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[ajf009]

built my very first deck today went with a black and white deck

Gotta go burn deck. BURN!!

 

[y2dvd]

Did pretty terrible yesterday with a 2-3 record. I always start off well but I totally lack huge late game bombs. Pretty much won a game every time I was able to combo Tormented Soul with Dark Favor. Even better if I can equip Swiftness Boots I think it's called. White or green where the dominate decks yesterday.

 

[Enordash]

Hm, good question. You can still play spells with invalid targets, they just fizzle. I think an opponent could respond to the exile effect with something like Silence, but I'm not sure.

Say the top card was Counterspell. I was under the impression that you couldn't play it if there was no valid target. I remember back in the day that I thought it would just fizzle, but for some reason my mind has been changed since then. Is there an official ruling on this that someone can point me to?

 

[The Technomancer]

Say the top card was Counterspell. I was under the impression that you couldn't play it if there was no valid target. I remember back in the day that I thought it would just fizzle, but for some reason my mind has been changed since then. Is there an official ruling on this that someone can point me to?

Actually after some research, I think you're right. A spell only fizzles if the validity of the target changes between casting and resolution.

 

[siddx]

damnit, wanted to go to the pre-release so bad but my friend had a birthday party and my conscious wouldn't let me ditch it.
Next week im there though.

 

[Enordash]

Actually after some research, I think you're right. A spell only fizzles if the validity of the target changes between casting and resolution.

I wish I had a good resource for rules when I started playing. I remember that the people who taught me to play drew to 7 cards every turn and didn't understand summoning sickness. It's also nice to have a community like this one that doesn't berate you for asking a question they deem simple.

Edit: Also, there were people in middle school that broke the four-of rule constantly. I love to play, but would rather avoid blatant cheaters.

 

[Orayn]

Q: I used to be big into magic and I played from around the end of revised up until the Urza block rotated out of type 2. I would like to play again, but am not interested in physical cards. Is MTG : Online the best outlet? I don't necessarily mind buying virtual cards. When I looked into it a couple of years ago, the consensus seemed to be that it was too buggy. Also, does it run on Mac OS?

Magic Online is pretty well-populated, has a bunch of its own unique formats, and the software has improved dramatically since the early days, and I can fully endorse it for someone who wants to play some serious Magic without building up a paper collection. There's no Mac version yet, but they're going to have a cross-platform web app of it at some point in the future.

 

[TheSeks]

but they're going to have a cross-platform web app of it at some point in the future.

They've been saying this for how long now?

That said, isn't Online just as much a money sink as paper?

 

[JLateralus]

Magic Online is pretty well-populated, has a bunch of its own unique formats, and the software has improved dramatically since the early days, and I can fully endorse it for someone who wants to play some serious Magic without building up a paper collection. There's no Mac version yet, but they're going to have a cross-platform web app of it at some point in the future.

Thanks for the info!

Is there much play going on with legacy blocks, or is it mostly the newer stuff?

 

[ajf009]

just curious, I picked up a Planeswalker in a booster pack today, are they particularly rare? Like how blue eyes white dragon was in yu gi oh, or like charizard was in pokemon? I know they're good, but what are the chances of just picking one up the way i did

 

[Guesong]

just curious, I picked up a Planeswalker in a booster pack today, are they particularly rare? Like how blue eyes white dragon was in yu gi oh, or like charizard was in pokemon? I know they're good, but what are the chances of just picking one up the way i did

Every planeswalker so far is a Mythic Rare. You supposively get 1/8 chance to get a Mythic Rare in every booster.

 

[The Technomancer]

just curious, I picked up a Planeswalker in a booster pack today, are they particularly rare? Like how blue eyes white dragon was in yu gi oh, or like charizard was in pokemon? I know they're good, but what are the chances of just picking one up the way i did

Which one did you get, out of curiosity?

 

[WanderingWind]

I wish I had a good resource for rules when I started playing. I remember that the people who taught me to play drew to 7 cards every turn and didn't understand summoning sickness. It's also nice to have a community like this one that doesn't berate you for asking a question they deem simple.

Edit: Also, there were people in middle school that broke the four-of rule constantly. I love to play, but would rather avoid blatant cheaters.

Heh. When I first learned way, way back in the day, we played a version where you played all the mana in your hand every round. Of course, this was because it was during junior high school lunch breaks, but still.

House rules!

 

[The Technomancer]

Heh. When I first learned way, way back in the day, we played a version where you played all the mana in your hand every round. Of course, this was because it was during junior high school lunch breaks, but still.

