Never played a game of the ever-famous, ever-evolving Magic: The Gathering, just like me a few weeks ago? Here's a brief guide on how to immerse yourself into this magical world.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession to make, in case you haven't noticed already: I'm a little reticent about building decks. I've only posted two on this blog, one of which was made by someone else. I have a few thousand cards. Why not make use of a few?
to be honest with everyone, this is probably the first thing ive written about magic the gathering, but i figured i might as well start somewhere. in the game of magic the gathering there are countless different keywords, some being common, like trample, or rarely used or seen, like splice. what i wanted to do was take a closer look at some of the different keywords out there, and see just how they change the average game.
My friend Javi (who will join this group eventually that lazy sack) is a masterful MTG player and deck-constructor. Hell, he's damn impressive nerd all around. One time he made a Black deck out of my cards, and it is pretty devestating despite the fact that I never really collected Black and thus don't have multiples of good cards for it. It has more creatures than most Black decks (again, my fault) but uses it's excessive Mana to deal absurd amounts of damage with them.
If you're here, you probably have those moments every once in a while where you think "This is so fucking nerdy, I love it!" Followed by shame and tears. But anyway, share your tales of extreme nerdery here with a sympathetic crowd. Mostly sympathetic. I'll kick things off with the nerdiest thing I ever said:
Before last Sunday I hadn't been to a proper game store since I was in middle school. Over ten years ago. If you decide to stop reading right now because I obviously don't care enough about MTG to be writing this thing, I don't blame you. But I tell you, friends, as someone who has denied the utter awesomeness of their hobby for too long, that going to Emerald Knights in Burbank made me feel at home. I want to tell you about it and explain why I will be back many times in the future.
Running this World has prompted me to think about MTG on a deeper level than I ever have before. In attempts to contextualize it, explain it, research it, and understand the parts of it that I don't yet understand, I have come to an unexpected conclusion: I'm old.
When I used to play Magic every day during 7th grade, one of my regular opponents was a kid named Eddie. He played an all-Blue, deck, the first I'd ever seen. At that point I was even more creature-obsessed than I am now and my deck were unwieldy hulks practically begging to be shamed by an all-Blue deck. I couldn't hurt him. Every time I tried to do something he had a response, a way to negate what I was doing. He would barely ever hurt me. He would win games just by making me play for so long...
Elder Dragon Highlander is apparently a MTG variant which emphasizes big decks, playing with a variety of cards, and gives you free Legends. I have never played it and I love it already. This website will teach you how it works. Post your thoughts in the forum.
Without Richard Channing Garfield the world would be a much grayer and less interesting place today, at least for all of us. He created Magic in college, playtested it throughout, accidentally found a publisher for it, and wound up the the most well-known and successful paper game designer in the world (sorry Guygax, make something new why don't ya?). He does not seek the limelight, has not had a snappy biography written about him (or his game, amazingly enough) and I thought we should pay a...
Any time a feature is introduced in an MTG set and not replicated in subsequent sets, balancing issues are surely forthcoming. You wind up with one set that can do things the others can't, forcing players to counter that set with other cards from it, and generally limiting the creativity with which one can effectively play the game. Playing these types of cards is like playing trap defense in hockey or boxing like Floyd Mayweather: you might win, but neither you, your opponents, nor the people...
I started playing MTG in 1994, the same year that the Fallen Empires set hit the market. It was, in fact, the first new set released after I started playing, making me one excited nine-year-old. I harangued my father, he took my friends and I to Gameworks again and again, and the booster packs started to mount. The problems only started to occur once we got them open.
Is an MTG game fun to watch? Is it fun to watch Internet videos of? As an online video professional, I take an interest in what is fun or not fun to do online vs. in reality, and so will post some different types of MTG gameplay videos to see if ya'll like 'em. Stay tuned.
Do you have trouble finding other people to play with? Do you yearn for the challenge of pwning someone you've never played before? Post here if you want to find people to meet up with and play or play with long-distance over the net.
MTG has gone through a lot of official rule changes, and like Pool hustlers almost every group of Magic players have House Rules they play with. What rules do you use? Is there an era whose rules you favor and after which you think the game went downhill? Have you made up any of your own rules, and if so how do they work?
What's your MTG card collection look like these days? Tell us about it, and post a pic on the corkboard if you dare. Or video, if you're feeling extra super spunky.
