Topic: Magic the gathering...gathering thread

[rufus sparkfire]

I never played against anyone choosing a worse card just because some meta play reasons.

That's really surprising!

People also use worse cards because they like the art on the card, or the fluff text, or even just the name.

Like I use rabid wombat in my green/white enchantment-exploiting creature deck, even though it actually sucks compared to some of the other creatures I could use.

But it's a rabid wombat!

I played a sky knight deck with all sky knight cards I could get my hands on

Ha, aren't they all really small fliers with banding? Not very good!

[Fandir Nightshade]

Yes they suck but I liked the pictures.

Knights with flanking also were good....during mirage but there are so many better cards around now.

[Aldaris]

Yes they suck but I liked the pictures.

Knights with flanking also were good....during mirage but there are so many better cards around now.

I really liked white weenie decks. Enchantments like Castle and Parapet were really nice when you combined them with banding (your 1/1 buggers are suddenly 1/4 and you could split incoming damage). Mesa Pegasus fit really well in there, combined with Serra Aviary and Sacred Mesa to crap oodles of angry flying horses. Ahhh.

Incidentally, I got MtG: Duel of the Planeswalkers 2013 on Steam yesterday. Only about 10 Euros. Granted, you only get preconstructed Decks you can expand and modify with cards you unlock, but it has multiplayer support and seems a nice way to play a bit without investing any significant amount of money.

[towishimp]

A combo deck however takes this a step further. It relies on several, usually complex and not immediately obvious interactions to shut down the opponent and win the game, ideally all in one go so the opponent has little chance to react. Those combos usually involve several cards to work, but when you do get it to work it often means game over straight up.

That sounds like what good players do. Or am I wrong?

It depends on how you look at it. 

This is my beef with combo decks (and I mean "decks that's sole ability to win lies in assembling a combination of 2-4 cards that win the game in a single turn"): To me, Magic is about the combat phase, whether you're a super aggresive deck with 20+ creatures or a control deck with 4 or even 0.  Even that control deck has to deal with the combat phase to stop themselves from dying.  Doing so required interaction and lets both players participate in the game.  The combo deck, however, largely ignores the other player.  In certain matchups, an aggro creature deck may have literally no way to stop the combo player, other than killing him before he can assemble it.  In that case, they're essentially playing two games of solitaire Magic, with their only interaction being who can hit their victory condition first.  Such games can be fun, tense, etc...but often they're not.  When the other guy does nothing his first three turns, and then his fourth turn lasts twenty minutes and then you just lose, I don't find that fun.

I know others disagree, but that's my take on it.  It's why my sideboards are usually chock full of combo hate.

[rufus sparkfire]

It's why my sideboards are usually chock full of combo hate.

[Siberius]

You know I just reinstalled that programme that lets you play magic online, for free.

It is really not that bad to install.

If anyone is interested I could run you through it. We actually could do sealed mini tournies if say 4 or so of us get in there. It's pretty user friendly, has every set you could play and is totally free!

I don't have much going on after work tomorrow if any of you want to try it. That is like 12ish here, 5pm English time.

[towishimp]

It's why my sideboards are usually chock full of combo hate.

Abeyance is my personal favorite.  It reads "unless your combo goes off at instant speed and doesn't need to wait for any of the spells on the stack to resolve, just stop it right there."  Guilded Light is also deceptively powerful: "Oh, that was cute.  In response to your kill, Guilded Light.  Darn, all that for nothin?  So sad."

[Fandir Nightshade]

Siberius that sounds great.....where is the catch?

[noibn]

It's why my sideboards are usually chock full of combo hate.

Abeyance is my personal favorite.  It reads "unless your combo goes off at instant speed and doesn't need to wait for any of the spells on the stack to resolve, just stop it right there."  Guilded Light is also deceptively powerful: "Oh, that was cute.  In response to your kill, Guilded Light.  Darn, all that for nothin?  So sad."

Many combo decks rely on sorcery or enchantment cards as a finnisher an/or combo piece. This fact can be exploited. When I played MTG online I had a "Scepter Chant" deck, althou it has a "soft lock" built into it, it's really a control deck. I faced alot of combo decks with it and they were by far my easiest matchup due to me maindecking:



+



and 4 copies of:



Backed up by the usual set counterspells of course.

[Aldaris]

Siberius that sounds great.....where is the catch?

I'm with Fandir here.

Sounds great. Is the interface okay? Are cards depicted? Do I need a doctorate to get it to work?

Anyway, I AM interested.

[Siberius]

Siberius that sounds great.....where is the catch?

I'm with Fandir here.

Sounds great. Is the interface okay? Are cards depicted? Do I need a doctorate to get it to work?

