Magic: The Gathering

[Stickyfingers]

Originally Posted by Shannacore [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So a friend and I started playing this over the weekend. Neither of us had previously played, and it was certainly a lot of fun. What's the strategy in creating your deck though? He was playing black/white while I was playing red, which seemed alright. We both pretty much had no idea what we were doing, but we were learning as the games went on. Our matches were definitely close (although he proceeded to win every single match except one), which makes me think his deck was just better..?

I D K, give me some nerdy tips on how you assemble your decks / play your cards. Is one color set obviously better than the other..? I bought a couple of packs of cards this weekend, going to try to put together an ub3r l33t deck this week. I need to be prepared for Thursdays games, giev tips ~ ~

Being someone who has played MTG off an on for about 8 years now, I would say he probably had a better deck than you.

Also, none of the colors are inherently better, although it would depend on the magic set you are playing.

Typically Blue = Control based, very much used to tap and untap, or effectively shut down your opponents offense.
Red = Burn spells, haste creatures, typically comes out fast and tries to finish you in a quick amount of time.
Black = Life steal, creature removal, discarding, similar to red in some ways, but is usually a mix of red and blue, strong creatures with a splash of control.
White = Typically very creature oriented, have some control, life gain etc.
Green = Pretty much creature based, has many sorcery's and instants that will pump your creatures or help you find land a lot of strong beaty creatures.

Obviously these are just broad types and you will find red cards that act like white ones or green or whatever and vice versa.

The strategy for building a deck I would give is starting off with two colors. Typically there are some classic pairings, Blue-Black, Red-Green, Blue-White. Many times though, colors are played solo, but usually in the cases of Black and White I would say.

Pick what colors you want to play and just try to focus on those types. Make sure you completely understand what they do, and just think about what your deck is trying to achieve, and does that card fit in line with your decks win condition.

Pro-Tip: Take your time on your turn and when your opponent makes moves. Make sure you leave no possibility uncovered, (Couterspell, permanent destruction, ect.) it is the worst feeling to make a mistake that essentially ends the game and was so incredibly simple!

[Papaver]

start by totally ignoring any of the cards / sets made after 1995 so the game makes sense.

after you have a firm grasp on how the game is played up until that point, you will probably find that the sets released after that added many abilities that radically changed the game, in a bad way imo.

as far as what color deck, it depends on what your opponent is using. i'd definitely start out by building a deck of 1 solid color, paying attention to the rules for how many of the same card you can have per deck, and the ratio of mana (normally 60 cards, 20 of which are mana)

it can be a fun game around fun people. or it can be a really sickeningly boring game around people that sleep with anime characters on their pillows.

[Galanteer]

Often MTG gets criticized as being a game won by the richest player (or player most willing to spend money on the game). My gaming group uses a shared pool of cards and often we play random decks.

The colours a well balanced, but some of the cards are not.

Best way to build decks is to practice and experiment. You can also look through tons and tons of decks on the Internet to see how they were made.

There is an official mtg sight for pay to play, as well as a few emulators for free play. The original computer game (around the same age as EQ) had one of the worst AI I have ever seen.

There is also a site for a template to print cards on stickers to paste on the front of regular cards (since MTG never made blanks)

The last 6 months or so, we have been pretty much playing the Deluxe version of Illuminati (just to mention another card game) -imo the best release to date of that game.

[Feachie]

I saw that one tum, and the 3 drop 2/2 red/white gob with double strike during shards (played again during that block and into...zendicar?)

Im a blue/white weenie control deck player personally.

[Tumdumm]

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] lol i fail at mirror imag

[nilbog]

Make your own deck.. if you have enough cards, go mono-color first and try to understand the game. Fix the deck as you go along based on your experience of what worked and didn't work. Try different combinations, make your own combos with your deck based on what you have. Fine tune it statistically with the % chance of getting the combo cards you need. If you need 3 cards to win the game, have 4 of each of them, and possibly cards to help you search and play what you need.

In the end you will probably end up with something a lot different than what you started with. My best decks are up to 4-5 colors, with very little land. When my friends and I play, we use 4th edition rules, so I imagine things are way different now.

-4th edition or before ftw. post-mirrodin(?) cards look like star trek
-wtt mox pearl for mox jet, mox sapphire, or mox ruby
-pst for antiquated advice

[Feachie]

Originally Posted by Tumdumm [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] lol i fail at mirror imag

I have an unopened box of unglued :P clam session 4tw

[xnolanx]

basically what stickyfingers said,

also... on the back the circle of colors the ones next to each other tend to play together well.. just a general idea though, don't feel stuck to certain color decks.

[Massive Marc]

Originally Posted by Shannacore [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So a friend and I started playing this over the weekend. Neither of us had previously played, and it was certainly a lot of fun. What's the strategy in creating your deck though? He was playing black/white while I was playing red, which seemed alright. We both pretty much had no idea what we were doing, but we were learning as the games went on. Our matches were definitely close (although he proceeded to win every single match except one), which makes me think his deck was just better..?

I D K, give me some nerdy tips on how you assemble your decks / play your cards. Is one color set obviously better than the other..? I bought a couple of packs of cards this weekend, going to try to put together an ub3r l33t deck this week. I need to be prepared for Thursdays games, giev tips ~ ~

Sup,

Didn't read the whole thread but a lot of the information I did read is incorrect. Sorry if I repeat something said already.

Been playing magic since alpha. Still play EDH and legacy tourney's.

Ill answer your questions in point form:

How to assemble your decks: First resource is www.mtgsalvation.com Magic is divided into formats. Each format has a banned list. Figure out what format you want to play first, then go to that section and look at the deck lists. If you don't want to follow any of these formats, you're playing "casually". The best "casual" format by far is EDH. EDH consists of a 99 card deck with 1 General ( A legendary creature in any color/colors). The deck can only have singles of each card (can't have duplicates of cards in EDH) and you can only build your deck from the colors in your Generals Casting cost. This is by far the most popular way to play magic right now, also the most affordable.

How to play your cards: Hard to type out, easier over vent/in person. Generally, you don't want to overextend (have to many threats) and Card advantage is KING.

Is one color set obviously better than the other..?" Magic really isn't defined by its color's, but by the synergy your deck has. That being said, RED is generally underpowered and BLUE is pretty overpowered. Once again, color isn't really relevant.

I bought a couple of packs of cards this weekend, going to try to put together an ub3r l33t deck this week. I need to be prepared for Thursdays games, giev tips ~ "

Wizards sells a few products that can help you jump right into the game. My first suggestion would be the Duel Decks. The product comes with 2 decks that are actually pretty good and affordable. The second product I'd suggest is the EDH pre constructed decks. Even if you don't plan on playing EDH, you receive a lot of good/playable cards and a good amount of them.
My last suggestion (probably best for you) is look for the Deck Building Toolbox. This is everything you need to get started.

PROTIP: Buying packs is pretty much a waste of money. Find a decklist and buy the single cards online OR buy pre constructed decks.

PROTIP: Don't over extend your board. Play with removal. Crawl Worm sucks.

Magic is a lot of fun. Can be pretty expensive if you decide to really get into it, but can stay affordable as a fun side hobby.

If you need any additional information, don't hesitate to PM me.

Resources:

magiccards.info
mtgsalvation.com
deckcheck.net
starcitygames.com
cockatrice.de (If you want to play magic, without buying cards and want to fuck around with builds you def want to download Cockatrice. It's essentially a free magic the gathering program with multiplayer capability)

[Asher]

I stopped playing at the end of 2000. Game got lame big time.

Asher