Icrontic-style Magic: The Gathering discussion thread

[Winfrey]

Keebler, I would love to have a Magic draft tournament sometime. Curse my inability to attend the LAN!

[Lincoln]

Keebler, I would love to have a Magic draft tournament sometime. Curse my inability to attend the LAN!OMG GET HERE NOW.

[sharkydart]

That carpet inside the Red Dragon is Epic. Holy ****.
I was thinking the same thing.

...I'll bring a few decks

[Lincoln]

...I'll bring a few decks
Heh, I only have enough cards for one deck (2 tourney decks and 3 boosters), so take it easy on me :p

[Buddy J]

I still have 2 or 3 EPIC decks lying around.

[QCH]

I have a few old decks... If only I still have my Beta cards... :(

[primesuspect]

omg magic nerds coming out of the woodwork.

[sharkydart]

...I HAD to make this...

tank cat is not amused

[Zanthian]

Awesome curtis hehe

[Buddy J]

Foil cards helped kill Magic.

[CB]

Why do you think so?

[Winfrey]

Magic isn't dead IMHO

[Buddy J]

When I say dead, I mean it has no soul. The game's original draw was it's originality, simplicity, and general fun attitude; three things it has lost in the past years.

WotC pushed out waaay too many large sets way too soon in a move to capitalize on the game's popularity. Coupled with the tournament environment's change to a ridiculously high number of play rule sets (standard, extended, vintage, type I, type 2, Kanegawa Block, Block extended, restricted...) it became clear that the push was to force players into buying as many cards as possible to stay competitive at even the local level.

The sets then became diluted with piss-poor cards that were more fluff and filler than a substantial addition to the game. The designers substituted for this by adding extra creature abilities to the sets, most of which were ass (starting with phasing in Mirage and going on until now). Add to that the rehashing of old cards albeit in less-powerful, more useless forms, or outright reprinting.

Foils were the final straw for me. It's just one more change that was done purely for marketing. At that point, I said F-it, I'm out. I'm not gonna stick with a game that's headed to Pokemon and YuGiOh territory.

And a lot of other people did too; so much so that the game is dying in a traditional sense now. It's the big fish in a diluted puddle of stagnant mechanics and over-hyped drivel. Most game store owners will tell you that their M:tG sales have taken a nose dive over the past 5 years, and they're stuck with boxes full of crap Rares and binders full of foils from sets over 18-months old that are quickly gathering dust.

[Winfrey]

I still enjoy a game or two now and then. I played many games with my 6 yr. old nephew about three weeks ago. I guess I never played in big highly competitive tournaments so maybe thats why I haven't become so jaded. Magic IMO is still a much better card game strategy wise than any other card game by Wizards of the Coast.

[Crazy Joe]

Yea, when Team Nexlia was playing Magic, we'd limit ourselves to only buying cards at the same time so that we didn't have the issues of one of us spending alot more than someone else causing them to have the advantage... Once it got to that point our MtG days were numbered as well.

[QCH]

Back some 12 years ago My group of gaming friends would all chip in and buy a case of cards when a new series came out. We'd each get "X" number of boosters and then trade the heck out of them. Back then, there was only one or two new boosters per year and they didn't release drastically new things. I loved the spawn booster (little 1/1 guys and then force of nature)... I had several thousand dollars worth of cards (from trading not buying.) Rock Hydra's, Mana Flares, Red Dragons, a few Black Lotus's, and probably 100 rare betas....

Then someone broke into the sound booth at the colleges theater and stole all of them... Never had the hart to start again and WotC started reprinting the first edition... too depressing.

I did receive a gift of about 600 cards about 9 years ago. Nothing too special. I may bring them to the LAN. We'll see....

[GHoosdum]

If IC LAN '08 turns into IC MTG '08 I'm gonna /quit for reals.