Anyway, I AM interested.

Hehe, I understand the concerns. Let me try and outline all the catches I can:

It will take about 5 or 10 minutes to install the game. Maybe another 20 mins to install the card images.

In order to fit all the cards inscreen they tend to be slightly to small to make out the text, but that is easily solvable by hovering the mouse over the card you want to read.

The game has a 'money' system to buy new cards. This is akin to monopoly money in that it is game money, not real money. Plus you don't have to buy cards. You can proxy, especially if you play amongst ourselves. If you play regulars they will expect you to use all bought cards. You win money each time you play so if you get really into it and feel lile taking on thrm, you can gradually buy the cards but it totally isn't essential.


That's all the catches I can think of off the top of my head. Except that it takes a minute to exit games. But that's really not too bad. Just imagine you are gathering and shuffling your deck

The game mechanics work really well. They have a way to make pretty much any obscur rule work up to and including the recent double sided flip cards.

I will post a couple of screenshots when I get home and as I said, will be happy to take anyone on here through the loading and playing process. After a couple of games you can get to grips real easy.

[Aldaris]

Nice!

[Fandir Nightshade]

Count me in if this is how it is going!

My blue and white decks will kick your arse....(maybe some black and blue too....blue just is the best of all colours).

[rufus sparkfire]

Do I need a doctorate to get it to work?

I have one! I don't think it helps.


I still have this thing installed I think - I got it to work, but I was scared to play someone I didn't know because I wasn't sure how the controls worked.

I would like to play someone friendly and tolerant!

[Aldaris]

I have one!

Not in Magicology, as far as I know.
Although it IS a possibility since you chose to remain mysterious concerning your work at the 2011 Bash.
 

I would like to play someone friendly and tolerant!

And you're considering US?

[Siberius]

Do I need a doctorate to get it to work?

I have one! I don't think it helps.


I still have this thing installed I think - I got it to work, but I was scared to play someone I didn't know because I wasn't sure how the controls worked.

I would like to play someone friendly and tolerant!

Fear not. If you can get on this afternoon I can show you those controls and it gets a lot easier once you get used to them. Some of the chaps in there are friendly and tolerant. Others... Not so much. I mostly play my brother right now as we are.not up to date with the latest sets.

Anyone who wants to load it up and play, maybe pm me your windows messenger address if you can be online for a while at around 5ish UK time and I will come on and guide you through the process. If I get home earlier than that I will put the loading instructions in this thread so you can be installing it beforehand. As I said that takes maybe half hour total as you defo want to load all the card pictures.

I must admit it would be nice to have some more friendly faces to play.

[Fandir Nightshade]

I will be at home at around six o clock but will be feeding the local monsters and bring them to bed with some Harry Potter I don´t have life messenger but it would be nice if you just copy the stuff in a pm directed at me here at warhammer-empire.

[Aldaris]

I won't be home until about 7 or 8, so that could be problematic.

But if you have a link and instructions perhaps I'll be able to do it myself? Dunno.

[rufus sparkfire]

If you can get on this afternoon I can show you those controls and it gets a lot easier once you get used to them.

Thanks!

I don't think I can do it today though. Another time, maybe?

[Siberius]

That works. As it turns out today just got more tricky for me too so another time works well.

What I will do is post up some hopefully easy instructions and links for installing the program. That way when we meet to go through it everyone can be ready to go straight away. 

[noibn]

You know I just reinstalled that programme that lets you play magic online, for free.

Magic Workstation?

[rufus sparkfire]

That works. As it turns out today just got more tricky for me too so another time works well.

What I will do is post up some hopefully easy instructions and links for installing the program. That way when we meet to go through it everyone can be ready to go straight away. 

That sounds great. Thanks!

[Finlay]

I guess I should try this too!

[Stolzeuhu]

Sounds like good idea... but what is the name of the software? It would be easier to start for me 
On what license does it work, is it free?

[Siberius]

Ok here is the info on the program:

Go here -

http://gccg.sourceforge.net/

Hopefully you can just follow the instructions from there. (Obviously you want MTG, they have other card games on there too but I haven't even tried that!) If you are wondering which files it wants you to run when you open up the folder on your computer, let me help:


First run the top one, that'll load on the program (on my computer takes maybe 5 mins)
Then the second, that will load all the card images making it waaay easier to play! (on my computer takes maybe 20 mins)


That should pretty much be it. There is a very helpful F.A.Q on the site which can answer a lot of questions, but in terms of creating decks and playing games easily, I will be more than happy to show you when we can get on there.

I forget how you create your player name. I assume first time you load it up it will guide you through doing that.