House rules!

Oh yeah, we played that too. We called it Speed-Magic, you could play unlimited lands and drew three cards a turn. Great for a ten minute game.

 

[ajf009]

Which one did you get, out of curiosity?

Chandra Nalaar, who happens to be a perfect fit in my aforementioned burn deck

 

[Enordash]

Oh yeah, we played that too. We called it Speed-Magic, you could play unlimited lands and drew three cards a turn. Great for a ten minute game.

Oddly enough, we played a thing we called "Speed Magic" as well. (Even though we were lame and just tried to play as fast as possible with normal rules) For the people here that do buy a decent amount of boosters: Do you buy in store on online? Which store/website do you use? I remember back in the day, at the hobby shop, boosters were about $2.50. At Walmart and what not, they were $3.99 (Which is what they are still right?) I saw that Blackborder.com has a better price, but I haven't investigated shipping costs.

 

[TerminalDogma]

The boosters are 3.99 in most places. I've got a local shop around here that sells them for 3.50 (it was 2.99 until about a month or two ago.). He also sells boxes for 99 bucks and even allows you to pick whatever boosters you want for a "box". Pretty awesome. Everywhere else I go though (including other local shops) the boosters are 3.99 for the newer sets, older sets they are 5.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Chandra Nalaar, who happens to be a perfect fit in my aforementioned burn deck

Wait M12 Chandra Nalaar or regular Chandra Nalaar? Depends on the planeswalker. There are a lot of mythics in core set and not all are planeswalkers. Some are also cheaper to buy depending on usefulness.

Heh. When I first learned way, way back in the day, we played a version where you played all the mana in your hand every round. Of course, this was because it was during junior high school lunch breaks, but still.

House rules!

Same. We also changed some of the rules to goof around which was fun. We also let you combine mana for two headed giant games sometimes just to see what it was like, it was usually a lot of fun.

 

[Enordash]

The boosters are 3.99 in most places. I've got a local shop around here that sells them for 3.50 (it was 2.99 until about a month or two ago.). He also sells boxes for 99 bucks and even allows you to pick whatever boosters you want for a "box". Pretty awesome. Everywhere else I go though (including other local shops) the boosters are 3.99 for the newer sets, older sets they are 5.

My local shop also lets you pick whatever boosters you want for a box. That is rather nice. The shopowner (an awesome old man) also charges less if you pay with cash rather than credit. He also has an unopened box of Urza's Saga that I would LOVE to buy.

 

[TerminalDogma]

Ha same, he won't charge tax if you pay in cash. Wouldn't happen to be a sports collectibles shop with a wrestling fetish in Pennsy, would it?

 

[Enordash]

Ha same, he won't charge tax if you pay in cash. Wouldn't happen to be a sports collectibles shop with a wrestling fetish in Pennsy, would it?

Nah, mine is a cluttered little shop in Fairmont. Weird how they could be so similar, though. For a second there I also thought we were talking about the same place.

 

[ajf009]

Wait M12 Chandra Nalaar or regular Chandra Nalaar? Depends on the planeswalker. There are a lot of mythics in core set and not all are planeswalkers. Some are also cheaper to buy depending on usefulness.

it's an M10 version

 

[Enordash]

Chandra Nalaar, who happens to be a perfect fit in my aforementioned burn deck

What role does Chandra play in your burn deck most often? Pinging the player? Picking off creatures? I've always found M10 Chandra to be super underwhelming. Seems like there are better cards suited to those goals, especially at five mana. If you are consistantly getting her bomb though... by all means, use her.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Apparently people are trying to start a magic club at my college. I hope enough people are interested in it.

 

[The Technomancer]

I think the best mono-red Chandra is Chandra Ablaze. New Chandra sucks in mono-red, but she's fantastic as a splash.

The strategy with original Chandra always seems to be to use her +1 enough times to get her ultimate off. The -X ability is useful though if you need emergency removal right now.

 

[Enordash]

I think the best mono-red Chandra is Chandra Ablaze. New Chandra sucks in mono-red, but she's fantastic as a splash.

The strategy with original Chandra always seems to be to use her +1 enough times to get her ultimate off. The -X ability is useful though if you need emergency removal right now.

Chandra just doesn't seem to change the game like most other planeswalkers. Comparing her to the other 5-mana ones, I'd definitely say she's the worst. Honestly, I'd argue that the Chandra Nalaar version is strictly the worst planeswalker (or at least tied for worst). I still don't understand the drugs the development team had to be on to print JTMS at 2UU.

