[The Technomancer]

So I’m completely new to Magic. What’s it about? Where can I learn to play?

Well the first thing you should do is check out an awesome page put together by TheSeks:
http://peg.gd/1LE

Magic: The Gathering is the original trading card game, released over 16 years ago. Players in Magic represent powerful wizards known as “planeswalkers”, who use a library of varied and powerful spells to wage war against each other. As a Magic player you’ll be summoning creatures to fight for you, laying powerful enchantments that change the game, and calling forth lightning bolts and mystic powers to devastate the opposition.

If you’re totally green to the game, there are a number of resources to help you learn to play. In rough order of helpfulness:
1.)Find a local game store, show up on a Friday night, and just ask someone to teach you. This really is the best way to learn. There are always a lot of pre-constructed decks available for less then fifteen dollars, and when you feel more confident then build your own custom deck or get involved in a Draft, where everyone opens new packs of cards and passes them around, building decks out of what they get.
Locate stores near you: http://ww2.wizards.com/StoreAndEventLocator/

2.)Magic: the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers: Released on Steam, PSN, and XBLA, this game is designed specifically to help train new players into the game. Its got some limitations, but its an excellent place to start. Read the NeoGAF thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=365489

3.)The official Magic website: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/newtomagic.aspx
A useful glossary of terms: http://wizards.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/...p?p_faqid=1418
The Magic website is generally crammed with excellent information, including a dozen or so weekly columns on everything from advance strategy to behind the scenes insight from the head designers themselves. But this specific link takes you to an introductory page, with a few tutorials and videos to help you out.

Also check out these products:

A few suggestions: 1) Buy a Duel Deck - MSRP of 19.99 and they come with two 60 card decks that are based around either tribal themes (Elves vs Goblins, Angels vs Demons, Knights vs Dragons) or planeswalkers (water planeswalker vs fire planeswalker, etc). For the price you usually get very decent cards. The most recent one is Knights vs Dragons and you can find that at Walmart, Target, etc. The Knight deck is pretty decent but the dragon deck is kind of meh. Still for the price it's a good way of getting some decent cards and not worrying about building the deck yourself. The biggest thing that I find when people are learning Magic is that they don't get a mana curve right (i.e. you want more 1 drop spells than 2 drop spells than you do 3 drop spells, etc) because otherwise you'll just sit there with a hand of cards that are unplayable because you don't have the mana to cast them. With the Duel decks they've done the work for you. Also each duel deck comes with a foil premium card for each deck. Unfortunately these are a limited product so the older ones are harder to find and usually command a higher price though if you have any local gaming shops they may have them. 2) Buy two Intro packs. MSRP of 12.95 dollars I believe. You get a 60 card deck and one sealed booster pack of cards. Each intro pack has a theme to it and one premium foil card as well. The easiest to learn would be a Core set intro pack as the mechanics aren't too complicated and you don't have to worry about interaction with abilities as much. These can be found at Walmart and Target as well. 3) Buy two Deckbuilder's Toolkit. MSRP of 19.99 each. You get 225 semi-random cards as well as plenty of each basic land along with four random packs of recent Magic expansions. A very cost effective way of starting off a collection as the semi-random cards will contain a theme to them, such as 10 red cards for a burn type deck or 10 green cards for a ramp into more mana deck or 10 white cards to support a soldier type deck. Pretty solid as you can build at least two decent decks most likely but you'll have to rely on the boosters for rares as you only get commons/uncommons in the semi-random stuff. With this product however you would be responsible for building the decks yourself and may not necessarily be the best way to teach a new player how to play the game. The recent release of the Commander decks (MSRP 29.99) are also a good way of getting a lot of different cards since other than lands every deck can contain only one copy of a card and the decks are 100 cards each. Commander (also known as Elder Dragon Highlander or EDH) is a popular casual variant of Magic the Gathering that is more known for its multiplayer appeal and the opportunity to play with cards that may not be tournament worthy in other formats such as Legacy or Standard. However for teaching a new player I'm not sure if it would a great introduction as every card is different and the cards included in these decks are a bit more complicated or require interaction beyond the other products. And you figure since you would need to buy at least two that's 60 dollars that you alternatively buy a Duel Deck, a Deckbuilder's Toolkit and two Intro Packs and have a lot more to work with. Alternatively if you have Walmarts and Targets near you I would give their card game section a browse. There was a Premium Deck released last year called Fire and Lightning that contains a 60 card deck, all of which are foil. The deck is pretty straight forward as it's mono-red and plays cheap but efficient red creatures and then a lot of burn spells to clear the path for your guys to attack. The MSRP of this was 34.99 but I've seen them clearanced to 50% off at Target. You get a single Chain Lightning which is a great card, 4 foil copies of Lightning Bolt, a Ball Lightning, Figure of Destiny and a lot of other great classic red cards. You can't go wrong with any of the suggestions but that's just my two cents.

