MTG?

[Christos]

I will quite easily first pick Fangren Marauder in triple MBS drafts.
It is an amazing card, I've won several drafts with it (IRL).

But in a MBS-SOM-SOM draft I would probably like to pick Spine of Ish Sah.

[Tooveli]

I saw this thread and it reminded me that back when mtgo came out I played some magic, spent some money, won some drafts, got a bit addicted, forgot to sleep for a month, ragequit and left 3 accounts and their cards in exile.

This was about 7 years ago. This was before I found that go is a pretty good game also.

I managed to get access to these accounts again and I had no idea what kind of collection I had when I quit. I wouldn't have been surprised if they were empty or had thousands of cards. Anyway, turns out there were thousands (mostly valueless) but a simple online pricer I found valued my collection at around $800 (no idea how accurate that is).

Anyone know what my best plan is for selling it?

Also, should I reinvest that money in a few packs for drafts from the current format or will it be a slippery slope even though I'm 7 years older, wiser but with the same fascination for games... ?

[Violence]

Hmm... diving into BSG SOM SOM after 7 years of no magic would be asking to lose quite a bit of money.

I don't know how to resell MTGO Tickets, but you can check online to see if there are legitimate ways of reselling them.

If there are, my recommendation would be to go around to the classified bots/humans, and try to liquidate your collection as much as possible, into MTGO Tickets, then resell them online.

If not, I don't think you can reclaim old cards from Wizards... but there is a reclaiming system where you collect a playset of every card in one set, and Wizards will send you a real set of those cards.

And if that's impossible, well, there's always new cards and drafting...

[Tooveli]

There are sites that offer quotes for buying collections so I assume that it's possible/legit to just sell for money. Looks like I have enough cards for a full onslaught set (I have the same number of rares but I have >4 of the crappier ones and <4 of the more expensive ones) but I'd have to do some trading. It's unlikely I'll be able to get another full set. It's only worth doing if I can sell the real cards for more though. The cards have no value to me beyond sale value. I haven't found much good up-to-date information on all this yet. Going to take a bit of research.

Re the game itself:
Aside from new mechanics, the main rule change seems to be instant resolution of combat damage... that makes me sad.
Planeswalkers and cards that level up are pretty cool/funny ideas.

Re jumping into drafts:
Yeah, I don't think that's really possible... so much I'd be missing with no knowledge of the card pool even if learning the new mechanics/rules and brushing up on my skills wasn't a problem. On top of that infect doesn't sound like a fun mechanic to jump in to the middle of as it seems to reward experience/knowledge of the card pool. Maybe I should wait for M12 ^^

[Violence]

No Mana Burn, mana emptying at the end of phases, a simplified stack, ordering blockers, Deathtouch Trample rules interaction change, Layering of stat changes...

Little stuff, but important nonetheless.

Onslaught... (looks up the set)

Let's see... the things that stick out to me are:

The cycle of fetch lands. Oh my god the cycle of fetch lands.

Golbin Piledriver is used in many Legacy Goblin decks. Goblin Sharpshooter is used in EDH and other multiplayer formats.

Arcanis is amazing in EDH, widely used General, I think.

But yeah... pretty much... the cycle of Fetches. Windswept Heath, Wooded Foothills, Polluted Delta, etc.

Each of them is worth about 100 dollars per playset in real cash. It's something I'm hoping my Zendikar Fetches eventually become.

[palapiku]

Never played MTG, this thread completely affirms my perception that it's just a huge scam designed to get people to pay a ton of money to some company.

[Violence]

The same could be said of many hobbies.

Also, I hate Batterskull.

And jeez did the format get more swingy and cutthroat... it's so easy to get blown out with more board sweepers and mind control effects. Last night I played a guy whose rares were Life's Demise, Phyrexian Rebirth, and Sunblast Angel. G...G...

[DharmaBum]

I started playing when the Zendikar set was released. I love playing a mono black vampire deck.

[Kirby]

I tried this game for the first time around last week. Nobody at my work plays go, but some people play Magic. I decided to try it out. I bought a deckbuilder toolkit, and put together some cards.

It's kind of entertaining to play, but I like go much better.

Still, at least there are people that play this game at my work.

I'm really new to this game, but so far I like black and blue cards the best. I like cards that take control of other people's cards, make them discard, or counter their spells.

Cards with high attack (eg. 20/20) are not as interesting to me for some reason.

I really do like go a lot better, though. When you play this game, you can be totally surprised at some random card that they happen to have.

At least with go, I can see the entire board.

