the latter is going to have the events you would have seen in the documentary though (pro tour and grand prix)
― ciderpress, Sunday, 15 May 2016 16:00 (eight years ago) link
Thank you! Does anyone here ever compete in the pro tour? I tried having a look at those streams, but yeah...I just have no idea what those cards are. A card ID popup would be so useful - hope your friend gets that working. There are some matches for beginners on YouTube that I think can satisfy my curiosity for now.
I have a ton of cards, but they're mostly quite old. Is it important for me to have new cards in my deck?
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Sunday, 15 May 2016 16:16 (eight years ago) link
if you're just playing casually then use whatever cards you've got
for competitive play there's several different formats with different deck construction rules, the high-level breakdown is:Standard - uses only cards from the past ~18 months worth of setsModern - uses only cards printed since 8th edition (essentially 2003 to present year) with a small ban list of cards that have proven too strongLegacy - uses all cards, but with a small ban list of the most powerful cardsVintage - uses all cards with no ban list but a 1-per-deck restriction on a few really powerful cards
― ciderpress, Sunday, 15 May 2016 16:30 (eight years ago) link
not sure if anyone here has played in the pro tour, it's not easy to qualify and you have to be really good to stay on the tour indefinitely like the folks in the documentary. i have a few friends who have played in 1 or 2 but didn't do well enough to continue
― ciderpress, Sunday, 15 May 2016 16:35 (eight years ago) link
Thanks. Casually for now, but the prospect of tournaments is very appealing for some point in the future. I just need to find people to play against now... imago is refusing to play.
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Sunday, 15 May 2016 17:32 (eight years ago) link
you can go here to get a sense of the popular competitive decks that are currently played in various formats:http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/
probably a good resource if you want details on the decks you see on mtg broadcasts
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Sunday, 15 May 2016 18:03 (eight years ago) link
I've played in two Pro Tours, but I'm not very good at Constructed formats and for the PT you need to be skilled at both. Testing a new format without a team or at least a regular playgroup is also quite difficult. Both times I didn't make it past day 1 because of my terrible Constructed deck. I agree that a newcomer would have a hard time learning from the stream. Probably best to play some with friends first to get a hang of the basics.
― Vinnie, Monday, 16 May 2016 07:07 (eight years ago) link
both Constructed and draft*
― Vinnie, Monday, 16 May 2016 07:09 (eight years ago) link
I did watch a LoadingReadyRun stream where they had an excellent card ID popup thing. Whenever a player played a card, they put it in the middle of the table and it would get scanned and pop-up on stream. I hope they can introduce that on the PT. It didn't seem to slow the game too much.
― Vinnie, Monday, 16 May 2016 07:11 (eight years ago) link
pretty entertaining article on the history of Limited here:
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/oral-history-limited-2016-05-09
― frogbs, Monday, 16 May 2016 17:54 (eight years ago) link
Steve: My second Top 8 was also Rochester—the win in Los Angeles. My semifinal match with Terry Lau might be one of the only Top 8 matches to ever go to six games. I don't think anyone had ever drawn a game in the Top 8 before. That was the Mono-Black Befoul/Corrupt deck in the Top 8. It's probably the only time in Magic I've ever been threatened to be punched in the face. I was playing against Mike Long. I went first and played a Swamp. He played Pouncing Jaguar. I went Swamp, Dark Ritual, Befoul his Forest so he couldn't pay the echo and would lose the Jaguar too. He tried to put his Pouncing Jaguar in the graveyard and not his Forest. "Nope," I said and pointed to his Forest. Later he ripped a Forest and played his Acridian. I played my fourth Swamp and Befouled the only green source he had to pay the echo with.
