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  #1  
Old 05-08-2013, 06:52 PM
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Default Magic

Anyone here a Magic fan? I was recently walked through a game and it was entertaining to me as an RPG kind of guy. Is it worth the time and money to get into it?
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Old 05-08-2013, 06:58 PM
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Default Re: Magic

I would say not worth the money. But it really depends on how you play it. If you just get some cards and play with some buddies then you can probably have fun for a reasonable amount of cash. But if you want the new cards they are continuously releasing or if you feel the need to be competitive you will have to poor too much money into new cards.

I haven't played or bought a card for over a decade though. I think the money grubbing aspect has only grown worse since then from what I can tell.
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Old 05-08-2013, 07:05 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Depends on how you want to play.

Buying some cards and playing with friends: sure, have fun.

Being at all competitive: unless you have a lot of free time and money on your hands, probably not worth it.

It's a great game. Some friends and I used to play tournaments back in the late 90's. We had fun but, in retrospect, I spent a lot of money on cards that I probably could have done something better with.

On the other hand, I currently have a friend who buys and sells the cards on ebay as a money making hobby and makes a decent amount of extra cash, in addition to funding a tournament deck for himself.
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Old 05-08-2013, 07:41 PM
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Default Re: Magic

I played it from the time Legends came out until just past Fallen Empires, so mid-Nineties. Used to have every black, white and artifact card up to that point. I made all my money back selling off my collection. Don't miss the game so much but I did like staring at all those black cards.
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Old 05-10-2013, 07:50 AM
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Default Re: Magic

I agree with them mostly.

Especially if you want to keep up with competitive Magic, it's either a lot of money or a lot of time and effort getting favorable trades.

If you wanna spend the time getting together a fun deck or a few fun decks (I mostly have had the same decks for a few years since I don't buy many physical cards anymore) you can get a lot of play out of them and it won't be terribly expensive. Particularly if you have a friend who has a large collection and is willing to part with some decent commons and uncommons for cheap or free. And then you can maybe even update them every once in a while when some new card comes out that fits in really well.

On the other hand, if you wanna keep up with current cards, it will cost money.

I play on Magic Online (MTGO) since it's easier to find games and I enjoy the organizational ease vs. physical cards. What I mostly do is play drafts to get my new cards and build janky decks with the proceeds. Each draft requires that you buy 3 packs, so it's not super cheap, but you can also win more packs so I don't actually end up paying full price per draft. The way I play I probably spend about a couple hundred a year. But I can play for free for however long I want with the cards I already have on MTGO.

Soooo... what I would say is if you wanna play, think about your price range and who you wanna play with. If your friends who play are casual, it will be easier to stay casual. If they're competitive and insist on playing with decks using the best cards, it won't be very much fun to play against them using something you just threw together. In that case I'd recommend against starting if you don't wanna spend a lot.

I guess I'm saying is it can be fun at a number of price ranges but whether it will be fun for YOU at a certain price range depends on what you like and what opportunities for playing you'll have.
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Old 05-10-2013, 05:09 PM
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Default Re: Magic

I also played in the mid 90's and agree pretty much with what everyone has said already. I had a good number of high value cards, including 7 of the power nine (I was missing the Black Lotus and Time Walk). I eventually gave it up shortly after Ice Age, mostly because our (my brother's and I played) favorite shop closed down. I did end up making back the money I spent on the power cards but not the rest of them.

If you're just looking to have fun with some friends it can be inexpensive.
If you want to play DCI tournaments it will cost you an arm, a leg, a kidney, and your spleen.

My favorite deck was a white/blue/green creature control deck featuring Rubinia Soulsinger, Preachers, Spectral Shield, and Diamond Valley.

My second favorite was a Black/Blue/Green/White deck built for a one-of-a-kind tournament at the shop. Yes other than basic land you could have only 1 copy of any particular card in your deck. My youngest brother and I independently came up with near identical decks.
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Old 05-10-2013, 07:36 PM
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Default Re: Magic

I think my favorite deck was nothing but swamps, basic black sorceries/enchantments and erg raiders, because everyone knew how much they sucked. Heh.
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Old 05-10-2013, 08:11 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Not even any drudgies? I loved me some drudgies.

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  #9  
Old 05-10-2013, 10:24 PM
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Default Re: Magic

The point was that everyone thought Erg Raiders were shit, so when I crushed somebody, it was most amusing. Drudge Skeletons were 'acceptable' black creatures, so it wouldn't have been as much fun. IIRC the Raiders cost the same mana but were 2/3 with the drawback that you had to attack with them each turn or take two damage. But if you intended to do nothing but attack, they were a 2/3 creature for two mana. It was almost as nasty as my friend's Scribe Sprite deck that had just the creatures, Fog and Giant Growth.

Not as nasty as a deck of nothing but Plague Rats and Dark Rituals, but when considering all common decks, nothing came close to that.
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  #10  
Old 05-10-2013, 11:29 PM
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Default Re: Magic

When I last played magic, I'd come up with something rather bizarre.

There were these little guys called Slivers that would add stats or bonuses to all Slivers in play. There were ones that gave all Slivers trample, ones that would give all Slivers +1 attack or defense, let them be tapped for mana, etc etc.

They were weak but most cost 2-3 mana since they could add to each other so well, so with that I used a card called Aluren. It made any creature with a cost of 3 or less a free cast.

Now here's the fun part. Aluren is a permanent enchantment that has to be dispelled to go away. So with that you use another enchant called Recycle. Whenever you play a card you draw another.

The idea was to get those two enchantments out as soon as possible (with Enlightened Tutor to let you dig through your deck for them if necessary) and produce a fuckload (one time I actually played 17 or so in a row) of free cast slivers right away. With them all lending power to each other, this can become really nasty - like, an army of 5/5 flyers with trample.

