The Obligatory Magic: The Gathering Thread

[Loren Wade]

I've resisted posting this for a while now... but the truth is I'm addicted. It's one of those games that most nerds have probably played or learned one time or another.

 

How about you guys? Any other magic players here? I'm sure there are.

 

Let's start with a survey.

 

How long have you played magic?

Off an on since '96.

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Mostly Standard, but I play Draft on event days/prereleases.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Yes.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Junk: Black/Green/White

 

What's your favorite card?

Currently Deathrite Shaman.

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?
I was mostly playing Selesnya Tokens the last couple months, but I am switching to Junk Aristocrats.
 

[guest439437484421]

i used to, but i've quit for the time being.  might start drafting again, not sure.

[littlewings]

PFFT. ONLY NERDS PLAY MAGIC.

Oh.

[Duality]

I still play, but I only started when the first Gatecrash draft happened (pre-release?)

 

My room mates commander deck (mono black) is epic. worth like 600$ lol.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

How long have you played magic?

Played from '98 to '02 and lost interest when I moved and was no longer close to the local hobby shop I played at.

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Legacy for the most part.  I think my casual deck had 4 dark rituals (competition illigal) whenever I was playing black, but other than that everything was always Legacy.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

The hobby store had a tournament every other Friday or 1 Friday a month, I forget. I usually entered.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

I love me some blue. My fafvorite deck was never really competitive, took too long to get going/get the right cards. It was a blue counter/control deck with merfolk as the creatures. 8 control cards, 4 capsizes, 4 counter spells, 4 lords of atlantis, and I think 12 other merfolk. I think I also had a few mercenary cards that let me find merfolk in the deck and put them in play. Also had a few cards to make sure the opponent would get and island so I could kill em with island walk. Merfolk have gotten better since then and there are a few that would turn this deck into something awesome.

 

Before that I had a black vampire deck/plague type deck that just made crap tons of 1/1's. That's the one I won the local tournaments with, it was fantastic unless my opponent had a lot of trample.

 

I also ran a white/blue deck that had a comobo of 3 cards that made me invincible unless directly planned for. I forget the names, but it was a card that redirected all damage from me to a creature, a encahntment on the creature that negated all damage, then a card that made those cards untargetable. Even when they planned for me, I was next to invincible with all the counters from the blue deck. This was the one I was tweaking and working on to make it faster when I moved.

 

What's your favorite card?

Always loved my control cards.

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?

None. I still have all my cards, but nothing less than 10 years old. I keep meaning to catalog and sell them,

[alienjenn]

I played for a time in high school but haven't played regularly since my eldest child was born. .. our family joke is "the magic left when Shakespeare was born"

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Annabelle]

Loooooove MtG!

 

How long have you played magic?

Roughly 2004 when the husband introduced me to it and gave me my first deck

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Casual. I don't like the restrictions on older sets and whatnot.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Nope.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Black/Blue

 

What's your favorite card?

Notorious Throng (I happened to get three in my hand once, wiped an entire 6-person game with three back to back turns - and was subsequently asked to not play it anymore xD)

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?

Right now, my artifact deck & my red/white angel deck.

[Caution]

How long have you played magic?

I played from around the release of the legends deck in 1994 to sometime in 1999.

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Not really sure, what they called it back then but I'd call it casual (no cards / money on the line)

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Nope, just friends and family.

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Red and White was my favorite to play most of the time, although I did have a few poison decks that were fun to play with. 

What's your favorite card?

Wand of Ith

[Langer]

I played a lot when I was in high school, around the onslaught block, but stopped when I OT to college. Started back up again about a year ago when I found out some people at work play. Now we play casually every day at lunch (at the cool kids table)

[opfor1015]

I played briefly in high school...but never really had any other friends into it.  I wish I did, I enjoyed it.  

[BreadMage]

How long have you played magic?

I think I started playing around the time Mercadian Masks came out

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Strictly casual now since I sold all of my cards except one deck

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

I used to.

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Green/Blue/White or Red/Colorless

What's your favorite card?

Stasis

[Lawboots]

How long have you played magic?

Since Beta

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

I draft every now and then but I live for legacy

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Back in the day I was semi pro but college has forced me to take a more relaxed stance.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Blue or Blue/Black. I live for the Mother May I decks and John Fenkil is my spirit animal. (I got to play him in Seattle, he destroyed me it was awesome)

 

What's your favorite card?

