Magic The Gathering: The trading card game

[munchiaz]

Any of you guys playing magic? I've been playing off and on since 1998. I stopped around 2005 with betrayers of kamigawa and said i wouldn't get back into it, but here i am again, and now i am back into the game. I just picked it back up with Theros, and I'm having a great time so far. I do have a standard deck (some proxy cards) but what i really enjoy is drafting.

I feel that drafting is the best form of playing magic. It gets rid of the people who are willing to drop tons of money on cards to make the best deck being played. Its so strategic, much more so than standard or limited. You have to make sure you cut the right color, that the other 7 at the table aren't cutting, you also have to take risk. Like taking a good card thats a different color, so you may not have to deal with it later.

So what do you guys enjoy about magic. Share here.

[hoobs88]

I've been playing Magic since 93. My favorite format is Sealed. I enjoy brewing new decks for Standard too. Especially with underdog cards that noone plays with. I recently won 1st place at an Invitational Qualifier with a Master of Cruelties deck.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I play, but don't really keep up with the current shit because the sets are all kind of lame.  I just go cherry pick cards from the latest sets for my decks.

Standard sucks to me because it usually involves cards that I don't really like.

Mirage is my favorite era in Magic.   

[jeffhlewis]

I played MTG waaaaaaaaaaaaay back in the day (7th/8th grade maybe?). Started playing at the tail end of Unlimited and into Revised. Quit around the time that Fallen Empires came out. Chronicles made tournaments almost unbearable, that shit pissed me off when it came out.

Think I still have a few boxes of these bad boys laying around somewhere in storage. Should probably dig them out some time.

[munchiaz]

I've been playing Magic since 93. My favorite format is Sealed. I enjoy brewing new decks for Standard too. Especially with underdog cards that noone plays with. I recently won 1st place at an Invitational Qualifier with a Master of Cruelties deck.

Very nice. Whats your deck list. Right now im playing a mono black devotion, but i dont think i will be playing game tournaments with it, just because mutavaults are to hard to come by. I really like that master of cruelties decks ive looked at alot. I might have to look into building one myself

[TheClash603]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MLB_Showdown

Collectible card games began and ended with MLB showdown.

I played MTG for about a year when I was in 4th or 5th grade (circa 1993), but that was it.  Play Digimon for a while when I was probably too old to be playing Digimon.

[Psycho Punch]

I prefer Yugioh... ddddduel!

Not that I really have a stack of trading cards... I only play on videogames (I like Yugioh 5ds on the PS3, even being as half assed as it is). Can't find anyone interested in those card games.

[turboswimbz]

I play casually.  Never enjoyed the whole tournament thing.  I just bought a theros booster box to play with.  My brother and I will both make a deck from the cards we got and play em' for fun, then invite other people over to do the same.  I'll agree with ark that the newer sets are, well kinda lame.  I'm liking theros so far though.   Been fooling around with a minotaur deck recently.

Sealed is fine, but I only played a few times at the local magic place, which smells bad, and is cramped and full of people who give table top and video gamers a bad name.  The biggest problem at this place was that the players get to keep the cards they drafted, so I won easily both times becuase everyone else was just grabbing the rares, and ended up with no real deck.

[OldSchoolGamer]

I used to play magic way back in the day(I started right after revised edition was going out but really started getting into it before/when ice age came out. I will never forget being new/stupid to the game and upon my first 3 ice age packs getting a jesters cap, than trading it off for 3 shit rares to a friends brother at the time who was really into the game and knew much much more than I did. HAHA stupid me but keeps the memories alive...

I played/collected Magic for YEARS...both for fun and in small tournaments that hosted drafting, actual tournaments w/ the updated sets, and w/(cant remember the name) the version of tournaments where you could use decks of older sets. I used to have decks worth $300-$600+ when I played in those tourny's back then.

