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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 11:02 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 5468
Location: I don't know...
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I’m taking a look at MtG, it looks like a fairly interesting game, but how does it work?
I got the concept of lands, they tap to add mana, which you use to play cards. And I got the concept of life. Pretty much, nothing else.
So, can anyone give me a quick rundown of the game?
Oh yeah, and that card Now I Know My ABC’s is just creepy... |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:16 am |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Any card from the Unglued and/or Unhinged sets are not legal for tournament play, they’re joke sets and nothing else, although SOME ideas DO come from them (like enchant opponent, enchant player, etc).
Let me see, where can I start? If you could add me on MSN or AIM it would be much easier to run you through by actually PLAYING the game. My first idea is: download MWS (Magic Workstation), so you can get a run through the cards. Then, netdeck some of the decks I posted in here recently, and playtest them in solo mode in MWS. Why? Because MWS has all the phases in the turn broken down, and because you can them connect to play other people online to learn more. But, anyway, this is how to get started in it "the easy way". Also, I’d recommend you to read the Comprehensive Rulebook, which can be found at www.magicthegathering.com.
Now, let’s start talking about the game (sorry, NBarden, but this won’t be quick, simply becuase it’s hard to be quick with a game that has undergone 10+ years of evolution...).
Basic Magic represents the battle of two wizards (you and your opponent). Both of you have 20 life points, and have to take down the other. In order to do that, you do what wizards do best: cast spells. Your spellbook is called "library", and is represented by your deck (same as a draw deck). Your library will be full with spells, and those spells are cast to generate powerful effects, like blasting stuff around, summoning creatures to fight for you, etc.
So, let’s start with the most basic format for a begginner, which is Standard (meaning you can use cards from Ravnica: the City of Guils, Guildpact, Disenssion, Coldsnap, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos, Future Sight and 9th Edition) and COnstructed (meaning you play with decks you’ve pre-assembled, that must have a minimum of 60 cards, and cannot have more than 4 copies of any given card, except for basic lands). So, you "library" would consist of 60 cards (opposite to LotR, in MtG it’s not good to have a bigger deck, because games are much more quicker, so a bigger deck actually decrease your chances of getting your best spells for when you need them).
The game is broken down in five colors, so when you first start playing, I suggest you read a little about the colors to see the one you like the most, and start with a mono-colored deck ’cause it’s much simpler to play/assemble/tweak. Each spell has a cost, represented in the upper-right corner of the card (most of the times, anyway, except in future-shifted cards like Imperiosaur), that represent both the color of the spell (yes, it’s not the border, but the colored mana in its cost that represents a spell’s colors, so Dralnu, Lich Lord is not a "golden" spell, but rather a black and blue spell). A spell without cost cannot be played, so you must get around to playing it some other way, like Lotus Bloom and Ancestral Vision, which can be suspended, but not played directly. Notice the difference between a spell WITHOUT a cost and a spell with ZERO cost (like Mishra’s Bauble), the latter CAN be played normally. In order to play a spell, you must pay its cost, and the way to do that is tapping land for mana. Lands tap for mana of the color they state to (except basic lands, that nowadays only feature the mana symbol they tap for), which can be used to pay for colored costs AND colorless costs. So, let’s say, in order to play Flashfreeze, you need to pay one blue mana and one colorless mana, so you could tap an Island and a Ghost Quarter, or an Island and a Swamp, or even two Islands, or you could tap two Tolaria West, ’cause they also add blue mana to your mana pool. One would provide the blue mana, and the other would be taken into account as colorless mana.
Also, there are several types of cards. The currently known are: Land, Sorcery, Instant, Enchantment/Aura, Creature, Artifact and Tribal (which only appears in Bound in Silence, and is referenced in Tarmogoyf, so you can drop it for now). This is where the comprehensive rulebook would come in handy, explaining to you the phases of a turn and the concept of the stack, which would then explain to you when can you play each type of card. About playing cards, just remember that if you play a creature during your turn, it’s with "summoning sickness" until your next turn, meaning it can block, but can’t attack. Everything else that does not come into play tapped (see Tolaria West) can be "used" right away, so you can tap 3 Swamps to play Phyrexian Totem, and tap the Totem to play Funeral Charm, but you can’t tap 3 lands to play Phyrexian Totem and tap 3 more to activate its ability and attack, since the Totem came into play this turn.
So, to start playing, as we discusses, you need a library with 60 cards featuring no more than 4 copies of any single card except basic lands, and we KNOW that you have to have lands in it in order to pay for your spells, so, now, how do we win? Let’s start by how to win:
- Reducing your opponent’s life points to 0;
- Specific cards like Battle of Wits and Coalition Victory;
- Decking (if a player must draw a card and can’t, he loses).
Now, from here on, I suggest you take a look at an article I wrote entitle "step by step" in roder to learn a bit about deckbuilding. Either add me on MSN or AIM so I can run you through the rest, cause otherwise it would take too much time to write about it, unless you want me to write an article on learning MtG to attract newer players. |
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| corvus |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:30 am |
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Joined: 13 Oct 2006
Posts: 1696
Location: Roaming, but dangerous!!!