This I've had happen to me and yeah it is probably the most frustrating thing that can happen in Limited
Saga was so poorly designed, in retrospect
― frogbs, Monday, 16 May 2016 18:06 (eight years ago) link
yeah it took them a while to go from 'we're now thinking about limited play when making sets' (mirage) to 'this is actually fun to play limited with' (invasion) and then it's not for another several years after that that you get the first limited format that resembles their current design approach (champions of kamigawa)
― ciderpress, Monday, 16 May 2016 20:55 (eight years ago) link
Did y'all watch the talk Mark Rosewater gave at GDC? Pretty great talk about the lessons R&D has learned designing Magic, though maybe not much new if you've been reading his column over the years. I think Echo is a more interesting mechanic than a fun one (it's kind of a pain, really), and he talks about how mechanics should be fun rather than interesting. His example was how in Odyssey it was advantageous to dump your hand for Threshold, which I agree was not very fun
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 17 May 2016 03:06 (eight years ago) link
nyc people: are there any good places to FNM in manhattan these days?
― ciderpress, Thursday, 19 May 2016 14:02 (eight years ago) link
montasy comics is okay. are you in town?
― iatee, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:05 (eight years ago) link
no, was asking for a friend who just moved down there and is trying to find the spot with the most competent players
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:10 (eight years ago) link
okay here's the scene:
montasy (midtown) - decent standard/draft fnm, nice people, competitiveness depends on who you end up playing but your average fnm draft pod and standard fnm is about 50% casuals 50% srs players. also has legacy/modern nights which are roughly the same casual/srs ratios. the playerbase is generally pretty friendly but the store is poorly run and just coasts off being the only real option in midtown.
uncommons (village) - also has fnm and some other stuff, generally runs more casual than montasy
geekery (queens) - my favorite store, I'm friends w/ the people who run it and has pretty competitive modern/legacy scene, decent drafts at fnm. doesn't have a standard scene.
20s (brooklyn) - still runs some magic stuff but it's spotty. I know the run fnms at least, I don't know who shows up. it was more competitive in general than the other stores when they were more magic focused.
king's games (brooklyn) - I have never actually been here, it is very far in brooklyn and everyone hates it
nebulous (LES) - kinda out of the way and not a reliable choice for events, but they have the occasional gpt etc.
I run a google group w/ a lot of fairly competitive friends and we have lots of social+magic get togethers if he's interested in meeting people
― iatee, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:53 (eight years ago) link
thanks, appreciate it
― ciderpress, Friday, 20 May 2016 16:56 (eight years ago) link
art on the EMA animate dead is a real treat. actually some real nice new art in general in what's been spoiled so far
http://mythicspoiler.com/ema/cards/animatedead.jpg
― Roberto Spiralli, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 17:06 (eight years ago) link
Too bad they can't update the ugliness of how the card works as well
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 17:08 (eight years ago) link
I mean, it works intuitively, but it's such a shame that the card is still so wordy and hard to parse after all these years
― Vinnie, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 17:12 (eight years ago) link
yeah "enchant dead creature" is just something that doesn't work within the rules. and yes it sucks because I really like that effect - it's powerful but there's an extra way of killing it. Makeshift Mannequin I liked because it played around in that space.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 24 May 2016 17:45 (eight years ago) link
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/card-image-gallery/eternal-masters
full spoiler up
― iatee, Friday, 27 May 2016 15:14 (eight years ago) link
nice set
― ciderpress, Friday, 27 May 2016 16:49 (eight years ago) link
i am very disappointed that they commissioned new art for Roots though, the original is a masterpiece
boooo @ the new Mother of Runes art. everything's gotta be sexy these days
serious lol at Prodigal Sorcerer though
― frogbs, Friday, 27 May 2016 16:51 (eight years ago) link
pauper gains elite vanguard and desperate ravings, also nimble mongoose though idk if that will be relevant
― ciderpress, Friday, 27 May 2016 16:54 (eight years ago) link
thank god they made Impervious Perfect a rare, I got flashbacks of losing to that repeatedly
― frogbs, Friday, 27 May 2016 16:55 (eight years ago) link
vma is probably my favorite draft format of all time so im v excited for this, although i doubt ill play any of it irl
― ( ^_^) (Lamp), Friday, 27 May 2016 19:04 (eight years ago) link
This set looks so great - I love the cube feel, like I read the spoiler and it's hard to construct a pack where I wouldn't excited about like a 5th pick common.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Friday, 27 May 2016 19:25 (eight years ago) link
Red looks like an intimidatingly effective Fun Police though, hope that's not the case to an extent where self-indulgence and winning end up strongly polarised.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Friday, 27 May 2016 19:30 (eight years ago) link
also can we talk abt how sick it is that strange fbook dudes keep using magic card art for their macros?