Anyway, I have not been following magic anymore since I gave it up so I have no idea what's going on now/whats new etc. Once they hugely changed the rules to me it killed the game itself and turned a 15+ year player away for good. Taking away mana burn, calling the in play area "the battlefield" and everything else they did killed it bigtime for me. That is just one man's feelings/opinions. I sold off/gave away all my cards/decks for little to nothing after that. I WAS going to keep my Chaos Orb card just for remembrance and shit but I decided everything was going so that sold for cheap as fuck(less than $30) as I didn't care.

If you still play yugiohmagic the gathering(as I call it) than good for you and I hope you are having fun. Magic used to be a very fun, strategic, and entertaining game to play...for fun or serious. I wont ever get back into it(my buddy who stopped playing than restarted tried hard to get me to go back to the tourny's w/ him and play/get back into it...but I refuse as I truly hate w/ a passion what they did to the game and what its become. He's doing well though...winning tourny's and loves drafting.

I admit I miss it a little at times but it passes. Was cool to see this post...been awhile since I talked about it/thought about it and I had no idea anyone on here was into it.

[jeffhlewis]

Anyway, I have not been following magic anymore since I gave it up so I have no idea what's going on now/whats new etc. Once they hugely changed the rules to me it killed the game itself and turned a 15+ year player away for good. Taking away mana burn, calling the in play area "the battlefield" and everything else they did killed it bigtime for me. That is just one man's feelings/opinions. I sold off/gave away all my cards/decks for little to nothing after that. I WAS going to keep my Chaos Orb card just for remembrance and shit but I decided everything was going so that sold for cheap as fuck(less than $30) as I didn't care.

If I remember correctly I traded a fucking Time Walk for something from Legends that got reprinted in Chronicles (part of the reason I hated Chronicles so much). That set murdered card values.

I was a player first and a collector second, but values were important in the trade market when you were trying to get elusive and more powerful cards to complete a deck. This is of course back before they gimped all of the rules. I got smoked in tournaments all the time by guys who had 3-4 Black Lotuses in their deck.

But hey I was in middle school. Mowing lawns isn't going to buy you a set of moxes.

[munchiaz]

Yeah ita crazt that they changed the rules for ma a burn and legendary cards. But i think they did it to bring in more players. Casuals dont like to think about damaging themselves while playing. It sucks for the players who grew up with these rules in play. But with so many TCGs out there, things had to change to stay compeitive

[Arkhan Asylum]

I laughed at my friends who sold their black lotus cards.  I said "man, keep those. "

they were like NO I CAN GET 400$ FOR THEM.

yeah, now you could buy a fucking house with one.

[VestCunt]

Speaking of now being able to buy a house, I starting playing during Beta and sold all of my cards in '98 for $500. I had every blue card from Beta to Alliances (i.e. Time Walk, Time Twister, Ancestral Recall), 2 Moxes, 40 dual lands, a Dark set, most of Arabian Nights (Diamond Mine, Jazum Djinn, Guardian Beast), etc., etc. Got the beta Time Walk in one of my first six booster packs.

It's hard to imagine how much could get for them now and I try not to think about it, but I'm still glad I sold them. I was pretty fanatical and it was destroying my life. As soon as I got rid of that shit I started my first band and haven't looked back.

[xcrement5x]

A friend of mine runs a MTG and CCG/board game shop out here and does quite well.  I tried to learn how to play it back when around 97ish maybe?

However, instead I discovered and became all about ANI-MAYHEM!



I've got a full set of all the cards still which is pretty bitchin.

[hoobs88]

I've been playing Magic since 93. My favorite format is Sealed. I enjoy brewing new decks for Standard too. Especially with underdog cards that noone plays with. I recently won 1st place at an Invitational Qualifier with a Master of Cruelties deck.

Very nice. Whats your deck list. Right now im playing a mono black devotion, but i dont think i will be playing game tournaments with it, just because mutavaults are to hard to come by. I really like that master of cruelties decks ive looked at alot. I might have to look into building one myself

I just PM'ed my decklist to you. Here's a photo of my prize for that tournament...