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Those are trully nicelly presented as the basic concepts of the game. Just mind using FS cards, we cannot see them. And since when in LOTR are big decks better (except for Moria)???
To get this more fun and epic, i will give you a more out-of-the-game thingy to look at. You are a wizard. Young and brave. With the dawn of your powers you realise that this is not the only plane of existence, but there are many others as well. You also realise that there are many others just like you.
First thing you habve to do is build your personality (deck-color). Are you a fierce chaotic dragon lover? Go RED. Are you a Druidic beast/elf-friend? Go GREEN. Are you a Dark Pain-loving warlock? Go BLACK. Are you a just knight of the light, a friend of angels? Go WHITE. Are you a lover of the flying beings, and of magic control? Go BLUE. Are you a combo of some of these? Go with the combo you choose.
Then you start travelling through different planes (SETS). From then on, you pick whatever creatures you want as servants, and learn yourself whatever spells and abilities you like.
From then on goes the fun part. Find other guys like you and fight them!
HAVE FUN!!!  |
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Far, Far beyond the island we dwelt in shapes of twilight
Through draught and weary days
Through grief and endless pain |
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| NBarden |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 12:38 pm |
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Joined: 28 Dec 2006
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Location: I don't know...
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:18 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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Nope, sorry. Try making an account and accessing it through meebo, it usually works when there’re compatibility problems.
Ok, in order to plat with Thallids, let me give you a rundown of the order of a turn.
How a turn plays:
- Untap step: untap all permanents you control (unless some effect stops you to, like Brine Elemental’s morph ability), players can’t use spells or abilities during this part of the turn;
- Upkeep: Triggers that happen during your upkeep happen now. Also, any mana added during your upkeep must be spent during your upkeep, so if an opponent taps your lands with Gigadrowse, you won’t be able to use the lands during the main phase;
- Draw step: draw your card for the turn, things that trigger during your draw step (like Howling Mine’s effect) trigger now;
- First main phase (or pre-combat mainphase): You can play your land (you can play one land per turn, by rule, except something allows you to do otherwise, like playing Summer Bloom), and any spell you might want to. Only during main phases you can play enchantment, creatures, artifacts and sorceries (and lands, of course), unless the card allows you to play it anytime you could play an instant (like Ashcoat Bear, Temporal Isolation, etc);
- Combat phase: if you want to tap a creature to keep it unable to enter combat (like by activating Icy Manipulator), now is the last chance to do so;
- Declare attackers step: you tap your attacking creatures to declare them as attackers (creatures with vigilance can be declared attackers without tapping, meaning they can still tap for abilities, or block);
- Declare blockers: the opponent will declare his blocking creatures, and who they’re blocking;
- Combat damage step: combat damage goes to the stack, resolve, and then creatures that died are put into their owner’s graveyards. Life points are adjusted accordingly.
- Second main phase (or post-combat main phase): same as the first main phase. It’s here mainly to allow mind games. For instance, you can NOW play your land for the turn (you opponent thought you only had 2 lands in play) and play a spell with converted mana cost 3 or so. Also, you can NOW play a Pyroclasm (a sorcery), dealing 2 points of damage to each creature, and killing his 4/4, because since it blocked a 2/2, until the end of the turn, it has 2 damage on it.
- End of turn step: stuff that trigger at the end of the turn trigger here.
- Discard step: If the active player has more than 7 cards in hand, he has to discard the excess (unless he has something like Spellbook out). Nothing else may be done during this phase (notice some cards with Madness, like Fiery Temper, CAN be played during this phase through their madness cost, but they’re exceptions).
- Cleaning step: Nothing may be done during this phase, damage is emoved from the creatures, mana pools are emptied (notice that the mana pool empties during each step of the turn, also, so mana added during the upkeep is only good during the upkeep, like mana added during the first main phase can’t be used during the second main phase, and so on).
I’ll be back later explaining Thallids (this had to be explained becuase they abuse the upkeep). |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:46 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| Check the Deck Clinic, in the Standard section, there’s a Thallid deck there from elf lvr and some tips on it! And I assume sooner or later someone will pop out a sliver deck in there to get criticism, as well. |
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| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
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| I’d want to make a Sliver deck, but I don’t have enough stuff. |
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2007 1:51 pm |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| It requires a lot od duals and pains to actually work out well enough, although some people are playing Sliver decks in Block, pairing them with Wild Pair and a sole Whitemane Lion to get an overwhelming card advantage. Works better than expected, but it’s still not that good. |
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| Felipe Musco |
![]() Posted: Fri Jul 13, 2007 10:44 am |
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Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 2434
Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
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| JUst for clarifitactions, any question regarding a card, an ability, a mechanich, or such things should be posted in Gameplay Questions. Thus, the questions asked here were moved there in a thread about the Madness mechanic I opened. |
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