It was a bit silly and impractical but kinda hilarious if everything came out fast enough.
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  #11  
Old 05-11-2013, 07:37 AM
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Default Re: Magic

:psst: Recycle and Aluren were both included in one of the Tempest pre-constructed decks, so not that bizarre...

Twas a fun combination though, I must say.

I have a Recycle-Aluren deck based around pingers. I threw in a couple Intruder Alarms for good measure (that makes it so that creatures don't untap like normal, but whenever a creature comes into play, all creatures untap).

I also, while playing around with Magic Apprentice (a free program that you can build whatever you want with, although it does not handle rules for you), I built a Recycle deck based around Kobolds (0/1 creatures that cost 0) along with some creatures that pump them up and Fires of Yavimaya (which gives your creatures haste).

It's a really fun combo but not super competitive. Aluren has been in many tournament-caliber decks though.

That reminds me, if you want to jump in, you can buy pre-constructed decks for either like $12, or $20 or so for a more competitive quality one (the more expensive one will have more and better rares and uncommons and a more focused build).
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:21 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Magic the Gathering is absolutely worth playing in limited formats, booster drafts or sealed decks, pre-release tournaments, or using proxies with friends. Type two is incredibly expensive to maintain decks in because of how quickly stuff rotates out. Playing with apprentice is fun and cost no money.
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:23 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Quote:
Originally Posted by erimir View Post
:psst: Recycle and Aluren were both included in one of the Tempest pre-constructed decks, so not that bizarre...

Twas a fun combination though, I must say.

I have a Recycle-Aluren deck based around pingers. I threw in a couple Intruder Alarms for good measure (that makes it so that creatures don't untap like normal, but whenever a creature comes into play, all creatures untap).

I also, while playing around with Magic Apprentice (a free program that you can build whatever you want with, although it does not handle rules for you), I built a Recycle deck based around Kobolds (0/1 creatures that cost 0) along with some creatures that pump them up and Fires of Yavimaya (which gives your creatures haste).

It's a really fun combo but not super competitive. Aluren has been in many tournament-caliber decks though.

That reminds me, if you want to jump in, you can buy pre-constructed decks for either like $12, or $20 or so for a more competitive quality one (the more expensive one will have more and better rares and uncommons and a more focused build).
aluren recycle, manowar, allows you to draw your entire deck looking for the concordant crossroads which would allow you to attack. :tmgrin:

It was fun, I beat someone using somesort of pros-bloom 1.5 tournament.
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Old 05-11-2013, 02:30 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Quote:
Originally Posted by erimir View Post
Soooo... what I would say is if you wanna play, think about your price range and who you wanna play with. If your friends who play are casual, it will be easier to stay casual. If they're competitive and insist on playing with decks using the best cards, it won't be very much fun to play against them using something you just threw together. In that case I'd recommend against starting if you don't wanna spend a lot..
If they are competitive and want to play against competitive decks, it is also possible to print up proxies in magic suitcase. I used to do it to test decks before I would acquire the cards for a deck. Or just write the name on lands or some such.
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Old 05-11-2013, 07:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by beyelzu View Post
aluren recycle, manowar, allows you to draw your entire deck looking for the concordant crossroads which would allow you to attack. :tmgrin:
Haha I also have a Man-o'-War or two in that deck.

Don't have a Concordant Crossroads, but with Intruder Alarm and possibly Aluren and one of the pingers (there are like 16 of them in the deck) that results in instant death for everyone at the table. Since my mana creatures will also untap, I may be able to do it indefinitely without needing Aluren.
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Old 05-12-2013, 03:46 AM
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Old 06-09-2013, 06:05 PM
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Default Re: Magic

I've played four games now. I've started to get tempted to build my own deck... the one I have (arachnid?) is apparently super common. Not that I mind being part of the newb fleet*, but I want a green deck.

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Old 06-09-2013, 09:12 PM
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Default Re: Magic

Black and Green were my favorite colors. Both from what they represent and they were the most fun to play.
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Old 06-25-2013, 04:33 AM
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Originally Posted by Ymir's blood View Post
I think my favorite deck was nothing but swamps, basic black sorceries/enchantments and erg raiders, because everyone knew how much they sucked. Heh.
Well everyone is wrong. Erg Raiders most definitely do not suck.
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Old 06-25-2013, 04:55 AM
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Black and Green were my favorite colors. Both from what they represent and they were the most fun to play.
Black and Green is a great combination. Lots of fast mana for playing those big creatures fast. It does have the drawback of few means of removing creatures unless your opponent blocks and dealing with enchantments or artifacts.
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Old 06-25-2013, 07:15 AM
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Default Re: Magic

Black has always had creature removal, so black and green should have no problem dealing with creatures.

Green also has enchantment and artifact removal, and there are even some (more recent) spells that serve as both creature and enchantment or artifact removal.

(For example, Putrefy destroys a target creature or artifact)

It does tend to be a slower combination though.
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Old 06-25-2013, 10:26 AM
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Default Re: Magic

Well it's been years, but I do remember the Black card Terror, or Terrify or something that just killed a target non black creature.
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Old 06-25-2013, 04:25 PM
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Terror.

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Old 08-21-2013, 03:08 PM
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I've built three green decks based on the three realms of Dante's Divine Comedy; the Inferno deck is actually green/black but I need to work on it. Otherwise I play with a red/black or red/blue deck, the latter tends to be a matter of luck in most games, but I use it a lot because it's flashy.
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Old 02-16-2015, 03:03 AM
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Playing this game has grown into a monster.
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