Topic: Magic: The Gathering

[The Evil Blob]

Are Mika Ears and myself the only ones here who play Magic? If not, what's your play style? Favotire color of magic?

[Gaming Steve]

I used to play Magic quite a bit back in the early days. I actually have a ton of alphas and betas still and I still have my tournament deck. Back when I was playing the game just started and there was a huge tournament scene in New York City. We used to play every single weekend and once a month there was a huge tournament usually for a couple thousand dollars.

I was pretty good and at one point I believe I was ranked 33rd in the country, but I was nothing compared to my friends. They were much better than I was (using an Atog deck) and always made it to the final four. And this was in the days when it was single-elimination. You just played until there was one person left standing, and these big tournaments had around 1000 in them at a time. However, once Fallen Empires came out we stopped playing.

I really love the game but I just can't get back into it for some reason. It just takes too much time and effort I feel at this point. In the end the only tournaments I would play were the constructed deck ones where you get one deck and two boosters and have like 30 minutes to construct a deck to use throughout the tournament.

Heh, so I just pulled out my tournament deck from way back when. So here it is for your viewing pleasure:

The Deck 'O Pain
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Disintegrate
1 Regrowth
1 Sol Ring
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Unstable Mutation
2 Forcefield
3 Tranquility
4 Lighting Bolt
4 Power Sink
4 Counterspell
4 Kird Ape
4 Seredib Efreet
4 Erhnam Djinn
3 Birds of Paradise
3 City of Brass
1 Strip Mine
1 Bayou
2 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Taiga

[The Evil Blob]

Wow. Do you have any extra green cards? I'm looking for big, strong creatures, ways to make them bigger (like my avatar) and ways to get mana quickly.

[Gaming Steve]

Wow. Do you have any extra green cards? I'm looking for big, strong creatures, ways to make them bigger (like my avatar) and ways to get mana quickly.

Heh, I have no idea what I have. I don't even know what cards are good anymore. I know that with my deck it was insane. I would get a huge amount of mana out by turn 1 and then get a couple of monster creatures out by turn 1 or 2. But everything I had would cause me damage as well, so I would usually give myself 6-10 points of damage just getting my creatures out (but I would use the forcefield to prevent damage to myself). However, I would usually do 4-7 points of damage per turn, and my games didn't last that long when I won.

But those games where I had to go for more than 10 turns I would usually lose since my big creatures would usually be dead or counterspelled or destroyed. When it got to that I had to hope that my direct damage could kill them off.

It was a pretty good deck and I used it for a few years. It was very fast and my opponets would get freaked out when I did so much damage to myself ... heh. That is why it was known as the "Deck 'O Pain".

[legameboy]

I play Magic just for fun. I carry a spare deck around with me to start a game with someone if boredom strikes. I'm not what you would call a serious player... I love getting the bejeebus kicked out of me.

[Scipion]

Dude, he played in ALPHA and BETA, nothing he has you could even use anymore. Odds our they'll sell for a small wad off cash too. Oh, I played Magic for a few years, but I got too mad at the stupid expansions.

[Mika Ears]

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mox Emerald

Those are worth an absolutely crazy amount, and like Scipion said, almost all the cards in that deck are restricted or banned. And the Ancestral Recall and City of Brass are also worth a good deal, the Brass because you just can't get enough of any color mana cards. The most recent tournament I went to was a free entry into the Pro Tour in Chicago back in like 01 or 00. >_< Back then everybody was still reeling from the fact that Tolarian Academy had been restricted, which shot everybody's initial deck plans all to hell. Everybody wanted the Tolarian Blue type of combo deck.

*This post has nothing to do with Blob's request for cards, it never says anything of the sort. I'm just commenting on cards. 

[The Evil Blob]

The cards did not necessarily have to come from his deck. Besides, the tournaments I play in let you use anything except Unglued and Unhinged.

[Mika Ears]

The cards did not necessarily have to come from his deck.

What? He says right up there that thats his "Deck O Pain" or whatever.

[pfellah]

I played very casually with my brother and a few friends for a while. By very casually, I mean that I can't even tell you what I had in my deck or anything. I seem to remember playing a lot of blue and green, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.

[The Evil Blob]

The cards did not necessarily have to come from his deck.

What? He says right up there that thats his "Deck O Pain" or whatever.

I meant the cards I asked for.

Do you have any extra green cards? I'm looking for big, strong creatures, ways to make them bigger (like my avatar) and ways to get mana quickly.

[Mika Ears]

All the things I mentioned up there are mana-producing cards, none of them are green. 

So I wasn't talking at all about the cards you asked for.

[The Evil Blob]

I just got to thinking. There have been some rather not-quite-up-to-par MTG games in the past. See: MTG: Battlegrounds. However, I think that the Nintendo DS might be just the thing for a MTG card battle game. The bottom screen would show your hand and side of the playing area, and the top would switch between your opponent's side of the field and creature summoning/fighting cutscenes. Any thoughts?

[Mika Ears]

That'd be pretty interesting, but I'd want them to include every single card. And they wouldn't, the bastards.

[Scipion]

They went so horribly wrong making Magic for the PC pay to play.