Magic 2013

[FoolishEarthling]

Originally Posted by Sojourn

Thanks, Plynx!

I like your idea of passing and picking what phases you want to pass -- I was actually thinking of a similar solution, though visualizing it on the other end -- if your opponent passes, and you want to cast an instant, getting to pick which phase of their turn you want to play it during. Neat!

I also edited my previous post to include two more issues I remembered people mentioning en masse -- searching through their library for specific cards, and discarding multiple cards at once.

It's a hard balance to strike between giving expert players fine control but keeping the game moving for newbies. Your list said 'make it faster and stop more often'.

There are two specific points where I would like to place a stop that doesn't auto-resolve: combat damage and end of turn. I'm constantly missing the chance to do stuff EOT, and combat is confusing... I played against a pump creature and couldn't tell if he was about to resolve damage or add another pump, so wound up taking 6 damage instead of Unsummoning an 8/8.

[Sojourn]

Originally Posted by FoolishEarthling

It's a hard balance to strike between giving expert players fine control but keeping the game moving for newbies. Your list said 'make it faster and stop more often'.

I probably could have worded it more concisely, but I think I was consistent in my statement -- that there are times when a player has to wait through a number of phases/animations that aren't relevant to them, and it would be great to skip them all at once, as long as the opponent is still given the opportunity to react with any relevant cards they want to play. A system like Plynx and I were discussing would allow the skipping of phases with the option of picking which phase to stop skipping on (for example, skipping first Main Phase and Combat Phase, and starting to play in Second Main Phase).

Hope that helps to clarify what I meant. The list was meant as a summary of the major issues listed so far in the thread, not just my own thoughts, and hopefully I did everyone else's points justice.

[Jools75]

Nevermind...

[PCKid]

Being a noob and starting to get the hang of it why sometimes do I not get a Main after a Combat. I thought it was Main, Combat then Main again before End?

[Ben909]

I'm new to Magic, but loving it so far. I had something unexpected happen when playing last night. I was using the green deck against Krenko (red deck) in the campaign (mage difficulty). I was in a much stronger position than Krenko, and was enjoying passing on my combat phase every time just to see how big an army of creatures I could build. Krenko was also passing on his combat, because to attack me would have been pointless. Whenever I put a new creature in to play, I would automatically add about 3 4/4 creatures, and turn over another 3 or 4 cards, thanks to the stacked effects of cards that were already in play. At one point my hand was too big, and the game made me select 10 of them to discard. I carried on building my army until I eventually played 'Khalni Hydra'. It has a mana cost of 8, minus the total value of green mana of permanents in play. As soon as that card went in to play, I immediately lost the game. I'd kept a close eye on Krenko's cards, and am not aware of any card he had that would have caused me to lose for playing the hydra.

Any idea what happened? Is it because the mana cost of playing the hydra was well in to negative figures? Or is there an upper limit on the number of cards you can have in play, and when you reach that limit you lose?

I've never played a game like this until Magic 2013, so I'm learning as I go along, but this is the first thing that's happened that was unexpected.

[Jools75]

Originally Posted by Ben909

I'm new to Magic, but loving it so far. I had something unexpected happen when playing last night. I was using the green deck against Krenko (red deck) in the campaign (mage difficulty). I was in a much stronger position than Krenko, and was enjoying passing on my combat phase every time just to see how big an army of creatures I could build. Krenko was also passing on his combat, because to attack me would have been pointless. Whenever I put a new creature in to play, I would automatically add about 3 4/4 creatures, and turn over another 3 or 4 cards, thanks to the stacked effects of cards that were already in play. At one point my hand was too big, and the game made me select 10 of them to discard. I carried on building my army until I eventually played 'Khalni Hydra'. It has a mana cost of 8, minus the total value of green mana of permanents in play. As soon as that card went in to play, I immediately lost the game. I'd kept a close eye on Krenko's cards, and am not aware of any card he had that would have caused me to lose for playing the hydra.

Any idea what happened? Is it because the mana cost of playing the hydra was well in to negative figures? Or is there an upper limit on the number of cards you can have in play, and when you reach that limit you lose?

I've never played a game like this until Magic 2013, so I'm learning as I go along, but this is the first thing that's happened that was unexpected.

Not 100% sure, but probably you may had something in play like Garruk's Companion or something similar which forced you to draw one additional card when a creature with more or equal 4 power enter battlefield on your side. You will automatically lose the game if you're required to draw and instead you have no cards in your grimoire. Since you're saying you're drawing and discarding an important amount of cards, my suspect is you played in a situation like this. Just my opinion, meh.

[Jools75]

Originally Posted by PCKid

Being a noob and starting to get the hang of it why sometimes do I not get a Main after a Combat. I thought it was Main, Combat then Main again before End?

The app automatically skip your second Main Phase if you have nothing legal to put into play (a land, a summon, but not an activated ability, since these may be used whenever you like and require often that you press the clockwork button before being used properly). In options menu, eventually, you may setup your favorite method of playing, like always asking a confirmation before going to next step. But, to be honestly, this will slow down heavily the whole game flow.

[Jambo]

I wonder over the decision to make online so restricted for the iPad....

Why only limited to 2 players head to head or planechase...

Why only real time and no async... I'm guessing this might be because of the Instants which can be played at any time? If so, is there no way round this to have async?

Magic would be a great candidate for >2 players playing online, particularly in the planechase mode.

Also, I'd love to see more customisable options for game speed, animations, etc.

Regards

[Jambo]

Originally Posted by Spatzi

Just won my first planechase 4 player. Played white/soldier deck. Only me and Ajani left. I thought i was dead after He had his 6/5 flyer out. I had no flying creatures to block and only six life. What does he do on his turn? Instead of just attacking, he Rolls the die, brings in a new plane that Kills every creature. Lol! Eventually i get 15 creatures out from another plane that lets me pull them from the grave, yet he continues to gain life, killing my 15/15 with an instant that gives him 15 life. Took quite a while to finally win after pacifying his last two blockers and get him down to zero cards in hand.

I love the planechase mode. Really fun and unpredicatable.

~
Yeah, planechase mode is definitely fun and it also gives a use for all those unused land mana cards! Its unpredictability means it's not to be taken too seriously. The only downside is the wait time to find an opponent online is generally much longer.

[Unseen Studios]

I wonder over the decision to make online so restricted for the iPad....

Why only limited to 2 players head to head or planechase...

Why only real time and no async... I'm guessing this might be because of the Instants which can be played at any time? If so, is there no way round this to have async?

Magic would be a great candidate for >2 players playing online, particularly in the planechase mode.

Also, I'd love to see more customisable options for game speed, animations, etc.

Regards

Async is never going to happen on Magic. You would have to wait for your opponent not only after every phase, but after every action you perform. 1 turn would take around a week.