Magic 2013

[ktern]

Originally Posted by Rivozzz

Again stupid mana managment

Why it's cards are so stupid? They give u like 10 successive mana cards ..or give u non but the starting mana.. It happened to me alot....I became programmed..whenever the game enters in mana revenge mood where they keep giving u mana cards till u vomit or mana starvation mood where they give u no mana cards except the starting cards or give u one more mana and that's it, I programmed to leave the game immediately

Great game with stupiiiiiiiiid mana managment

It's called bad luck, and your deck's probably too large. The game's not obligated to give you the cards you want, and it's up to you to deal with that.

[Xexist]

I love great combos

I just finished a campaign match where I had out like 10+ creatures, opponent had no creatures, and no land. That's what I called effed!

[failchip]

The game is really good - big fan of magic so maybe that was a given?

[soldat7]

Originally Posted by Xexist

I love great combos

I just finished a campaign match where I had out like 10+ creatures, opponent had no creatures, and no land. That's what I called effed!

I can't stand this isometric interface. It's painful to play. Same goes for the console version. Just look at how tiny those cards are....ugh.

[fr33z33]

Dude, you can zoom in on any card, in the end you'll know them by heart anyway. On the iPad 3 you hardly even need the zoom in feature since its so crisp that any comparison to the console versions played on 1080 is poised to fail.

[webman2k]

So, I love this game. I've spent hours and hours on it. It's incredibly addictive. So much so, that I pursued playing against real players, with real cards. I went down to my local game shop, met some great people, then abandoned all hope of playing this game for real. I wanted to post this for those who think that Magic 2013 for iPad, is Magic: The Gathering. It most certainly is not.

Why? Well, I have to talk about Magic 2013 first. The gameplay mechanic is what sucked me in. I had never played Magic before, mostly because I thought it was too complicated. Getting it for free on the iPad was the perfect chance to try it. No risk, no embarrassment if I didn't "get it". So it hooked me hard. I started to get it - the relationships between the cards, strategies - even some combos. $10 was a no brainer for all of this.

I started reading about the game online, and found huge communities. I also found that there were local shops that held games, tournaments, and generally were a great place to just hang out and play - kind of like Geek bars (I mean that affectionately).

I checked one out, and met some great people. After talking to a few, they recommended getting an event deck to play competitively, but the intro pack was ok if I'm learning, and I could easily customize it. So I picked one up for $15. I also needed card sleeves, so another $8 for 100 pack. and a die, and a game box. Okay, not a huge deal. Got a few boosters too to start expanding the deck. I swapped a few out, but it still didn't feel balanced enough. Then I started doing some research online - found some singles that I thought would really help my deck. Couple of bucks here and there, and I thought I had a pretty good deck with a decent mana curve, and good offense and defense. I was - pretty excited to play, and proud of myself for putting it together. I had also spent about $50 in total at this point, and probably a dozen hours. But, I was having fun, so onward.

I asked someone if they wanted to play, since I wanted to test out my new deck. I had play tested draws at home, and it seemed solid enough. He was very nice, and slowed down the game to accommodate my newbiness. This is when it completely crashed down. I knew I would lose before I started - it wasn't about that - he was much more experienced than I, and had been playing for years and years. It was about his cards.

See, because he had been playing for years and years, he's accumulated a vast amount of cards. Each time a new core set, or expansion had come out, as a fan and player, he'd pick up a deck builder set, and so on. Not huge investments over the long haul. He'd also have time to study the new cards, until of course the new set came out a few months later - rinse and repeat.

Of course, while all this was happening, he was in school. So, naturally, he had a lot of time to figure out how they worked with each other, and was able to put together some very powerful decks, which leads me to the problem: It's not just the core set.

The iPad game is misleading, because you get a few decks of 60 cards, plus some unlockables (30?) for each deck. That's it (for now). You play against the computer - same cards. You play against people - same cards. In paper Magic, there are many sets. There are also many ways to play, each with their own rules and restrictions. The most common is Standard Constructed. From wiki:

"The Standard format is continually one of the most popular formats in the constructed deck tournament scene. It is the format most commonly found at Friday Night Magic tournaments, played weekly at many hobby shops. Standard used to be referred to alternatively as "Type 2". While the name, "Type 2" has been dropped officially, it is still commonplace that the standard format be referred to this way. This format consists of the most recent "Core Set" release and the two most recent "Block" releases, with one exception. "Rotation" occurs every fall when the first set of the new "Block" releases and becomes Standard Legal. From the time the new "Core Set" is released in early summer, until rotation occurs, 2 core sets are legal. The current Standard set includes Scars of Mirrodin, Mirrodin Besieged, New Phyrexia, Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored, the Magic 2012 core set, and the Magic 2013 core set."

