[Gaming] Tragic the Garnering

Frank

Frank

Or as it is more colloquially known, Magic the Gathering.

I have been playing a fucking ridiculous amount of this stupid, addictive, expensive, predatory card game with my nerd friends. Even dragging my girlfriend kicking and screaming into it. She's even getting a hardcore edge to her. I quite literally just finished a 7 hour game session with 4 other guys. It was fun as hell.

I started playing it in junior high when Revised edition was the new thing but fell out of it pretty quickly, picking it up every once in a while over the years but never really getting quite into it. Last year I was introduced to some new friends and they were all hardcore into the game. I started out making fun of them for it but eventually relented playing one of their decks. A year later I have spent....too much. TOO GOD DAMN MUCH. But I love it.

I'm still pretty casual skill level wise but my deck building is getting good enough that I can hold my own against the most experienced player of the group more times than I don't and my decks are no longer 85 card unwieldy monsters and I have learned the art of separating the wheat from the chaff to create cohesive masterpieces.

Right now my most successful decks are a red/green Xenagos devotion deck and a mono-red token generating nightmare deck featuring Purphoros the face hurter.

So, there's got to be some Magic players on here, we're too nerdy a bunch for it to be possible otherwise.
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Frank said:
Or as it is more colloquially known, Magic the Gathering.

I have been playing a fucking ridiculous amount of this stupid, addictive, expensive, predatory card game with my nerd friends. Even dragging my girlfriend kicking and screaming into it. She's even getting a hardcore edge to her. I quite literally just finished a 7 hour game session with 4 other guys. It was fun as hell.

I started playing it in junior high when Revised edition was the new thing but fell out of it pretty quickly, picking it up every once in a while over the years but never really getting quite into it. Last year I was introduced to some new friends and they were all hardcore into the game. I started out making fun of them for it but eventually relented playing one of their decks. A year later I have spent....too much. TOO GOD DAMN MUCH. But I love it.

I'm still pretty casual skill level wise but my deck building is getting good enough that I can hold my own against the most experienced player of the group more times than I don't and my decks are no longer 85 card unwieldy monsters and I have learned the art of separating the wheat from the chaff to create cohesive masterpieces.

Right now my most successful decks are a red/green Xenagos devotion deck and a mono-red token generating nightmare deck featuring Purphoros the face hurter.

So, there's got to be some Magic players on here, we're too nerdy a bunch for it to be possible otherwise.
Click to expand...
Play Magic in High School. Haven't played a card game until Hearthstone.
Too many expansions too quickly. Too many cards being unable to be used in type 2 too fast. However if I still had a group of friends that played like I did in my local comic book shop in High School I probably would still be into it.
 
Frank

Frank

I dunno, a set is good in type 2 for 2 years. That's not awful (not great). So far I've found that by the time a new set is set for release the group is champing at the bit for it to be released to appease our need of new cardboard crack.

Our group plays a lot of Modern and EDH too, so old cards see a lot of use. It helps that we're all Albertans with gubm't jobs or work in industry so there's generally more dollars than sense in the group.

I just finished my terrible (but incredibly fun) EDH deck I have named: Fuck, Minotaurs Man.

I don't get to play too often at the local store like most of the guys do since it's timing with my work is usually contradictory.
 
Last edited:
PatrThom

PatrThom

I got into MTG at the start of 4th ed, and got out during Stronghold. I have an uncomfortable amount of money tied up in cards which are mostly M/NM but which haven't been used since 1998 since I got out of the scene when it became obvious they were going to come out with sets faster than I could afford to keep up with 'em (they came out with THREE sets that year?). I think I have purchased 3 or so boosters since then, but I swore I wouldn't get back into it because I outright just can't afford to waste money on cards (no matter HOW fun it is) when my cards will all "expire" after 2 years. I just can't afford the "$=fun, but ++$=++fun!" game mechanic.

--Patrick
 
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

@Frank - I remember there being a new expansion pack coming out more frequent than once every 2yrs and every expansion pack drastically changed Type 2. Maybe it's better now and is less frequent. I just wasn't keen on spending $200+ every few months to stay competitive.
 
Krisken

Krisken

I started Magic back when 3rd first came out. The Dark was still available, Fallen Empires came out at this time. Played through 6th edition and bought everything in-between.

Got to the point I just couldn't afford to play anymore. I was also playing L5R and had other hobbies which I found more fun. This fall I started playing Fantasy Flight's Android: Netrunner and got heavy into that. A month ago someone brought basic Magic decks and we played them at our game day, and to be honest I was unimpressed. Netrunner is just a superior game overall and only requires $15 a month to stay up to date, no rare chasing required.
 