Pshaww, I’ve been playing since Revised/Urzas/Invasion/etc, what’s in this thread for me?

Well, this should be a good place to talk about Magic with your fellow GAFers. Discussion of new sets, stories of incredible matches, debate about strategy or opinions on design and development.

For Everyone
Gatherer, the complete Magic card database. The advanced search lets you look for cards by any criteria imaginable.

Play Online
A program called Cockatrice has recently come to our attention, which allows people to play online for free with whatever cards they want. You can find it here. We're investigating getting GAF games of Magic going.

(Thanks to Hex for finding the program)

Great Online Resources
MTG Salvation: Huge Magic forum
Star City Games: Lots of articles on tournament play and strategy
Many more great sites

For the Enthusiast
(interesting articles about the game)
The Magic player personality types (with quiz)

Complete Making Magic archive
The Color Pie:
Hate is Enough
Its Not Easy Being Green
The Great White Way
In the Black
Seeing Red

Design of Mirrodin Besieged:
Under Besiege Part 1
Part 2

Complete Latest Developments archive
Development of Mirrodin Besieged:
Development Under Siege
What is it Good For?

[Speevy]

I recently sold all my cards because I haven't had anyone to play with in 12 years, but I really enjoyed this game in high school.

Still play Duels of the Planeswalkers, and I hope they release something more robust for consoles.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

First Reply!

Edit: FUUUUUUUUUUU! Fuck you to hell Speevy. >:(

Edit 2: And it's a "living" OP so if there's something that was missed that should go in the OP just say so.

[archnemesis]

Nice with an official thread. I've been thinking about getting back to Magic lately. /subscribed

[Door2Dawn]

I just bought the MTG game on xbox live, pretty fun game

[Speevy]

As someone who played Magic up until about 2001, the main thing I noticed about the game looking at these newer sets is that the cards are so much better.

I played for a few years but the creatures maintained about the same power toughness, mana curve, etc. as older cards.

I would have freaked out if some of these cards had been introduced when I was playing. It's probably because I played casual with a large room of people.

[The Technomancer]

As someone who played Magic up until about 2001, the main thing I noticed about the game looking at these newer sets is that the cards are so much better. I played for a few years but the creatures maintained about the same power toughness, mana curve, etc. as older cards. I would have freaked out if some of these cards had been introduced when I was playing. It's probably because I played casual with a large room of people.

They've talked about that actually. In the opinion of the developers the power level of creatures in the first years of the game was far far too low, with not nearly enough complex combat interaction. They spent a few years ramping it up, and now they feel they've hit a good creature to spell power level.

[BigNastyCurve]

I have to be honest I have purchased the game on XBLA and even some decks or something but have never learned to play it. There is a really cool local gamestore that has a lot of Magic stuff and tournaments, but I would feel awkward in my 30's showing up there.

edit: Do hot girls play Magic?

[cooljeanius]

I played from 7th Edition/Onslaught until the latest major rules change when they started giving the core sets years numbers. Of course that was mostly because I went off to college and couldn't really find anyone else to play with here. Believe it or not, there isn't a single Magic store in DC (at least not one that holds FNMs). The closest one is outside of the district, and I'm not going that far just to play Magic. I've actually met a few other people who have commented on this, so I've fantasized about opening a card shop here myself, but I doubt that that's going to happen. Another reason I've been out of the Magic loop was that the Wizards Boards reformatted, so I lost all my subscriptions to threads there, and that made me give up on that community.