Of all time?  Juzam Djinn (Because of all the jokes in InQuest) or Ertai Wizard Adept (Who I never managed to get)

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?
Black/White Orzhov control deck has been driving my friends insane
 

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

 

How long have you played magic?

I think I started playing around the time Mercadian Masks came out

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Strictly casual now since I sold all of my cards except one deck

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

I used to.

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Green/Blue/White or Red/Colorless

What's your favorite card?

Stasis

 

 

That's when I played too and a lot of my favorite cards came from it. Anyone play magic online?

[Loren Wade]

I play magic online free with a program called Cockatrice.

 

It's currently managed here: http://www.woogerworks.com/

[CoLdBooT]

How long have you played magic?

I started in 1994 and played way too much for about 3 years

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

I haven't played much since they started the whole "format" thing so I don't have a specific type.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Nope though there are plenty of options here if I should get back into it

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Black/White Pestinlence deck which I don't think is useable in almost any format anymore

 

What's your favorite card?

Black Lotus

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?
None currently.  I'd like to start playing some again but first I've got to see if I have the cards to build a legal deck for the current formats.

[Duality]

I play magic online free with a program called Cockatrice.

 

It's currently managed here: http://www.woogerworks.com/

 

my buddies are often on cockatrice, I have it on my pc, but I've never even used it xD

[deadliftnerd]

How long have you played magic?

Off an on since 1995

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Cube mostly and Pre releases. It's basically a time for me to play with little brother.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Not any more.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

It varies on format, but I like anything that lets you draw cards.  Blue  and fast decks.. like green.

So blue green in cube, but difficult with our cube set up.

 

What's your favorite card?

How can a person have one favorite card? I'll list a few.  Winter orb, strip mine, memory jar, ancestral recall, 

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?
I was mostly playing Selesnya Tokens the last couple months, but I am switching to Junk Aristocrats.

[rjanke7]

How long have you played magic?

Started in 97ish, some long gaps, but I still play a few times a year now

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Mix of Standard, and sealed deck tournament annually the night before a miniatures gaming convention

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

No

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

It's changed with the decades(wow, can't believe I can say that

 

What's your favorite card?

Krark's Thumb-  made a really fun coin flip deck that really pisses people off

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?

I have my multiply damage mono red deck, and a black and blue opponent discard deck.

 

 

I would like to play more, but of course there is only so much time in the day.  I really only get in one solid day of magic in a year now. 

[Shortgorilla]

How long have you played magic?

Since 4th edition, whenever that was.

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Casual.

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

I have, but not in years.  I couldn't hang now a days.

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Green and red.

 

What's your favorite card?

Dragon Broodmother. (I think that's the name?  I'm terrible.)

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?
My favorite deck is based around my broodmother popping out exponentially more babies on all my opponents' turns.  It's got a lot of ramp and inflation in it.  Control decks can cripple it though.  My other main deck is a nasty demon deck that plays out of the graveyard, straight black.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

So I made a new friend recently who just found MtG and has gotten really into it. He mentioned it to me, I busted out my cards to show him what I used to run, and behold, I now have 3 new decks and have downloaded Magic 2015 on my Xbox. The bug is back.

 

So, now that the bug is back, we're planning on going to a Friday Night Magic event at the local shop and doing a booster draft. Neither of us has ever done one, him being brand new and never playing any format other than constructed, and me always having done Legacy constructed tournaments back in tthe day at the local comic . Any tips on how to approach a booster draft? Building decks usually takes me hours/days using a concept and 1000+ cards at my disposal, so this is completely foreign to me.

[Robpocalypse]

I have 5 boxes of magic cards in the basement, I'm not even sure why I keep them. I have a shoe box full of land cards, not even dual lands, Forest, Swamps etc.  What the hell am I going to do with all these basic land cards?!?

When I played draft it was always the special abilities du'jour that dominated (Trample, slivers, etc.) drafting is one of those things where a lot of variables depend on what's being drafted around you and which set you're drafting in.  I played from The Dark through roughly Exodus but I'm pretty sure the game has changed significantly since then.

[insanity]

 

How long have you played magic?

Since about 3 months ago.... yeah, I'm that new.

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Commander and Draft

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Yes... we do drafts for FNM

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Black/Green/White or Black/Green/Red (I like big, hard hitting creatures...)

 

What's your favorite card?

Right now, Duneblast http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386527

 

 

Get that with a Kin-Tree invocation - http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386583

 

Leads to fun times.

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?

My favorite right now is the Black/Green/Red commander pre-built deck... I'm not at a point where I can build my own decks yet, though I'm close.

