The General Magic: The Gathering Thread

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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby tamaness » 27 May 2012, 23:13

guidance wrote:So I know that the 5 colors have their allied and enemy colors, but I don't know what that causes. Do the colors interact differently with each other if they are enemies vs if they are allies?

That's really a flavor thing more than anything else. There are also some cards in each color that specifically target "enemy" colors or help "ally" colors, but they're few and far between. Each color does have its own flavor and abilities, but those aren't really opposition/alliance things.

edit: added quote for clarity
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 27 May 2012, 23:32

You do get cards that have opposite colours as well, for example Sorin, Lord of Innistrad is a white/black card.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Jenelmo » 28 May 2012, 06:05

It has to do with the color wheel (Explanation)and the identity of the colors.
Take Green for an example, it stands for nature, life, freedom, community and so on.
Its allies is:
White
In White, Green sees another color interested in benefiting the community, rather than taking advantage of others.

Red
Both Red and Green place high value on instinctual behavior, dislike over-thinking and do not agree with being bound by artificial laws.

Enemies:
Blue
Green sees Blue as the enemy of nature, seeking to create its own artificial world order that overrules with what already exists.

Black
Green's other enemy is Black, which it hates for its parasitic nature. Unlike Green, Black seeks to exploit others for its own benefit, depriving others of the means to live out of pure greed.

Hope that helps, otherwise Mark Rosewater has written a lot of great articles explaining this
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 28 May 2012, 07:19

That all being said, you don't suffer a penalty for running a red white deck, which is very powerful in Avacyn restored. Nore do you get a benefit from running a blue black or black red deck.

The allied colors tend to compliment each other over the scope of modern but not always. before modern everything gets kinda murky the "allied/Enemys thing" as well as the "nature, life, fury, death and manipulations" were not always as strongly defined as they are now.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 28 May 2012, 07:43

It was more noticeable in the Shadowmoor set where they used hybrid mana - mana which could be paid with one of two colours, denoted by a mana circle split down the middle with a colour/symbol each side. Interestingly the colours were only ever ones next to each other on the wheel.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Jenelmo » 28 May 2012, 07:47

In Shadowmoor it was only Ally colors in eventide it was only enemy colors
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 28 May 2012, 07:49

I haven't seen any eventide so I wasn't aware of that. Learn something new every day :D But yeah it seemed to be more important then than it is now.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby SilPho » 28 May 2012, 10:30

Basically, there aren't any hidden rules about the colours themselves.

And Geoff, wait until Return To Ravnica ;)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Volafortis » 28 May 2012, 10:33

I'm hoping that they do the 4/3/3 split again. Mainly because it seems the best way to make limited environments work with multicolored sets. Alara limited could be something of a mess if you got a bad pool.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby guidance » 28 May 2012, 12:25

Well that was more information than I thought I would get. Sweet thanks guys.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 28 May 2012, 17:24

Anyone who wants to add me on MTGO, my username is kapol there too. I just played my first match and... I regret spending any money on it. The UI is awful, the gameplay itself is incredibly unituitive, the deck building isn't nearly as simple and clear as it could be, and the cards look pretty bad themselves. The freeware program I used to play a friend worked and looked a lot better, even if the lack of official rules being set in (having to do everything manually) was annoying. Not to mention my opponant was a sore loser. I beat him by a longshot. So the last 3-4 moves, he didn't do anything until the game forced it to progress just to piss me off (as shown by his 'trolololol' comment after the game).

That said, I'm up for trying a game with someone who isn't a jerk if anyone wants to. While I don't like the interface or gameplay, it's a decent way to play magic online, even if it really kinda is a 'pay2win' style of online game. It's really too bad there isn't a way to bring the physical cards you own into the game instead of having to repay for everything.

Also, thanks for putting up the color-matching information. It's a nifty little look into the mythos of the game.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Under_Score » 28 May 2012, 18:19

You get used to the interface, and actually being able to have hard rules instead of having to keep track of yourself and your opponent is nice.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 28 May 2012, 18:35

It is nice, but the cost of that is having to buy packs to build decks and similar expensive aspects.

That said, I do like the fact they have drafts. I'd love to do one with some people from here, but I really can't afford it. It's really too bad that none of my friends play Magic.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 28 May 2012, 23:17

I long for the day when you can scan the physical cards you own and have them show up on your MTGO account. With the ability to hide codes in pictures that we now have it shouldn't be that difficult should it?
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 28 May 2012, 23:22

The problem would be a matter of making sure it's a card instead of something else. A picture could early be printed and shared.

For the Yugioh games, they had a code on each card that you could put into the game to get the card, but only one copy of the card. That worked decently, but it'd be too easy to get the codes online. They could randomize the codes of course, but that wouldn't help older cards. Many other physical methods, like some sort of scanner or something, would post similar problems.

But the real reason is pretty clear. It's MUCH more profitable to sell the cards online seperately, even if they lose some business due to it.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lemegeton » 29 May 2012, 04:41

hey all. this is my first attempt at building a deck. feedback would be appreciated. its nothing fancy, just the standard deathfed deck from innistrad coupled with some soulbond creatures.


Terrifying presence x1
Splinterfright x1
Llanowar elves x3
Bonehoard x2
Viridian emissary x3
Forest x 12
Island x 12
Tandem lookout x2
Green sun’s zenith x1
Ice cage x1
Wolfir silverheart x1
Overrun x1
Nightshade peddler x2
Negate x3
Acidic slime x3
Vorstclaw x2
Gnaw to the bone x3
Boneyard wurm x4
Forbidden alchemy x4
Wolfir avenger x2
Armored skaab x3

my sideboard

Spider spawning x2
Flashfreeze x3
Naturalize x3
Wingcrafter x2
Geist trappers x1
Elgaud shieldmate x2
Negate x1
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 29 May 2012, 04:47

I really should get round to posting my two main decks. Hopefully tonight.