[primesuspect]

It won't. It'll be IC RB 08 :p

[sharkydart]

I like the foils, for they are shiny. That's as far as I care about them though. I think it's funny to see them used in play, since it makes the card look special, but all the shiny-ness in the world doesn't make it suck any less than its normal version. I realize not everyone is into spending money/time on collectable games though. MTG is still fun for me, but it's not something worth spending more money on; I never play anymore, plus I have cards lying around I have wanted to put in decks for a while. Playing some Magic at IC LAN 08 won't be a problem; I'm not bringing more than a couple decks, and there will be a wide variety of things to do, most of which I'd like to be a part of.

What pisses me off about the game is the people who look up card lists of winning decks and buy the cards they need! Coming up with my own ideas/strategy is what makes the game great for me.

[QCH]

I made a spawn deck... 1000 cards... Every type of small spawn creature. Nothing like 30 1/1 creatures and then pop a rare X/X (X is the number of spawn creatures you have). Those were fun.

Or... the fire and ice combo (Blue and Red)... Creative ways to have fun.

[Buddy J]

/me plays Pestilence. Your spawn die. Every turn. BWAHAHAHHA.

[Winfrey]

What pisses me off about the game is the people who look up card lists of winning decks and buy the cards they need! Coming up with my own ideas/strategy is what makes the game great for me.

I agree completely.

If IC LAN '08 turns into IC MTG '08 I'm gonna /quit for reals.

I doubt such a thing would happen, be it you not going or the lan becoming a MTG fest.:)

[Lincoln]

I don't get your argument, Buddy J... the number of expansions per year has been the same since 1997: 1 big, 2 small. Foil cards... are nice if you are a big collector. I just set them aside, usually. I don't see why a shiny card would make you quit the game though.

Mechanics... I dunno, I think the new ones are pretty sweet. I don't think you'll see anyone argue "phasing" was a good ability, but it kept the game interesting. Having only bought cards from the most recent "big" expansion, I think the tribal creature abilities were a great idea.

I really enjoyed putting a deck together around that idea, even with the very limited number of cards I have here. Having so few cards to choose from was refreshing, really. I've always wished I could get to sealed deck tournaments. I think that's where skills really shine. :)

Honestly, I think the game is still very-well geared toward the casual gamer, the hard-core tournament player, and the collector. They've done remarkably well appealing to several crowds without stepping on the toes of others.

[primesuspect]

ITT we discuss MTG

[Harudath]

I remember Duel Masters :tongue: I loved it while it lasted tbh :P

[rolleggroll]

eggroll rolls out with an old school stasis / ernham djinn & armageddon deck.

a draft would sound fun....but the new rules and card types are just ridiculous now. I mean double sided cards? wtf is that ****.

I'm an classic player myself, only played from beta to 6th edition.

[CB]

I had quit after 5th edition because a couple of my friends just had so many cards that it was impossible to beat them ever.

Then we played a few draft tourneys since Ravnica, and that's fun. But, I've not done anything with the cards after the tourney, only the tourney is fun, which means like $11 for a whole day of MTG fun...

[QCH]

I played the online game. Probably still have cards online. I quit that a few years ago because I refused to play with new cards. I like the ones I had.

[Gate28]

yes, persoanlly my epic decks are on magic Online, thats where its at, yo

[sharkydart]

... Having only bought cards from the most recent "big" expansion, I think the tribal creature abilities were a great idea...

Whew. From the pics, I thought you bought a box of Coldsnap, and that would have been a fairly substantial failure.

[Lincoln]

Whew. From the pics, I thought you bought a box of Coldsnap, and that would have been a fairly substantial failure.
Nah, that's just what he packaged them in. Coldsnap is that bad, eh? I was a big fan of Ice Age and Alliances. I bought Lorwyn decks and 10th ed. packs.

[Gate28]

we should tally do our draft on Magic: The Gathering Online. I can pitch in some dough for boosters, MGO has a special draft mode, even!

BTW my blue/black deck is leik half coldsnap and its really good

[checkmate]

Type 2 Goblins ftw!