Poll: Magic the gathering: VG&Pref

[RJ 17]

Two subjects, one short lived, one for long term discussion value.

After a lengthy absence Ive found myself becoming interested in Magic the gathering again. I played originally back when it first came out and during its first reboot period in the late 90s.

Short term: Even in reviewing it I am having trouble differentiating between Magic:TG Online and Magic:TG Duel of the planeswalkers 2012.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/49470/
Is there something different between them? Which is better? Hell I guess you can include magic: Tactics in with this.

Long term: What sorts of decks do you favor? Poll included, but feel free to discuss pros and cons. Thank you.

Not certain if you're talking about what I'm think of with Magic Online, but that's like...official. You buy packs with real money, build your own decks, play in tournaments, etc. It's much more "realistic" than Duels 2012, in that you're actually making your deck with your own money rather than playing with a bunch of preconstructed decks.

As such, they both have their pros and cons.

Duels: You know what you're going up against, you know what to be expecting from each deck and each deck (with a few exceptions) are really pretty damn good. However the shuffling in that game is absolutely atrocious. If you have 4 or more lands in your starting hand: you'll draw nothing but land for the next 8 turns. If you have 3 or less, chances are you're not going to be drawing land for a long time. I'm not saying getting mana screwed/mana drown doesn't happen in real life, it most certainly does. However it happens WWWAAAYYY too often in Duels. Another drawback is that you can't build your own decks and most people like that kind of control over their playing.

Magic Online: Really the only bad thing is that it can become incredibly addicting and just absolutely melt a hole in your wallet. As I said: you're actually buying cards with your own real money. This grants you as much customization options as there are in real life. And I think the way it works is that if you manage to get at least 1 of each card in an entire set, you can order that set and they'll send you a copy of all the cards you have for you to use in real life. You can join draft and sealed deck tournaments as well as more standard format tournaments. Really it's like being able to play REAL magic any time you want...as I said, just don't go crazy with yourself and spend all your rent money on magic cards.

As for my personal taste in decks, I tend to try and go for speed. My most recent "holy shit I love this frickin' deck!" was a White-Weenie/Equipment deck built with a mix of Mirrodin and Eldrazi blocks. Lotta Kor creatures from the Eldrazi blocks, lotta bad-ass equipment from the Mirrodin blocks. It's fast and doesn't take long before one of my little 1/2 slap-dicks becomes a 11/12 prot blue/black/white/red that mills 10, gets me a 2/2 wolf token, heals me while doing direct damage to my opponent, and every time it attacks I get to destroy a permanent (Sword of War and Peace, Sword of Mind and Body, Argentum Armor). Then just for fun I've got 4 Phyrexian Rebirths in the deck as well as a couple Bone Hoard living equipments. Annnnnd 2 of the "new" Elspeths with one "new" Gideon. :3

 

[Vardermir]

I play blue because, well quite frankly, having friends is overrated. Also, have you seen THIS:

Spoiler: Avacyn Restored Spoiler

I don't play magic much, but a mate of mine has a legacy reanimator deck with dark ritual that can basically win on the 2nd turn. It is no fun to play against, espcially when he lays down Iona and tells you can no longer play any of the cards in your hand.

I get the impression that most legacy decks, properly competetive legacy decks, need to win on the 2nd or 3rd turn so drawing that would basically guarentee you the game.

As a primarily legacy player, turns 1-3 are extremely important, but that doesn't mean games can't last longer. Against a deck like Reanimator, its just vital that you have some form of graveyard hate. Its pretty easy to beat someone when you keep exiling all their graveyard and they never actually play anything .

I play a bunch of different decks, but almost all of them have at least a splash of green, mostly for mana acceleration. Turn 1 Emrakul? Yes please

 

[Doomhammer828]

Although in this DOTP, it has me running a Plains/Swamps deck which I am starting to appreciate the cards that are centric to it (IE angels and demons)

The new set that comes out in a couple weeks is actually focused on angels and demons.

Wait, they are releasing another new one? Good lord, didn't the last one just come out in February?

Yep, they release four a year. They come out around February, May, July, and October.

