Magic: The gathering

[loplod]

I know, you saw the title and were all "ZOMG MAGIC THE GATHERING"

But alas I come to you as a inexperienced person who knows nothing of the game. I have thought about getting into it but lack places to play and people to play against

But after some google work and stuff there is a small tournament scene in my state which I think might be cool to get into

(also I can prolly play some people on skype?)

BUT! what I want to ask is that like.. Should I go to the store and pay for decks and stuff? I can see that on Ebay and places like that you can buy packs and sets (4500 cards for $100,000 WTH) is it good to buy these packs and build up a largish collection and make some decks and stuff out of them? Or take it slow/the normal way

Also MTG general thread.
Worth playing? Opinions? ETC ETC

[CephaSquiddy]

I'd say start with a pre-made deck and then buy boosters. That's how I got into it.

[loplod]

Your kidding o.o

I ws waiting all this time for someone to jump on steam I could talk to about it (like dead) and you were online the whole time and could have talked about it

T____________T

Be warned, I will talk to you this afternoon once exam blocks are over

[psychichobo]

Pre-made pack and boosters'll do it. It's what I did.

[kaosherald]

With Mirrodin coming out that a good set to start out in. Since everything revolves around artifacts, it's easy to make a deck. Try and find an artifact deck and buy Mirrodin boosters. Go crazy! If you ever need any help let me know. I have been playing for a while and am an active tournament player. Good luck and have fun!!

[CephaSquiddy]

I'd also think that we should start playing. Me and Kaos played against each other a few times. Great fun. If you're in the mood for a game, post here, and maybe I could get on that.

[loplod]

We'll just have to work around timezones squiddy. Therein lies the problem.

[wormwood]

Back when magic was just beginning to take off, the guy who had a bunch of money when alpha was released would totally dominate tournaments. After a while people who were willing to spend fortunes on individual cards acquired by those methuseleh players dominated. Then WOTC started restricting and banning specific cards for tournament play. Eventually this led to banning entire releases, which made it necessary to buy more current cards if you wanted to play tournament. If you get into tournament play, expect to have to keep buying new cards in order to be allowed to participate. It's a bit like smoking cigarretes, as it seems fairly cheap until you look at the long term cost.

The upside is that you can be competetive soon after you begin without spending several thousand dollars, the bad news is that if you intend to stick with it, eventually you will have spent several thousand dollars.

The effectiveness of a deck relies on synergistic interactions of particular cards and the speed with which you can get all of the cards necessary to establish these synergies into play. In tournament it is rare for people to use cards that cost more than three mana to play, as the trends leading to victory or loss are generally established by the fourth turn of the game in competetive duelling, and you can only play one land per turn. Some very competetive decks enable the player to actually win by turn three, but these usually get knocked out of tournament by a key component card being banned in the next tournament rules update.

There are also some really stupid people who adjudicate some of these tournaments and apply rules incorrectly, which will entirely negate the theme of some decks. The worst I'd encountered was that when you took control of an opponent's creature it had summoning sickness for a turn again. If that were the case, what would be the point of cards that you can only use on your turn which state, "Tap to gain control of target creature until end of turn"? Congradulations, you now control a creature that can't attack or use any of it's activated abilities until it returns to its rightful owner next turn.

[psychichobo]

That last rule does seem kind of odd. Having said that, I do know that if said creature IS tapped already then taking control of it just means you have a tapped creature, so don't fall into that trap either.

The most annoying rule going atm that I'm not sure is correct is: If you have the ability to sacrifice a creature at any point for some reason, and someone plays a card that does sometihng like damage or destroys target creature, you can, as a response, sacrifice the creature being targeted, and the damage/destroy card is then wasted.

Doesn't seem right somehow....

[wormwood]

Ironically it is correct, as fast effects are resolved in reverse order.

[kaosherald]

As they always explain effects work like a stack. One effect is activated and if another on is activated then it goes on top, once everyone is done putting effects on the stack, it resolves starting from the top.

[loplod]

So I bought a whole heap of stuff on Ebay.. the week that they decided they won't ship outside the US.

So now I'm just going to wait for Christmas and see if any turn up otherwise I shall restart my quest to gaining cards. Also, what stores do you get your cards from? I have looked in every store I can think of and all they stock is the new Pokemon cards and Yu-gi-oh booster packs, and sometimes club penguin cards.

So help me out, Hopefully I'll know the Aus equivalent to the stores you're saying, otherwise I'm stuffed xD