1st place at the Invitational is $500 and a case of the next set (Born of the Gods). The only way to get a ticket is to win one of the weekly tournaments so it will be steep competition.

[DildoKKKobold]

I laughed at my friends who sold their black lotus cards.  I said "man, keep those. "

they were like NO I CAN GET 400$ FOR THEM.

yeah, now you could buy a fucking house with one.

I sold mine for about that. I had a full P9 back in the day. C'est la vie.

I was *sure* MTG was going to die, that there was no way they could keep it fresh. Man, was I wrong.

[munchiaz]

I've been playing Magic since 93. My favorite format is Sealed. I enjoy brewing new decks for Standard too. Especially with underdog cards that noone plays with. I recently won 1st place at an Invitational Qualifier with a Master of Cruelties deck.

Very nice. Whats your deck list. Right now im playing a mono black devotion, but i dont think i will be playing game tournaments with it, just because mutavaults are to hard to come by. I really like that master of cruelties decks ive looked at alot. I might have to look into building one myself

I just PM'ed my decklist to you. Here's a photo of my prize for that tournament...

1st place at the Invitational is $500 and a case of the next set (Born of the Gods). The only way to get a ticket is to win one of the weekly tournaments so it will be steep competition.

Very nice. Best of luck to you man. Make sure you post results after the tournament here. I plan on updating this with results each week. I played in a draft this past Sunday and took 3rd place. Lost to a guy who pulled Elspeth and Spear. I was running a mono black deck. Had no rares, but did have 2 gray merchants. It did fine, even against the Elspeth guy

[hoobs88]

Very nice. Best of luck to you man. Make sure you post results after the tournament here. I plan on updating this with results each week. I played in a draft this past Sunday and took 3rd place. Lost to a guy who pulled Elspeth and Spear. I was running a mono black deck. Had no rares, but did have 2 gray merchants. It did fine, even against the Elspeth guy

I can post results here (although it is 2 months away). Hopefully, this thread remains active.

[munchiaz]

I'll make sure it stays active. i do 2 drafts a week, and will be posting results from that. So worst case scenario, people can read my post

[JoshTurboTrollX]

I played in a few tournaments around 1997-99 but nothing too serious.  I've bought hordes of cards and sold most of them over and over again.  Just last year I purchased 3,000 Magic commons for $5 at the Gencon Auction Hall... I just can't quit this stuff.

I started playing around 1994-95 with Ice Age.  Had a complete set of Fallen Empires and Homelands... lol

I graduated to Spellfire, Warlord and MagiNation soon after getting the CCG hook.  I still have all those cards...

[Arkhan Asylum]

I am not competitive enough to go to those things.   I've been told I build really interesting decks that shouldn't work, but do.

People try to get me to go to legacy tournaments.

But, the average legacy player is a socially retarded fuckpump that needs to be hit with a shovel, so I don't bother.


I went to a local tournament thing once recently with a U/W phasing deck with mostly mirage cards.

The second I put down a card with phasing, they told me to leave.


The decklist is pretty comical.

I use Teferi's Honor Guard, Rainbow Efreet, supreme verdict, washout, (sometimes i swap in Teferi's Moat if the person I am playing is some green ramp deck), then I have a few one offs like Teferi's Drake and Sandbar Crocodile.


and then a dickload of draw and counters.   

I also occasionally sideboard in Confiscate or Desertion.

Desertion is one of the funniest things ever.   

"Oh, I play Akroma"

thats nice, I counter/take Akroma.   I win.


Usually though, I just block/phase out and stall long enough to blow the table up while my stuff is phased out, and then I Just phase back in and wail on you while you try to recover.