Frank

Frank

Gilgamesh said:
@Frank - I remember there being a new expansion pack coming out more frequent than once every 2yrs and every expansion pack drastically changed Type 2. Maybe it's better now and is less frequent. I just wasn't keen on spending $200+ every few months to stay competitive.
Click to expand...
They generally do a basic set (the yearly large set) and a block set each year (one large set and two small ones). So, four sets (I think about 800 cards) a year. All of them stay in type 2 standard for about two years until a new basic set comes out then that rotates the sets before the last ones out of type 2.

And that wasn't clear at all.

Set 1 comes out in summer. Block 1 set comes out over christmas and spring and such. Set 2 comes out the following summer. Block set 2 comes out following christmas and spring and such. Set 3 comes out in the summer and now, Set 1 and Block 1 is rotated out of standard after about two years in play.[DOUBLEPOST=1393368950,1393368905][/DOUBLEPOST]
Krisken said:
I started Magic back when 3rd first came out. The Dark was still available, Fallen Empires came out at this time. Played through 6th edition and bought everything in-between.

Got to the point I just couldn't afford to play anymore. I was also playing L5R and had other hobbies which I found more fun. This fall I started playing Fantasy Flight's Android: Netrunner and got heavy into that. A month ago someone brought basic Magic decks and we played them at our game day, and to be honest I was unimpressed. Netrunner is just a superior game overall and only requires $15 a month to stay up to date, no rare chasing required.
Click to expand...
I like Android but I like the variety Magic has, but yeah, it's expensive.[DOUBLEPOST=1393369177][/DOUBLEPOST]
PatrThom said:
I got into MTG at the start of 4th ed, and got out during Stronghold. I have an uncomfortable amount of money tied up in cards which are mostly M/NM but which haven't been used since 1998 since I got out of the scene when it became obvious they were going to come out with sets faster than I could afford to keep up with 'em (they came out with THREE sets that year?). I think I have purchased 3 or so boosters since then, but I swore I wouldn't get back into it because I outright just can't afford to waste money on cards (no matter HOW fun it is) when my cards will all "expire" after 2 years. I just can't afford the "$=fun, but ++$=++fun!" game mechanic.

--Patrick
Click to expand...
They don't really expire though. In Standard/Type 2 play, yeah. But most guys I know are big into Legacy and Modern (in which cards do not expire, some get banned when they affect the format too heavily) as well.

And Commander/EDH as well, which is my favorite way to play. You want as many players as you can get together. Everyone has a deck made of 100 cards, none of which can be the same (except basic lands) with a single legendary card as the commander. It's such a politicking fun time forming alliances and being backstabbed and backstabbing and squabbling. Fantastic.

I totally understand the money concerns though. I usually spend a couple hundred bucks every new set.
 
Krisken

Krisken

Frank said:
They generally do a basic set (the yearly large set) and a block set each year (one large set and two small ones). So, four sets (I think about 800 cards) a year. All of them stay in type 2 standard for about two years until a new basic set comes out then that rotates the sets before the last ones out of type 2.

And that wasn't clear at all.

Set 1 comes out in summer. Block 1 set comes out over christmas and spring and such. Set 2 comes out the following summer. Block set 2 comes out following christmas and spring and such. Set 3 comes out in the summer and now, Set 1 and Block 1 is rotated out of standard after about two years in play.[DOUBLEPOST=1393368950,1393368905][/DOUBLEPOST]

I like Android but I like the variety Magic has, but yeah, it's expensive.
Click to expand...
I can understand that. The factions in Netrunner help to keep balance, and once another cycle finishes (which it is soon) and another big box expansion hits there will be a TON of variety. Having 4+ ID's for each faction will ensure that.

Plus, being able to spend your actions for money, cards, or doing things means there aren't the problems tied to being boned because you didn't draw enough land cards.

Magic is a great game that started the whole CCG thing. I just think NR is the next logical step which improved on the model.
 
Vrii

Vrii

I typically go out to release events with a couple of friends, it's a good excuse to get people together and fuck around for a weekend. Between launches I'll maybe do a draft or two online, but I don't play a lot - I've never had as much fun playing constructed as I do with limited formats, probably because I've never been able to drop $2-300 to have a top-end competitive deck.
 
Covar

Covar

None of my friends handle losing well at all so I stopped playing. I wasn't particularly good (or bad), I just got tired of never getting credit, or accused of being cheap for winning.
 
AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Started with Ice Age, left after Mirage. Game is fun but I didn't have cash for cards and it was hard to find people to play against once they banned it in the schools. Just not worth it after that.
 
Cheesy1

Cheesy1

Lord, I played and spent way too much money on card games from high school through my twenties.

I started playing Magic around the same time @Krisken did. I stopped playing after the set that had the Sliver Queen in it, because I remember using her in an infinite sliver deck as one of my last ones.

Played the X-Files card game. Got both Mulder and Scully, which pissed off my best friend who played as well. :D

Played the Star Trek card game.

