Magic the Gathering

^ Epicrant FTW.

Yeah, I prefer to play 2 Baneslayer and 3 Sea Gate Oracle/Wall of Omens over 4 Squadron Hawks. Hawks just don't cut it for me, since I run the Sea Gate Oracle. If I took out the Oracles though, I would definitely add some Hawks. I just prefer more drawpower. If Baneslayer ever gets Doom Bladed, etc, I can usually counter it with Mana Leak, or return it to my hand with Into the Roil (which is underrated BTW).
I prefer Blue/White over Blue/Black, mainly because of Day of Judgement, Gideon, and Baneslayer.
RDW is still pretty popular, but losing Ball Lightning hurt more than it should have.
 
RDW did die, but you can still play efficient burn within the format. A really popular variant of the deck is Goblins (my personal favorite just so happens to be Chris Cannon's list, the "All-in" variation) and it's almost as potent as RDW. Basically, the idea is to swarm your opponent with a bunch of low-cost razor creatures. We're talking Memnite (SOM), Goblin Guide (ZEN), Goblin Bushwacker (ZEN), all that good stuff. You've also got the burn to either disrupt your opponent's creature set up (ex. Lotus Cobra [ZEN]) or just... well, burn your opponent with the standard play-set of Lightning Bolt (M11) and sometimes Burst Lightning (ZEN) and Galvanic Blast (SOM) are even seen played in the deck. Wait, Galvanic Blast? Yeah, Galvanic Blast.

What I forgot to mention is that the deck now packs artifacts, ala Scars of Mirrodon. The full package: Chimeric Mass (SOM), Mox Opal (SOM), Panic Spellbomb (SOM), and Trusty Machete (ZEN). You play these artifacts (aside from ripping a huge whole in your opponent's life total with the one-mana Galvanic Blast), and also providing the various effects that they do, they are also played for what seems like one of the more insidious one-drops in the current format, Kuldotha Rebirth (SOM). By melting your artifacts (and occasionally Memnites), you get three Goblin tokens as early as turn one. Huge advantage on the first turn right there.

And pretty much everything interlocks from there. Tighten the knot up with a Goblin Chieftain (M11) and you've got yourself some Goblins!

It actually is a really annoying deck at my FNM, everyone plays it and although my Blue/Black (although seriously weakened without some key proxies) can grind out a win occasionally, more often than not you just sit back and watch yourself get swept up by the deck.

It's dying pretty steadily itself, though, mostly with the influx of URG in the format (which has pretty much about a million answers against Goblins).
 
Magic the gathering hase so many problems when you go down to zero cards in your hand your just drawing one card then useing it then draw your next card and use it. Pretty much every deck needs hawlin mine because of that. And the card game relies on what is the next card top of your deck to much.

And it can be easy to get decked in magic. Theres a card where you hafe to discard halfe your deck. I mean thats ridicuolous.

And people don't play standered in magic and thats a big problem for the game and people who just started playing magic. The people who just started playing magic can never keep up with the people who been playing because they dont have the old cards.

If you have a big creature out every one wants to destroy that creature. And if you have a army of creature's a person can just play damnation or wrath of god and they all go. Its like all your work is gone just like that.
 
thepliskin5005:
Actually, out of all physical trading card games, Magic: The Gathering has the fewest technicality issues. Though newer players often rely on top-decking, many competitive decks actually play tons of draw power. If you look at the current world champion's deck list (heck I'll even post it for you, if you like), he plays many cards that provide his deck with draw power. The only time he would be out of cards would be when he was completely set up.

While it is true that Magic cards can have some pretty game-breaking effects, they all have their weaknesses and down points. The card you suggested, for example, probably has a really high mana cost making it difficult to maintain, or some other equally crippling drawback.

And on the standard issue, I'm not sure who convinced you of that. Many players play Standard, and it is a very serious format. Of course, there are bigger amounts of Extended/Legacy players, but about fifty percent of them probably also play Standard (a couple of cards used in the Standard format, such as Jace, the Mind Sculptor, among others, are also prevalent in at least Extended, legacy not so much).
 
Well the problem with draw power in magic you hafe to spend mana for drawing. In pokemon this isnt a problem of course. Well at my card shop no one plays standered pretty much just me. And i dont see to much of a fall back on people's stratgie in magic.
 
The card he was talking about is Traumatize from M11, which costs 3UU. It's a great card in deckout decks, but other than that, it's not that amazing.

And as for card draw... well, there's tons.
 
Used to play it but couldn't keep up with playing both Pokemon and Magic The Gathering at the same time. I ended up continuing playing Pokemon maybe because I was still young back then and it was interesting and fun(still is now to me). Or maybe Magic The Gathering just seems like it was for the big guys who will probably trash the hell out of a kid in a match. :p

Anyway, I still have the cards and kept my two decks that I last built. One is White/Black and the other is Red/Blue. The former focuses on destroying creatures and deals damage with Black and heals with White while the latter is more on dealing damage.

Also, I do like cards like Sengir Vampire, Shivan Dragon, Desolation Angel, Avatar of Fury, Avatar of Hope, Avatar of Woe and among others(which I can't quite remember) not only because they are great in terms of its ability but the artwork as well. The artworks for the Magic The Gathering are usually great which is one aspect I still like about this game.
 
Half your deck is relative. You need it early game for maximum effectiveness. Which means you're saving up spells for four turns early. Bad plays there. For a real game-wrecking mill, use Haunting Echoes. It's devastating with presumably about a third of their deck lost already, probably more if you're using Glimpses, Scour, and... well, honestly real mill cards are quite rare in these days.