Side note: I wasn't playing when Worldwake came out, so I'm just recently seeing Jace's ridiculousness.

 

[Chojin]

From MaRo's Tumblr account:

jlennoxg asked: Did you just say hexproof has completely replaced shroud?

Yes, I did. It does not make sense supporting two mechanics that work that closely especially with different names. R&D spent a lot of time talking about it and decided to go with hexproof.

Note that this doesn’t mean that shroud is changing to hexproof on cards that have it. Shroud will be supported much as we support any keyword mechanic we’re not currently using (like say fear). But for the present (I won’t talk of the future because things can change), shroud is not being used on new cards.

Wow.

W
O
W.

This is pretty big. Hexproof was something that you didn't see very often, but now that its effectively replacing shroud, I wonder what that is going to mean.

Traditionally shroud was mostly used on big dumb green creatures. Hexproof, aka "Trollshroud" was typically used on Trolls, hence the name. The power level of Hexproof vs Shroud is not even comparable. Typically creatures with Hexproof are smaller due to being able to dodge spot removal.

 

[The Technomancer]

Oh wow, really? One of the big things about Shroud was that it could also be a drawback.

 

[manipulate]

I think that's fine as long as they're not retroactively changing all instances of Shroud to Hexproof.. and that seems to suggest they're not doing that; just dropping Shroud in the future. So that's cool.

 

[The Technomancer]

I think that's fine as long as they're not retroactively changing all instances of Shroud to Hexproof.. and that seems to suggest they're not doing that; just dropping Shroud in the future. So that's cool.

No, they wouldn't. The two are very functionally different.

 

[manipulate]

Yeah haha I was super confused the first time I read it. I kind of preferred Shroud in all honesty, it was an elegant double-edged property. Hexproof is a bit more straightforward.

 

[Chojin]

Yeah haha I was super confused the first time I read it. I kind of preferred Shroud in all honesty, it was an elegant double-edged property. Hexproof is a bit more straightforward.

I just hope they don't go overboard with it. Card interaction is important to the game. And as much as timmy hates it when you blow up their creature when they're trying to cast a local enchantment on it, its healthy for the game.

Then again, I love equipping stuff on my guys too

The thing is, to be honest, hexproof really isn't all that strong. Think about the things you would do to target your own creature. I can count the practical applications on one hand. So in retrospect, I don't mind that its replacing shroud.

Back in the day I used to fear Troll Ascetic more than anything, and granted it was being equipped with a loxodon warhammer that did it. So really, hexproof just makes equipment better is all.

 

[ajf009]

What role does Chandra play in your burn deck most often? Pinging the player? Picking off creatures? I've always found M10 Chandra to be super underwhelming. Seems like there are better cards suited to those goals, especially at five mana. If you are consistantly getting her bomb though... by all means, use her.

Every instance i've brought her out i've been able to use her bomb, and it's been very worth the 5 mana, i do exactly as you all said, just +1 untill i'm at 11, then use the bomb and hope i can keep her alive long enough to use it again haha


Side note, I just played a match earlier and drew Dragon's Fang, Pyromancer's Ascension, and Furnace of Rath in my opening hand... it made me quite the happy camper, and the winner of course

 

[The Technomancer]

Every instance i've brought her out i've been able to use her bomb, and it's been very worth the 5 mana, i do exactly as you all said, just +1 untill i'm at 11, then use the bomb and hope i can keep her alive long enough to use it again haha


Side note, I just played a match earlier and drew Dragon's Fang, Pyromancer's Ascension, and Furnace of Rath in my opening hand... it made me quite the happy camper, and the winner of course

Wow, getting her to 11? How do you keep her alive that long, does your opponent not attack her?

 

[ajf009]

Wow, getting her to 11? How do you keep her alive that long, does your opponent not attack her?

Well i only got her back up to 10 once, and that was because i had a couple good walls in play and he honestly wasn't very good.. every other time she's been killed after i use it once

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Well i only got her back up to 10 once, and that was because i had a couple good walls in play and he honestly wasn't very good.. every other time she's been killed after i use it once

I think what he was saying was how do you get her ultimate off once at 11? Most people would be targeting your planeswalker like mad and she would be taking damage.

 

[ajf009]

I think what he was saying was how do you get her ultimate off once at 11? Most people would be targeting your planeswalker like mad and she would be taking damage.