Played the Wizards of the Coast's Star Wars card game. My best friend won the regional championship in 2003 and took me with him to GenCon that year. I qualified in the tournament the day before and we both got to play in the world championship there. I got my ass handed to me by the only girl in the tournament that year in the first round! :p
 
Last edited:
Jay

Jay

I used to play this with some RL friends at work. At first we all had standard decks, mostly cost us a few buck each. I had a Green/White combo going and we used to play during lunch breaks and whatnot. It was fun.

After a few months, a new series of the cards came and most of them went ahead and payed a ridiculous amount of money. Suddenly, Rares were everywhere and all kinds of ridiculous, pre-made decks came out with cards perfectly aligned with awesome synergy.

It stopped getting interesting for me as I knew where this was heading.

People had "artifact" decks and all kinds of cheapass, expensive ways to pay to win.

Haven't played since... 2004? Shiit.
 
redthirtyone

redthirtyone

Hi, I'm redthirtyone, & I'm a recovering Magiholic.

Started back when Revised was plentiful. Legends had JUST come out (and - sadly - SOLD out) so it was still a few months before The Dark came out. Unfortunately I had a comic store a few doors down the strip mall from the restaurant I managed, so my routine for the better part of that summer, 5 days a week, was to head in & buy 4 boosters on my way in to work (back in the day when boosters were $2.49/pack... ahhhh the good ole days).

I played through the Dark, FE, 4E & Ice Age. The first time I quit was the Homelands/Alliances era. Then I picked back up in the Mirage block, followed by the Tempest block. Quit again, but usually every 2 years or so I would start hanging with a new set of friends who were playing, & I'd get back into it. Mirrodin was one I remember getting a bunch of. The Urza's Saga block was another. Then this last relapse was a couple of years ago with the new Mirrodin sets.

Usually my burnout was quick. Playing with friends, you start to learn their decks & you eventually don't even have to play the cards to know how the game will go. I've toyed with playing competitively, but I don't have the support circle to play the metagame. I do like sealed-deck formats, however, because it limits the overpowered cards that make for ridiculous combos.

I have an insane collection. Probably a little over 1K rares. A 3200 count box full of uncommons & countless boxes of commons. All ranging from RV to the latest Mirrodin stuff, with some gaps in between. I have at one time owned every single one of the power 9 + countless other rare OoP cards. In the mid 90's I sold off most of the good stuff in order to buy my first PC - a top of the line Pentium 75 with 800Mb HDD, 1Mb RAM and a QUAD-SPEED CD-rom drive (lest I forget about the 14.4 kick ass modem).

I keep trying to get out, but they keep pulling me back innnnn!
 
redthirtyone

redthirtyone

Yeah at one time I think I had a full playset of 4 of each of those. Still have around 8 I think. I know I have an Italian Underground Sea.

The worst part was when I was buying all that RV, there was a list that said what cards in RV replaced the OoP cards they removed from UL - specifically on the printing sheets. So you could in effect go through & say - "If this pack had been a UL pack instead of RV, this Thoughtlace would have been a Timetwister"

I still wouldn't have had many Lotii, but the number of Mox I would have had... :(
 
Frank

Frank

The real revised dual lands make me cry to this day.

I had a bunch from when I was a kid but lost all my Magic from that time in a flood.
 
redthirtyone

redthirtyone

Ugh - that reminds me of this guy we used to play with. You'd get seasick because he'd rock back & forth in his chair while playing. Like 60 bpm.

Anyways, somewhere along the way he'd been in a pretty serious car accident with his cards in the car. He had some awesome stuff, but it was all ruined because in the accident I guess they'd all come loose & then while they were laying on the broken glass they got trampled over. So he had a bunch of power 9 cards & the like that was all pocked like they'd been printed in braille.

Oh - the stories...
 
Frank

Frank

Normally I'm a person who loathes Let's Plays. I hate them. I don't like watching people play video games and I don't understand their appeal. However, since becoming fond of Commander/EDH Magic, I've really gotten into watching these guys from Star City Games play Commander. Mostly because they have fantastic banter. Most Magic you find on Youtube is mostly lifeless, dull nerds who take the game way too seriously. These guys just banter and jaw jack constantly, never taking it seriously. I like them.

 
HCGLNS

HCGLNS

I started playing around beta, stopped buying cards around 97 and gave away my entire collection in 2003. Kept 2 decks as momentos, one a flip a coin deck and the other a landless denial deck.

Do people still play for ante? Those were my favourite games.
 
Frank

Frank

Journey to Nyx is about to release and after the disappointment that Born of the Gods has been (WHY YOU SO BAD MOGIS?????) I am stoked like a bonfire (of the damned) for it.

