Magic: The Gathering thread

[bµbbler]

What is Magic: The Gathering?

Magic: The Gathering (MTG; also known as Magic) is a trading card game created by Richard Garfield and first published in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic was the first trading card game produced and it continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011. Magic can be played by two or more players each using a deck of 60+ printed cards or a deck of virtual cards through the Internet-based Magic: The Gathering Online or other programs.

Each game represents a battle between wizards known as "planeswalkers", who employ spells, artifacts, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay of Magic bears little similarity to pencil-and-paper adventure games, while having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

An organized tournament system and a community of professional Magic players has developed, as has a secondary market for Magic cards. Magic cards can be valuable due to their rarity and utility in gameplay. Often the prices of a single card can be anywhere from a few cents to a few hundred dollars, and in some instances thousands of dollars.

5 Colors of Magic

White is the color of  order, equality, righteousness, healing, law, community, peace, absolutism/totalitarianism, and light. White's strengths are a roster of small creatures that are strong collectively; protecting those creatures with enchantments; gaining life; preventing damage to creatures or players; imposing restrictions on players; reducing the capabilities of opposing creatures, and powerful spells that "equalize" the playing field by destroying all cards of a given type. White creatures are known for their "Protection" from various other colors or even types of card, rendering them nearly impervious to harm from those things. Numerous white creatures also have "First Strike", "Lifelink", and "Vigilance". White's weaknesses include a focus on creatures, its unwillingness to simply kill creatures outright (instead hobbling them with restrictions that can be undone), and the fact that many of its most powerful spells affect all players equally—including the casting player.

Blue is the color of intellect, reason, illusion, logic, knowledge, manipulation, and trickery, as well as the classical elements of air and water. Blue's cards are best at letting a player draw additional cards; permanently taking control of an opponent's cards; returning cards to their owner's hand; making cards go directly from a player's deck to their graveyard; and countering spells, causing them to be discarded and the mana used to pay them wasted. Blue's creatures tend to be weaker than creatures of other colors, but commonly have abilities and traits which make them difficult to damage or block, particularly "Flying" and to a lesser extent "Shroud" or "Hexproof". Blue's weaknesses include having trouble permanently dealing with spells that have already been played, the reactive nature of most of its spells, and a small (and expensive) roster of creatures.

Black is the color of power, ambition, greed, death, illness, corruption, selfishness, amorality, and sacrifice; it is not necessarily evil, though many of its cards refer directly or indirectly to this concept. Black cards are best at destroying creatures, forcing players to discard cards from their hand, making players lose life, and returning creatures from the players' graveyards. Furthermore, because Black seeks to win at all costs, it has limited access to many abilities or effects that are normally available only to one of the other colors; but these abilities often require large sacrifices of life totals, creatures, cards in hand, cards in library, and other difficult-to-replace resources. Black is known for having creatures with the ability "Intimidate", making them difficult to block. Lesser black abilities include "Deathtouch" and "Regeneration". Black's main weaknesses are an almost complete inability to deal with enchantments and artifacts, its tendency to hurt itself almost as badly as it hurts the opponent, and difficulties in removing other Black creatures.

Red is the color of freedom, chaos, passion, creativity, impulse, fury, warfare, lightning, the classical element of fire, and the non-living geological aspects of the classical element earth. Red's strengths include destroying opposing lands and artifacts, sacrificing permanent resources for temporary but great power, and playing spells that deal "direct damage" to creatures or players, usually via applications of fire. Red has a wide array of creatures, but with the exception of extremely powerful dragons, most are fast and weak, or with low toughness, rendering them easier to destroy. Some of Red's cards can turn against or hurt their owner in return for being more powerful for their cost. Red also shares the trickery theme with Blue and can temporarily steal opponents' creatures or divert spells, although generally not permanently. Many of Red's most famous creatures have the "Haste" trait, which lets them attack and use many abilities as soon as they enter the battlefield. The ability to raise a creature's power temporarily is also common among Red's creatures. Red's weaknesses include its inability to destroy enchantments, the self-destructive nature of many of its spells, and the way in which it trades early-game speed at the cost of late-game staying power. Red also has the vast majority of cards that involve random chance.

Green is the color of life, nature, reality, evolution/adaptability, ecology, interdependence, instinct, and indulgence. Green's strengths are on the battlefield, usually winning through combat with creatures, of which it has a broad menagerie. These tend to be strong for their cost and have abilities that make them more survivable like Regenerate and Hexproof. Green creatures also often have "Trample", an ability which allows them to deal attack damage to an opponent if blocked by a weaker creature. Many Green spells bolster its creatures' power, either permanently or temporarily. Green spells often focus on growth, such as regaining life points and getting lands faster, thus allowing the player more resources and the capacity to get strong creatures on the battlefield faster. Green's weakness is an inability to defend against indirect attacks. It has few cards that allow it to counterattack against the hand, library, or graveyard; Green also has few defenses against creatures that bypass its own powerful creatures when attacking, via abilities like Flying, Landwalk, or Intimidate.

[Ad Bot]

[KoopaScooper]

Khans of Tarkir is meh.

[Alkatjo]

I literally have no idea to play this game, so when I do decide to play I usually get embarrassed by slapping jace down on everything.

[bµbbler]

I literally have no idea to play this game, so when I do decide to play I usually get embarrassed by slapping jace down on everything.

I just learned it when I was up at camp, it's super addicting but expensive :( I'm building a green-white lifegain deck right now

[chubaka452]

I play very little, I have no one to play with so it's like... eh. I'd be more into it if someone else played. My brother left his cards after he moved out, so I can use those cards I guess...

[Derontchi]

pokemon reigns supreme

[the hacker]

I purchased a $20 starter deck and someone at the same con I bought it at gave me a bunch of spare cards from booster packs. That's all I've been using since. That same con, Con of the North, is gonna start again soon, so I might buy some more cards during that time.

[bµbbler]

pokemon reigns supreme

gtfo n00b

if anyone's down to play some mtg on skype, hit me up lol bubblerBL

[Biohazard]

someone needs to make an mtg thing online like they did with cards against humanity

[the hacker]

someone needs to make an mtg thing online like they did with cards against humanity

They exist, they just kinda suck.

[sorrel]

I have mostly a light deck and bought my brother a fat pack last Christmas
Also I have 3 colossus of akros cards
I'm raining land so why not lolol

[bµbbler]

I have mostly a light deck and bought my brother a fat pack last Christmas
Also I have 3 colossus of akros cards
I'm raining land so why not lolol

that's a sweet card, especially if you have a flood of land
same goes for any of the eldrazi cards lol

[bµbbler]

I've figured out the perfect white/green lifegain deck:

Creature (21)
2x Archangel of Thune
2x Essence of the Wild
4x Healer of the Pride
2x Ajani's Pridemate or 1 mentor of the meek, not sure yet
1x Oracle of Nectars
4x Rhox Faithmender
3x Soul Warden
4x Tree of Redemption
Enchantment (10)
2x Feed the Pack
1x Gift of Immortality
2x Parallel Lives
4x Squirrel Nest
Planeswalker (1)
1x Elspeth Tirel
Land (24)
9x Forest
11x Plains
4x Selesnya Guildgate
Artifact (4)
4x Chalice of Life/Death

thoooooooughts?

[KoopaScooper]

I'd personally recommend Felidar Soveriegn as a win condition, Serra Ascendant, Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, and Blossoming Sands.

[Khorde]

I've figured out the perfect white/green lifegain deck:

>perfect
>lifegain

pick one