Magic: The Gathering

[Philote]

Magic The Gathering Thread (Possibly upgraded to Card Game Thread depending on popularity)

One of my friends is really into this card game and has recently talked me into getting more interested. So, along with some Return to Ravnica cards I got for Christmas I decided to try and make my own deck instead of always just using his.

Out of the recent pre-made decks, the Selesnya Surge deck (White-Green) is my favorite so far. Is anyone knowledgeable / interested enough to help me upgrade the deck into something competent? I don't know if I'll have the money to actually create it but I'd like to mess around with it.

If not, does anyone have any MTG / Card Game topic they would like to discuss?

[Philote]

I've done some tinkering with Selesnya's Surge already and have come up with this as a 60 card deck:

10 x Forrest
8 x Plains
1 x Grove of the Guardian
4 x Sunpetal Grove

4 x Avacyn's Pilgrim
3 x Centaur's Herald
3x1 x Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage / Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
4 x Wayfaring Temple
1 x Armada Wurm

4 x Call of the Conclave
3 x Selesnya Charm
4 x Rancor
1x1x1x1 x Growing Ranks / Collective Blessing / Parallel Lives / Intangible Virtue
4 x Oblivion Ring
2 x Rootborn Defenses

[WonderDrow]

Ugh. MTG is just soooo complex with all those cards that came out over the years.

However, it seems to be a lot of fun building your own deck.

I assume the idea behind your deck is populating a stud of centaurs.
And then power them up.

[Philote]

Yeah, each of the guilds from the Return to Ravnica block have their own ability keyword and I liked the Populate keyword from Selesnya so I build around it.

The idea was to maximize the number of tokens I could get onto the field, then Wayfaring Temple could get even more power.

[WonderDrow]

I noticed that Wayfaring Temple card. But I wonder if you really need it once you got enough tokens powered up by that Collective Blessing card.  You would trample over the opponent.  
If he didn't kill you with his flying creatures by then.

[Philote]

Wayfaring Temple is nice because it populates when it hits an opponent, so it adds to the overall theme of the deck, especially when it has trample via Rancor.

Collective blessing is not as reliable since I only have one of them in the deck and it costs a lot of mana to cast.

[Philote]

I thought for sure this would get Dryad or Zale's attention, maybe even Marv's, I think he said he had some decks at one point.

So what is everyone's favorite type of decks? I particularly like White, but have had the most success with Green which is why the Selesnya deck appealed to me.

[Zaleramancer]

I'm terribad at strategy games. I mostly like looking at cards.

[Philote]

Strange, you seem like a person who would like strategy games.

[Zaleramancer]

I'm far to impulsive and cautious to succeed in them.

I either end up trenched into the defensive, or make some gamble that blows up in my face.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

I really should get an explanation on how to play this. Cause, for now, I just look at the card illustrations, too.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Yeah, I've learned things here and there, but I'm still awful at this...anybody else here play?

[Paleheart]

Hey the new mtg prerelease is tonight at midnight . Tomorrow and sunday at most card shops ill be at the colosierrm of comics at millenia in florida Orlando

[Zaleramancer]

PLANESWALKER FLIP CARDS PLANESWALKER FLIP CARDS

[Celadon's Penultimate]

I think that's my friend Chris. I'm happy SOMETHING got him to finally check out the Forum.

[Philote]

Paleheart wrote

Hey the new mtg prerelease is tonight at midnight . Tomorrow and sunday at most card shops ill be at the colosierrm of comics at millenia in florida Orlando

Sounds pretty cool. While I like some of the MTG stuff, I haven't been keeping up with new releases so I didn't check out the prerelease thing you mentioned and I'm sorry for replying late to what you said. Did you go check it out, was there anything really interesting released?

Zaleramancer wrote

PLANESWALKER FLIP CARDS PLANESWALKER FLIP CARDS

What are these?

[Paleheart]

The flip cards are two sided creatures on one side planswalker onthe other

[Philote]

Is this the first time planeswalkers have been flip cards?

[Zaleramancer]

Yes. Yes this is.

They spoiled some cards from the next set, (Zendikar vs Eldrazi).

The Eldrazi are basically Magics version of ELDRITCH BEINGS BEYOND TIME AND LOGIC.

They're colorless, which is weird.

The new mechanics include Devoid (This card is colorless) and Ingest (Whenever this creature does damage to a player, exile the top card of player's library.)

Looks fun.

[Philote]

So I recently got a new phone, a new phone that has been able to play "Magic Duels" unlike my previous one.

I've been having fun trying out the deck builder wizard and AI duels. Its a pretty cool app since they seem to promise to update it with new cards and you can be guaranteed to get the entire collection. You can pay 150 gold, acquired from winning matches, to buy a booster pack of six cards to add to your collection. You are guaranteed to get cards that are not already in your collection though, so you'll never get duplicates or more than you need of a certain card. So eventually you are guaranteed to get all the cards after a set amount of gold.

Green / White continues to be my favorite deck type.

I'm still coming across a couple issues that I have with Magic the Gathering overall, but the card series in the app and deck builder wizard are making these better. One, I really hate the Land system in Magic the Gathering. It is never fun to get a mana flood or drought and top decking a land when you require a card to let you win is a pain. I'm much more of a fan of Hearthstone's system where mana and the deck are kept separate. Two, Magic the Gathering seems to me to have a ton of crazy unwinnable situations. You basically build the deck with some gimmick and hope your gimmick out gimmicks the other person's deck. I get the feeling that against certain decks that I basically can do nothing no matter what cards I draw since their gimmick counters mine.

Overall though, I'm having enough fun with it to play every now and then for the daily quests.