Ah okay, I would hate to be one of those guys who collector every single card from every single release. It would suck >.<

I know one of those guys! He usually just gets the one of every card set from StarCitygames.com so it isn't that bad.
Also Avacyn Restored is shaping up to be a bad set, their are far to many insanely overpowered cards and many cards snap EDH in half, such as Avacyn, Griselbrand, and Gisela
Favorite deck type Blue/Red, new deck that i'm working on, update of U/R Vore for Modern

 

[viranimus]

However the shuffling in that game is absolutely atrocious. If you have 4 or more lands in your starting hand: you'll draw nothing but land for the next 8 turns. If you have 3 or less, chances are you're not going to be drawing land for a long time. I'm not saying getting mana screwed/mana drown doesn't happen in real life, it most certainly does. However it happens WWWAAAYYY too often in Duels. Another drawback is that you can't build your own decks and most people like that kind of control over their playing.

Appreciate the assessment. I fully agree, Duels is shit for deck distribution. And yes, I find myself highly dissatisfied with pre built decks. Im thinking Ill eventually move to MTGO because I dont think theres enough people who play locally to have a lot of fun playing f2f. Only problem with that is theres too much competition and get pounded heavily even by casuals who have ample time/investment in their builds.

 

[RJ 17]

However the shuffling in that game is absolutely atrocious. If you have 4 or more lands in your starting hand: you'll draw nothing but land for the next 8 turns. If you have 3 or less, chances are you're not going to be drawing land for a long time. I'm not saying getting mana screwed/mana drown doesn't happen in real life, it most certainly does. However it happens WWWAAAYYY too often in Duels. Another drawback is that you can't build your own decks and most people like that kind of control over their playing.

Appreciate the assessment. I fully agree, Duels is shit for deck distribution. And yes, I find myself highly dissatisfied with pre built decks. Im thinking Ill eventually move to MTGO because I dont think theres enough people who play locally to have a lot of fun playing f2f. Only problem with that is theres too much competition and get pounded heavily even by casuals who have ample time/investment in their builds.

Don't get me wrong, Duels 2012 is still a fun game if you've got some friends to mess around with. Some of the decks are just a lot of fun to use. For instance, they've got this Zombie deck that is just ridiculous, they've got a white knight deck in which almost all the creatures have First Strike...and there's 3 Knight Exemplars (think that's what it's called), a 2/2 non-legendary Knight that gives all OTHER knights +1/+1 and indestructibility. This means if you get 2 of them out, your entire army is officially indestructible. There's also a deck built heavily around enchantments...that deck is one of my personal favorites, actually. :3

As for MTGO, it really isn't that bad. The most fun I have with it are doing the Sealed Deck/Draft tournaments...particularly the Drafts as that makes your odds even better. You won't be going up against people who have bought all the cards necessary to make one of the current top 10 decks as you'll encounter in most standard tournaments. With Drafts and Sealed, everyone is picking from fresh booster packs from which they have to build a deck right there on the spot. REALLY helps make things fun and fair.

That said, there's still "oh that's just fucking lame" moments in a Draft when you go up against someone who managed to get 2 frickin' planeswalkers or something.

So yeah, as far as MTGO vs Duels, I'd say they serve 2 different purposes. "REAL" magic players probably won't have much fun in Duels since there's very little control over your own deck, however more casual/light players can have fun in Duels since it's very simplified annnnnd if you download the actual expansion (and not the mini-ones that just give you a couple more decks), you actually get to play as the Arch Enemy in Arch Enemy games....and that's just all kinds of fun. Especially when you get a Scheme card that lets you bust out Ulamog on your first turn. :3

 

[Shynobee]

I personally play a lot of EDH, and my current favorite deck is a Black Green White deck with Ghave, Guru of Spores at the helm.

Its a token swarm deck that can generally set up some controlling board positions with any number of token generators and sac outlets plus a grave pact or Savra, Queen of the Golgari.

Probably my favorite aspect of the deck is how resilient it is to wrath effects. As long as you still have access to Ghave or a decently sized hand, you really don't mind having your board wiped. Heck, with a Falkenrath Noble out, sometimes I just wrath myself.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Elder Dragon highlander format is the ONLY format I play. My deck is a 5-colored Dragon deck with Scion of the Ur-Dragon as my General.

When my deck works, it scares me!

 

[Elamdri]

Honestly if you want to play some magic either go with MTGO or physical cards. Duels is fun but its lacks are the critical things that keep magic fun in the long term such as building your own deck.

As for what I am playing currently I have been toying around with RUG delver and esper stoneblade for legacy. I dont really have any set playstyle.

In standard I have been using red/green aggro. Its an amazing deck that is underestimated far to often.

I trust blue's ability to dicker with the library enough that it will see competitive play.

In standard you currently have ponder for library manipulation. Thats not a whole lot and not nearly enough to make this card playable. The only standard deck this could see play in is delver and even then its iffy. You have to think what could you cut out of that deck to put this in?