https://twitter.com/dasharez0ne/status/735663199941361664
― ( ^_^) (Lamp), Friday, 27 May 2016 19:48 (eight years ago) link
lol im a fan of that account
― ciderpress, Friday, 27 May 2016 19:51 (eight years ago) link
anyone got anything fun in modern rn? i still haven't really landed on anything post-birthing pod
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 16:13 (eight years ago) link
I got Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in a pack recently, but I really have no clue at this stage if it is good or anything, it just had the shiny bit on it so I thought maybe!
Does anyone play/know of anywhere to play in London that isn't terrifying?
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:00 (eight years ago) link
that card is quite popular currently
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
I have mostly been playing legacy (going to columbus actually...) and grinding lorwyn/10th edition drafts online but I would probably play the death's shadow aggro deck if I were playing modern right now, that deck is a lot of fun
― iatee, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:15 (eight years ago) link
oh i forgot there was a legacy gp this weekend, i should probably take advantage of that to play some matches while there are more people in queue
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:23 (eight years ago) link
yeah the gauntlet will be online soon, should be fun
― iatee, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:24 (eight years ago) link
i dont really care about the gauntlet, i just want some practice with my deck (aluren)
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:44 (eight years ago) link
aluren is pretty cool, I might try that in paper one day since I have a playset of recruiters and can borrow my friend's shardless bug deck
― iatee, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 19:56 (eight years ago) link
Sorry to be here asking so many beginner's questions, but what are these pre-named, pre-made decks? Does anyone ever build their own deck from scratch or is that not generally what is done if you are playing in tournaments?
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
There's plenty of people who build their own decks, but most competitive players are content to start with a proven strategy and make tweaks from there.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 20:24 (eight years ago) link
Ty, good to know. I'm far from that stage yet
― It certainly is punk of the Church of England to think that way (tangenttangent), Tuesday, 7 June 2016 20:55 (eight years ago) link
I haven't played competitive constructed in a long long time but I think it's a lot harder to be successful with your own homebrew these days, since formats get effectively solved and sorted into tier 1/tier 2/fringe decks very quickly. Also I think the cards are in general more powerful now, it's tough to really metagame well for some of the better decks in the format.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:00 (eight years ago) link
yeah, to elaborate, there's so many people playing this game that generally every time a new set is released, all the powerful strategies/interactions get found within a few weeks and then competitive deckbuilding becomes more about picking your preferred one of them and slowly evolving it to match up well against whatever's popular.
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:19 (eight years ago) link
of course, you could always be one of the people who found a major strategy in those first few weeks but the odds are against you
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:25 (eight years ago) link
man, I remember it taking like...a month before people figured out you could effectively "cheat" Tangle Wire, and suddenly there were copies in what seemed like every Standard deck. those were the days.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:26 (eight years ago) link
also sometimes you dust off some old idea that was publicly known but discarded as a gimmick and stumble on a slightly different build of it that's a bit more consistent and win a bunch of events with it on magic online and then some pro tour player sees it and brings it to the next PT and then a year or 2 later a card gets banned in modern
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:33 (eight years ago) link
>Does anyone play/know of anywhere to play in London that isn't terrifying?
Your choices are mostly Dark Sphere in Lambeth or Leisure Games in Finchley. I don't know anything about the latter but it's meant to be nice. I have only good things to say about Dark Sphere - it's super nerdy obviously but they try hard to make it pleasant and friendly.
― Gravel Puzzleworth, Tuesday, 7 June 2016 21:36 (eight years ago) link