Edit: Looking over the OP, I'm wondering why is there a card with "Phyrexian" in its name in a set that's in Mirrodin? Does the plot have to do with the one plane invading the other or something?

[Zefah]

I love me some Magic. I played a bit with some friends for the first time in years when the 2010 base set was released and I was surprised at how easy it was to pick up again. Sure there were quite a few new mechanics, but it seems like they streamlined a lot of old stuff, as well.

I really want Wizards to release a much better, more polished version of MTGO, since I don't really have too many opportunities to play with people in real life anymore (although there are a few local shops where players gather).

I have to be honest I have purchased the game on XBLA and even some decks or something but have never learned to play it. There is a really cool local gamestore that has a lot of Magic stuff and tournaments, but I would feel awkward in my 30's showing up there. edit: Do hot girls play Magic?

When I first started playing when I was like 10 back in 1995 or so, and the majority of players whom I played with in local shops (and later the Wizards of the Coast Game Center in Seattle's University District) were easily in their late-20s to early 40s. There were plenty of kids, too, but Magic definitely attracts an older crowd.

[Cloudius12]

I still have some of my Magic decks. I own a green fatty deck and a white cleric deck. In high school, this was the card game to play....and also Yugi-oh. Lost interest after going to college though sadly enough. It was a fun game.

Edit:
My favorites cards:

[The Technomancer]

Edit: Looking over the OP, I'm wondering why is there a card with "Phyrexian" in its name in a set that's in Mirrodin? Does the plot have to do with the one plane invading the other or something?

Yup. For the last two sets, Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Besieged, the Phyrexians have been waging war against Mirrodin, corrupting the metallic world.
Wizards really played this up at the prerelease for Besieged, for our sealed games we had to pick a side and then got to open packs that only contained cards of that faction.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Ya, IIRC Odyssey was the last set I bought a lot of cards from. There's a comic store that's 5 minutes from work listed on the wizards site so hopefully people play there but it was hella small a couple years ago when I went so i don't know if people actually play there or not.

[dschalter]

some good magic websites:

http://mtgsalvation.com: biggest mtg forums on the web (afaik), tons of garbage, but also lots of cool people who have decent things to say.

http://mtgthesource.com: the premier legacy discussion forum

http://themanadrain.com: like the source, but for vintage

http://starcitygames.com: more articles than any site, but the articles by top-tier pros are behind a pay wall.

http://channelfireball.com: the best free strategy site. the person you really need to read there is paulo vitor damo da rosa (PV), who is probably the best player in the world right now and is also an amazing writer.

http://mananation.com: lots of chaff, but some decent stuff too.

http://blackborder.com: new-ish site with articles from lots of mid-level pros.

http://mtgcommander.net: homebase of commander/edh discussion (for those who don't know what edh is- it's a fun casual format where you have a general (who has to be a legend) and then a deck of one ofs (hence the 'highlander' reference) in the same colors as the general.

http://ggslive.com: live coverage of starcity opens (http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/o...1_announcement for info on what the starcity opens are) and american/canadian grands prix.

some links to classic articles that will help you become a better mtg player if you are into that kind of thing:

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3692

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3689

http://www.starcitygames.com/php/new...p?Article=3688

and of course, http://osyp.wordpress.com: osyp is a washed up pro who is hilarious and generally awesome.

[Akim]

Hey, a MTG thread. I just started playing again. The last time I played competitive type 2, I was playing Ravager Affinity around the Darksteel era. I've noticed it is expensive as shit to get into type 2 again. I don't have enough money to build the top tier decks. (Fuck Jace)

[The Technomancer]

Hey, a MTG thread. I just started playing again. The last time I played competitive type 2, I was playing Ravager Affinity around the Darksteel era. I've noticed it is expensive as shit to get into type 2 again. I don't have enough money to build the top tier decks. (Fuck Jace)

I really hope Wizards learns from Uber-Jace: there are certain problems with Mythic rare, and one of them is when something like that card comes out.