When you put together that each set legal in standard constructed has about 250 unique cards (give or take)... holy crap. That's thousands of cards. Even if you wanted to just play casually, you're not going to have a chance of winning unless you have TONS of time to look at the sets and understand the relationships of how all of those cards could interact with each other. Now, even if you have the time to do that, you need MONEY. The powerful cards cost money, and not just a few bucks here and there. I talked to players who've invested small fortunes to build up their decks. then you have Legacy formats, which many casual players use - this allows for every deck - 10 of thousands of cards, with some individual card restrictions.

So, time and money. I work a 60+ hour week, and have a four year old I like to see when I'm not working. So, I simply can't do this. I don't have the time, and certainly not the expendable money. So, there's simply no way for me to "catch up" enough to have fun. I know I could download deck lists, and buy and play with event decks.... but that's not where the fun is, and I'd be at a severe disadvantage not being aware and ready for combos that my opponent might throw at me.

So, my message to all who don't know, is that Magic takes a lot of time, and a considerable amount of money. If you're going to limit yourself to the core set, and have a few friends that want to do the same, then no problem. Likewise with the iPad game - tons of fun. Otherwise, be prepared for what I mentioned above.

On a side note, because of this, I've discovered games like Ascension and Dominion, which are much more accessible. They have similar mechanics, but no player is at a CARD disadvantage because of time or money. Check them out if you have a moment.

[Xexist]

^In response to you, check to see if they still have draft tournements. It is a great way to build up your collection of cards, its fun, its challenging, and it isnt terribly expensive. The ones I played usually had prizes to win, though I dont know if that is standard. (Plus it has been years since I played in one)

Check this link for further explantion - http://lennyp.hubpages.com/hub/Magic...raft-Explained

[Plynx]

Nice synopsis of the physical Magic game webman2k. In addition to the competitive constructed deck formats, which you're right, will take a lot of time and money to play at a competitive level, there are also many so-called "limited" formats which are a lot easier to handle in terms of time and money. These formats are very popular, and include sealed deck, booster drafts, cubes, and other varieties. If you play with a fixed group of friends, you can also play a limited environment where your group of friends buys a box and then randomly distributes some portion of the cards. Every time someone loses, they get to pull a random card from the communal set, increasing their options for play over time and keeping the game competitive between friends of different skill levels.

The casual multiplayer formats are also very popular, such as Elder Dragon Highlander, where you have a much larger deck, limited in color to the colors of your chosen commander, more life, and can have no duplicates of any card in your deck (the Highlander rule--there can be only one). These formats tend to be much more casual.

Duel of the Planeswalkers is much more akin to those limited formats than the expensive, time-consuming hobby of competitive DCI play. But in my opinion, that's just fine. For many people, including myself, limited formats are just as much if not more fun to play. And after you've been doing it for a while, you may find you've amassed a competitive collection for constructed play without realizing it.

I think this is overall a more sane way to approach the physical cards if you want to get into them, while managing your time and money outlay to something fixed and predictable, at little or no cost to your overall fun. In fact, I would go so far as to say buying too many cards at once can diminish your joy, since the ability to open a new pack and use what's inside and wonder how it will affect your upcoming game, as you do in limited formats, is somewhat lost if it's just a purchase to get the rares to augment your collection. The true currency of this game, I feel, isn't the cards, but interactive surprise and creative joy. More cards don't necessarily increase either.

[webman2k]

Originally Posted by Plynx

The true currency of this game, I feel, isn't the cards, but interactive surprise and creative joy. More cards don't necessarily increase either.

True, and there was definitely anticipation opening up those boosters - even if I didn't really know what I was doing at the time But, even with the limited formats, there is a large amount of strategy which comes from experience. Most draft players have told me playing a good draft is more complicated than a constructed game. You not only have to try and pick out cards that will work for your constructed decks, but at the same time you need to choose cards that are going to win a game - working well with each other at the moment.

If you're playing draft just to play draft, then it's fun for a moment, but that moment's going to cost you the entry fee each time. What you'll end up with is a jumble of cards in your collection that might not (likely not) work well with each other.

I've really been enjoying Ascension on iOS as well. If magic's done anything, it's opened me up to many games I didn't know existed.

[Emos]

@webman2k,
I feel your pain as a former MTG player waaaay back in the day. I absolutely loved the premise and play mechanics and it really sucked me in. I gave it up a long time ago (around ice age expansion I think) because it was turning into "Magic The Moneypit".
I would think about getting back into the game every so often but would always back off because of the time and money issue. Thus I was THRILLED when Magic DOTP hit the iPad because I can now scratch that Magic itch with satisfaction without going bankrupt to be competitive.