 

So I made a new friend recently who just found MtG and has gotten really into it. He mentioned it to me, I busted out my cards to show him what I used to run, and behold, I now have 3 new decks and have downloaded Magic 2015 on my Xbox. The bug is back.

 

So, now that the bug is back, we're planning on going to a Friday Night Magic event at the local shop and doing a booster draft. Neither of us has ever done one, him being brand new and never playing any format other than constructed, and me always having done Legacy constructed tournaments back in tthe day at the local comic . Any tips on how to approach a booster draft? Building decks usually takes me hours/days using a concept and 1000+ cards at my disposal, so this is completely foreign to me.

Now I'm FAAARRR from an expert, as you can see by the survey above... but...

 

Step 1: Get your packs, they assign seating in my store, then hand out 3 packs to each person.

Step 2: Open pack, put token and land card on table, then pick one card and pass the deck (Left Right Left for each deck) until all cards are gone.

Step 3: Build your deck, I generally do 17-18 lands, and the rest spells, dual lands are really good to grab, even over some of the real good cards.

 

I tend to stay away from the really high drop cards (Unless I pull for value), though 1 or 2 hard hitting and/or flying creatures almost required to have on hand just don't make your deck all high drop cards. Mine tend to stay under a 4 drop level, with more than half in the 1 and 2 drop.

 

There's is an acronym you can use when trying to decide what to pull.

 

B - Bombs - Hard hitting creatures that can win you the game, once these guys get out if your opponent has no response, he/she is done.

R - Removal - Spells or creatures that can remove an opponents creatures.

E - Evasion - Creatures that can evade attacks - Flying, fear, intimidate, etc...

A - Abilities - Abilities that come with the creatures

D - Dirt - Junk cards - a 1/1 elf with no abilities... pretty much cannon fodder.

 

You want to try and get a little of each (Except Dirt), in whatever your playstyle goes for.

 

And if you want someone to trade with... I got plenty of cards... :-D

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I have 5 boxes of magic cards in the basement, I'm not even sure why I keep them. I have a shoe box full of land cards, not even dual lands, Forest, Swamps etc.  What the hell am I going to do with all these basic land cards?!?

When I played draft it was always the special abilities du'jour that dominated (Trample, slivers, etc.) drafting is one of those things where a lot of variables depend on what's being drafted around you and which set you're drafting in.  I played from The Dark through roughly Exodus but I'm pretty sure the game has changed significantly since then.

 

I'll give you my address and $50. Send that shit to me.

 

How long have you played magic?

Since about 3 months ago.... yeah, I'm that new.

 

What format do you play? (Draft, standard, legacy, casual, etc.)

Commander and Draft

 

Do you play competitively (play at a store weekly, i.e. FNM)?

Yes... we do drafts for FNM

 

What's your favorite color or color combination to play?

Black/Green/White or Black/Green/Red (I like big, hard hitting creatures...)

 

What's your favorite card?

Right now, Duneblast http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386527

 

 

Get that with a Kin-Tree invocation - http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=386583

 

Leads to fun times.

 

What deck are you currently playing the most with?

My favorite right now is the Black/Green/Red commander pre-built deck... I'm not at a point where I can build my own decks yet, though I'm close.

 

Now I'm FAAARRR from an expert, as you can see by the survey above... but...

 

Step 1: Get your packs, they assign seating in my store, then hand out 3 packs to each person.

Step 2: Open pack, put token and land card on table, then pick one card and pass the deck (Left Right Left for each deck) until all cards are gone.

Step 3: Build your deck, I generally do 17-18 lands, and the rest spells, dual lands are really good to grab, even over some of the real good cards.

 

I tend to stay away from the really high drop cards (Unless I pull for value), though 1 or 2 hard hitting and/or flying creatures almost required to have on hand just don't make your deck all high drop cards. Mine tend to stay under a 4 drop level, with more than half in the 1 and 2 drop.

 

There's is an acronym you can use when trying to decide what to pull.

 

B - Bombs - Hard hitting creatures that can win you the game, once these guys get out if your opponent has no response, he/she is done.

R - Removal - Spells or creatures that can remove an opponents creatures.

E - Evasion - Creatures that can evade attacks - Flying, fear, intimidate, etc...

A - Abilities - Abilities that come with the creatures

D - Dirt - Junk cards - a 1/1 elf with no abilities... pretty much cannon fodder.

 

You want to try and get a little of each (Except Dirt), in whatever your playstyle goes for.

