Magic: The Gathering

[Arrow]

I know, I just can't get any more right now. I started off with the Deck Builder's toolkit, and then raided binders everywhere I could find em.

Fun story: last night I drew eight plains mana.

In a row.

[Cascading Dragon]

I know, I just can't get any more right now. I started off with the Deck Builder's toolkit, and then raided binders everywhere I could find em.

Fun story: last night I drew eight plains mana.

In a row.

It happens.
I never went to tournaments. I find them... exhausting. Playing with friends and slightly tweaked rules was the best

[EvilM00s]

Around here it was like Graf said; abunch of kids would get these incredibly rare useful card and shit, and burn you down within like 5 turns. Nothing you could do about it. We called it "rich kid syndrome", and it sucked when all you had was the starter and a few boosters with MAYBE 2 or 3 rares. And of course, nothing can save you from mana constipation or manarhea...

[tSwitch]

Yeah, they're ok, but I usually get stuck with those kids that have like every single card ever made, buy a couple boosters every paycheck, they go home and do nothing but read strategy and build decks, then they show up and act all cocky, lose and then RAGE SO HARD. Plus it's more stressful. Having to actually care somewhat about what's in your deck and then having to go somewhere just to play and then all the people around like it's an olympic event. It's just the whole thing is a little more stressful than just sitting down with a few friends at the dinner table and playing whatever decks you feel like playing for an hour or two. And like I said earlier, WotC was releasing new expansions almost every single month making cards less than several months old completely useless in tourneys. IDK if they still make them that fast considering it's been a good year since I've bought or been into Magic, but it was completely pointless to buy new cards or do tourneys like that without having to spend A LOT of money constantly on getting new cards. The money wasn't worth it. That's another reason I always prefer house rules, lol, cause there's no "Oh that edition was released 4 editions ago and you can't use them". haha

The issue is that with using cards that came out years ago, some unintended combos can happen that result in completely overpowered decks (trust me, it's true).

They don't release new sets that fast, nor have they ever.  And cards remain in the rotation for like a year before being taken out of Type 2.

Also I have a fun story about those types of people, actually. 
See, I was at a card shop once, and just hanging out, when some kid shows up.  Never seen him before, but he had a huge box of cards and he slapped them down on the table (louder than necessary) near us.  We had never seen him before, but that's cool, right?  He proceeded to, when asked, tell us he was the best of all of his friends, and wanted to come here to see if anyone here could match him. 

Dramatic. 

So I, of course, accepted his challenge. 

We played a best of 3, or it was to be a best of three anyway.  He ran a leveler deck.  The kind where you try to get out leveler, and then use a combo to remove needing to draw, remove your max hand size, and make all of the cards out of play your hand, essentially giving you your entire deck as a hand. 

Well, he grinned like a little beast and played leveler.  I just watched.  He went to then drop all 3 cards of his combo at once.

"No, no no, you have to play them one at a time, you know, give me a chance to react after every card."

He scoffs and takes them back, playing his 'no max hand size' card first.  I nod, and he proceeds to play the card that gives him his deck as his hand.  I nod.

He searches through, and drops the "I dont' have to draw" card.

Tap two islands.
Counterspell.

"Sorry, bro."

HE FLIPS THE TABLE AT ME.
Sending our cards flying.  Screaming about how cheap control decks were, spitting and freaking out.  He stormed out of the card shop, and we could hear him swearing down the sidewalk.

He left his cards there.

The manager took them and held onto them for him (they got added to stock).

We never saw him again.

[Grafikal]

Nice.

[Sophist]

Fun story: last night I drew eight plains mana.

In a row.

:suicide:

[tSwitch]

Nice.

It's the only time I've ever Counterspelled someone so hard that they quit playing.

[Arrow]

counter-planeswalker

I love that story.

[Acolyte]

So, I got a shiny new 2011 edition deck the other day. Blue and white, I forget the name.
It looks pretty good overall, but stormtide leviathan, my god. 8/8, islandwalk, all lands are islands in addition to their other types, creatures without flying or islandwalk can't attack. It costs 8 mana (3 blue 5 colorless) but for all the effects, it's not too bad.

Also, anyone ever play unhinged?

[Kokowam]

@NAMKCOR: LOL but wait... Old cards aren't legal?!?!!? D8

[Acolyte]

Tournaments cycle out cards pretty quickly. That's why I don't play anything official.

[Grafikal]

@NAMKCOR: LOL but wait... Old cards aren't legal?!?!!? D8

Aren't legal, as in you can't use them in tournaments. You're not going to get arrested...

[tSwitch]

@NAMKCOR: LOL but wait... Old cards aren't legal?!?!!? D8

Yeah they're just not official Type 2 tourney legal, but you could still play them in extended.

[Cascading Dragon]

I played house rules when it came to cards we could use.. It was more Extended though. No Unhinged and the other one.

[Kokowam]

@NAMKCOR: LOL but wait... Old cards aren't legal?!?!!? D8

Aren't legal, as in you can't use them in tournaments. You're not going to get arrested...

I know that "legal" means "tourney legal." >> I have some old ass cards. The very last booster pack I bought was the "Legions" one when it came out which was 2003. lol wow P:

[tSwitch]

Yeah those are def not Type 2

[Arrow]

The way my buddies have been playing lately is like this:

Draw 9 to start. Person who goes first draws one. 2 per turn from then on.

You can place two land total per turn.

Max hand size is ten.

Shit is so cash.

[tSwitch]

Wow that's...really bent.

Standard hand size: 7.
First to play doesn't get to draw, second to play does (first turn price).
Max hand size is 7 unless a card says otherwise.
One land per turn.

[Arrow]

Dude I -know- how to play it properly. We're doing it that way on purpose to speed things up. It's meant to be mega bent.

[Kokowam]

Dude I -know- how to play it properly. We're doing it that way on purpose to speed things up. It's meant to be mega bent.

All these prolorz think we're completely ignorant or something D8< STAND UP AND FIGHT WITH ME, ARROW!

[tSwitch]

Dude I -know- how to play it properly. We're doing it that way on purpose to speed things up. It's meant to be mega bent.

Eh...personal preference, don't like bending rules that much.  I figure the cards are balanced against the official rules and changing things too much could break them.  But that's why I don't use house rules, so just my opinion.

[Arrow]

The reason we do it is to speed things up. A problem we have is bad draw, since we're just starting out and we have maybe a single copy of each of our good cards. We'll play out a few good turns and then odds are is that one of us is fucked until the end of the game, and it drags. With this method, you amass enormous armies in a manner of three or four turns. We play carefully for a while, getting beefed up, and then there are these earth shattering attack phases where we have to calculate blocking and damage for like, 30 points of potential damage.

I forgot to mention, we start with forty life. My deck ends up getting me around 60 tops for a game on average.

[tSwitch]

Building a deck that can reliably avoid draw issues is part of the game.
If card availability is the issue, go halfs with someone on a fat pack, or buy a starter deck and swap out cards.

If there's Friday Night Magic in the area, odds are you can go there and win free booster packs if you do.  Trust me, some friends and I started out a while ago too with no legal cards, split a fat pack or two, and managed to build decent enough decks to play well against people who've had theirs for a while.

It's not hard to get started.

But I mean, if that's not what you want to do (play in official events or at card shops) then by all means do whatever you'd like, more power to you.

[Arrow]

Money's the issue right now, it's all goin' different places in such a way I can't really justify buying magic cards in large quantities.

[Gracie]

I stopped playing card games when I realised Konami hates poor people.

Also, I'm still confused as to why so many fucking updates are nescessary.