In legacy it will be a good card but outside of that I dont see it being played. In legacy however it will be pretty good. There are enough cards to help it not suck. Jace, brainstorm, top, and force of will all work really well with it.

You also have no clue what's going to come in once Scars block rotates out.

 

[Elamdri]

You also have no clue what's going to come in once Scars block rotates out.

No but unless they reprint one of the cards I listed or something of equal power (which would break standard) nothing changes. Wizards isnt dumb enough to print a card like temporal mastery without a very large amount of playtesting.

This is the same company that created Affinity, just so we are clear

 

[RJ 17]

:3 You know what I've always thought they should revisit? Slivers. I loved those crazy little bastards.

That or I wish we could go back to Kamigawa...the ninja and samurai cards were a lot of fun.

 

[RJ 17]

You also have no clue what's going to come in once Scars block rotates out.

No but unless they reprint one of the cards I listed or something of equal power (which would break standard) nothing changes. Wizards isnt dumb enough to print a card like temporal mastery without a very large amount of playtesting.

What about Jace the Mind Sodomizer? He didn't last more than a couple months before getting smacked with the BANNED stamp.

 

[thememan]

Duals of the Plainswalkers is pretty much exactly Magic:TG but on a computer. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to use pre-built decks and the interface takes some getting used to (Which can suck when you start because if you screw up a move because you didn't know what a button did, you can loose the game) but it's pretty forgivable. It's actually a good way to learn. I don't know much about Magic:TG Online except it's much older. I think Duals might be it's replacement, not sure.

I play blue because, well quite frankly, having friends is overrated. Also, have you seen THIS:

Spoiler: Avacyn Restored Spoiler

So I stopped playing during the Mirrodin block set... what the hell does Exile mean? One of the major reason I stopped playing was the bloody stupid move to giving Name abilities to every last damn ability and frankly I don't have the patience to keep track of them all.

 

[Elamdri]

Duals of the Plainswalkers is pretty much exactly Magic:TG but on a computer. The only thing I don't like about it is that you have to use pre-built decks and the interface takes some getting used to (Which can suck when you start because if you screw up a move because you didn't know what a button did, you can loose the game) but it's pretty forgivable. It's actually a good way to learn. I don't know much about Magic:TG Online except it's much older. I think Duals might be it's replacement, not sure.

I play blue because, well quite frankly, having friends is overrated. Also, have you seen THIS:

Spoiler: Avacyn Restored Spoiler

So I stopped playing during the Mirrodin block set... what the hell does Exile mean? One of the major reason I stopped playing was the bloody stupid move to giving Name abilities to every last damn ability and frankly I don't have the patience to keep track of them all.

Exile = Removed From Game

 

[Elamdri]

:3 You know what I've always thought they should revisit? Slivers. I loved those crazy little bastards.

**** yes.

 

[Souplex]

Spoiler: Avacyn Restored Spoiler

I don't see that being all that good. It is being severely over-hyped. Most of the time, it is just going to be an Explore [http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=201578], other times it is dead in your hand.

Except that it isn't just about getting another draw and land, it's about being able to take a whole extra turn, so basically getting two uses out of your resources. Explore doesn't untap all your permanents.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/owens-a-win-of-miracles/
It may be fun in casual play, but it is a dud for competitive play. I called it an Explore because this is a likely scenario,
A person draws it Turn 3, plays it then just puts down an extra land and could play a 4-drop. That person sped up the game by a turn, not game-breaking. Particularly not when you are staring at two copies of it opening hand and have to mulligan. A card based around topdecking is never going to be reliable on a consistent basis. Everyone is talking about what happens when you topdeck it, but the reality is that it will be a dead card a lot of the time.

Except that scry is a thing. With enough planning/scrying you could chain temporal mastery like crazy.
I play White/Equipment. I will provide a deck list in my first edit.

 

[RJ 17]

So I stopped playing during the Mirrodin block set... what the hell does Exile mean? One of the major reason I stopped playing was the bloody stupid move to giving Name abilities to every last damn ability and frankly I don't have the patience to keep track of them all.

Exile means "Remove From Game". As such, when you play it it doesn't go to your graveyard, it leaves the game entirely. This prevents you from using a card that'll let you bring said card back from your graveyard.

There's "kill cards" now, for instance, that say "Exile Target Creature". This means your opponent can't regenerate the creature, can't Raise Dead them, they're gone for good.