 

And if you want someone to trade with... I got plenty of cards... :-D

 

Good tips, thanks! I've read a few articles and it seems the best way to go for a beginner is 17 lands minimum, 15 creatures minimum, and spells for the rest to the 40 card minimum (stay at 40!).

 

From there things vary a bit. I found an app that lets your practice booster drafts with given booster packs. The older blocks are free, current ones that are typical at FNM you need to pay for access to. For now I'm just doing the older ones to practice the process. I'm generall taking whatever I think the best cards are from the 1st packs, then reviewing to see what colors/combos/theme I now have to build around, then I consider that for the second packs, review again, then the last pack is filling out my concept. I'll say screw it and draw for value for awesome cards even if there's no way I'll use them in whatever build I've decided on. I do keep ending up with mostly 2 and 3 drop cards, with maybe 2x 4 drop creatures, 2-3x 4+ drop creatures, and 2 3+ spells.

 

I like the acronym. I have noticed that removal cards are hard to come by in the drafts and snag them every time. I haven't tended to grab as much evasion cards, but I can definitely see the up side to doing so since there won't be a ton in a given deck to counter them. I have been big on going for abilities and that's typically what I've been paying attention to when trying to draw the best card, things like a 3 drop 2/2 with the ability to make itself a 4/4 given a certain trigger that I can build around trying to get.

 

I also got an app recently where I can take a picture of my cards and it identidies it and adds it to my collection database. I haven't started using it yet as doing this for 1000-3000 cards that I estimate I have is daunting, but I have sorted them by set to make it quicker to do once I get going on it

 

As for trading, most of my cards are only good for Legacy, since my newest cards are from Prophecy or Invasion, both released in 2000 before the Modern format cuttooff of 8th edition in 2003. I'm hoping to do a booster draft every 2-3 weeks if I get into it once I try it out, and if I can consistantly find the time to go to Friday or Monday night booster drafts.

[insanity]

I have 5 boxes of magic cards in the basement, I'm not even sure why I keep them. I have a shoe box full of land cards, not even dual lands, Forest, Swamps etc.  What the hell am I going to do with all these basic land cards?!?

When I played draft it was always the special abilities du'jour that dominated (Trample, slivers, etc.) drafting is one of those things where a lot of variables depend on what's being drafted around you and which set you're drafting in.  I played from The Dark through roughly Exodus but I'm pretty sure the game has changed significantly since then.

My first draft I ended up with some slivers (There's a few in M15), it was the only thing I saw that had some synergy.... one guy still talks about me beating him with it.

 

I'll give you my address and $50. Send that shit to me.

 

 

Good tips, thanks! I've read a few articles and it seems the best way to go for a beginner is 17 lands minimum, 15 creatures minimum, and spells for the rest to the 40 card minimum (stay at 40!).

 

Yeah, I've noticed better luck at sticking to 40, though I have a few times added in a couple more land cards (get mana screwed too often) to end up at 42-43

 

From there things vary a bit. I found an app that lets your practice booster drafts with given booster packs. The older blocks are free, current ones that are typical at FNM you need to pay for access to. For now I'm just doing the older ones to practice the process. I'm generall taking whatever I think the best cards are from the 1st packs, then reviewing to see what colors/combos/theme I now have to build around, then I consider that for the second packs, review again, then the last pack is filling out my concept. I'll say screw it and draw for value for awesome cards even if there's no way I'll use them in whatever build I've decided on. I do keep ending up with mostly 2 and 3 drop cards, with maybe 2x 4 drop creatures, 2-3x 4+ drop creatures, and 2 3+ spells.

 

That's close to what I do, though now that I think about it I don't really mesh out a plan... that's something I'll need to start doing. I tend to pick a color combo based on the first deck then go from there, but not really expanding on that. Might try your process on friday...

 

I like the acronym. I have noticed that removal cards are hard to come by in the drafts and snag them every time. I haven't tended to grab as much evasion cards, but I can definitely see the up side to doing so since there won't be a ton in a given deck to counter them. I have been big on going for abilities and that's typically what I've been paying attention to when trying to draw the best card, things like a 3 drop 2/2 with the ability to make itself a 4/4 given a certain trigger that I can build around trying to get.

 

Lost 2 matches this past week because I had no flyers (the one I did have was a 7? drop, so I left it out), one guy kept hitting me with a 1/5 flyer and I had no response, the other had a 4/5 that he buffed to a 6/7... that was was a little less torturous...so I brought in the one flyer I had, and won the next match with it. Morph is also another one that wrecks me if played right.

