Magic the Gathering (MtG)

agnes · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:26

Hello everyone,

I have only just discovered this awesome card game, and being a life long geek, I don't know why I didn't look into it before!

I'm going in to town to buy my first starter packs today at my local indie geek shop. And hopefully get some tips.

I just wondered if there are any players on here?

I've only done 3 matches vs AI on my tablet, after playing the tutorial and watched a few youtube videos. I've got a very basic understanding of the rules, and I'm fascinated at the amount of options you have to kill your opponent!

Anyway, new level of geek achieved

LeJosh · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:30

This will probably get moved into the new Tabletop forum but MtG is good, quite the money sink dependant on how much you want to collect or deck build.

I've played a few times but I gave up on the local scene but I might get back into it one day.

I was primarily white/blue mix for a balance between rushing and control. Managed to get a couple mythics too.

Will Gill · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:34

We have created the perfect forum for you

agnes · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:45

Will Gill said:
We have created the perfect forum for you

You have indeed, thanks haha.

Pookie Bear · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:46

I have around 1500 cards floating around somewhere. There was a group of us who used to play - until the worst player in the group through a massive strop at never winning and quit. The group kind of faded after that, sadly. That was 15 years ago and I've not had a game since - apart from on the PC.

agnes · 29 Nov 2013 at 08:52

There is a local indie store near me called 'Electric Games'. I've popped my head in for a second or 2 from time to time as I've always been fascinated by tabletop games, but have never had the guts to ask about it or get into it as I'm the only one from my friends who likes it. Regardless of us all being super geeks haha.

However, my mate who hosts poker nights once a month also hosts MtG nights... So that's awesome!

Tonight the shop in Reading is doing it's weekly (every Friday) games night. And the better half of me and my self are meant to be having a few pints in Reading. I don't see why we can't stop off here before hand and have a little game or 2 haha.

kaiowas · 29 Nov 2013 at 09:31

Cardboard crack.

I spent way too much time and money on that game in my uni days! The flexibility is awesome and I used to love playing it but I'm also glad I got out of it!

Still got most of my cards taking up space too (sold off all the high value ones year ago), I had a look last year to see what's current and it seems that virtually all of my cards have been rotated out nowadays so they're probably not much use for anything other than casual play.

Confused · 29 Nov 2013 at 09:32

Geek & Sundry on YouTube are doing a series of shows, Spellslingers, hosted by Sean 'Day[9]' Plott, where he plays against other people (like Wil Wheaton does on Tabletop)

Parmesan · 29 Nov 2013 at 09:41

Having not played for about 10 years, me and my brother grabbed a few sets of the newer expansions recently, thoroughly enjoying it all again. Try to get games in whenever we can

Found the mtg game on the xbox to be very good, sunk a lot of hours into that!

agnes · 29 Nov 2013 at 09:52

I just had another good game on the app... I drew! Wooo, yea it's still very early in the campaign but I'm putting up a decent enough fight and learning quickly haha.

I have no idea what to buy later... What do the starter decks come with? As I said, I'm looking to buy the double starter deck so me and the misses can have a few games over the weekend with a bottle of wine and pizza. And I will buy a few booster packs as well

kaiowas · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:11

A starter deck will come with basic lands (It always used to be 4-5 of each colour, not sure what the distribution is like nowadays) so you'll need to buy a few of those to build up enough land in each colour to have a couple of decks on the go.

Boosters don't have basic land in them so once you've got enough land you can just buy boosters.

fez · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:13

Used to love playing this but it is very expensive to put together good decks. Played this for years until my late teens when other priorities crept in but I always enjoy having a look over some of my old decks and favourite cards.

County · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:13

agnes said:
I just had another good game on the app... I drew! Wooo, yea it's still very early in the campaign but I'm putting up a decent enough fight and learning quickly haha.

I have no idea what to buy later... What do the starter decks come with? As I said, I'm looking to buy the double starter deck so me and the misses can have a few games over the weekend with a bottle of wine and pizza. And I will buy a few booster packs as well

MTG Salvation is a very good source of information!

County · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:15

kaiowas said:
Boosters don't have basic land in them so once you've got enough land you can just buy boosters.

Some do

kaiowas · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:16

County said:
Some do

Must have changed then, it has been getting on for 15 years since I was buying cards seriously!

PhilGQ · 29 Nov 2013 at 10:35

I have some sets, spent £100s on it, really only payed against my wife. Its good fun.

I use white/black deck with some multicolored cards and my wife uses green/blue, she usually wins.

I stopped buying it when they introduced planeswalkers, I felt it was running out of ideas.

agnes · 29 Nov 2013 at 11:39

PhilGQ said:
I have some sets, spent £100s on it, really only payed against my wife. Its good fun.

I use white/black deck with some multicolored cards and my wife uses green/blue, she usually wins.

I stopped buying it when they introduced planeswalkers, I felt it was running out of ideas.

Seeing as I'm just coming into it now, so late into the game, will I be getting a sore deal as a result?

Will the game be too mature to enjoy or is there still a big community?

Some of these questions will go towards the guys at the indie shop later, but I imagine they will also have their sales input behind their words.

Mockingbird · 29 Nov 2013 at 12:31

At this time of year, my recommendation (if you enjoy the intro decks) is to get one of the "holiday gift box" things - You get a load of basic land (very handy when you start out) and 4 boosters of cards, plus a decent quality storage box. Another option is a "fat pack" - basic land plus 9 boosters.

That should give you enough to tweak the intro decks, play a few games with one another and have a bit of a mes about. After that there are lots of options. One I quite like is drafting - find out if your local game shop runs a draft night. All you need is the entry fee and some basic land, because the way drafting works, everyone opens boosters on the night and builds decks from them so you don't have to worry about people with 5+ years of collections with killer decks.

Getting to know your local play group is also handy becuase it lets you know what they play. A lot of places play "standard" - decks can only include cards from the last year to 18 months' worth of releases.

Personally, I just play with the same group of 3-4 mates whenever we meet up, so silliness and "that's cool" is far more important than power level, when the card was printed etc.

LostPhil · 29 Nov 2013 at 17:40

After digging out my old Angel deck from way back when to have the occasional game with friends, I've now bought a Deck Builders Toolkit. Should be fun playing with shiny new cards

It's got a bad stigma, but I prefer playing this and other board games to online multiplayer games, feels far more sociable and more interesting than regular card games. I won't playing seriously and having the absolute best deck isn't a worry, so should be a nice 16 quid investment!

Tobes · 29 Nov 2013 at 18:02

Ahh I was just about to not recommend the deck builders toolkit as I find you acquire all of that easily over time and a fat pack would be better.

I have been playing for about two months. I started with a couple of intro decks. Bought boosters and then a fat pack the other day.

I get stomped on at FNM as it really is about the cards so I do need to accept that I need to buy single cards. I have been playing the trial of Magic Online rather than Magic 2014 because I don't like the timer on it. It makes the game a lot different for me than what I have come to enjoy from FNM.

Honestly in 2 months the amount of commons I have got is annoying. I know why other FNM players open there boosters, skip to the last 5 cards and hand me the others.

My friend who got me into it is a Judge so it's great having games with him and him telling me where I am going wrong. It also helps that I know he IS right. As I have played against others who think they know but then after I find out it was wrong.

But the Magic community is great. I wanted something to get me out the house and once a week it does this. Support your LGS!

Also to add, me and my friend will be doing twitch/youtube videos of Magic and other things. But we are excited for Magic videos because we think he has the knowledge and I have the questions a noob might ask so hopefully they make for a good watch. I love the Day 9 videos but feel they go quite quickly.