Its about time this thread existed. So EDH? Best format ever.

Six player EDH free-for-all is a chaotic way to have fun for a good three hours :P Even more if you stick a pile of Planechase cards in the middle. I currently run a terrible Experiment Kraj deck that never wins but creates chaos aplenty.
And you should totally subscribe to the thread!

[rexor0717]

Its about time this thread existed. So EDH? Best format ever.

[dschalter]

Hey, a MTG thread. I just started playing again. The last time I played competitive type 2, I was playing Ravager Affinity around the Darksteel era. I've noticed it is expensive as shit to get into type 2 again. I don't have enough money to build the top tier decks. (Fuck Jace)

you don't need to play jace to play type 2, but you do need it if you want to play blue in type 2 which is pretty lame.

[BigJonsson]

I played from 4th edition to uhhh whatever set Cursed Scroll was from..........

One time I played a friend and the match went for 3 hours :|

[cooljeanius]

some good magic websites: http://mtgsalvation.com: biggest mtg forums on the web (afaik), tons of garbage, but also lots of cool people who have decent things to say.

Coincidentally, that's where my avatar is hosted. I also remember Charlequin from there.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Do they make books of the storylines?

[Kurtofan]

Do they make books of the storylines?

Yes,but I never read any of them.

[The Technomancer]

Do they make books of the storylines?

Yeah, they're alright. Excellent writing they are not, but the worlds themselves are fascinating.
I usually just read long plot summaries of the books afterward.

[rexor0717]

I really hope Wizards learns from Uber-Jace: there are certain problems with Mythic rare, and one of them is when something like that card comes out. Six player EDH free-for-all is a chaotic way to have fun for a good three hours :P Even more if you stick a pile of Planechase cards in the middle. I currently run a terrible Experiment Kraj deck that never wins but creates chaos aplenty. And you should totally subscribe to the thread!

Yeah, me and my friends play EDH a lot. I used to have a pretty good standard deck: Emeria the Sky Ruin. But when Alara rotated out, it got rid of all my good removal. So I decided to play a more consistent format. Now I'm playing a Mayael, the Anima deck, and its so good.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Yeah, they're alright. Excellent writing they are not, but the worlds themselves are fascinating. I usually just read long plot summaries of the books afterward.

Ya, only reason I asked was the concept of the whole thing seems cool so I was wondering if they had books telling the story.

[dschalter]

Ya, only reason I asked was the concept of the whole thing seems cool so I was wondering if they had books telling the story.

mtg's story has gone through a lot of stages. originally, there were random comic books and such that told of a few backstories (and maybe a random book, don't recall). starting with urza/tempest block, however, they started releasing novels that told of the "weatherlight saga", the struggle of urza planeswalker to crush phyrexia and defeat the phyrexian invasion of dominaria. every set during this time period was in some way related to the struggle. this ended with the invasion block, where the phyrexians invaded dominaria. after that, they told the story of otaria, the "other side" of dominaria that had not been affected by the phyrexian invasion in the odyssey and onslaught block books. after that, they decided to move around randomly from plane to plane while throwing in references to older stuff at random. in the time spiral block, planeswalkers were controversially powered down (in order to allow there to be planeswalker cards in actual mtg). since then, i dunno that much about what has happened, though i did really love the flavor of zendikar.

[The Technomancer]

mtg's story has gone through a lot of stages. originally, there were random comic books and such that told of a few backstories (and maybe a random book, don't recall). starting with urza/tempest block, however, they started releasing novels that told of the "weatherlight saga", the struggle of urza planeswalker to crush phyrexia and defeat the phyrexian invasion of dominaria. every set during this time period was in some way related to the struggle. this ended with the invasion block, where the phyrexians invaded dominaria. after that, they told the story of otaria, the "other side" of dominaria that had not been affected by the phyrexian invasion in the odyssey and onslaught block books. after that, they decided to move around randomly from plane to plane while throwing in references to older stuff at random. in the time spiral block, planeswalkers were controversially powered down (in order to allow there to be planeswalker cards in actual mtg). since then, i dunno that much about what has happened, though i did really love the flavor of zendikar.

