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Magic, the card crack
09-01-2013, 04:43 PM
Yes, that card game. I dipped a toe into it many year's ago, but it didn't grab me. I was more into the other systems that was out there: Star Trek, Star Wars, Battletech(yes, it's a CCG too). If you've got me on Steam, you'd notice me occasionally firing up the PC games.
Well, got me some cards and built a few decks and I wander over to a LFGS that's doing Friday Night Magic a couple times over the past few months. With just one small problem, I'm turning up with your basic beginners decks, while everyone else is turning up with the tournament grade decks. The people I'm playing against are also on the local tournament scene too.
--Rod.H
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Does your FLGS only host games once a week, or is there a "recreational" day some time when you can play a pickup game with others who aren't into the tourneys?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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They have games schedualed on other days, but I'm trying to get my head around the MTG standard format, which is friday, thursday is MTG modern & saturday/sunday is pokemon, vanguard & yugiho. MTG draft happens on thursday/friday. Pickup games are possible, but the regulars are pretty much on the circut.
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That was the main reason I dropped out of Magic, back in the late 90's. It cost too much to keep up and the tournament scene was -insane-. (The standard meme was speed-kill. If your opponent gets a third turn, you're doing something VERY wrong.)
So I've been digging into my other games. Shadowfist is making a comeback. Babylon 5 is dead, but was a damn good game. Mythos I finally found my huge pile of, so I'm happy.  And of course there's Call of Cthulhu LCG and Weiss Schwarz (thank you, Japan, for finding another way to suck money out of my pocket....)
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
I was the store judge for 6 years (before the store was sold to a different owner and he didnt want any employees) so I can answer any questions you may have about M:TG
There is no coincidence, only necessity....
- Clow Reed
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The speed-kill meme is nearly non-existent amongst the regulars. Out of 30 players there's possibly 2 using it. What's big amongst those I've played is Thragtusk, Ætherling & Jace, Memory Adept, not to mention a few of the other planewalkers. All the decks I've tried don't have a decent hard counter to those. Or if they do, I've not found it or been playable at the right time.
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Heh. I recall ages ago being told by friends that they were so into Magic: The Addiction that if I wanted to have anything to do for a while with them, I'd need a deck. So for the hell of it, I spent about $5 on a dime-store card dispenser which had randomly loaded five-card packs, and about another $5 on specific cards in the store's uncommon and rare inventory.
The result was a totally unpredictably random deck. If the cards went entirely my way, I could absolutely dominate a game. This happened maybe one time in eight. Every other time, I washed out early. But as a vehicle for getting me in conversation range with my friends, it wasn't a bad deal. I just never got hooked, and thus avoided spending any real money on it.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
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Friends have tried several times over the years to get me into M:tG, but frankly, I don't have the tactical/strategic mind for the game. I did much better with Illuminati: New World Order, so I'm pretty sad that it's more or less defunct.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Quote:Bob Schroeck wrote:
Illuminati: New World Order, so I'm pretty sad that it's more or less defunct.
That's just what they want you to think.
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My brother and I first got into Magic between the Revised and 4th Edition core sets, just before Ice Age came out. We also picked up a lot of Fallen Empires boosters and not a few boosters from the Chronicles 'set' (they were reprints from the first 4 Magic expansion sets). We collected and played casually with our friends until a bit past the end of the Weatherlight cycle.
My brother never got back into it, but I've gotten back into and then out of the game a few times over the years.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
I've played Magic for many years now. If you have a lot of trouble with people showing up with full suites of Thragtusk et al, you might want to see if they run draft events, where everyone builds their decks out of cards they get on the spot. It's the main way I play.
Quote:ECSNorway wrote:
That was the main reason I dropped out of Magic, back in the late 90's. It cost too much to keep up and the tournament scene was -insane-. (The standard meme was speed-kill. If your opponent gets a third turn, you're doing something VERY wrong.)
Late 90s and kill-before third-turn makes me think of Combo Winter, which was pretty much the most ridiculous time to play Magic. Were the most recent sets Urza's Saga/Urza's Legacy/Urza's (Something Else)?
[img]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=50943&type=card">
'nuff said
There is no coincidence, only necessity....
- Clow Reed
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I neither can afford to, nor have any interest in, playing draft decks.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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CrimsonKMR Wrote:[img]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=50943&type=card]
'nuff said
No good for Standard though. I do have some of the other Arcbounds and I've one of these
[img]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=370559&type=card]
I've not been playing draft, due to issues of getting my head around not grabbing all da shinies (and build a deck) currently they're drafting M14. Also Thragtusk get's rotated this month when Theros hit's, it also takes out (from Standard format) my meddled "depth of power" deck, while my wip Sliver deck is still good.
Anyway I believe this Saturday is suppose to be a special event, according this http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/events ... tion-facts free cards!*
edit: According to peeps on Reddit
[img]http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=366385&type=card] is an answer to many things, a view I think I found echoed by a modern player that saw me open a booster with one in it. He also suggested a mid-range Red Aggro deck could also do okay against what the FLGS regulars have.
--Rod.H
Ah, I thought we were just talking about broken cards XD I havent really actively followed magic news since 2007 when I left the FLGS's employ
There is no coincidence, only necessity....
- Clow Reed
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The last time I played Magic was back when decks were talked about in terms of color -- "I have this killer blue/green deck I've been working on!" "Oh yeah? I bet my pure red can stomp it." -- rather than specific cards or named strategies.
Life was simpler then. 
--sofaspud
-- "Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Which is around the time I stopped playing as well. My last deck was a bruise (black/blue) deck that I was experimenting with.
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The last time I played cards was back when Dai Vernon was still doing card tricks.
...
... What?
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The last Magic deck I built involved Hypnotic Spectres, Mindstab Thrulls and Racks. The idea was to just deny the opponent the ability to draw cards. This was, of course, before Dark Ritual got banned...
These days I wouldn't mind a good casual game, but I'd much rather play Bab5, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowfist, Mythos, or Weiss Schwarz.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
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There are decks still described by colour for they are the archtypes, it's just that in recent times other deck type names have come into being. Most of them just being a categorisation name of a certain game concept variation with an indication on how fast the deck plays.
....yeah I know it blows over my head too. Least with 40K you've got some clue on the armies concept by its name - leafblower: heavy on the lascannons.
Also the cards I've been acquiring, up to now, seem to be trying to get me to play cats and now: centaurs.....
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I'm no help for Standard at all, because my local (and casual) FNM is Legacy-based. I have decks built around Gilt-Leaf Archdruid from Morningtide (I describe this one as "all your land base are belong to us", but refer to it as "my Druids deck"), Gilder Bairn from Eventide (I call this one "Robo-Simic", because most of the creatures have Modular or Graft), mono-White Soldiers, and Master Transmuter from Conflux ("Esper Colossus", because one of my favourite things to transmute onto the field is 11/11 and indestructible). I'm currently working on a Blue-Black deck based on Mind Control and Rise from the Grave effects, and a White-Blue deck titled "I Think I'm a Clone Now" featuring Mirror-Sigil Sergeant in addition to the obvious.
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