Oh just one thing, as I understand it a sideboard has to be exactly 15 cards. Yours is 14. Sorry.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Under_Score » 29 May 2012, 08:01

I still like the Pokemon TCG method for online. If you buy one of the more recent packs of cards, you get a code that allows you to buy a digital pack of cards. Sure, you still don't get your exact deck, but at least you don't have to pay for two separate collections.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 29 May 2012, 09:54

As promised, here's the first of my two main decks:

20 Lands

6 Forests
11 Plains
2 Seraph Sanctuary
1 Cavern of Souls

16 Creatures

1 Angel of Jubilation
1 Archangel
1 Avacyn, Angel of Hope
1 Furyborn Hellkite
1 Inferno Titan
4 Midnight Duelist
2 Moorland Inquisitor
1 Restoration Angel
2 Thraben Valiant
2 Voice of the Provinces

13 Artifacts

1 Angelic Armaments
1 Angel's Tomb
2 Bladed Bracers
1 Conjurer's Closet
1 Moonsilver Spear
4 Quicksilver Amulet
2 Scroll of Avacyn
1 Worldslayer

10 Spells

2 Banishing Stroke
1 Call to Serve
1 Cathar's Crusade
2 Cursebreak
1 Entreat the Angels
2 Rampant Growth
1 Terminus

1 Planeswalker

1 Gideon Jura

Sideboard

10 Creatures

2 Cathedral Sanctifier
2 Farbog Explorer
1 Goldnight Commander
2 Goldnight Redeemer
2 Midvast Protector
1 Silverblade Paladin

5 Spells

1 Day of Judgment
2 Defy Death
2 Rampant Growth

I call it "Angelic Hordes Come Forth!"
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lemegeton » 29 May 2012, 13:28

ok i have moved ice cage from the main deck into the sideboard.

Under_Score wrote:I still like the Pokemon TCG method for online. If you buy one of the more recent packs of cards, you get a code that allows you to buy a digital pack of cards. Sure, you still don't get your exact deck, but at least you don't have to pay for two separate collections.


i think the reasoning behind it is when you have a system like that you are inviting trouble from hackers. i figure Wizards dont want to risk it and preserve the integrity of both games. thats just my opinion
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby vxicepickxv » 29 May 2012, 13:28

Under_Score wrote:I still like the Pokemon TCG method for online. If you buy one of the more recent packs of cards, you get a code that allows you to buy a digital pack of cards. Sure, you still don't get your exact deck, but at least you don't have to pay for two separate collections.
That would probably work better. I know that did something similar with MTG Tactics, where they gave away the free Serra Avatar. Unlike in regular MTG though, you can't get flash for some of your other spells.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Geoff_B » 29 May 2012, 13:42

Here's my other deck:

20 Lands

20 Islands

12 Creatures

4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Phantasmal Dragon
2 Jace's Archivist
1 Lord of the Unreal
1 Phantasmal Image

28 Spells

4 Jace's Erasure
2 Cancel
4 Unsummon
1 Turn to Frog
2 Frost Breath
4 Mana Leak
4 Negate
2 Ice Cage
2 Redirect
2 Mind Control
1 Time Reversal

I call this one "All in the mind" :D
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lord Hosk » 29 May 2012, 15:54

The interface problem is a separate issue but everything else people describe as problems with MTGO, are all things that make Wizards money.

I think the main reason that the interface hasn't changed is because it makes a boat load of money, 50% of their annual profits from what I hear. They dont want to do anything that will drive off the guys who pay them hundreds of dollars a month to draft.

If you want a good example of that, at its peak Star Wars Galaxies was reporting 300,000 paying customers with over 200,000 logging in every week, that was constant for about 9 months but new players only stuck around for the free trial period with game, the biggest complaint "we cant compete with the hard core players" so they changed the game and within 3 months they dropped below 100,000 people playing every week, within 6 months it was under 150,000 total subscribers. They have a loyal fan base but to cater to the "new guy" the "fresh blood" that would make them a everquest killer they lost their players. (keep in mind this is when MMORPG's maxed at everquest)
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Kapol » 29 May 2012, 22:23

Lord Hosk wrote:The interface problem is a separate issue but everything else people describe as problems with MTGO, are all things that make Wizards money.

I think the main reason that the interface hasn't changed is because it makes a boat load of money, 50% of their annual profits from what I hear. They dont want to do anything that will drive off the guys who pay them hundreds of dollars a month to draft. )


I can understand that, and figured that's the majority of the reason for many of their choices. The interface wouldn't be too hard to fix without actually getting in the way of those who like the old way. Could be as simple as allowing seperate interface options.

But yea, from what I heard MTGO actually makes them MORE then the physical cards. Which would make sense. No shipping, no getting the ones who sell them with their cut, and a fairly large playerbase. So I don't really blame them for being 'greedy' with the way they sell their cards. Mainly because it's a good way to make money and, honestly, it's not a bad deal if someone goes online-only. You can play when you want against strangers or friends who are online and don't have to deal with lugging around cards all over.

But for crying out loud, make the UI more intuitive. They don't even need to fix the matches. I don't like them that much but they aren't all that horrible.
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Re: Magic: The Gathering: Whatcha mean, there's no thread ye

Postby Lemegeton » 30 May 2012, 01:17

is there any point to paying the $12 for MTGO if you are not prepared to spend more for boosters and event entry. so is the game worth playing with just the starter deck you receive.
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