Since Time Spiral the focus has shifted to the machinations of the dragon planeswalker Nicol Bolas. He's always behind things in some form or another, scheming to get back the level of power that he lost in the Time Spiral events.
I think they're setting up a villain triangle:
Nicol Bolas as the scheming supervillain, Phyrexia as the corrupting, unstoppable hoard, and the Eldrazi as the Cthulu-esque elder gods.

[Wiseblade]

Fuuuuu-; I was planning on making a general TCG thread, but I only really know about Yu-Gi-Oh.

My friend got me to try Magic 5 years ago, but I dropped out quick due to not really having anyone to play or really getting a grasp on deckbuilding.

[NameGenerated]

My Spiritmongers will fuck you up.

[Yeef]

I played from Ice Age up until Exodus, then got back into it during the Alara block (managed to collect an entire Shards of Alara set) then lost interest again. I've always loved the artwork and design behind the game, but I'm not too keen on the collectible part anymore. Occasionally. I'll play a pick up game with some friends (usually a draft), but for the most part I'm pretty much done with MTG.

[Eggo]

Here's the DotP thread: http://www.secondapps.com/neogaf/sho...d.php?t=365489

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Comic place by my work apparently has friday night magic and everything. When you do a booster draft, do you keep the cards from the draft? They said it's a $15 entrance fee.

[nincompoop]

Wagic: The Homebrew is a great resource for testing out cards and building decks, and it's also great for learning how to play. It's available for PSP and Windows and Linux based PCs. I haven't played it or followed its development recently, but I was hooked on it for a long time.

[NameGenerated]

Comic place by my work apparently has friday night magic and everything. When you do a booster draft, do you keep the cards from the draft? They said it's a $15 entrance fee.

Yes, you keep all the cards you draft. If you do well enough you might win some booster packs.

[The Technomancer]

Comic place by my work apparently has friday night magic and everything. When you do a booster draft, do you keep the cards from the draft? They said it's a $15 entrance fee.

Oh yeah, you keep the cards. That's how I get most of mine these days, heh.
However there are two different ways that stores give out prizes: some places have extra booster packs for the winners, and others have everyone place the rare cards they drew into a pool at the end, and everyone gets to take what they want, winners going first.

[mrkgoo]

I'v played from about the end of legends or so. Got real into it, where it ruled my life for many years, you know, to the point where all the cards were memorised and you knew them just by the art. Then I dropped out and just play on and off casually.

We mostly play legacy highlander.

My favourite cardis still Time Walk.

[Boogiepop]

Oh, neat that it looped back around to Mirrodin. I think that was one of the first sets to come out after I started (though I had a really short time with the game, so I only really made it up to the first part of the "Hey look, Japanese stuff!" set.).
As much as I may be interested in getting into the game proper, but nobody near me plays anymore. (When I played, my group played "Quick Mana, Mana Drop," a stupid format in which you played whichever mana you drew and then drew another card. This continued until we found out how to easily break the hell out of that, which kind of killed everyone's interest in the game, unfortunately.)

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Cool, that seems cheaper than buying packs! :D

[The Technomancer]

Cool, that seems cheaper than buying packs! :D

Its about three dollars more then it would be to just buy them (3.99 a pack), but considering that you get to cherry-pick to build a deck and have a really great time its totally worth it.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

And I'm assuming standard is you just play with anything you got?

Do you usually have to bring lands with you or how does that work? And I'm assuming you don't have to use every card you draft? Some have to be the wrong color eventually?

[ThLunarian]

I played in the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease the other day, except I built my deck only out of the Scars packs and held onto the special Mirran Faction boosters. I have a hunch that theyll soon be semi-valuable collectibles. I did get destroyed in the actual tournament, but that's alright.

[The Technomancer]

And I'm assuming standard is you just play with anything you got? Do you usually have to bring lands with you or how does that work? And I'm assuming you don't have to use every card you draft? Some have to be the wrong color eventually?

