So yea, first Magic tournament last night...

[MetaZedlen]

... and I got my ass handed to me something terrible...

Man, I knew that my deck wasn't entirely the best, hell, I even admitted that it sucked, but I haven't played the game in so long, I figured "what the hell, it's only 5 bucks, I'll go play for a few hours"

Boy was I wrong... heh...

At least I met a few cool people there (no one was really "bad") and one of them helped me out with my "reconstructed" deck (which originally is based off of getting Wolf tokens and using them for a few strong monsters), and now I have ways to get 7 mana within 3 turns, provided I don't get both of my nonbasic lands in my first 2 turns.

Man, I never would have guessed that this game was so complicated, and you could actually move THIS fast playing a single game...

EDIT: my match record was 1-3 (the 1 was for a bye game...), but my total game recore was 1-11...

Yes, I suck...

[beatrixkiddo]

I always sucked at making decks when I played :(

[Kizeragi]

I used to play Magic ages ago, actually been tempted to play it again with friends.

1-11 is better than 0-11 no? XD I know people that win 1 match every 50 games lol, you can't be THAT bad.

Deckmaking isn't too tough when you know what your doing, most people who play Magic are friendly though and tend to help out. I got alot of help when I started, I'm somewhat good now. XD

[amtalx]

Unfortunately, Money = Power in Magic. I had a few friends that were serious players back in college. I was able to win a lot of matches, but I was borrowing cards from people with around $8,000 worth of cards, and that's just what they USED.

[Sekani]

That's the problem with TCGs at any competitive level; unless you have the best, rarest, most expensive cards you're probably not going too far.

[Kylie]

I used to have a deck of something *refuses to disclose*, and I used to be pretty bitchin' at it. I played my cousin a bunch when I first started out, and he beat me every time. So he gave me some pointers. I bought more cards and built this incredible force. I never played my cousin again though (I never saw him again for years), and I never went to a tournament (tbh, I was embarrassed). But anyway, yeah, I imagine tourny people are vicious and as thorough as I was designing their decks.

[MetaZedlen]

@Kylie - Their decks are vicious, bu the people there are pretty cool-headed, and to tell you the truth, there were a couple of girls there, and everyone else was acting like they were just 2 more players. (no sarcasm or offense intended)

[Kylie]

No offense to you either, but it's not usually something I'd do. And I was less willing to do what I wanted to do back then. :-P

[Gunslinger-08]

Happened to me with Yugioh way back in middle school. Best part was that half the guys playing looked about 10 years older than me. I never did put a lot of money into them. Just don't get me started on pokemon cards... :D

[RufuSwho]

i've been playing for years, while moeny does help, the best players...well that's ALL they do -
play magic 7 days a week.

unless you want to be fully commited, you need to accept that your just playing for fun (losing for fun, that is.)

if losing isn't that fun for you, well, you can always play PSU. it's easy ;)

[biggabertha]

As amtalx said, money is pretty much how you win in Magic: The Gathering.

Some cards are just plain bombs - like Incremental Blight from the Shadowmoor set. They are powerful cards in both sealed decks and constructed decks when facing a creature deck and are uncommon cards when they should be rare.

To be honest though, I once heard that a person spent nearly £300 on his 60 card deck for a tournament and got knocked out on the first round due to poor deck construction/mana screw.

I've also played with a deck that consisted completely of commons and uncommons that defeated a 60 card deck that had 48 rare cards. The deck I played with was a white weenie deck that could untap in the opponent's turn and gain first strike until end of turn so I managed to attack away while he was trying to amass a fattie only to get it beaten down by double-strikers and first strikers.

I think learning about the stack and the entire turn is the way to fully understand Magic. Responding to spells and abilities took a very long time for me to learn but I was alright with the deck construction - I'm better at sealed deck and two-headed giant than I am at draughts and constructed.

As for guidelines for deck construction, I heard that 40% of your deck should be lands, 40% creatures and 20% for sorceries, enchantments, instants and artifacts for the most basic structure. In a sixty card deck, that's 24 lands you should have for the best/most even chance to get at least two land cards in your opening hand.


Playing is the only way to get better at the game - as much as reading the rules, tips and such are helpful, real experience is what you need - ask your opponent at the end of the game what you could they have done in your shoes and ask for advice (some opponents won't do this though but the good, sporty players ought to) from them.

What cards did you use and from which set was it from? I'm still big into Magic but I prefer the collecting than the playing. I really enjoy multiplayer free for all, Two Headed Giant and Sealed deck though compared to constructed which is what I think you were playing.

[Tetsaru]

I love playing Magic, but I usually stick to Yugioh, simply because of its simplicity. Every time a new Magic expansion comes out, I've suddenly got about 300 new cards of different colors to look through and see how they would work in my current deck, lol.

Btw, I usually run Blue/White control. Use flying and unblockable creatures to get past your opponent's creatures to deal direct damage to him/her, and just counter, bounce, or steal everything else while drawing tons of cards in the order that you want them. :3

[MetaZedlen]

@RufuSwho - everybody there was cool, none of them were "out-for-blood" competitive, and one dude actually was talking to me for like 2 hours on how I can make my deck better, so yeah, good-natured people (thankfully)

@biggabertha - I use a Green deck that is mainly elves and first (for quick mana) and later I have the Howl of the Wolf Pack (heart of my deck), and 2 Mossbridge Trolls and 1 Doomgape ("souls" of my deck).
I have 24 Forests and 2 Mosswort Bridges (help with the Howls, Trolls, or the Doomgape), my creatures and spells are at most 3 mana (I think my enchantment is the most expensive... with the exceptions of the powerhouses listed above).

My deck (60 cardsi) s a really quick way to get mana, it's just that I have to hope to get everything within my first 4-6 turns...

[biggabertha]

Ahhh! I'm familiar with that type of deck - it's a very dangerous deck indeed.

As something that you can add to your deck to further some amount of insanity to it, find or trade for some Mercy Killings. They cost three mana if I remember right (one White/Green and two colourless) and they're instant spells.

If your Mossbridge Troll is in danger of being taken out - tap your creatures to give it the boost (if it already hasn't got it) then use Mercy Killing on your troll - do all of this in response to the creature removal spell so all of the spells and abilities go onto the stack.

What this does, is basically give you a whole bunch of 1/1 Green White Elves - 25 of them. If you happen to have an Imperious Perfect in your deck, they're all 2/2s. Have two out on the field and they're all 3/3s and so on.

My friend plays a very similar deck and when he gets this part of the combination set up - the only thing I can do to stop him is a Warth of God/Damnation (destroy all creatures, they can't be regenerated) or use the black spell: Echoing Decay (All creatures with the same name get -2/-2).


Getting a colossal amount of land in the first few turns is amazing - make sure to press your advantage as soon as you can and be careful of how you use your own creatures - Howl of the Wolf Pack works for every forest you control though - so things like Mana Reflection, Llanowar Elves and such don't necessarily help you out in order to generate Wolf Tokens.

ALso, Doomgape is ridiculously strong - casting that is a great way to stay alive!