[munchiaz]

So i went 2-1 last night at one of my local drafts. This draft is a bit different because like 20-30 people show up. so they have 7 people per table when we are actually picking cards, then all the players are mixed,and it is 3 rounds. I ran a W/G deck, main focus was heroic with wingsteed rider and staunch warrior. I had around 13 spells/bestow to target them, and that's how i won all my games.

Only good rare pull was a Xenagos. Its funny because at my table of 7, 2 people pulled Xenagos,and one other person pulled Elspeth

[hoobs88]

So i went 2-1 last night at one of my local drafts. This draft is a bit different because like 20-30 people show up. so they have 7 people per table when we are actually picking cards, then all the players are mixed,and it is 3 rounds. I ran a W/G deck, main focus was heroic with wingsteed rider and staunch warrior. I had around 13 spells/bestow to target them, and that's how i won all my games.

Only good rare pull was a Xenagos. Its funny because at my table of 7, 2 people pulled Xenagos,and one other person pulled Elspeth

Was that record good enough to win any prize? Still, the Xenagos is a nice pull. I like Staunch Warrior/Centaur Battlemaster in draft since they become so big that noone can handle them unless they have a Sip of Hemlock or Divine Verdict. I'm off to a Commander tournament tomorrow. I'm running Thrun, the Last Troll as my commander since he can't be countered, is hexproof, and regenerates.

[munchiaz]

So i went 2-1 last night at one of my local drafts. This draft is a bit different because like 20-30 people show up. so they have 7 people per table when we are actually picking cards, then all the players are mixed,and it is 3 rounds. I ran a W/G deck, main focus was heroic with wingsteed rider and staunch warrior. I had around 13 spells/bestow to target them, and that's how i won all my games.

Only good rare pull was a Xenagos. Its funny because at my table of 7, 2 people pulled Xenagos,and one other person pulled Elspeth

Was that record good enough to win any prize? Still, the Xenagos is a nice pull. I like Staunch Warrior/Centaur Battlemaster in draft since they become so big that noone can handle them unless they have a Sip of Hemlock or Divine Verdict. I'm off to a Commander tournament tomorrow. I'm running Thrun, the Last Troll as my commander since he can't be countered, is hexproof, and regenerates.

Since there are so many people i didn't get a prize. They just give out to top 6. So what is commander. i have never played it before?

[hoobs88]

Commander was originally called EDH (elder dragon highlander) but had to change the name due to copyrights. It was a multiplayer casual format but some stores hold tournaments and occasionally play 1vs 1. You can choose any Legendary creature from Magic:the Gathering to be your commander then add 99 cards to your deck (no duplicates except basic lands) that match your commander's color identity. You start with 40 life instead of 20. Your commander can be played from the command zone as if you had him in your hand and if he dies or gets exiled, you can return him to the command zone and pay 2 extra mana to recast him. You can win the game by the normal ways (reducing oppoent's life to zero, 10 poison counters, forcing them to draw a card when their library is empty) or by dealing 21 points of combat damage with your commander (no matter what their life total is). I chose Thrun since he seems hard to deal with.

[Arkhan Asylum]

I use atogatog, because I have problems.

I hate playing EDH at gamestores though.  There are too many dickbags there with however many $$$ legacy cards they can find, so it's not really a game of fun, it's a game of "lol look at all my $$".  They're not interested in seeing the interesting stuff you come up with.  It's all about bragging about the pricetag, at least, around here.

but, it's satisfying to win with an Atogatog deck.

Skyship Weatherlight + Predator Flagship save the day usually. 

It's really funny when you send a mob of atogs across the table and then have them eat your entire board and the have atogatog eat all of them.  "Ok, Atogatog is a 25/25 now.  You lose."

....or they swords to plowshare him and you're basically fucked at that point.  lol

BUT,  even losing is worth it when you have :



I started making a Teferi EDH deck, too.  I used it once and was told I was never allowed to use it again because it was basically a bunch of counters/draws/recurrable ways to screw the other player up (capsize, mind games, isochron scepter + snap).

