New to MtG(TOTAL NEWBIE)

[Huggybaby]

I played Duels of the Planeswalkers the other day at my friend's house and fell in love with MtG, I quit Yu-Gi-Oh because well MtG is what separates the Men from the Boys.

I've done some reading and have heard MTGO (WoTC's client) is very expensive.
How and why? Also, what are other cheaper alternatives that I can use to play MtG online?

[Hellfish]

Hi, welcome!
I don't see why Yu-Gi-Oh is less valid than MtG, but I dunno I've never actually played it.
MTGO costs 10 bucks to set up an account and then a steady stream of money for event tickets which is the in-game currency (it pays for buying cards,booster packs and to participate in events.)

I had a whole wall of text ready describing the MtG clients I knew of, but I realized it was probably more than you wanted to know For just playing against other people over the web, I know of 4 good alternatives: Magic WorkStation,Cockatrice,LackeyCCG and Incantus. (There may be more, but I havn't tried them). Of those, Incantus is the only one that enforces the rules. The others are more like playing against the person face to face on a kitchen table in that you must keep track of all the rules yourself and enforce them. Incantus does that for you, but doesn't let you use all cards (because it must implement all rules in code, and that's no small feat).

Uhh, I hope I somewhat answered your question.

[Pandahar]

Ugh if you don't mind you can go ahead and post that Wall of Text
I just installed Magic Workstation and it seems very unfriendly and the program requires I purchase a license???

MTGO sounds very interesting right now, how much does the in game currency cost? Is there a monthly fee? Is the community active?

[Hellfish]

Oh, sorry, I didn't save all that

It all depends on what exactly you want to do, for playing versus people, I personally like Cockatrice. It's got a decent size community and almost always got someone looking for a matchup.

For playing against an AI, you've got a few options. I like Forge, but I'm a bit biased There's also Magarena and Botarena which feature technically more advanced AI, but which takes longer time to "think". Magarena doesn't support quite as many cards as Botarena or Forge,though.Those two also support playing versus people, while Forge doesn't.

If you want me to clarify anything or answer anything else, just ask

EDIT:Didn't see the bit about MTGO. Yeah, it's pretty damn active, considering it's the official way to play Magic online The Event Tickets cost $1 apiece but as I said, you can trade cards and whatnot for em. I don't think there's a monthly cost. (Take all this with a grain of salt, as while I would really like being able to play MTGO, I can't actually afford it myself)

[Pandahar]

I think Cockatrice is exactly what I'm looking for, I have forge and like that.
I'm thinking about getting DoTP but the no deck customization REALLY put me off.

I hope cockatrice is good or I think I'm going to succumb to the urge and get an MTGO account.

EDIT:
Yea I'm a broke college student and before I even spend $10 on a one time fee I have to think about it for a couple days

[Hellfish]

Well, you could check out the DoTP forum here and see what mods can be used. Last I read they could put new decks and even cards fairly effortlessly into the game (Steam version of course). I'm not 100% certain though as, again, I can't afford it. >_>

[Pandahar]

I just setup Cockatrice, now how do I actually play a game?
Wanna help me set it up? :3

[Hellfish]

I'm a little sidetracked multiple ways right here, sorry. There's a tutorial here though: http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=1115 (It's for mac, but the prog is just very cross-platform, it should be similar on windows)

[woogerboy21]

One other thing to mention about MTGO. The reason people shy away from it is just like on paper you have to purchase your cards. There just a digital form. If you want to purchase packs of digital cards you can either use the wizards store or there are online dealers such as http://www.mtgotrader.com that can sell them to you. Singles can also be purchased or traded using trade rooms or once again purchasing them through online dealers.

If you want to play against others using MTGO you don't need tix to get into non tournament games. And with MTGO there is a rules engine involved so when your playing you don't have the questions that sometimes comes up with non rules engine based alternatives (such as cockatrice).

Personally I enjoy MTGO and Cockatrice. I even have paid for Magic Workstation back when it was being developed (WAY WAY WAY BACK) and to this day still don't like using it. The one nice thing that MTGO offers is the ability to actually play sanctioned games just about any time of the day. So if you live in an area that does not have many gaming stores or does not offer a very large pool of people to compete against it may work. If you looking to practice putting decks together without spending much (if not anything) something like cockatrice (which is what I recommend) would be the way to go.

You can also download the MTGO software and try playing games with prebuilt decks for free. Some don't realize that but there is a trial server. If your curious about it log in and try. The UI of MTGO can be somewhat combersome but once you get used to your style of play you can adjust the UI accordingly.

[phm]

A good overview of almost all clients can be found here:
http://mtgrares.blogspot.com/2011/04/li ... grams.html

[Kl3p_co.]

MODO is not expensive, as long as you know how to play, actually, it's quite profitable