 

I also got an app recently where I can take a picture of my cards and it identidies it and adds it to my collection database. I haven't started using it yet as doing this for 1000-3000 cards that I estimate I have is daunting, but I have sorted them by set to make it quicker to do once I get going on it.

 

I might have to look into this, though I do agree with you that 3000 cards is daunting, I have more than that myself...

 

As for trading, most of my cards are only good for Legacy, since my newest cards are from Prophecy or Invasion, both released in 2000 before the Modern format cuttooff of 8th edition in 2003. I'm hoping to do a booster draft every 2-3 weeks if I get into it once I try it out, and if I can consistantly find the time to go to Friday or Monday night booster drafts.

 

I just enjoy collecting em, it's my new obsession... :-)

 

Also have an open trade for foils for my non-foils... I like the shinies.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

I'll give you my address and $50. Send that shit to me.

 

 

Good tips, thanks! I've read a few articles and it seems the best way to go for a beginner is 17 lands minimum, 15 creatures minimum, and spells for the rest to the 40 card minimum (stay at 40!).

 

Yeah, I've noticed better luck at sticking to 40, though I have a few times added in a couple more land cards (get mana screwed too often) to end up at 42-43

 

From there things vary a bit. I found an app that lets your practice booster drafts with given booster packs. The older blocks are free, current ones that are typical at FNM you need to pay for access to. For now I'm just doing the older ones to practice the process. I'm generall taking whatever I think the best cards are from the 1st packs, then reviewing to see what colors/combos/theme I now have to build around, then I consider that for the second packs, review again, then the last pack is filling out my concept. I'll say screw it and draw for value for awesome cards even if there's no way I'll use them in whatever build I've decided on. I do keep ending up with mostly 2 and 3 drop cards, with maybe 2x 4 drop creatures, 2-3x 4+ drop creatures, and 2 3+ spells.

 

That's close to what I do, though now that I think about it I don't really mesh out a plan... that's something I'll need to start doing. I tend to pick a color combo based on the first deck then go from there, but not really expanding on that. Might try your process on friday...

 

The color concept defintely comes first (I most often go dual, and very rarely tri color), but it tends to be sorta symbiotic with the concept, as the concept typically involves meshing two of the common abilities of two colors. I'll do somehting like a black/green deck built around a bunch of green humans with synergistic effects on each other with the black component focusing around sacrificing humans for benefit (both were common themes in one of the blocks I was using to learn). Or I'll do a blue/red zerg deck with a whole lot of little agressive red creatures with the blue helping me to draw more cards and get them out faster while stalling my opponent from getting big creatures or spells out to run them over with.

 

I like the acronym. I have noticed that removal cards are hard to come by in the drafts and snag them every time. I haven't tended to grab as much evasion cards, but I can definitely see the up side to doing so since there won't be a ton in a given deck to counter them. I have been big on going for abilities and that's typically what I've been paying attention to when trying to draw the best card, things like a 3 drop 2/2 with the ability to make itself a 4/4 given a certain trigger that I can build around trying to get.

 

Lost 2 matches this past week because I had no flyers (the one I did have was a 7? drop, so I left it out), one guy kept hitting me with a 1/5 flyer and I had no response, the other had a 4/5 that he buffed to a 6/7... that was was a little less torturous...so I brought in the one flyer I had, and won the next match with it. Morph is also another one that wrecks me if played right.

 

Not familiar with Morph, after my time (I need to learn all these new abilities), but in booster drafts it really does seem like if you can get a solid flyer or two out, you can just whittle away with them.

 

I also got an app recently where I can take a picture of my cards and it identidies it and adds it to my collection database. I haven't started using it yet as doing this for 1000-3000 cards that I estimate I have is daunting, but I have sorted them by set to make it quicker to do once I get going on it.

 

I might have to look into this, though I do agree with you that 3000 cards is daunting, I have more than that myself...

 

I'm glad I played from 13-15, when I didn't have much money, or else it would be piles more. We'll see how much I get into it now.

 

As for trading, most of my cards are only good for Legacy, since my newest cards are from Prophecy or Invasion, both released in 2000 before the Modern format cuttooff of 8th edition in 2003. I'm hoping to do a booster draft every 2-3 weeks if I get into it once I try it out, and if I can consistantly find the time to go to Friday or Monday night booster drafts.

 

I just enjoy collecting em, it's my new obsession... :-)

 

Also have an open trade for foils for my non-foils... I like the shinies.

 

I always egt mad that they're not worth substantially more. I really like them too.