[hoobs88]

I've been wanting to do a 5 color EDH deck. Atogatog sounds fun. All of the mono blue commanders (vendilion clique/venser/teferi) are tough to deal with. I was about the beat my opponent when he "miracled" a Devastation Tide to bounce Thrun back to my hand then played Vendilion Clique to put Thrun on the bottom of my deck.

[munchiaz]

atogatog brings back memories when i first started playing magic. I got a draft this Sunday. Wish me luck guys

[Arkhan Asylum]

5 color EDH is a disaster.   It hardly ever works, but when it does, people start laughing.

[munchiaz]

So i only went 1-2 at my draft this Sunday. I still got 1 pack because me and my brother played for 3rd place and we decided to split, and then we just played it out and he beat me. Only good pull was a Nylea God.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Give me all the minotaurs you got.   

Man, I am so glad I am retarded and make odd decks.   I made a Minotaur deck with mostly Mirage block Minotaurs (and some beta hurloons!) like, 3 years ago mostly because I like the Talruum Minotaur art and needed an excuse to use him.

Didgeridoo went up to like 5+$/each now! 

[hoobs88]

5 color EDH is a disaster.   It hardly ever works, but when it does, people start laughing.

2 of my friends play with Child of Alara as their commander and have had quite a bit of success with those decks. Another friend plays with Reaper King. The trick is to have plenty of way to fetch dual lands/shock lands.

[munchiaz]

So went to my firat Magic PTQ this weekend here in AZ. It was pretty awesome. Had 178 players. I ended going 5-3 with my mono-black devotion deck. That got me 37th place. Not to bad for my first PTQ. I made some really bad side board mistakes during my last game. It def seemed like mono-black was the deck to beat, and everyone was running mono red devotion with chained to the rocks and assemble the legion.

My last game was against mono red, and for some reason i didn't side board in my duress's. This cost me the game because i simple lost to chained to the rocks. If i had my 3 duress spells, and 4 thoughseize, it could have been a different story.

Oh well, lesson learned. I had a ton of fun,and learned alot.

[hoobs88]

So went to my firat Magic PTQ this weekend here in AZ. It was pretty awesome. Had 178 players. I ended going 5-3 with my mono-black devotion deck. That got me 37th place. Not to bad for my first PTQ. I made some really bad side board mistakes during my last game. It def seemed like mono-black was the deck to beat, and everyone was running mono red devotion with chained to the rocks and assemble the legion.

My last game was against mono red, and for some reason i didn't side board in my duress's. This cost me the game because i simple lost to chained to the rocks. If i had my 3 duress spells, and 4 thoughseize, it could have been a different story.

Oh well, lesson learned. I had a ton of fun,and learned alot.

You need "Destroy the Evidence" to deal with Chained to the Rocks and "Illness in the Ranks" against Assemble the Legion.

[Xak]

Have not played it since 9th grade High School

or was it 10th grade? yup 10th . I collected since 7th grade stopped at 10th. I was the only player on the football team that played Magic

[munchiaz]

So went to my firat Magic PTQ this weekend here in AZ. It was pretty awesome. Had 178 players. I ended going 5-3 with my mono-black devotion deck. That got me 37th place. Not to bad for my first PTQ. I made some really bad side board mistakes during my last game. It def seemed like mono-black was the deck to beat, and everyone was running mono red devotion with chained to the rocks and assemble the legion.

My last game was against mono red, and for some reason i didn't side board in my duress's. This cost me the game because i simple lost to chained to the rocks. If i had my 3 duress spells, and 4 thoughseize, it could have been a different story.

Oh well, lesson learned. I had a ton of fun,and learned alot.

You need "Destroy the Evidence" to deal with Chained to the Rocks and "Illness in the Ranks" against Assemble the Legion.

I could see those working, only issue is what do you take out of side board to make room?