Card draw is much more valuable in Magic, as randomisation is more important in strategy. In Pokemon (thinking recursively, haven't played for a while), the consistancy in deck strats gives you practically one singular concept. Makes it fairly linear in each gameplay, as everything's based around generally five-ten cards in the deck, and with the tutoring and card draw given, it makes things much more streamlined. I'm not sure about the variance, but compared to Magic, it's not particularly, I'd say. Magic has a much stronger level of randomization and strategising. Gives you perspective on how you need to diversify and concentrate your threats.

Nobody plays Howling Mine because it's symmetrical and you drop two cards (the mine itself, then the opponent's first extra draw) playing it second turn.

WoG (or DoJ these days) is something that you need to learn to play around. This is where learning card advantage is helpful; along with tempo and threat density. Drop as little threats as can be managed for a few turns. Each turn they don't wipe means more damage for you. If you have too many, you drop down in cards and will start slowing. Too little and they can last beyond your lack of tempo. You have to play the numbers that'll give you the edge in making them waste the one in four cards (or three these days) that can manage multiple threats.

THen there's card efficiency. You say it takes half the mana to draw cards; this hence also applies to your opponents. The efficiency of your cards means that while your opponent stocks up on cards, you're whacking his life down several notches. Even Inception-Jace falls quite easily to selection of creatures. The fact that they've spent about turn or a half to stock on resources, a properly made deck hits hard with whatever resources they have in the immediate vicinity because each card is strong enough. Control has to pump out answers as fast as the aggro can send out threats; except the threat:answer ratio is heavily skewed towards the threats, so control has to keep them off with what they can get so that their threats, which MUST be the pinnacle of efficiency, otherwise the threats are still going to outrun them.

That was amusing. Well, I'm kinda stuck on what else to do until the holiday breaks are over and articles turn back up. Let's see... How many ways can we play Proliferate in standard? Sucks how there's five 'raters, one of which isn't repeatable, and the others are damnned expensive to pop. I wonder how else they can fiddle with the idea in Sieged.
 
As far as proliferation goes, I like White/Blue proliferation. Pack of a bunch of 'Walkers and Contagion Clasp (SOM) and Contagion Engine (SOM) and you've got some pretty darn loyal 'Walkers. I don't know, you might be able to incorporate some poison by splashing black or green, then you've got an interesting win con right there.
 
Psychic Pokemon Master said:
Used to play it but couldn't keep up with playing both Pokemon and Magic The Gathering at the same time. I ended up continuing playing Pokemon maybe because I was still young back then and it was interesting and fun(still is now to me). Or maybe Magic The Gathering just seems like it was for the big guys who will probably trash the hell out of a kid in a match.
Click to expand...

I know why, it's because of the Mythic Rarity. It's made Standard more of a expensive investment to get into instead of being cheap and affordable like it was before Shards of Alara was released when we had 3 rarities in the game. Everyone knows the Mythic Rarity was a huge mistake yet people seem to not really care one way or the other I guess.

Planeswalkers don't seem too bad but they could've been a mistake I guess. I'm also seeing problems with the lack of Combo, the fact that it's missing in Standard hurts the format IMO. Yeah I overheard what Aaron Foresythe said that he wanted Combo in Standard to be more Creature oriented instead of being utilized with Non-Creature cards which the last time that occured in Standard was Dragonstorm. I don't think he's right though, more or less I think Aaron Foresythe is hurting the creativity of the game.

Then of course comes the problem with netdecking and every other TCG has the same problem too, If you've checked one of Evan Erwin's interviews on his YouTube show "The Magic Show" with Patrick Chapin then you'll know what I'm talking about. It's a very controversial subject, even though it helps new and old players better understand deck ratios and how to play the game it also hurts deck ingenuity and creativity at the same time yet players are alot of times "forced" to netdeck because of what decks have the best synergies with the cards that are ran in it and what's available in said format's card pool that is actually playable or good enough to play.

If you were forced to run a bad deck that you didn't enjoy playing you wouldn't be playing the TCG you're playing now would you? I have a deep respect for those who go Rogue in just about any TCG out there, and it's possible to build a few Rogue decks here and there and If the card pool admits it and you have a good chance at finding the right synergies that no one else in your metagame isn't playing then you're good to go. It does take alot of playtesting, trial, and error to get it right but when you get it going well you know where I'm going with this.

As for Blue Control it's sort of alive and Cancel doesn't really make up for getting rid of Counterspell but it was for the best I suppose. Going up against a Counterspell deck especially a Tribal Wizard deck with Patron Wizard is unfun believe me I know. It probably could've been solved better If each color had a way to counter against Blue Counterspell decks especially Green and Red which has the most trouble against it. Wizards apparently decided, screw it lets make Blue into something that it wasn't intended to be by making it a Mill Color instead of CounterMagic and so they did.

Then of course is the Reprint Policy fiasco, Oh God don't get me started on this. It's a long story that sort of paved the way for Wizards to ensure the Collectors of the game don't lose the value on their cards no matter what while screwing with the people who actually play the game. It's still a win-lose situation no matter how you look at it but it didn't kill the game fortunately.

EDH in some ways killed Kitchen Table for most Casual Magic players while at the same time made it better for those who could afford to play in a format with a 100 card deck and a Legendary Creature as your Command...excuse me General. Kitchen Table is still very much alive especially in formats like Two Headed Giant, Planechase, and Archenemy as well.
 
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