Magic The Gathering players!!

[MrFun]

So the last time I played MTG regularly was about ten years ago. Thankfully, I have kept my entire collection and I'm wanting to renew my interest in this game.

However, I am new to where I live now so I haven't established good friends here yet. Anyone on Apolyton who happen to live near Silver Spring/Washington DC area who play MTG? :desire:


I have posted a similar inquiry like this on MTG's official forums page and I have also found the address of a card collection store that seems like a cool haven for MTG players to hang out at.

[Seedle]

Ten years? Pre sixth-edition? READ THE RULES. They've changed. I'm in Memphis, so I can't help with the play group.

edit: You got any cards that are worth anything? 10 years is a long time ago, particularly for Magic.

[MrFun]

Uh, I knew that the rules have changed over the past ten years, Seedle.

I just need to find a way to get up to speed now with those new rules and new abilities and effects and new expansions.

The value of my older cards will depend on their condition.

[Seedle]

Originally posted by MrFun
Uh, I knew that the rules have changed over the past ten years, Seedle.

I just need to find a way to get up to speed now with those new rules and new abilities and effects and new expansions.

Well duh. I meant they've changed pretty fundamentally. No interrupts, no damage prevention windows, etc. Basically, if you already know about the stack, it'll just be minor tweaks and new abilities. If you haven't heard of the stack, you've got a lot to unlearn and re-learn and just plain learn. Not saying it'll be hard, the stack is a simple idea, just saying the game has changed more than you might have anticipated. Or maybe not.

The value of my older cards will depend on their condition.

Again, duh. I mean, do you have any black lotuses or anything insane?

[MrFun]

So explain to me what the stack concept is.

And no, I do not have a Black Lotus.

Although, I do have cards like Arcades Sabboth, Asmira Holy Avenger, Chronium, Fumarole (Ice Age), Gabriel Angelfire, Glaciers (Ice Age), Kjeldoran Frostbeast (Ice Age), Marhault Elsdragon, Nicol Bolas, Righteous War (Visions), Selenia Dark Angel (Tempest), Sivitri Scarzam, Sliver Queen (Stronghold), Spectral Shield (Ice Age), Tobias Andrion, Vaevictis Asmadi, Vhati il-Dal (Tempest).

[Seedle]

Originally posted by MrFun
So explain to me what the stack concept is.

And no, I do not have a Black Lotus.

Although, I do have cards like Arcades Sabboth, Asmira Holy Avenger, Chronium, Fumarole (Ice Age), Gabriel Angelfire, Glaciers (Ice Age), Kjeldoran Frostbeast (Ice Age), Marhault Elsdragon, Nicol Bolas, Righteous War (Visions), Selenia Dark Angel (Tempest), Sivitri Scarzam, Sliver Queen (Stronghold), Spectral Shield (Ice Age), Tobias Andrion, Vaevictis Asmadi, Vhati il-Dal (Tempest).

Nice cards. Not sure if any are value in $$$, but to someone into the storyline/flavor, that's a solid collection.

The stack, let's see.... Basically, you play all spells and abilities to the "stack" now. Whenever you play something, it goes on top of the stack. If all players pass without playing something, whatever is on top of the stack resolves, and then you can play or pass, and it repeats. Basically, it's last in, first out. No different timing rules for different types of effects, and as I said, interrupts are gone. Hope this made some sense. It's pretty well explained in the basic rule book (which is at the Magic website.) I also recommend reading at least the first 4 sections of the comprehensive rules, also at the Magic site (but I'd bet you could figure that out. )

A simple example of playing with the stack (and these I know these are old and iconic cards, but I'm not sure how much you remember, so I'm explaining them. If you are aware of what they do, my apologies.) : You have a 2/2 grizzly bear. I play shock (2 damage) targeting the bear, and "place" the shock on the stack. (Note that players don't generally make a literal stack). You might then respond by playing giant growth (+3/+3). Since you played giant growth last, it resolves first, and your bear is 5/5 by the time my shock hits, and the bear lives. On the other hand, if you play the giant growth first, and then I play the shock, the bear will die.

Oh, and once you are ready to play in some Friday Night Magic, I fully recommend you do. Get your DCI number, and you get free cards for playing in sanctioned tournaments. I got 2 premium Wrath of Gods one year (and I was on the low end of what some guys around here were getting.) Even if you don't plan on spending too much time or money on the game, it's generally better to draft for new cards than just buy packs and open them. But you might already know that.

[Lul Thyme]

I rarely play paper anymore (though I am not in your area anymore)

I play on MTGO now, where I play almost exclusively pauper magic.


Pauper Magic (abbreviated PDC) means only commons are allowed.
We have PDC Classic, PDC Extended, PDC Standard etc...

See http://www.pdcmagic.com/.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Seedle

A simple example of playing with the stack (and these I know these are old and iconic cards, but I'm not sure how much you remember, so I'm explaining them. If you are aware of what they do, my apologies.) : You have a 2/2 grizzly bear. I play shock (2 damage) targeting the bear, and "place" the shock on the stack. (Note that players don't generally make a literal stack). You might then respond by playing giant growth (+3/+3). Since you played giant growth last, it resolves first, and your bear is 5/5 by the time my shock hits, and the bear lives. On the other hand, if you play the giant growth first, and then I play the shock, the bear will die.