[BaghwanB]

I really do like go a lot better, though. When you play this game, you can be totally surprised at some random card that they happen to have.

At least with go, I can see the entire board.

That's may main problem with "collectible games". I know some people like this aspect of them, but I really prefer to have more info in front of me about what my opponents even might be able to do. Unless I go out and research EVERY SINGLE CARD out there, it feels like I'm playing without knowing all of the rules.

Not that I don't like less than full info games or ones that involve some chance (I'm a big wargame fan when I have the time...) but most of the CCGs make me feel like I'm playing half blind instead of making informed decisions in my play.

Bruce "Owns MtG & Yugio & Evangelion Decks" Young

[Marcus]

Kirby mentioning that he doesn't find large (vanilla) creatures doesn't strike me as very surprising.

As to card knowledge being essential ... well, that is part of the attraction for some people ... building a mental model of what your opponent could have in their hand or in their deck makes for a stimulating thought exercise.

Of course, being able to build that mental image of what does and does not make sense takes experience, like in most other strategy games.

The biggest drawback to CCGs, in my mind, is the constant need to invest in the game. I don't spend any money on Go currently, and over my lifetime I'm not likely to spend thousands of dollars on the game. With Magic, I can tell you that over 15 years of playing I've definitely spent thousands, though I've recouped a lot of that by selling cards occasionally. That's way too much investment, and I have definitely curbed my spending on Magic tremendously in the past 4-5 years.

[Violence]

Glad to hear you had a good experience. The Deck builder's Toolkit is a good first purchase.

And yes, a large part of the fun is coming up with what your opponent is trying to do, identifying what is in his hand before playing anything.

The better you get at magic, the more you can get out of your cards. For example, you have a Cancel in hand with Swamp, Island, Island untapped, and a Liliana's Spectre in play. Your opponent casts Lightning Bolt, targeting the Spectre, and he has Mountain, Mountain, Forest, Forest, Forest untapped, 2 cards in hand, and hasn't dropped a land.

You can play your Cancel and save your Spectre, but you run the risk of him playing a land and dropping, say, Yavimaya Wurm, and taking over the game. Your Spectre already got its value when it came into play, it took away a card and the opponent used a card to get rid of it, so you don't need to play Cancel, especially when you suspect your opponent has another card to play this turn.

Of course, that changes if you also have a Mind Control in hand, and you want your opponent to play the big creature, so you intentionally play Cancel to give him impetus to run out his large creature straight into your plan.

Play skill does make a huge difference in Magic.

[Chew Terr]

Play skill does make a huge difference in Magic.

Definitely, it's just a different type of skill. Estimating possibilities, rather than drilling deep on what you can see. Kind of like poker, in that way.

It's almost sad how eager I am for the XBLA MTG game coming out in a week or so... It's easier to get your money's worth out of that game than a single real-card draft, though. And any game with local coop wins in my book.

[ethanb]

Been a long long time... last I heard Lightning Bolt was restricted in tournament play, being non-existent in 4th edition. But I'd pretty much stopped playing by then anyway.

Somewhere in a box I might be able to find my favorite deck of all time - a Red/Artifact deck based on Atog from 3rd Ed., Goblin Grenade from what's-it-called (the expansion that made green players keep jars full of change next to them for counters... Fallen Empires, that was it), Ornithopters and Urza's tower/factory/whatever from Antiquities (I think?), and whatever cheap artifact creatures I could find to fill it up to 40 cards.

Strategy: Zerg rush, then sacrifice everything for maximum damage via Atog or Grenade. Surprisingly effective.

Any idea what an Unlimited edition Lord of the Pit would go for these days? Or a Beta Volcanic Island? Those are probably my oldest rare cards if I recall correctly. (I also have an Alpha fireball.. probably worth a good 60 cents or so.)


EDIT: I read lamentation above about the new combat damage system resolving as instants... wasn't it always like that? That's why my Atog deck even worked, as instant effects resolve in reverse order - otherwise it would die before you could pump it up.

Or am I misreading, and rather than "resolve damage as instant effect" I should be understanding that now you "resolve damage INSTANTLY" (as interrupt, I guess) which would mean... a heck of a lot of strategy goes out the window, yeah? No reason even to have direct damage be instants at all in that case, since your Lightning Bolt or Tim will never hit anything before it's done its duty.

[Marcus]

Heh, ethanb, the rules have changed a few times since you played, it seems. Things are a lot more structured now, well beyond the 4th ed rule system. There are a few decisions made about the rules in recent years that has some players a bit unhappy ... but it's just grumbling, nothing serious.