Already have my America/France/Great Britain/Puerto Rico control deck planned out. It involves lots of not letting the other person play, then playing monster cards like Theros' Elspeth (pictured below) and Keranos, God of Storms to be the finishers. Keranos' god ability is wonderful. It's basically a free card every turn, 40 percent of which are cards from your deck, 60 percent of which are lightning bolts.

 
Frank

Frank

This block is loaded with exile and god killers. Hell, there's a piece of equipment specifically for murdering the Theros pantheon. There's even a card called Deicide which depicts Elspeth using Godsend to kill Xenagos, the God of Revels. Even without them, the gods themselves are kept in check with their devotion mechanic. If you don't have enough permanents with the right mana symbols in play, they're just enchantments. They don't have enough believers to make them tangible.

 
Frank

Frank

Jay said:
God of Storm card... how the fuck is that fun to play against?
Click to expand...
Theros block has 15 gods to choose from. 5 mono-coloureds and 10 duals. They all have powers and require devotion to be creatures. I think only a couple have actually been standard playable.

You can look at a couple of the really big cards and say it doesn't look fun, but Theros has been a really fun block to play and SUPER loaded with Greek mythology flavour.

From



to



My favorite God (well, the one I was most looking forward to in the last set) ended up being pretty much complete shit. I still love him though, and have a playmat of him. I still try to get minotaurs working....even though they're all terrible.



Getting that 7 devotion is pretty much impossible against any deck with removal and dealing 2 damage a turn (usually) sucks.

But if you think Keranos is bad, check out Athreos.

 
Last edited:
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
I still love the game, though EDH (hate calling it Commander) is probably my favorite format.

The game has gotten ridiculously, prohibitively expensive lately, mostly because the game's player base has exploded over the last few years - roughly quadrupled. Try playing one of the eternal formats with such a high demand for a generally small pool of cards.

A bunch of my Modern-legal cards have just blown up in price. I traded for a set of Dark Confidants back when they were just a couple bucks. Now they're around $70. The Zendikar fetchlands are all hanging at $50+, and that set's only a few years old. My Modern legal cards alone are probably almost worth two grand as a whole. All I did was hang onto old cards.

It's almost impossible to build the top Modern decks without dropping over a grand, and Modern was intended to be the affordable eternal format. Wizards just isn't reprinting at the rate they need to be. The only big price drop in a staple was Thoughtseize, which was reprinted in Theros. It went from $60 down to just under $20.

And those god cards aren't usually creatures. The current standard blocks came with a boatload of viable elimination cards for crowd control. They're not terrible to face. Although, Atheros would really like to be in my Modern deck...
 
Frank

Frank

Modern Masters, which was apparently intended to increase the amount of Modern staples out there had a lesser print run than players it attracted to Modern too and ended up inflating prices further.

I'm also pretty much all in on EDH. Love it. Building my fourth deck right now, which is a token generating green white. I already have my terrible (ly fun) black/red minotaurs, blue/red insanity combo (involves drawing all the cards, having nigh infinite mana and casting all the spells to kill everyone in one orgiastic turn) and my current favorite, mono-black zombie deck. Every card in the zombie deck is zombie flavour.[DOUBLEPOST=1398375015,1398374930][/DOUBLEPOST]
Zappit said:
And those god cards aren't usually creatures. The current standard blocks came with a boatload of viable elimination cards for crowd control. They're not terrible to face. Although, Atheros would really like to be in my Modern deck...
Click to expand...
Yeah, exactly. The gods look meaner than they generally are. Only a couple of them are actually worthwhile.

Most are bad, like Mogis and Heliod.
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
I've got about seven EDH decks. A traditional Kaalia deck, packed with dragons, demons, and angels is probably my favorite right now. I've got an Animar deck that's almost entirely artifact creatures and Eldrazi is fun as all get out. When you can drop enormous critters for free, it doesn't make any friends, but it's fun. The only two decks I don't like to bring to group games are my Azami deck and my Sliver Queen deck. They're combo decks that can win in one explosive finish.

And Frank - get yourself a Night Soil for that token deck. It owns graveyards and gives you plenty of tokens.
 
Frank

Frank

Zappit said:
I've got about seven EDH decks. A traditional Kaalia deck, packed with dragons, demons, and angels is probably my favorite right now. I've got an Animar deck that's almost entirely artifact creatures and Eldrazi is fun as all get out. When you can drop enormous critters for free, it doesn't make any friends, but it's fun. The only two decks I don't like to bring to group games are my Azami deck and my Sliver Queen deck. They're combo decks that can win in one explosive finish.

And Frank - get yourself a Night Soil for that token deck. It owns graveyards and gives you plenty of tokens.
Click to expand...
Hells yeah that's going in there. It's a magic card name that literally means pools of shit and it makes tokens. I cannot not get behind it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top