Oh shit my bad guys I totally had a brain fart and fucked up. was thinking the bomb cost 10 instead of 8, and that she came in with 8 counters instead of 6 hahaha, so what ive done is get it to 9 from 6, then try and get it back to at least 9, not 11... fuck that haha


but to answer your question i have only used her around, idk maybe 5 or 6 times so far, and ive gotten to use the bomb... three times im thinking, so it's not like im getting her up there no problem and like i said, the one time i was able to get her back up after using it i had some good defenses up

 

[ajf009]

sorry to double post but the more i think about it the more im realizing, the situations in which i've played chandra have so far been ones where i have the upper hand, either when my opponent is low on strong creatures or land. so i'm feeling like my situation is just more luck than some big secret i have allowing me to keep her alive and build up for the bomb

 

[Enordash]

sorry to double post but the more i think about it the more im realizing, the situations in which i've played chandra have so far been ones where i have the upper hand, either when my opponent is low on strong creatures or land. so i'm feeling like my situation is just more luck than some big secret i have allowing me to keep her alive and build up for the bomb

I'm sure she is fun to play with if you can consistantly bomb your opponent. I'm all for playing decks that are fun to use. It sounds like you play casually more than competitively (I mean no offense here, please correct me if I'm wrong). I want to go back to that atmosphere. The group I played with got a little too competitive and the game lost its luster. I understand the necessity of playing the same deck over and over again when you are prepping for a tournament, but it definitely gets stale after a while. I think I'm going to build a deck that just ramps up to Scrambleverse for some good old fashioned laughs. Ooh, or one that Wraths the board then uses Biorhythm to kill both players.

 

[ajf009]

I definitely do play casually, I'm no where near good enough to play in tournaments or anything like that. plus i hate losing in competitive atmospheres like that, but when it's just me and a couple friends, it's more "wow you did awesome nice job!" than, "fuck i lost this sucks"

 

[FieryBalrog]

Went to the M12 prerelease and opened the most ridiculous sealed pool of all time. Grave Titan, Vengeful Pharaoh, Cemetery Reaper and a foil Royal Assassin, putting me solidly in black, plus of course Doom Blade, Sorin's Thirst x2 and other ridiculous removal (2x Consume Spirit). Finally to round it out I get three Aven Fleetwing (nuts in limited) and two Chasm Drake and a Phantasmal Dragon. Plus Mana Leak and 2 Cancels. Was basically a UB control deck in sealed.

Went 4-0 before I had to drop and go to dinner, my last opponent (who I conceded to after beating) was incredulous that I was quitting, lol. These events are too damn long, I was there from 12:30 to 6 to play just four rounds and the thing was 6 rounds + top 8.

 

[Enordash]

I definitely do play casually, I'm no where near good enough to play in tournaments or anything like that. plus i hate losing in competitive atmospheres like that, but when it's just me and a couple friends, it's more "wow you did awesome nice job!" than, "fuck i lost this sucks"

I envy you then. I want to get back to that. We have a lot of fun drafting, but then when it gets to the actual playing portion, people get frustrated and pissed off. People are far too quick to concede as well. I've been playing Duels 2012 on XBL. I have a friend who will quit on the turn he is going to lose. This causes the game to freak out, replace him with AI (I realize I could turn this off, but it's unfair to his partner in my opinion) and spend time syncing the game back up where it could have just been over. (A quick aside: one of us must have a terrible connection because we get the "game sync" message a lot. It has actually frozen on us a few times)

Perhaps I'm being too picky and whiny here, but another thing that bothers me (mainly on Duels since none of the decks really have any crazy tricks up their sleeves) is when I'm obviously going to lose to attacks this turn, but my opponent feels it necessary to draw some cards, search his library a little, cast another creature or two... anything that has absolutely no effect on the outcome of the match. It's a waste of time; they could just attack and win (if by some miracle that doesn't happen, there is a second Main for a reason).

I realize that some of these complaints are pretty exclusive to Duels. Sorry for posting them here as there is a Duels thread out there, but I feel they can relate to all forms of Magic in some way.

 

[FieryBalrog]

I just hope they don't go overboard with it. Card interaction is important to the game. And as much as timmy hates it when you blow up their creature when they're trying to cast a local enchantment on it, its healthy for the game.

Then again, I love equipping stuff on my guys too

The thing is, to be honest, hexproof really isn't all that strong. Think about the things you would do to target your own creature. I can count the practical applications on one hand. So in retrospect, I don't mind that its replacing shroud.

Is it really replacing it? Both have been around forever, "hexproof" has been in the game since Troll Ascetic, I assume they'll just keep printing both at times.