[hoobs88]

Ratchet Bomb with 1 counter on it is also good vs. Chained to the Rocks. What does your sideboard look like now?

[munchiaz]

yeah i was thinking rachetbomb. Right now my SB is 3 lifebane ,2erebos ,3duress ,3dark betrayal , 2pharika's cure. Those are the staples. At this PTQ i also had a blood baron and doom blade. So i will most likely take out those 2 and put in 2 ratchet bombs. That way i can deal with chained, and assemble, and if those don;t come up, i can use it for other things

[hoobs88]

3 Dark Betrayal seems like too much if you're already running 4 Hero's Downfall, 4 Devour Flesh, and 4 Thoughtseize (as most Mono Black Devotion decks do).

[munchiaz]

Yeah i am running 4 of all those cards. I run 3 Dark Betrayal because mono black is so common. I know alot of people also run 3 Erebos for this reason. I only run 2, because i only have 2

[hoobs88]

I think Destroy the Evidence is best in the mirror match since you can destroy their land with Underworld Connections on it to cripple their devotion and stop them from drawing into multiple Gray Merchants.

[munchiaz]

I think Destroy the Evidence is best in the mirror match since you can destroy their land with Underworld Connections on it to cripple their devotion and stop them from drawing into multiple Gray Merchants.

Yeah, but if you are playing the mirror they will def have 4 underworld, and at least 2 erebos to draw. I think destroy the evidence just cost to much

[Arkhan Asylum]

ugh, standard.  Do you guys play legacy or anything? lol

[hoobs88]

ugh, standard.  Do you guys play legacy or anything? lol

I haven't played Legacy since it was called "type 1.5" (probably about 15 years ago). I recently got into Modern and took 1st place last week at my local store. I play Standard, Sealed, and Draft on a weekly basis as well as casual games of Commander.

[munchiaz]

ugh, standard.  Do you guys play legacy or anything? lol

I haven't played Legacy since it was called "type 1.5" (probably about 15 years ago). I recently got into Modern and took 1st place last week at my local store. I play Standard, Sealed, and Draft on a weekly basis as well as casual games of Commander.

Same, When i played legacy, it was called 1.5.  I dont get into it anymore. Right now i just play standard(not very often) sealed and draft. Drafting is by far my favorite

[Arkhan Asylum]

Yeah I played back then, too.   I was confused when I came back and the types were all changes to real words.   

I don't really play competitive legacy though, because all you see are about 3 deck types with $$$$ cards so it's all down to who gets going first, and if the other player has a force of will ready or not.

[munchiaz]

Have you guys checked out to spoilers for born of the gods? Man i can't wait. Im going to pre order a box this week

[turboswimbz]

Born seems to fill in a ton of gaps which is nice.  But since I really don't play competitively unless I find a group into it I might pass on this set.

[Bardoly]

I play Magic the Gathering as well.  I started back during Revised, and then I "get in" and "get out" every few years or so.  I've only been back in since last September/October when Theros just came out.  I'm currently brewing up and playing 4 different Standard decks - blue/black Dimir, white/red Planar Cleansing, white/green Bestow creatures, and red/green Land Destruction.  I also have a Captain Sisay Commander deck (almost all Elves) that I'm playing as well.

[munchiaz]

Anyone hit up the born of the gods pre releases this past weekend? I went to 1 on Saturday, and another 1 on Sunday. Went with red as my pre release color on Saturday, and i couldn't even play red, because there was no worthwhile cards. So i ran a black/white deck and ended up going 3-1. Sunday i decided to go black, and really liked the deck i built. I even got  a Mogis, god of slaughter. I ended up going 2-2 on Sunday however. There were less people there on Sunday. If i would have won the last game i played, i would have taken 7th place.

Anyway, I'm really liking born of the gods so far. I even have a new deck idea,based on some of new cards, and Master of cruelties. Check it out and tell me what you guys thing.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/pulling-the-strings-1/