This stack concept sounds like it works very similar to how I and other players have played ten years ago. Whatever spells we played, we understood that the last spell played will be the first to resolve - otherwise, how else would counterspells be able to work?

And I think interrupts were gone just around the time I stopped playing. You still had counterspells but they were no longer known as interrrupts.

And Lul, I don't think I'd be interested in pauper Magic.

[snoopy369]

Pauper magic actually sounds like a lot of fun ... it's actually not so dissimilar to how I play (I don't actually own many cards, I play with my GF's brother when I'm in missouri by making a deck out of his unused cards plus maybe a pack or two we buy) ... lots of decks made out of '4x (3 different green creatures that are cheap and come out fast) + 4x(2 green cards that bring out extra land) + 4x(2 big ass green creatures) + (Some green instants/sorceries x 15 cards or so) + 4x(2 white cheap soldiers) + 4x(2 white bigger creatures like angels or whatever)+ (some white sorceries/instants) + (20 lands of green + other color). Maybe 2 or 3 rares and 4 or 5 uncommon card types (x4 to the latter) ...

I have a feeling if I went online, I'd end up spending way too much money. But doing all commons could be intriguing, AND cheap ... hmm.

[Lul Thyme]

I was also very dismissive of pauper at the start.

I think Constructed Magic is great but I hate not being to play or even test certain things based on budget. I also don't like my opponents to be in this situation.

For example, I doubt anyone here really has enough to spend that cost is a complete non-issue when playing Constructed Magic. But, as soon as someone in a community starts thinking "Is it really worth it for me to buy such and such card simply to test" then it means that the playing field isn't really level and depends a lot on cash available.

The somewhat obvious solution is to restrict the cardpool to something cheaper and find a community that agrees on the restriction.


Online Pauper was basically all I ever wanted from Magic. There are a few events a week, different formats, we have our own ELO ratings, there is a semi-well-defined metagame.

You might (or not) be surprised that all archetypes are also present in the Classic (online eternal format) Pauper format.

Affinity, Storm Combo, Burn, Draw-Go control, Mono Black control, RG aggro, etc...

I own 4-of each online common and can playtest anything I ever want without having to worry. Since the same is true of my opponents, the competition is actually about Magic and not about budget. From my point of view, I get almost all the advantages of playing competitive Constructed but not the cost.

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by Seedle
A simple example of playing with the stack (and these I know these are old and iconic cards, but I'm not sure how much you remember, so I'm explaining them. If you are aware of what they do, my apologies.) : You have a 2/2 grizzly bear. I play shock (2 damage) targeting the bear, and "place" the shock on the stack. (Note that players don't generally make a literal stack). You might then respond by playing giant growth (+3/+3). Since you played giant growth last, it resolves first, and your bear is 5/5 by the time my shock hits, and the bear lives. On the other hand, if you play the giant growth first, and then I play the shock, the bear will die.

By the way, as Mr Fun pointed out, the example above worked exactly the same in pre-6th ed rules. The stack didn't exist but the LIFO rules still applied.

You will have to find a more complicated example than that to highlight the difference between pre-6ed and the stack.


There is a post somewhere on the wizards forum with a "primer" for a returning player, from a rules point of view. I can find it if anyone cares.

One example I can think of is that a blocker that is taper before the combat damage phase still deals combat damage, which wasn't the case before.

[Lul Thyme]

Originally posted by MrFun



And I think interrupts were gone just around the time I stopped playing. You still had counterspells but they were no longer known as interrrupts.

That sounds about right.
In the list above, you have cards from Stronghold, which is from 98. 6ed is when the rule update happened and was released in 99, during Urza block (the one following Tempest, containing Stronghold).

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme


There is a post somewhere on the wizards forum with a "primer" for a returning player, from a rules point of view. I can find it if anyone cares.

If you can find this, please post the info here.

[Seedle]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme


By the way, as Mr Fun pointed out, the example above worked exactly the same in pre-6th ed rules. The stack didn't exist but the LIFO rules still applied.

You will have to find a more complicated example than that to highlight the difference between pre-6ed and the stack.


There is a post somewhere on the wizards forum with a "primer" for a returning player, from a rules point of view. I can find it if anyone cares.

One example I can think of is that a blocker that is taper before the combat damage phase still deals combat damage, which wasn't the case before.

Okay, glad someone else posted in this thread. I only started playing after 8th, so I don't really know what differences to highlight. But I've seen timing guides from the old days, and they were more trouble than they were worth to figure out, so I know there are differences. I guess just more subtle than I thought. Carry on, you actually know what you are talking about.

As for MTGO: Is the new version really as bad as the scuttlebutt says, or is it just a whiny minority making noise?

[MrFun]

By the way, I found out that Ice Age Minion of Leshrac is a rare card; I have one or two of those.