted by eriol

and also... which one is more enjoyable? Magic or Yu-gi-oh TGC?

That honestly depends on what type of crowd you like being around. You see, for the most part, the Yu-gi-oh! players think the Magic players are elitest assholes. The Magic players think the Yu-gi-oh! players are brain-dead fucktards and n00bs. And I think that has to do with the general age-groups and attitudes each group has.

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