Okay, i finally got some free time to try this game out, and here’s what i think about it.
It’s a good fun game, and i learned all the basic game concepts almost instantly. Now, it isnt that hard of a game. Compared to yu gi oh, it is simpler. Now, i am sure that my limited experiance i really dont know the tougher strategies. But even though the games to have some similiarities, i can say that yu gi oh is NOT a magic the gathering clone, and people that say that need to play more yu gi oh. Unless, somehow, i get a Black Lotus Ritual card, i wont be playing Magic the Gathering as much as yu gi oh.
wtf? I cant tell if you’re being serious or not, but there are no ritual cards in MtG. That’s a Yu-gi-oh only thing. And if you want a black lotus, you’re gonna have to spend a hell of alot more than you would on any yu-gi-oh card. But so you know, Magic is hella more complex(you may not notice this but yes, it is.) But yeah, go play yu-gi-oh since you’ll never get a real BL.
Magic is awesome, if you build you’re deck right, you can win without using creatures. Yu Gi Oh, the whole thing is based on who can get the best creature out fastest. While they have dumbed down M:tG considerably since Fourth edition coughpremadedeckscough it is still very dependent on planning and strategy. A properly built deck is a beautiful thing.
You were probably playing the beginning set. The base set has mininal rules and abilities. Each expansion adds new keyword abilities and other abilities. The way they can interact is terribly complicated in some situations, and combos are much deeper.
You also have to take a lot into consideration in deck building like frequency of draws, mana cost and mana curve and versatility.
Yeah, i can see how that would get complicated, but that still doesent make it more complicated than yu gi oh. I kind of like the pre-made decks, i have built a cool deck with plains and mountains. I’m not going to invest anywheres near as much money in MtG as i have yu gi oh though.
Demigod, yu gi oh isnt about that, useually the best creatures dont last long. yu gi oh can get vary tricky. One thing i noticed was that Magic The Gathering doesent seem to have likely odds of turning a losing matching into a victory, and you can useually tell who will be the winner when the game is halfway though. Whereas yu gi oh, i’ve lost games where i knocked my oppoent down to 100 life points, and they knocked mine from 8000 to 0 in one turn.
There are tons of combat tricks at your disposal (nearly all instants. You just need to know how to play them effectively), and there have been stories of miracle draws in Pro Tours (I think it was Kai Budde who was at 2 life and drew an Illusions of Grandeur right before getting a donate.)
Usually, the only decks that have a clear cut winner half way through are really good control decks, but those are foiled easily by a good mana curve.
Pre-cons just make Magic more accessible to new players, Demigod. It doesn’t “dumb down” Magic. It’s like saying reminder text dumbs it down since players who play a lot have them memorized.
The preconstructed decks are massively powerful. Losing isn’t bad, but I’ve played preconstructed decks where they massacre me in about 5 rounds. Not fun cause I don’t get to do anything. Magic is about building your deck as much as playing, and since preconstructed eliminates about half the game, I see that as dumbing it down.
Er…precons aren’t that good. The only relly good one is the Zombie on from Scourge. An experienced deck builder should be able to shut down precons easily. Precons are meant to be bases and often need lots of tweaking to be an effective deck.
And it’s also a good tutorial for new players and lets them jump right in, since building a deck from scratch is hard.
Yugi-mon (as I have affectionatly dubbed it) does rely more on creatures than magic. Like other people have said in magic it is possible to have a really good deck without creatures.
I stopped playing Magic after Tempest. After that, they changed the card design for the worse and began making really stupid powerful cards. The pricing got pretty messed up as well.
Fortunately, I’ve been able to sell off quite a few of my old cards. Made about $220 so far. Magic Newbs with rich parents will buy anything…
Yeah, the price is a major factor in my not investing much in Magic. Right before i decided to get into it, it cost like 2 something a booster, now it cost three something, not much cheaper than yu gi oh. So, basically yu gi oh is going to stay my game of choice. Though you guys do make Magic sound vary intresting. I would probaly say that they games are on equal footing when it comes to difficulty, you being the experts of Magic saying how complex it is, and me being the expert of yu gi oh also saying how complex it is.
Originally posted by Dai ryuujin
[b]Er…precons aren’t that good. The only relly good one is the Zombie on from Scourge. An experienced deck builder should be able to shut down precons easily. Precons are meant to be bases and often need lots of tweaking to be an effective deck.
And it’s also a good tutorial for new players and lets them jump right in, since building a deck from scratch is hard. [/b]
If they can’t figure it out on their own then they shouldn’t play. Of course, since all games are first of all products, they are made to sell to as many people as possible, regardless of intelligence level.
Reconsidering precons, I realize that most are fairly pathetic, but my experience with the elf deck has made me unwelcoming to the game. If you’re prepared you could beat it, but having never seen it before, I could not counter the hordes of little creatures with low summoning costs that had cheap abilities to turn them into large creatures. The word unbalanced comes to mind when thinking of certain cards, the Hivemaster one (whenever an elf comes into play you may put a 1/1 insect token play. No activation cost) is infuriating when you can’t specifically target it to kill, since ALL the creatures in that deck are elves. It’s even worse when you’re doing a multiplayer game and two people are using the elf deck, since very few of the cards require that you control the elves for them to be included in the ability.
My favorite example of an unbalanced card is the Thorn Elemental, 7/7, if blocked, can choose to deal 7 damage to the player instead of the blocking creature. The Lord of the Pit, an earlier 7/7 flying creature, required a sacrifice every turn to prevent its owner from taking 7 damage. The Thorn Elemental has no such drawback. Deep Spawn (from Fallen Empires expansion), 6/6 trample, has a huge paragraph worth of balance abilities, shortened to: lose 2 cards from library every turn or kill Deep Spawn. I have rarely seen such limits on powerful newer edition cards.
Originally posted by demigod If they can’t figure it out on their own then they shouldn’t play.
That is COMPLETELY wrong. It’s not so much about learning to play as it is about having the cards necessary to play. The decks can be used as a model of what a decent deck should be. I’d have absolutely no desire to play the game if I found out that I had to buy dozens of boosters then trade for cards that might work together and buy/ask for lands and attempt to assemble something that resembles a working deck. Precons allow new players to jump right into the game and old players to renew their interest instantly. Deck building can be fun, but I never would have gotten interested in the game if I had to go through that just to play.
Surprises are part of the game. My friend has a deck that blindsided everyone until word got around about what it was (Land Animation deck, but everyone thought he was playing fatties.)
Some cards are very powerful, but they’re hardly unbeatable. Block thorny with multiple creatures. Your opponent shouldn’t even be able to get it out if you play small creatures, and if you play big, no problem. If you play burn, they should be dead. It’s a 1 turn threat. Even then, you should have enough combat tricks to deal with it.
My favorite cards will always be the Elder Dragon Legends.
Anyway, my thoughts on pre cons is that I can buy them if they have a card I need. I bought the Sliver precon for some slivers I needed, and the spike precon to make a kickass, totally custom spike/sliver deck.