 

[rexor0717]

At my pre-release, I didn't open a single bomb. Not one. I went 2-2, so I felt that I did alright seeing as all of my opponents either opened a planeswalker or a titan. Every one of them. SMH at my pack luck. The only mythic I opened was Time Reversal, what a joke.

 

[An-Det]

Went 4-0 before I had to drop and go to dinner, my last opponent (who I conceded to after beating) was incredulous that I was quitting, lol. These events are too damn long, I was there from 12:30 to 6 to play just four rounds and the thing was 6 rounds + top 8.

I've seen worse. Nick Molatesta, at one of the recent Northeast SCG Legacy Opens, was in the semifinals vs Alex Bertencinni, and it was around 1 am by then. Nick would have easily won the whole thing (he was combo elves, Alex was Merfolk, the other two were favorable to Nick, and Nick is excellent with that deck), but he conceded the match so he could go home and go to work the next morning (he only got 4-ish hours of sleep as is). This was after 8-ish rounds starting at about 10 am, too.

 

[The Technomancer]

Is it really replacing it? Both have been around forever, "hexproof" has been in the game since Troll Ascetic, I assume they'll just keep printing both at times.

They might phase in and out. This is a good example of where keywording is a problem though: if they both were just text abilities I think they wouldn't have any reservations about including both in the same set.

 

[Vanillalite]

Alright Magic peeps... playing DOTPW 2k12 on Steam and have a question.... I'm a newb so bare with me...

WTF is up with the land numbers at the top of the cards? Like there will be a number in a circle + a land icon (obviously depending upon what type of land you need). So does that mean to IDK this is hypothetical 3 + forest land icon on a bear card = 4 forests out in the field to play my bear? Why wouldn't it read as 3 forest lands?

What really throws me is why the fuck do some cards have say 3 + forest land icon + forest land icon? WTF?!?! Why are their two land icons?

Sorry Magic GAF... I'm a nub! LOLOLOL

 

[EviLore]

Alright Magic peeps... playing DOTPW 2k12 on Steam and have a question.... I'm a newb so bare with me...

WTF is up with the land numbers at the top of the cards? Like there will be a number in a circle + a land icon (obviously depending upon what type of land you need). So does that mean to IDK this is hypothetical 3 + forest land icon on a bear card = 4 forests out in the field to play my bear? Why wouldn't it read as 3 forest lands?

What really throws me is why the fuck do some cards have say 3 + forest land icon + forest land icon? WTF?!?! Why are their two land icons?

Sorry Magic GAF... I'm a nub! LOLOLOL

The number with the circle around it is mana cost not dependent on color. If it says 3, you can pay that 3 with 3 forests, or 3 plains, or 1 forest + 1 plains + 1 mountain, etc. The forest icons are separate mana costs that can only be paid with lands of the corresponding color.

3[G][G]

(with G being the forest land icon)

= Five total mana cost for the card. Three of any color, and an additional two forests.

 

[Vanillalite]

The number with the circle around it is mana cost not dependent on color. If it says 3, you can pay that 3 with 3 forests, or 3 plains, or 1 forest + 1 plains + 1 mountain, etc. The forest icons are separate mana costs that can only be paid with lands of the corresponding color.

3[G][G]

(with G being the forest land icon)

= Five total mana cost for the card. Three of any color, and an additional two forests.

Thanks! That actually makes sense. Considering I'm playing the game version of DOTWP though my deck only has one type of land so far.

BTW I can't even beat the 1st dude after the tutorial. LOLOLOLOL

It gave me a choice of a 2nd deck for this, and that was highlighted. Yet I went back and selected the forest deck from the tutorial match. Maybe that's why I've lost twice. Well that and I always draw a fuck ton of land, but never anything to use it with! GOSH DAMN MY CARD DRAWS SUCK!!

 

[The Technomancer]

Thanks! That actually makes sense. Considering I'm playing the game version of DOTWP though my deck only has one type of land so far.

BTW I can't even beat the 1st dude after the tutorial. LOLOLOLOL

It gave me a choice of a 2nd deck for this, and that was highlighted. Yet I went back and selected the forest deck from the tutorial match. Maybe that's why I've lost twice. Well that and I always draw a fuck ton of land, but never anything to use it with! GOSH DAMN MY CARD DRAWS SUCK!!

Yeah, there are a lot of complaints about how DotP seems screwy with its shuffling, I've gotten a looot of games where I draw either far too many land or far too few.
I mean a little mana screw or flood here and there is normal, but when its not unusual for me to draw six lands in a row something is wrong.