Nope. Standard is the last two blocks, so cards from Mirrodin, Zendikar, and M11. Extended goes back 4 blocks, so it also includes Alara and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor. Vintage and Legacy are the formats that go all the way back, Vintage allowing all cards ever printed, and Legacy having a banned/restricted list. The problem with those is that there are some waaaaay overpowered cards back then, so competitive Vintage and Legacy tends to be expensive.

But in practice a lot of people play "casual", just anything goes, without too much ultra-overpowered stuff.

Most places provide land. And no, you don't use everything. You end up with 45 cards to build a deck out of, but in Limited (read: draft and sealed) you always always build a 40 card deck. No rule about it, but you just do. So 23 cards that you picked, 17 lands is the usual ratio, +/- 1 depending on the deck.

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

Nope. Standard is the last two blocks, so cards from Mirrodin, Zendikar, and M11. Extended goes back 4 blocks, so it also includes Alara and Lorwyn/Shadowmoor. Vintage and Legacy are the formats that go all the way back, Vintage allowing all cards ever printed, and Legacy having a banned/restricted list. The problem with those is that there are some waaaaay overpowered cards back then, so competitive Vintage and Legacy tends to be expensive. But in practice a lot of people play "casual", just anything goes, without too much ultra-overpowered stuff. Most places provide land. And no, you don't use everything. You end up with 45 cards to build a deck out of, but in Limited (read: draft and sealed) you always always build a 40 card deck. No rule about it, but you just do. So 23 cards that you picked, 17 lands is the usual ratio, +/- 1 depending on the deck.

Awesome, might give it a try next weekend if I have time then!

[Akim]

Anyone have an idea of the cheapest, competitive type 2 deck right now?

[BigNastyCurve]

Another question - where's the skill in Magic? Is it in deck-building or just plain luck during battle? Just wondering.

[rexor0717]

Another question - where's the skill in Magic? Is it in deck-building or just plain luck during battle? Just wondering.

Deck building is the biggest part of winning, but the difference between winning and losing will be playing smart. You can have a perfect hand, and waste it. I know I have way to many times before.

[The Technomancer]

Deck building is the biggest part of winning, but the difference between winning and losing will be playing smart. You can have a perfect hand, and waste it. I know I have way to many times before.

Also Magic is the most balanced card game I've ever played. Unlike a lot of other games, just loading up your deck with powerful rares is a fast way to lose. You need a lot of the effects and utilities that show up on common cards.

There's some luck involved yeah, sometimes your opponent plays something that you just don't have an answer for, but by and large the matches come down to which player knows how to use what they've been given the most effectively.

[Slightly Live]

Holy shit, Mirrodin is back? Loved Mirrodin years ago.

[mrkgoo]

Deck building is the biggest part of winning, but the difference between winning and losing will be playing smart. You can have a perfect hand, and waste it. I know I have way to many times before.

Playing is hugely important, although deck-building is a very important foundation (and more important). A lot of skilled players can take correct play a little for granted - for example, all the little things you do just to maximise efficiency that beginners simply don't do can make a difference in the outcome of a match.

Also, intimate knowledge of your deck and your own play style can make a big difference. Like I mentioned, I play highlander legacy (only one card of any one name in a deck), so in my playgroup we all have varying decks. We sometimes mix it up by playing each other's decks and playing each one with our own style makes a huge difference. My brother who is a more casual player than me has a much weaker deck by construction, but even if I were to play it I would normally do better against him using my deck.

[mrkgoo]

Also Magic is the most balanced card game I've ever played. Unlike a lot of other games, just loading up your deck with powerful rares is a fast way to lose. You need a lot of the effects and utilities that show up on common cards. There's some luck involved yeah, sometimes your opponent plays something that you just don't have an answer for, but by and large the matches come down to which player knows how to use what they've been given the most effectively.

The genius of magic is the resource vs power of the spell. It's a way to make things more balanced. Back in the day, they did use 'rare' as a sort of power gauge, but these days the cards are generally fair, and rare cards just tend to be more interesting than anything else.